“What?” Kronk said weakly.
“Are you kidding?” the wizard asked, almost laughing. He sobered as he saw that the air elemental was serious. “You're not kidding.”
“I'm afraid not. Like I said, it sounds primitive to me. But that is what he told me. You will know that it worked if the name fades as the blood is absorbed into the body of the staff. If it does not, the weapon is not properly made and cannot be used as a wizard's focus.”
“That is so weird,” Simon muttered, touching the staff again. He ran his fingers along its length. “It sounds like voodoo or something.”
“What is voodoo, master?” Kronk asked curiously.
“Hmm? Oh, nothing. A kind of religion, I think. Rumor had it that they used blood in their rites.”
He picked up the staff and walked to the stairs.
“Come on. I want to use my study for this 'ritual'.”
They went upstairs and into the study. Simon crossed to his work table. Among the assorted pencils, pieces of chalk and charcoal and scraps of paper, were several sewing needles. He liked to patch tears in his clothing next to the window at the table and left needles and thread on it.
He picked up a needle and went to sit at his desk.
“Okay, I agree on the weirdness factor, but if Aethos says that this is what has to be done, I'm willing to give it a shot.”
Kronk looked at Aeris and pointed at the door. The other elemental nodded and they both headed for the exit.
“Hey guys, where are you going?”
They stopped at the door and looked back at Simon.
“First rule of elemental servants, my dear wizard,” Aeris said with a wry smile. “Never learn your master's true name. And yes, I know. You aren't our master, at least in your own mind. But the rule holds. Call us back in when you're done.”
Kronk gave the wizard a quick wink and they both left.
Simon heard the earthen's rocky feet tip-tapping down the stairs and shook his head.
I don't know if I'll ever understand them, he thought. Not totally, anyway.
He stared at the staff. It seemed to glow in the sunlight shining through the window behind him.
“Okay, nameless staff,” he murmured to it. “Let's see if this works.”
Simon pressed his lips together and pricked his forefinger. A bead of blood slowly built up on it and, before it dripped off, he began to slowly write on the staff, across its length.
“v...a...l...a...g...a...r,” he said aloud as he wrote each letter. He had to squeeze his finger twice to coax out more blood to finish writing his real name.
When he was done, Simon sat back and sucked on his finger as he stared at the crooked, bloody letters. Nothing happened.
“Well,” he said to the staff. “Are you going to do something or what?”
A silence dropped over the room. The sounds of birdsong from outside became muted and Simon felt like his ears were stuffed with cotton.
“What?” he whispered. He couldn't hear his own voice.
And then he watched with wide eyes as the bloody letters seemed to sink into the wood of the staff. The length turned a bright, wet red for an instant and then the white ash body glowed with a blinding light.
Simon squinted through sudden tears at the staff. He felt pain, a sharp stab in his chest that drew a gasp from his lips and then...it was over.
The staff lay innocently on his desk, just a length of wood. The wizard watched it suspiciously, as if it were a sleeping snake that might strike at any time.
“Guy? Hey guys!” he yelled. “You can come back up now.”
In a moment, he heard Kronk jumping up the steps again and Aeris shot back into the study just ahead of the little earthen.
They both settled on top of the desk and looked closely at the staff.
“Did it work, master?”
Simon shrugged.
“I guess so. The letters were absorbed into the wood, anyway. And a few...strange things happened. Whether it will help augment my powers, well, we'll see.”
“What strange things?” Aeris asked.
“It doesn't matter, really. I guess the next step is to test it out. But that can keep for now.”
Simon lifted the staff off of the desk and leaned back to rest it against the window ledge behind him. He turned and looked at the air elemental.
“Aeris, Kronk and I were discussing the possible weaknesses of the white dragons while you were gone.”
“Were you? All right. Any conclusions?” he asked skeptically.
Simon explained his reasoning to the elemental, based on what had happened during his battles with the black and green primal dragons.
Halfway through, Aeris began nodding slowly. When the wizard finished, the cloudy figure had a definite look of admiration on his face.
“You know, it never occurred to me that the dragons were their own worst enemies. Interesting, isn't it? Hmm.”
“Exactly. The problem is, if the white dragons can be harmed by intense cold, I'm in trouble. None of my spells does that kind of damage.”
“Really? What about your Ice Spear spell? Or Ice Storm?”
Simon shook his head.
“I'm not saying that those spells won't damage them, although I doubt that they will do much. I need a spell that uses intense cold, like their breath attacks, not frozen water. At a guess, I'd say their scales would be more than thick enough to block an ice spear. And the hail? Doubtful.”
Aeris floated up and down, looking thoughtful.
“So you need to learn an offensive spell that attacks with deep cold, is that it?”
“Exactly.”
“And we think you can help,” Kronk piped up.
Aeris stared at him.
“Me? Well, that's very complimentary, I'm sure, but I don't know any spells. No elemental does. You know that,” he said to the earthen.
“True enough,” Kronk replied. “But we know the magic, don't we? You know how air magic works. I know how earth magic works, correct?”
“Well, yes, but...”
“And you know someone who understands how to use cold-based magic.”
Aeris looked puzzled.
“I do?”
“Yes!” Kronk said, exasperated. “Granted, his powers are over water, but he can use cold to enhance those powers.”
Simon watched, fascinated, as Aeris' puzzled expression turned to one of comprehension.
“You're speaking of the water sprite, Aquamastis?”
“Exactly,” the wizard said. “I watched him freeze an entire swath of the river during my fight with the black dragon. It had to take not just a massive amount of power, but incredibly intense cold as well.”
“Okay, I agree. So what do you want to do, approach him and ask him how to summon the deep cold?”
“Basically yes.”
Simon impatiently pushed his hair off of his face and yawned suddenly. He blinked an apology at the elementals.
“Sorry, I don't know why I'm tired. Anyway, Aeris, you've spoken with Aquamastis a few times. Do you think that he would be amenable to sharing that information?”
To his credit, for a change the air elemental answered the question directly.
“No, I don't,” he said with an apologetic shrug. “I don't think he would care enough to bother, to be quite honest.”
Kronk stepped closer to Aeris, looking indignant.
“Not care enough to bother? Who summoned him to Earth? Who gave him the river he now calls home? Our master did! Does that sprite not remember that?”
Aeris looked taken aback by the little guy's anger and retreated a few inches.
“No, it's not that. He appreciates Simon's aid. But he feels that helping our dear wizard defeat the primal black was his part of the bargain. In his mind, they are now even.”
He looked up at Simon.
“It isn't ego, really. But an elemental as powerful as Aquamastis would not share something like the key to using the deep cold magic without e
xpecting something in return. And what can you offer him that he would want?”
The wizard had to agree. The water elemental had been quite clear after the death of the black dragon. He'd told Simon that they were even and that was that. What could he offer Aquamastis for his knowledge? Simon felt himself deflate. Nothing. Nothing at all.
“Relax, Kronk,” he said. The little guy's red eyes were still glowing with anger. “Aeris isn't the bad guy here. Neither is Aquamastis. It's just his nature. And you're right,” he told Aeris. “I have nothing that the sprite would want. So, I guess I'll keep researching. Maybe somewhere buried deep in Daniel's notes is a clue that I can use. I mean, it was just a thought anyway, getting help from a being that powerful. We're no worse off than we were before.”
Kronk looked up at him, slowly cooling off as he stared at Simon.
“You aren't upset, master?”
“What would be the point? I just wish, I dunno, that things didn't always have to be so complicated.”
Simon stared off into space blankly, suddenly too tired to think. He guessed that attuning the staff to himself had used up more of his energy than he'd realized it would.
Nothing that some sleep wouldn't cure, he thought wearily.
Kronk stood still, staring dejectedly at the desktop, his little red eyes barely glowing.
Simon glanced at Aeris and was surprised to see the elemental smiling in a self-satisfied way, looking from the wizard to Kronk and back again.
“Why do you look so pleased with yourself?” he asked.
Kronk looked at Aeris curiously.
“Why? Because, my dear wizard, you are missing a very obvious solution to your problem. That's why.”
“Really? Pray enlighten us, oh wise one,” Simon said with a sarcastic grin. A flutter of hope swept away his fatigue and he watched the elemental intently.
“I'll do that,” Aeris answered loftily. “Aquamastis is a very powerful water elemental, it's true. But his powers are the same as all of his kind, just as mine are and Kronk's are. The only difference is in their degree.”
He paused as if waiting for Simon to say something, but the wizard simply looked back blankly.
Aeris threw his arms up in the air.
“Don't you see?” he asked impatiently. “Any water elemental knows what Aquamastis knows. Any of them.”
A light bulb suddenly snapped on in Simon's head and it must have shown on his face because Aeris grinned broadly.
“Ah, I believe our dear wizard has connected the dots,” he told Kronk, who looked confused.
“I still don't understand,” he said plaintively.
Simon knew that the little guy was very bright, but that it took him time to put things together, so before Aeris could say something that might hurt Kronk's feelings, he hurried to explain.
“What Aeris is saying, my friend, is that if I summon a water elemental, but one of the smaller ones, like you two, he or she could tell me what I wanted to know, because all of their powers are the same.” He quickly glanced at Aeris. “Correct?”
“Precisely. A summoned being, as you well know by now, Simon, must obey the summoner. And before you say it, I will. You don't want to order us about and you don't want to play the master. I know that. But like both Kronk and I, if you summon a water elemental and offer them their freedom, as you did for us, I have a feeling that their gratitude would be enough to convince them to help you.”
“Of course!” Kronk crowed with sudden delight. “Aeris, that's brilliant!”
“It is?” The air elemental stared at him, apparently lost for words.
Simon had to turn his laugh into a cough at Aeris' look of surprise.
“He's right. It hadn't occurred to me to ask a less powerful version of Aquamastis for help. That's a lesson for me. Thanks.”
“Err, you're welcome.”
The wizard felt re-energized and sprang up to move to his work table, grabbing his spell-book as he went.
He stood at the table while he skimmed through the book to the well-worn page that held the Summoning spell.
“Okay, you guys ready for some company?”
Aeris flew over to the table while Kronk jumped down from the desk, quickly tip-tapped across the room and leaped up to join him.
“All set,” the air elemental said calmly.
“Ready, master,” Kronk added eagerly.
“Good. Whoever we get, I hope they're in a good mood.”
Neither of the little guys said anything, they just stared at the middle of the table and waited.
Simon memorized the spell, flipped through the spell-book to the page covered with the runes of the four elements and added the minor water rune to the spell in his mind.
He swallowed nervously. This was always the big unknown when summoning an elemental. They were people, and you never knew if you'd end up with someone with a sweet disposition like Kronk or acidic like Aeris.
With a deep breath, Simon stared at the table and chanted the incantation. He paused a moment and added the word of command.
“Invectis,” he said steadily. And then he waited.
A whisper of wind slipped through the partly-open window, a humid breeze smelling of rain. It swirled around the study, ruffling the wizard's hair and stirring loose papers on his desk. And then it settled and there was a long, drawn-out moment of silence.
A puddle bubbled up in the center of the work table, a tiny spring of clear water that spread out in a circle. It began to swirl like a small whirlpool, churning and spinning faster and faster.
Simon watched in fascination. When he had contacted Aquamastis, before his battle with the black dragon, he had summoned him at the river. He had never seen the great elemental until the actual battle, so this process was riveting.
Kronk and Aeris were waiting side by side, watching the summoning with interest. They exchanged several whispers and Simon wondered what they were talking about. The fact that they were speaking without arguing was gratifying and he let them have their secrets.
A figure began to rise from the center of the small pool, absorbing the water as it grew. Finally, a man-shaped being made of water stood on the table, the same twelve inch height as the other two elementals.
Its face was finely detailed and human-like, the features attractive but hard to see because it was as clear as glass. Its body rippled and moved constantly, as if it was holding its shape with some effort. Unlike Aeris, who also looked like a small replica of the human form, the water elemental had long locks flowing from its head, literally looking like a small stream of water pouring down and disappearing before it hit the ground.
The elemental slowly turned and took in its surroundings. When it spotted Kronk and Aeris, it nodded once and they returned the greeting. The watery expression showed both interest and curiosity as it scanned the room and, when it had turned full circle, the elemental finally stopped and faced Simon, bowing low.
“You summoned me, sir wizard. I am honored. Word of your deeds has reached even to the realm of water. I am very pleased to be called to your aid. What would you have of me?”
Simon sat down at the table and smiled at the elemental. Its voice was very smooth and high-pitched and he wondered if this being identified itself as male or female.
“Thank you for coming. Before we begin, let me introduce everyone. My name is Simon. This is Kronk and Aeris.”
The water elemental bowed again to the wizard and smiled at the others.
“You honor me with your names. I am Anaposus. I have heard of your interaction with Aquamastis. He is one of our great ones, a legend to us. Your reputation shines like the Sun glittering on the wide sea. Tell me, what can I do to serve you?”
The wizard shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
“Um, yeah, about that. As I always do before working with new elementals, I wanted you to understand the terms of our relationship.”
“Ah, of course,” Anaposus said equably.
Simon decided that the wat
er elemental was female. Her voice and graceful movements were simply too feminine compared to Kronk's and Aeris'.
“I don't want servants. Nor do I want to be anyone's master. I summoned you because I need some help, yes, but you are free to leave at any time. Whether it's right now, after you hear what I want, or down the road, it is your choice. Do you understand?”
Anaposus' eyes widened and she looked shocked. She turned to the other two elementals as if for confirmation and they both nodded, smiling broadly at her reaction.
“Our dear wizard is being quite honest,” Aeris said lightly. “He refuses to accept servitude from anyone. Kronk here can't seem to get out of the habit of calling him 'master', but we both know that we are his friends, not his slaves.”
“But, that is extraordinary!” the water elemental gasped. She looked up at Simon. “I've never heard of the like before.”
“So my friends here have said.” Simon looked out the window pensively. “You know, the more I hear about those ancient wizards and how they treated those they summoned, the less I like them. Bunch of arrogant... Anyway, that's not me. So those are my terms, Anaposus. Please don't call me master. Kronk will never change,” and he smiled gently at the little earthen, who gave him a subtle wink, “but my name is Simon and I'd prefer it if you called me that. So, what do you say? Will you stay or do you want to leave?”
The water elemental opened her mouth, hesitated and then stood silently, rippling with tiny currents as she frowned down at the tabletop.
“I am intrigued,” she said a minute later. “Your respect for our kind,” she swept Kronk and Aeris with a quick look, “is unprecedented. Now I see why Aquamastis holds you in such high regard.”
“Does he? I'm surprised.”
She smiled up at him.
“Do you think that one such as he would bargain with a wizard who attempted to shackle him? No, that would end badly for the summoner. There has never been a wizard who could enslave an elemental as powerful as he.”
She stared at Simon searchingly. He wondered what she was trying to see in him, and what she was thinking.
Tales from the New Earth: Volume One Page 86
