Agents of Chaos

by Des Pensable

  ‘I guess not but when I’m rendered to ash by dragon’s fire make it sound noble will you!’ Aquitain replied jokingly.

  ‘I will. I will.’ laughed Chantalot with a wide grin.

  ‘You will have the most noble death suitable to a legendary hero but try not to die too soon as I can make a better song if I’ve got some more heroic feats to recount. So be careful!’

  ‘I’m sure you can invent some.’ replied Aquitain chuckling as he teleported down to the water elementals below the town. It was pleasant to be in a real body again amongst newmen, even if it was a Llanllean little person body. A Logicon body had useful points but one with humour and emotion was much better.

  Whooshoo was waiting for him and spoke to him immediately on his arrival.

  ‘It is my pleasure to see you again, Mind Wizard Aquitain. You are being noticed. Your deeds are whispered by the wind and wave. Some speak of you as a Lord returned.’

  ‘Do not believe everything that you hear, Whooshoo. It is likely to be exaggerated. I have helped where I could and that is all. I am surprised that you are here instead of Squalash.’

  ‘Squalash has gone on ahead. It would normally take him four days to cross the great sea. I can do it in one. He has requested my help and on hearing of the problem I have agreed. Air and water brothers have worked together to our mutual benefit many times in the past.’

  ‘I am pleased to hear that Whooshoo. Let’s depart. Perhaps you can tell me a little of the world while we are traveling. With your permission I will form a mindlink between us.’

  ‘It would be my pleasure. If you can squeeze through the new doorway we will be off.’

  Aquitain turned into his Logicon form to slithered through the baffles that he had made to allow the air elementals access to the cave and was lifted aloft by Whooshoo and they sped off out over the Great Sea.

  Periodically during the trip Whooshoo recounted some gem of knowledge about the world. Whooshoo was born after the Great Storm so had no firsthand accounts of what had happened before the event and no knowledge of why it had happened but he had heard old tales from others and recounted some of them.

  The biggest surprise was that most of the Lords were elemental dragons and consequently, the common language was Draconic. It seems the Lords at the time came here regularly. The air, water, fire and stone elementals were taught Draconic and their job was to act as sentinels watching over the land.

  Owing to their speed, the air elementals acted as messengers and were the link between the other elementals and the Lords. Any sighting of strangers or unusual events by an elemental was reported to the nearest air elemental who then sped to the nearest temple to report it to the temple keepers. Who were the temple keepers, the little people of course!

  It was beginning to make sense. The world was a sort of convention centre or leisure resort for the dragons who he presumed were the Founts who came here periodically to exchange information. However, they were worried about something or somebody so they had created the temples to retreat into should there be an attack. The elementals were an early warning system.

  The problem was that the elemental dragons were supposed to be the most formidable creatures in existence. They were almost divine. It was believed the lesser dragons all evolved from the elemental dragons. So who or what would they fear?

  Perhaps it was a powerful one of their kind. Maybe it was a creature that no one currently knows about. Possibly it was a great Power or deity. Presumably their fears were justified as they were attacked, the world was devastated and they all disappeared. So did they die here? Did they flee and were in hiding somewhere. Are they trapped or imprisoned somewhere?

  What then was Aquitain’s job? Was it to find them? Was he up against someone or something that could destroy a whole world? No wonder he was being kept in the dark. No Newman in his right mind would dare take on a quest to provoke god like creatures and that is exactly what he was doing. What was granddad doing? What was his father’s part? Who or what was his father? Perhaps he already knew and it was locked away in his mind. Alpha was the key to unlock knowledge and power that he already knew when he needed to know it.

  He had unwittingly thrown away the key. How could he possibly succeed? He began to panic a little and sang a mantra of calming. Think Aquitain think! You trained all your life to think. Any thoughtful planner would have a contingency plan that would come into effect if he lost Alpha as that was a foreseeable possibility. So the planner would revert to the contingency which would probably lead him back to Alpha and presumably Zephira.

  Maybe the elementals are involved? He couldn’t ask them directly as they wouldn’t acknowledge being a part of any plan. Yet they had requested his personal help but so did the Wolf people. Maybe the Wolf people’s request would lead him to Alpha or perhaps even the stolen sceptre would do it. It would give him a headache thinking too deeply about all the possibilities. Perhaps it was best to just do his job and let his manipulators guide him to the end of the maze.

  Eventually they arrived at a rocky headland on the other continent. A large water elemental was waiting for him.

  Whooshoo introduced Aquitain to Plogash, the elder Waverider in the area. Aquitain thanked Whooshoo and said that he could teleport back. So Whooshoo left and Aquitain turned his attention to the elder.

  ‘I am very pleased to meet you Lord Aquitain. It is so long since we have had one of your kind around. I have heard great things on the wind and wave about you. We have a strange problem beyond our understanding. We hope that you might be able to shed light upon the problem Lord as it is causing the elders much concern.’

  ‘The High Wizard Featherdown has requested my assistance in investigating strange events occurring in Mudrun at present. Consequently, it is my pleasure to be able to help Plogash. I will do my best but I am new to this world so please forgive me if I don’t know your customs. Please advise me in the correct etiquette as the occasion requires.’

  ‘You are most kind Lord and do yourself an injustice. It is we that are unaccustomed to asking for a Lord to help.’

  ‘Please tell me about your problem Plogash and I will do what I can.’ replied Aquitain a little flattered at Plogash’s warm welcome.

  ‘Lord it has happened during this last few days. Our food has tasted different. It seems to cause the young to become unruly. They will not listen to their elders. They fight among themselves and even join with like-minded air brothers to fight their own kin. One was even seen to take the side of our fire brothers. That is most unusual.’

  Aquitain requested to be taken to the area and he was guided to a subterranean magic node not far from their present location. It was a magic node in a cave similar to the one at Twin Towers except that it was completely filled with seawater and partially dark being lit only by light filtering in from outside the cave.

  He used his Logicon form as it could breathe underwater and modified it to more closely resemble a small water elemental. On arrival he could smell fresh compulsion magic residues. Someone here was trying to cause problems. If he had Aura Sight he might be able to instantly see whether the culprit was still here or not but he didn’t so he would have to use his wits to detect them.

  If some type of agent bent on causing trouble were here, then he suspected that they would try to stay hidden, which meant they would be invisible and water breathing or perhaps polymorphed to imitate a water elemental. If they were polymorphed and not detected by the water elementals, then they were very experienced and hence very dangerous.

  Compulsion magic was the trade mark of a mind wizard but other wizards and priests used it as well. Some experienced wizards could use it and remain invisible, as there was no obvious tell-tale from where it had originated. Very few could use any magic while polymorphed so it was highly likely that the culprit was invisible and water breathing.

  Consequently, if they were invisible they would probably use mental attacks rather than an elemental attack as that would not give away their co
ver and be just as effective as in air. Since they were underwater, fire attacks would be impossible and acid or cold elemental attacks would have a limited effect. A lightning attack was the most probable and the hardest to defend against under water.

  If they were polymorphed to imitate a water elemental they would have to change shape to their normal form to attack and then they might use either a mental attack or an elemental attack.

  The highest probability was for a mental attack from an invisible water breathing person or creature near the cave wall.

  Since he resembled a water elemental he hoped he would not draw undue attention and he could drift around using his senses of taste and smell to search the area rather than his vision which was almost useless under the present conditions.

  Through his mindlink with Plogash, he told him he suspected that there might be an invisible intruder present and his plan to detect them. He asked Plogash to tell his people and to come quickly to his assistance if he found someone, as they might get violent. Then he began slowly drifting around among the thirty water elementals presently casually feeding in the area.

  He moved around for about twenty minutes taking in the tastes and smells of the water attuning to the smells of the elementals and he began to detect a fishy odour that didn’t seem to belong to the elementals. The problem was that it swirled around the water in the cave not giving a accurate indication as to the direction of its source. When he closed in towards what he thought was its origin it was no longer there. Then he guessed what was happening. It knew he was there trying to find it and it was moving away from him keeping its distance.

  That means it could see him but he couldn’t see it. Had it been warned by one of the elementals here? Was it controlling or manipulating one or more elementals? He smelt fresh compulsion magic residues. It was trying to coerce one or more elementals into doing something. Suddenly there was a disturbance. Two of the large elementals began a dispute, physically barging into each other. Some moved away and some started heading for the cave entrance.

  ‘Go to the cave entrance and stop your kin from leaving, Plogash. I’m sure there is a hidden intruder in here and we’ve scared it into action. It’s trying to cause a distraction to escape. Tell your people there is an invisible wizard here that might try to influence their minds to attack me or others. They should try to resist it.’

  Plogash sent the message to them and the dispute settled down. Plogash and two or three others blocked the cave entrance. And the others began moving around trying to detect anything in the cave. Aquitain moved to the centre of the cave thinking desperately how he could flush it out but couldn’t think of anything. It was a mental game. It should be getting worried by now. How was it avoiding detection? It must be using an illusion that is fooling the water elementals.

  It might have guessed that he couldn’t see very well in his fake water elemental form. It must be a water creature. It had spotted him worked out what he was doing and expertly countered his every move. It now knew that he knew it was there. Perhaps it could even understand the water elemental language. Perhaps by telling Plogash he was announcing what he was doing.

  He would have to change to a form that could see well or increase the light in the area or both. He chose both. He sent a quick message to Plogash to be ready and switched to his gnome form with sharp eyesight. He created light on himself and the whole area lit up and he quick looked around for possible illusions.

  The bright light passed through the water elementals leaving a hazy shadow on the cave wall but in one it didn’t. It showed the shadow of a humanoid shape on the wall coming from one of the elementals in a group of three. One of them was a wizard hidden in an illusion of a water elemental. He pointed at them.

  ‘You three move apart.’ He commanded in Draconic but there was no response they either didn’t understand what he had said or were under the control of the wizard. Suddenly the expected mental attack came as an attempted domination.

  Aquitain fended it off expertly.

  ‘Is that the best you have?’ he taunted and two of the three elementals charged towards him.

  He blasted them with a mind blast stunning them and they froze rigid like large icicles. Unfortunately, the wizard covered by the illusion either resisted or blocked the attack and decided to use more force. There was an instant zap in the water and Aquitain was hit smack in the chest by a lightning bolt and he was stunned to unconsciousness. Several elementals went after the source of the lightning bolt as it rapidly tried to retreat towards the wall.

  His eyes turned black then golden as he searched for the spirit aura of the enemy wizard. He spotted it, teleported behind him, grappled him and slashed his throat with the black arcane blade that appeared on command in his hand. The wizard was dead in seconds. He teleported out of the cave with wizard’s body lay it on the beach then lay down near it.

  Sometime later he awoke lying in his little person form on the beach with half a dozen water elementals nearby. He had a splitting headache, a very sore chest and began coughing up water. He changed shape to his Logicon form, pooled the water into a spherical shape and expelled it then changed back to his little person form. He used his healing ability on his chest and tried to dampen the headache while looking around. Several paces away from him was the body of a herder. He moved to it to examine it more closely.

  ‘Ah. You are awake Lord. We were concerned when you were struck by the lightning but you are obviously tougher than you look. You made short work of it after discovering it. It is most disturbing. It is a herder. Not a local but from some other part of the world. We have never had problems with them before. Why do you think a herder from afar would be trying to cause division amongst us?’

  Aquitain was mystified.

  ‘Plogash the lightning must have affected my memory a little. What exactly did I do after I was hit?’ he asked.

  ‘Why Lord you were magnificent! You spotted the herder, appeared behind it, cut its throat then vanished appearing on the beach here with it, all in a matter of several seconds.’

  Aquitain examined the herder closely. It wore no clothes but had a bracelet made of five pieces of pearl shell linked together with gold wire. He removed the bracelet to examine it more closely. Each of four pieces of the pearl shell were etched with a symbol of one of the elements. The fifth piece was etched with a symbol he had never seen before. Its throat was cut but on close examination it appeared to have been cut by an arcane blade that sealed the edges of the wound when it cut.

  ‘Plogash, it was me you saw do this. Not someone else?’

  ‘Yes Lord. You had the light on your body. We could not mistake it.’

  ‘That’s very strange.’ he thought as he checked his teleport rings but found none of them had been used and he knew he couldn’t conjure an arcane blade. He concluded that someone must have come to his rescue and manipulated the situation to make it appear that he did it.

  ‘I’m not sure Plogash why a herder was involved in your problem but I will try to find out. What surprises me he was using magic more like I do. The other little people usually sing their magic. Perhaps herders are different. I guess it would be hard to sing underwater.’

  ‘I suggest that you wait a few days to see if the magic returns to its normal taste. If it doesn’t send me a message and I will come and investigate further.

  ‘Thank you Lord! You will be in our prayers to the Lady.’

  Aquitain rather hoped that the magic would change back to its normal taste. He was a little worried about what had happened. What if the herder was trying to determine why the magic tasted different? It would have been just as suspicious of him as he had been of it. He might be responsible for causing the death of an innocent herder and potentially causing trouble between herders and water elementals. However, if it had been there to help them it probably would have announced its intentions.

  He said his goodbyes and took his leave by activating a teleport ring and reappeared outside Featherdown’s t
ower.

  He fell to his knees and coughed up some more sea water and rubbed his still sore chest and ribs.

  ‘Damn, that was a close call! I have to be more careful. I might have died there.’ he thought.

  Then another worrying thought surfaced in his mind. He was in the form of a gnome when he was hit by the lightning but was in the form of a little person when he awoke. He had heard that shape shifters generally changed back to their most stable form after death. Did he die and then somehow came back to life again? Did some unseen guardian intervene and if so who?

  He coughed a few more times holding his chest as it hurt more when he coughed before finally getting the strength to stand.

  Featherdown’s door opened and the High Wizard came out and saw a soaking wet purple little person still trying to get his breath.

  ‘By the Powers, what have you done this time?’

  Aquitain staggered over to Featherdown. ‘I checked out … one of … the strange happenings. I was underwater and hit in the chest by a lightning bolt. I nearly died.’

  Featherdown picked up Aquitain and carried him to the entertaining area and carefully sat him on a leather lounge. He disappeared and returned carrying a potion bottle.

  ‘Here drink this.’ he said and Aquitain scoffed it down and felt much better.

  ‘If you have to work underwater at least change to an underwater form!’ said Featherdown.

  ‘I did but I couldn’t see it. I changed to my gnome form and saw it but it shot the bolt at me.’

  ‘What was it?’ asked Featherdown becoming interested.

  ‘It was a herder. A creature like a little person with gills but lives in the sea.’

  ‘Hmm, curious I haven’t come across any of them and it used a lightning bolt underwater. That’s unusual. It takes special skills and a lot practice to do that. I would have expected a mental attack as that’s more reliable underwater.’