Heart of the Ocean (The Equilibrium Cycle Book 2)

by Jason A. Gilbert

  They saw images similar to the ones in the other tunnel. Carvings depicting the early history of their world. The wars of the elementals, as Icarus had described them, and the rise of humanity and the Prime Aspects. They continued to follow the curve of the hall and Connor realized that the hall was spiraling upwards, leading them to the source of the great waterfall.

  Connor studied the walls closely. One in particular drew his attention and he slowed his pace as they moved by it. A series of images were laid out in a circle, at the center of which was an ornately carved moon.

  "Laila, look," Connor said, his voice soft. He brought her attention to the circle. "Is that? I think that's the Moon Kingdom..."

  Laila stepped next to him and leaned in to see the images. The eight images seemed to depict a series of events. Starting at the top was a waterfall, moving to the right around the circle was then a mountain, something that hung amongst the clouds, and then another mountain that seemed as if it were exploding. Following that was a depiction of a woman standing with a staff and the full moon rising behind her.

  Tomo turned and addressed them. "That shows the tale of the rise of the last Magusari. She began her journey here, at the Sacred Waters."

  "Before the Collapse?" Laila asked.

  The elemental nodded.

  "I wonder if she had as hard a time as I’ve been having…" Laila said to herself. In the silence of the tunnel, however, her words echoed.

  "She did not," Tomo said flatly.

  Connor thought about it. He was probably right, before the Collapse, if what they had learned was true, the world had been a more cohesive place. The Magi understood then what the Magusari was, and the Clans had protected the Magi. Then Connor pondered Tomo's words and the sense of knowledge behind them.

  "Wait...were you...were you there? Did you know the last Magusari?" Connor blurted out.

  Tomo nodded again.

  "How...?" Laila and Connor both said at the same time.

  Tomo motioned for them to continue as he spoke. "We are elementals. Fundamental parts of this world. We do not fade away with old age. The Waters sustain us. Just as the Mountain sustained the Volos and the Dragonlands sustain the Manders. We are a part of the natural cycle of the planet."

  "What about the Aurai?" Laila asked. Connor nodded. Tomo's exclusion of the Aurai had seemed deliberate.

  "The Aurai were once like us. True elementals. However, they developed a close connection to humanity, even before the Collapse." He turned to look at Connor and Laila. "They are the closet to your race of all the elementals. Which is likely why they hate you so."

  Connor started to ask more, but before he could, they turned another bend in the tunnel and reached the exit. The dull roar of falling water echoed down to them, and they could see that the arch that led out of the tunnel was covered by a sheet of water. They approached it, and Tomo stopped before passing under it. He looked back at Laila expectantly. Laila stopped next to the elemental.

  "A test, if you will," Tomo said, motioning toward the sheet of water.

  Connor did not understand. While the water was heavy, it could have been passed through. But Tomo seemed insistent. Connor watched Laila hesitate for a moment. Then the light of her staff intensified, and she bowed her head. Connor felt a slight pull in his mind, similar to what he had felt back at the Tomb. This time, however, it went away quickly. Laila must be seeking out the water, or a way to manipulate it, he figured.

  The three of them stood silent and still for a long while, Connor fearing to break Laila's concentration and Tomo waiting, unresponsive. Slowly, Connor saw a divide forming in the sheet of water, as though someone had placed a large stone at the source of the fall, dividing the flow. It split at the center, opening, finally wide enough to allow a single person to pass beneath. Tomo glanced at the water and nodded, walking out beneath the divided flow.

  Laila had not moved yet, her head still bowed in concentration. Connor walked up next to her, waiting for her to pass through.

  "Go, Connor! This isn't easy!" she snapped at him through gritted teeth.

  He skipped through the divide quickly, feeling a twinge of guilt. He still did not understand her power. Once he was through, Laila walked out slowly, keeping her head low. Connor could see the strain in her face and shoulders.

  Once she had passed safely out of the tunnel, the divide disappeared and the full rush of water was restored. Laila gasped and leaned heavily on her staff, her eyes still closed.

  "Satisfied?" she said, directing the question at Tomo without opening her eyes, her breath heavy with strain.

  "Indeed," the elemental said, and Connor thought he caught just a hint of admiration in his tone.

  They stood at the edge of a large lake. The tunnel they had just left sat under a lip of the lake as it poured over the ledge, forming the massive waterfall that encompassed the center of the island. The jungle still stood around the edges of the lake. Connor turned to look behind him, out off the ledge, and saw the jungle of the island stretch out beneath them. The roar of the waterfall was greater here, and the mists that hung at its base drifted up on gentle currents to dampen the air. Laila, recovered slightly, stepped up next to Connor, looking out. They both stood silently.

  Their watch was broken with a rustle of movement behind them. Turning, they saw several Ondine emerge from the waters of the lake. They walked toward Tomo, speaking in their own language. After their exchange, three moved toward Connor, surrounding him and grabbing at his arms and shoulders.

  Surprised, Connor struggled against their watery grasp, trying to overpower their grip. Laila turned to Tomo, her eyes wide with anger, and Connor knew she was ready to invoke her full power, calling on the Earth's strength.

  Tomo raised a hand to deflect her anger. "The Warden cannot come any further, Magusari. It is not his place."

  "What are you going to do to him?" Laila hissed, barely containing her anger.

  "You have greater concerns right now, Magusari." Tomo did not leave room for further discussion.

  Connor could see Laila's conflict. He stopped struggling against the grip of the Ondine. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he looked at her. "I will be fine, Laila. Go. We've come this far. You can't stop now."

  Laila's eyes met his. He could see the struggle in them. Struggle and something else, something deeper, a hint at something. Her eyes softened for a moment as she held his gaze. Then she closed them and turned back to Tomo.

  "So be it," she said, taking a step toward the elemental. Tomo turned and led her up to the rim of the lake.

  Connor watched them go, wondering what was going to happen. Then he felt a strong push on his shoulders as he was doubled over and his arms spread out to the side. The Ondine dragged him back through the heavy sheet of water and into the tunnel below. Connor struggled against them, but in the position he was in, there was little he could do.

  "What are you—" Before he could finish, his head snapped to one side with the force of a blow. Pain rang through his temple, and he fought to remain conscious. He pulled against the Ondine's grip again, trying to fight through the pain. An application of pressure dropped him to his knees on the stone of the tunnel, and his arms bent back painfully.

  "Silence, Warden!" the voice of one of the Ondine snapped. Another blow to the back of his head rang through his skull, and he lost all sense of where he was.

  Laila followed Tomo as they moved along a small strip of land that wound its way through the million flows from the lake to the massive waterfall. She could not help looking over her shoulder toward where she had left Connor. She hoped he was safe. With a deep breath, she sought out the sense of purpose that had supported her since they had arrived on the island and turned away, watching Tomo's back as he led her deeper toward the lake.

  Studying the water, Laila saw that there was some sort of formation at the center of the lake. Water flowed from the formation and filled the lake. Some kind of spring. Tomo led her to the water's edge and another sm
all boat formed at the water's surface. Laila stepped onto the boat without hesitation this time. Her exposure to the water a short while before, when Tomo had asked her to split the waterfall, had left her even more sensitive to Tomo's own power. She could see the magic that formed the boat, understood it to some degree.

  The boat left the shore of the lake and flowed toward the formation in the center. Wavering forms darted back and forth beneath the translucent surface of the watery boat. Some approached the boat and seemed to stare up at Laila and Tomo from the water. Then they would dart back down into the darkness.

  "Are those Ondine?" Laila asked.

  Tomo nodded. "It has been a long time since we've been able to replenish ourselves. The Waters nourish us."

  "The Waters have always been here though? Since the Collapse?"

  "Yes."

  "Then why did you not seek them out yourself, even when you were...human?"

  Tomo considered for a moment. "Already my time in that form is fading. I can remember yearning for the Waters, but it was...subtle. A dream that had no hope of fruition. The Tomb had locked those things from us. Not only our forms, but our memories, our power. Even the knowledge of the Waters. All we had were our dreams. The Storm was born of those dreams."

  Laila had difficulty following his train of thought, but she believed she was beginning to understand the damage the Tomb had inflicted on the Ondine.

  Tomo fell silent and they drifted toward the center of the lake without further conversation.

  The boat finally bumped into the spring at the center of the lake. A flat piece of stone offered Laila a small place to stand as she left the boat. The water dissipated back into the lake. Laila turned to see Tomo floating atop the water.

  "I leave you here, Magusari." His voice sounded distant.

  Without anything further, his form fell into the lake without so much as a splash, disappearing into the darkness. Laila thought she could see a look of absolute peace on his face just before he disappeared. He was finally home.

  Turning back to the formation, Laila studied the flows of the spring. She could feel the power that emanated from it. The sensation reminded her of Mount Obrussa and the sense of calm and connection that she had felt at the mountain's peak. Involuntarily, driven by power, she took a step toward the spring. Then she stopped suddenly.

  From beneath the flow of water, rising as though from a throne, the large figure from the Tomb stood up in front of her. The water of the spring had been covering the figure as Laila had arrived, and looking to where it had risen from, Laila could not see where the water of the spring ended and the figure before her truly began. Could it be? Laila thought.

  "Magusari." The voice rose from the very depths of the lake, reaching down to the source of the spring and the Waters, deep and powerful, but with a feminine tone and lacking the madness that had encompassed its release from the Tomb.

  The power that emanated from the figure was palpable, and Laila felt a sense of fear rise up in her chest. The power reminded her of Nuriel and the flurry of her battles with him.

  "You're..." Laila found it difficult to speak.

  "I am Pontus, Aspect of Water," the figure said. As it spoke, the water that made up its form shifted and moved, coalescing into a smaller form, a woman. A beautiful woman with shining white-blue hair and pale skin that reflected the wavering light that glistened off the lake and spring. She was only slightly taller than Laila herself, but her presence made it feel as though she were still the towering form from the Tomb.

  Laila stared, unsure what to do or say.

  "And you are the Magusari," Pontus said, glancing at Laila's staff and then looking up into her eyes.

  Laila nodded.

  "Welcome to the Waters, child." The Aspect's voice was soft, almost gentle.

  "Thank you, Shi," Laila finally said, bowing her head slightly, in the formal manner of Terus.

  Pontus watched the gesture with a look of amusement on her face. "I remember your predecessor. She did not have the same deference."

  "I...I'm sorry," Laila responded.

  "No need, child. That was long ago. Far too long. Even now, returning to the world, I can feel what has been lost. Your deference is appreciated, but unnecessary. You are the important one. Without you, I fear a fate far worse than your 'Collapse' may befall us all."

  Laila raised an eyebrow in question, but Pontus continued regardless.

  "I can feel it, you know. A force just beyond my perception, lingering, weaving its way through the world. Guiding events to its own purpose."

  "Nuriel," Laila interjected.

  The cold eyes of the Aspect probed Laila suddenly. "Nuriel! No, Magusari! Nuriel is simply a byproduct. A distraction."

  "I...I don't understand."

  "I know. And you have come here seeking the strength to fight Nuriel."

  Laila nodded uncertainly.

  "And perhaps that is what is necessary. But I fear the deeper power. And I fear that my freedom shall be short-lived.

  "But, you have come as Magusari, and I shall treat you as such. Let us see how the pieces shall be played."

  The Aspect reached her hands toward Laila, grasping her by the sides of her head. Laila resisted, tried to pull her head away from the grasp, but Pontus's grip was strong, too strong to move away from. Laila took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Then she felt the power within Pontus grow, expand, and widen, surrounding Laila.

  The Aspect’s form distorted and stretched. She lost the womanly form she had been holding and became pure water. A wave rose up from the spring of the Sacred Waters to crush Laila. Laila raised her staff, pulling free as Pontus's hands gave way to her watery form. Laila called on her power and felt the Earth of the spring rise to meet her, sliding its way over her limbs, granting her strength. Then the wave struck.

  Water encompassed Laila's entire being, washing her from the small stone formation, sweeping her into the lake. She held on to her own power through her staff, but she felt her lungs begin to burn as air was denied her.

  Pontus, no longer a corporal being, surrounded her. Laila could sense her power even as she thrashed about, trying to free herself. Fear rose in her, and she became frantic. Her lungs were on fire. She needed air. The power of the Aspect surrounded her.

  Her body sank further into the water, the weight of her connection to the Earth magic and Pontus's own strength driving her deep into the blackness of the lake. She felt her fear turn to utter despair. She was going to drown. There was nothing she could do to fight back against the Aspect. In Terus she had been able to defend herself from Nuriel using her own power. But here, engulfed in the darkness of the Sacred Waters, she had no recourse, not even air to sustain her.

  There was something in the water that reached out to her. Something that called to her mind, distantly, through her connection to the Earth. It was faint, but it was there, and it brought her mind back to her moment on Mount Obrussa, when she had utterly given herself to the strength of the mountain...and had been granted the staff that she now clung to. With no other choice, she let go of her connection to the Earth, submitting to the Water around her and Pontus's own power.

  She felt the magic in the water and remembered her transition from the Tomb to the island. The strange sensation that had transported her over unknown miles. And the sense that she did not need the air.

  Her power grasped at the water, and she used it to sustain herself. Free of her Earth magic, she could sense the power inherent in the water, inherent to both Pontus and the Sacred Waters themselves. She could feel it all around her. She tapped into it instinctively, having no other choice...and the burning in her lungs dissipated. She was not truly breathing, but the spasming in her lungs subsided, and she opened her eyes to the darkness around her.

  Ghostly forms flowed around her, darting back and forth. Their pale eyes stabbed out at her from the darkness. But they had no power over her. She felt a new sense rise up in her, starting at the center of her chest. A ca
lmness, contrasting with the confidence her power over Earth gave her. She reached out with her mind and grasped at the magic inherent in the water, felt it flow into her.

  Pontus's own power rose up to meet Laila's. The water began to spin and twist around them, forming a whirlpool beneath the surface of the lake. Confident in her grasp on the power of the Water, she reached out once again through her staff, called on the Earth. Letting both course through her, she lifted herself up toward the surface of the water. Pontus fought against her and the Water of the lake raged at Laila's defiance.

  Laila gasped as her head broke the surface and air filled her lungs. Buffered by her growing power, she moved herself to the springs at the center. She stood at the center of the maelstrom that raged around her. Pontus's semi-human form rose out of the water, standing on its surface, facing Laila in the center of the raging waters.

  They faced each other in the eye of the growing storm. Laila felt her power course through her, the strength and confidence of the Earth now mixed with the sense of calm that had been granted to her from the Waters. This was what it felt to be the Magusari, to command the elements. She felt that she could almost reach out and control Pontus herself, but she hesitated as the Aspect's assault had relented for the moment. Pontus's pale face regarded Laila, studying her, judging her.

  "You are strong." The Aspect's voice sounded effortlessly over the storm. "Perhaps even stronger than your predecessor. Your passion is...incredible. I even tasted a sense of the power that had held me all these millennia, something that should not be your birthright," Pontus mused, still studying Laila as Laila basked in her power. "Maybe, you just might..." She did not finish the thought.

  Pontus let her own power settle, reducing the raging of the waters around their two forms. Laila let her own power subside in response, though not completely releasing her connection to the Waters; she was not ready to do that just yet.

  Slowly, Pontus stepped smoothly across the water, flowing toward Laila. Despite her desire to respond defensively, Laila stood her ground and waited to see what the Aspect would do.