Sandqueen (Rise To Omniscience Book 7)

by Aaron Oster

  There was a lot that needed to be done, but as Grace was right now, Morgan did not feel like springing the rise of another Pinnacle King on her. Instead, he just held her, allowing her exhaustion to take its toll and finally force her into the land of dreams.

  “It sounds like she’s been through a lot,” he said, keeping his voice low.

  “She has,” Lumia replied as he stood from the bench, cradling Grace in his arms. “The experience she described in which she fought a cultist that would not die must have damaged her psyche worse than I’d imagined. It’s going to take her some time to get over this, and not just a little time either. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the fear continued, even once we return to the Five Kingdoms.”

  Morgan let out a sigh but nodded all the same. To overcome fear, one first had to face it. Seeing as this one was a beast that even Morgan couldn’t defeat, that would be a tall order.

  “We can’t head back to the Five Kingdoms just yet,” he said, crouching down and placing her on the ground. “I’d rather that she that woke up in the same place she fell asleep, and judging by how tired she looked, that might take a while.”

  “I’m assuming you’re going to be doing something in the meantime?” Lumia said as he fished a blanket from his pack and draped it over her.

  “I’m going to find out about the Soul Well,” he said, smoothing back Grace’s hair before lifting her head as gently as he could manage and placing a section of the blanket beneath.

  It wasn’t the most comfortable place to sleep, but waking up in a new environment, especially if he were gone, might not be the best thing for her. This was why he was also going to be asking Lumia to stay with her.

  “Alone?” Lumia asked, already picking up on the implications.

  “Grace will need a familiar face around for when she wakes up, and I have a different job for Hilda. Where is she, by the way?”

  “Right here.”

  Morgan turned to see the woman in question stride into the small area before the pond, her usually cocky grin strangely absent.

  “I can tell something is wrong just by the way you’re acting. So, you gonna spit it out?”

  “To make a long story extremely short, I’m going to be marrying the elven queen so that the war can end. Another Pinnacle King has risen in the West Kingdom, and I need you to stay here and watch the queen while I’m gone, because I don’t trust anyone else as much as I do you, to keep her alive.”

  “Holy shit,” Hilda said, the words coming out in a shocked half-whisper.

  “Yes,” Morgan agreed. “Holy shit, indeed.”

  “Do you know where I can find the Soul Well?”

  “The Soul Well?” Elyssa asked, her brows pulled down in confusion. “How did you even hear about that?”

  He and Hilda stood just outside Elyssa’s private rooms, having had someone guide them up here immediately as soon as they’d left the gardens. Elyssa apparently had been in the middle of a bath, as she was wrapped in a long robe, and a towel had been hastily wound into her hair.

  “I need it for a skill of mine,” Morgan replied. “It is contingent on me finding the Well.”

  Elyssa seemed, if anything, surprised by his answer.

  “As far as I know, the Soul Well is only supposed to be a myth. An old wives’ tale from centuries past. Honestly, I’ve always lumped it into the same category as the Well of Eternal Youth and the Well of Consciousness, but if a skill is specifically demanding you to go for a visit, it has to be real.”

  Intrigued as Morgan was by the other two wells she’d mentioned, he was on a bit of a time crunch. He had perhaps eighteen hours before he needed to return to the Five Kingdoms, as he’d promised Katherine he would be back before twenty-four hours had elapsed. That should give Grace plenty of time to rest, but he had no idea if it would be enough time for him to bathe in the Soul Well.

  The beast within was growing harder and harder to manage, and if he were to go up against another of the Pinnacle Kings – especially in his current state – the Beast King would undoubtedly break free, and with how powerful he’d become, Morgan wasn’t sure if he’d be able to retake control once he did. The last time, the Beast King had been forced to retreat due to injury. This time, Morgan had a feeling he wouldn’t be giving up so easily.

  If there was a way to control him, he had to try and discover how.

  “Do you have any idea where it might be located?”

  Elyssa seemed to think for a few moments, before nodding slowly.

  “There are a few places where it could be, though I can’t be sure. From what I know, the Wells are all supposed to be sitting on Convergence Points, places in Faeland where the energy of the world is most densely packed. There are a few places they can be, and while I’d be more than happy to hand you a map, I can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to find it.”

  “That’s fine,” Morgan said. “How long will that take?”

  Elyssa half-turned and called down the corridor.

  “Galina, can you fetch me a map of Faeland?”

  A head popped around the far side of the corridor, revealing a young elf girl. It may not have been an accurate assessment, though. Because of how young they all appeared to be, she could have been far older.

  “Right away, Your Majesty,” the woman called, before vanishing around the corner once again.

  “There,” she said, turning back to him. “She should be back within five minutes. Now, care to introduce this…woman you have brought with you?”

  “Hilda,” Hilda said, giving the queen a nod. “We’re old friends. Well, sort of, anyway,” she said, trailing off.

  “Hilda is going to be staying here with you at my request,” Morgan said quickly. “I know you’re strong, and your guards are formidable, but I’d like someone I trust to stay and watch your back while I’m gone. Both to the Soul Well, and back to the Five Kingdoms. I don’t know how things work here in Faeland, but generally, when there are disagreements, especially about issues like war, people tend to be killed.”

  Elyssa looked between the two of them for several seconds, clearly either disbelieving them or not thinking it necessary.

  “Look, if it makes you feel any better, let’s just call her a diplomatic guest, here to look after my interests and make sure things run smoothly until my return. The dwarves and beastmen are both sending some delegates, so it would only be right for the humans to have one as well.”

  “Just how well do you know Morgan?” Elyssa asked, her eyes continuing to move between the two of them, as though trying to find some deeper meaning behind what either of them had said.

  “We went to school together,” Hilda replied. “Then met up again a few years later when our kingdoms were fighting off the Pinnacle King of Winter. I actually came along on this mission as a delegate for my own queen, but getting to represent the Five Kingdoms as a whole sounds much more impressive, don’t you think?”

  “Yes,” Elyssa replied slowly. “Very well, I will agree to have you stay. But, as a delegate of the humans, I will have to insist you act like one, and perhaps dress more appropriately.”

  “What’s wrong with my clothes?” Hilda asked, looking down at her outfit, which consisted of a sleeveless top with a neckline that dipped more than a little bit, as well as a pair of pants that, for some reason, ended at mid-thigh and clung to her like it was a second skin.

  “While that may be considered acceptable attire in your lands…” she said, eyeing Morgan for confirmation

  “It’s not.”

  “Well, then, if it’s not acceptable in the human lands, I can assure you it is not acceptable here,” Elyssa continued.

  “Well, what do you want me to wear?” she asked with an eye roll. “In case you haven’t noticed, I lost all my things.”

  “How did you manage that?” Morgan asked.

  “Did you forget about the crater you left where our camp was supposed to be?” Hilda shot back.

  “Fair enough.”

&
nbsp; “We can provide you with some new clothes,” Elyssa said, eyeing her up and down. “Though we will need to get someone in to take your measurements. As you’ve probably already noticed, your kind tends to be a bit bigger in just about every way.”

  Before the awkward silence that greeted that statement could stretch for too long, the servant girl came bustling around the corner with a rolled-up map clutched tightly in her hand.

  “We’ll take care of the details in a bit,” Elyssa said, pulling the door to her room completely shut and striding out into the corridor. “For now, let’s head to my study so I can mark out possible locations of the Soul Well for my future husband.”

  31

  Morgan flew above the endless sea of rainbow-colored flowers rippling across the landscape below. The map, upon which Elyssa had marked four possible locations, was tucked carefully into his pack. It was now committed to memory, yet still there in case it was needed. Besides, having a map of Faeland would be invaluable in case the alliance didn’t work out. He was actually surprised Elyssa would be willing to hand something this valuable over without a second thought, but everything the elf did seemed to have some sort of motivation behind it.

  From their time spent together, he knew she was smart – smarter than he could ever hope to be – and schooled in the intricacies of politics and everything it entailed. Perhaps this was a clever ploy to test his loyalty, or perhaps, only parts of the map were real, with others designed to purposely mislead him, should he turn on them. Whatever the case, Morgan could wonder about it later.

  He was now flying over the Rainbow Bridge, as they called it. It was basically a field of flowers that spanned nearly fifty miles across and was over two hundred miles wide. This was the closest spot marked, as it was still inside the Glimmerlands. It was over a thousand miles from the palace, but with his Gravity Warp, it had taken him no time at all to get here. However, now that he was here, he would need to fly over the area, searching for a spot with the greatest collection of reiki and hope it was the right place.

  It was extremely painful for him to keep his senses open to the torrents of power flowing through Faeland, so to distract himself, Morgan examined his status.

  Name: Morgan

  Advanced Supermage: Rank - 68

  Energy to Next Rank - 922,600/450,000,000

  Ability Advancement - 15,000,000/15,000,000 (Max.)

  Ability - Natural Disaster

  RP - 7,250/7,250 (Regen - 72.5 per second)

  Strength - 702

  Agility - 1,050

  Constitution - 832

  Intelligence - 725

  Wisdom - 725

  Skills - Hypersonic Flight, Maximum Increase, Maximum Stormforge, Earthen Shift, Nature’s Wrath, Compression, Gravity Tear, Sunblast

  Traits - Dense Body Max., Recovery Max., Aura Sense (inherited), Aura Flare (inherited), Perfect Self, Soul Stealer, Suppression (inherited)

  Extra - Gravity Storm (7th category), Starbreaker (7th category), Collapsing Star (HyperNova), Shooting Star (Comet), Massive Meteor (2nd category), Continental Crush

  After checking his status over, which took him almost no time at all, Morgan switched his view to the potential skills he could unlock, of which, there was only one right now. He had a feeling that as soon as he advanced to rank 69, he’d have more become available.

  *Soulstream (Contingent) - The power of your soul manifests in the form of your inner beast, cloaking your body in its incredible power, while leaving you in control. While in this form, any damage received will be instantly healed, though it will shorten the duration of the skill.

  (This skill is contingent upon finding the Soul Well in the heart of Faeland)

  Cost - 8,000 RP

  Duration - 10 minutes

  Cooldown - 24 hours

  Morgan hadn’t actually looked at the skill since first learning of his ability to learn it, so when he noticed the absolutely staggering cost of activating said skill, he became a bit discouraged. Even if he managed to find the Soul Well, it would do him no good right now. He only had an intelligence of 725, and to activate the skill, he’d need at least 800. If he calculated that correctly, it was a number he’d only manage to reach in another 15 to 20 ranks. Either that or if he managed to reach the Pinnacle of power.

  Closing out the skill, Morgan opened up his traits again, checking his Perfect Self trait.

  Perfect Self - The road to the Pinnacle of power is nearly at its end. Gather the required energy and find your Perfect Self.

  Progress - 59%

  He sighed and closed out the tab, dismissing his status altogether. He’d barely made any progress on his Perfect Self in the last few weeks – not that he was surprised. He hadn’t really been learning anything new, either about himself or about how he interacted with others. And, judging by how conflicted he was right now, he wouldn’t be surprised if he began to slide backward. His guilt over marrying another woman ate away at him from the inside, and though he didn’t allow it to show, not even when he was alone, it was starting to take its toll.

  Add to that the fact that there was a new Pinnacle King, one that he’d need to face soon, and Morgan found that he was regressing, rather than progressing. His thoughts were chaotic, his inner self was in turmoil, and the Beast King was banging on the doors, demanding to be released. One person could not possibly be expected to handle all of that at once, yet here he was, trying to manage it, and all on his own.

  Once, he’d had Sarah. Someone who’d known that despite his appearance and general demeanor, he was still human – well, half-human, to be precise. But he’d found that he’d been pulling back recently, even from Lumia, who understood him as well as anyone could. She’d been with him for the entire two years he’d been away and was also the only one who knew his real motivations in why he did what he did.

  Morgan felt his hands ball into fists as he stared out over the sea of flowers, concentrating instead on the pain of keeping his Aura Sense wide open. The pain was something tangible, something he could feel, and right now, he welcomed it as an old friend and allowed it to wash over him to blank out all of the internal struggles he was feeling. There was a job that needed doing, and getting distracted by his own petty emotions was the very last thing he needed.

  With his senses trained on the landscape below, it didn’t take him much time to find where the reiki was behaving oddly. A funnel cloud of violet light raged at the very center of the Rainbow Bridge, invisible to the naked eye, but visible to those with the ability to see more than just the physical world.

  He winced as he flew closer and was able to feel the overwhelming pain that came with staring into something so bright for so long, yet he remained open and receptive. The funnel cloud grew larger and larger in his vision until he flew into it. Once he was inside, Morgan had to shut off his Aura Sense to avoid going blind altogether. The massive increase in the density and quantity of reiki was too much for him to keep looking.

  The world faded back to the normal color spectrum, and Morgan felt much better. He still swayed a bit on his feet as he landed and felt as though the ground was moving beneath him. The hardest part about all of this was yet to come, and as he began to look around, he began to understand why so many thought of the Soul Well as a myth. The area in which he was standing looked no different than the rest of the flower fields.

  Dozens of colorful flowers spread around him, and no matter how hard he looked, he could not spot anything out of the ordinary. He went down on his hands and knees and pressed his ear to the ground, closing his eyes and trying to extend his sense downward. If there was nothing on the surface, then perhaps he was simply looking in the wrong place.

  At first, he heard nothing, just the sound of his own breathing and the light breeze rustling through the flowers. However, as he continued to listen, another sound became audible, one that echoed faintly beneath the ground. Sitting upright, he felt a grin stretch across his lips. There was definitely something down there, and he was going t
o find out whatever it was.

  Not bothering to stand up, Morgan used Earthen Shift, being careful to avoid killing the flowers as the earth began to rise, peeling up and back to reveal a clean layer of dark earth. Slowly, the ground shifted out of the way, rippling as though made of liquid, as Morgan continuously pushed it to the side. As more and more earth moved, Morgan began smelling something odd.

  It was a mixture of a damp smell, moss, underground plant life and something else he couldn’t quite place. As the last of the dirt shifted aside, showing a sheet of solid stone beneath, he knew he’d finally reached the bottom. As he dropped into the hole, Morgan began pulling the dirt back in on top of himself. At the same time, the stone underfoot rippled and moved, slowly opening to allow soft blue light to begin shining through the cracks.

  It didn’t take long for the space to open up enough for him to get through, and once he did, Morgan found himself in a freefall, one that he couldn’t seem to stop, even if he used his Flight skill. He sealed the stone above as he fell, then forced his body to turn so he could see what was happening, and why his Flight wasn’t working. As soon as he saw the ground thousands of feet below, the answer became obvious.

  The area itself was brightly lit, and even all the way up here, the shining blue crept up the walls. This reflected the light quite well, showing him that the walls were damp, just as he’d suspected. Luminescent lichen grew up the sides of the walls and ceiling, interspersed with patches of yellow and red. As he continued to fall, another thought struck him, and this one was quite worrying.

  How am I going to get back up?

  His maximum height was 450 feet. Any higher than that, and he’d be unable to continue advancing. Worse, the walls sloped so steeply toward the ceiling that it would be impossible to climb. He could do it, of course, but it would take hours that he simply didn’t have. As he neared the ground and began to feel his control asserting itself, he decided he could worry about it later.