Editing Kanimaeli - Spirit of Air (section)

==The End of the Dua'Rev==

We passed the stairs we had entered by earlier, and continued through winding corridors that would have been easy to defend against archer and wielders of dweomer. We came to a room with a light source ahead, which flickered like flames. I was wary, so I walked forward carefully to peek around the corner. Sure enough, there was a small figure of Fire flowing around a Dua'rev corpse that was combusting under him, with two other charred remains nearby. There was also the charred remains of a worm, suggesting it had fed well. The rest of the room was mainly empty, although there was a makeshift armoury against the wall on the right with various weapons arrayed there.

I tried to talk sense with the Fire spirit, using Common Elemental, but it was too hungry to placate. It said that his Lord (Igsol presumably) had created him here and that he must feed! It sounded like he just had no idea how he had come to be here. He flowed towards me and I was nearly enveloped in flames, feeling for the first time the protection of Xlotl’s gift from Aretmus as the flames flowed off me without catching fire. I struck with the Air, disrupting him somewhat, but then Xlotl dumped a mass of Water straight onto him. There was an explosion of steam, which scalded me badly, but the light of the Fire spirit went out. We did try to warn him. A small pool of liquid remained, but there was no longer any Fire.

Xlotl moved forward to inspect the remains of the dead, noticing that there were two more bodies slumped against a closed door at the far left end of the room. I followed, hoping to find something that might dress some of my wounds. The remains of the worm were crumbling to dust, and the nearest bodies had been drained of all sense of life. One was more lightly armoured than the others, and they had a flask that looked like the healing drafts we had seen so far, so I gulped down about half of it and felt somewhat better.

Xlotl investigated a backpack that this Dua'rev had been wearing, although it looked like a strap had been cut and the pack dragged out from under him as if we were not the first to investigate. He did find a shiny steel pick wrapped in a shirt, but it was repulsive to me and clearly of Earth. Still we kept it - if nothing else it could be traded for something more useful.

The other two bodies were of a finely dressed warrior, although his weapons were missing, and a shaman. The shaman had a stone symbol of Earth around his neck, but it had been recently cracked according to Xlotl. I leant the body forward and saw a narrow, waxed bag with a leather folio inside just behind him. Xlotl floated the folio out, catching the papers as they fell loose, and collected it together to keep and study. He also noticed some fine bracers on the warrior; they were polished steel, so I was wary of the influence of Earth, but they were not as repugnant as the pick. They were inlaid with gold, one showing a bow and the other arrows. We wondered whether Antinniera would be able to make use of them, and kept them wrapped for her. Fortune smiled on us again, as I found another healing draft. I finished the first I had found and kept this one, now feeling much better.

The door they had been slumped beside opened easily, revealing a well-appointed sleeping quarters. There were bunks on each side and a writing desk against the far wall with writing materials. The left side of the room was in utter disarray, having been searched thoroughly, and a small chest had been smashed open and emptied on the floor. There was a mahogany stick with a gold band laying in front of it, looking damaged. Two plain gold rings that looked oddly corroded lay not far from that. A golden circlet with a black diamond mounted in front lay next to them. BY contrast, the right side of the room was in perfect order, with a small chest under the writing desk on that side made of dark wood and iron bound. There were two more chests under the bed and a footlocker at its base.

I walked forward, down the centre, and felt a strong revulsion from the right. Perhaps it was protected by Earth? I moved away from it, but warned Xlotl about the protection. When I focused, I could see that the Air was in agony within the right side of the room, which made sense if it was infused with Earth-related power. The desk had drawers in a bureau style, two on each side on left and right. I topped up my writing materials, paper and ink, and Xlotl found a map of the tunnels, although we seemed to have explored farther than those that had drawn it. The chest below the desk had a brass lock, and Xlotl thought it wise to seek out the key if we could.

I managed to fight my sense of revulsion to reach the bed and dragged the chests out to where we could reach them from the better Air. Xlotl found a key, which I then used on the chest below the desk. Although it clicked, we were cautious and Xlotl backed off whilst I moved to one side before opening it. It was a good job we did, because when the lid opened it exploded with crystal needles! Xlotl was largely unhurt, but I was peppered with them. I spent some time picking shards of crystals out of my skin before taking a swig of the healing draft I'd found.

There was a phial inside the chest containing an orange liquid, a small velvet pouch, and a broken glass phial with a puddle of green liquid where the shards had broken it. Inside the pouch was a gold ring with an oblong cut lapis lazuli set crossways upon it. Xlotl realised that the gold was very pure, and the stone very carefully shaped with many flat surfaces to make what looked like a plain shape.

Xlotl inspected and manipulated the wand on the floor, but it crumbled to dust just leaving a pitted gold band behind. All the items seemed to be drained of energy. Only the circlet was in good condition, although the stone it had held was cracked and fell out in pieces when Xlotl shook it. The circlet itself was fine and intricate, despite the loss of the stone, but when Xlotl tried it on he quickly dropped it to the floor. It had the same taint of Earth, so I wrapped it with the pick for others to appraise.

The two other chests were full of gold and silver, more than I had ever seen! I suppose it made sense that creatures of Earth would value such minerals enough to hoard them. I took a little for any trading I might need to so, and Xlotl seemed to take quite a lot - still impressed with the quality of the gold. The footlocker was mostly full of clothes, although I did find a sphere of granite at the bottom. I nudged it into bag with other Earth stuff in case it was valuable or important, and then finally left the Earth-infused area, feeling great relief as the normal Air surrounded me.

With nothing else to do here, we backtracked to the stairs up and returned to the worm pillar room. There was a stone door in the corner we had bypassed before, and we investigated that first. Inside was a room with shelving reaching from floor to ceiling on the right as we entered. The shelves were laden with glass jars that were stoppered with cork. There were so many that there might even have been a hundred of them, and they all contained soil, dirt, and dust. The colours were all different, and all seemed to represent different Earth materials of some kind. There was almost a pattern, if you looked at the colour gradient, although two at the bottom right didn't seem to fit at all.

Neither of us knew what the significant of the Earth was, so we decided just to leave it and return to the cells through the guard post. We found one of Illiana's folk, an Elvrathamat, in the first cell. He was slumped against the wall, although he did stir as I shouted but didn't get up. There was another in the next cell, female this time, but we thought her probably dead. The next cell was empty, and an entrance on the left opened into a torture chamber with various nasty looking implements within it that made for fairly gruesome viewing.

The fourth cell had a closed stable door and some moisture on the floor, as if water had been spilled recently. We could hear movement and breathing from the last cell, which had bars like the first three. There were two dogs within, and they barked at us. They looked quite nasty, and then I noticed that the barred door wasn't locked in any way! One was jumping up at the bars, which caused the door to swing slightly, then the other caught a bar in its mouth and pulled it open! The other dog launched itself at me, but then dropped to the floor with the other one as Xlotl attacked them with his mind. Thankfully I hadn't soiled my robes!

We went back to the stable door, and Xlotl opened the top, seeing the bottom half was mostly filled with water. Before we could investigate further, a voice called from the first cell: "Let me out, you bastards"! I replied, somewhat sarcastically: "that's a great way to get someone to let you out". He paused at that, replying: "you're not one of them, who are you"? I asked who he was, and he gave a name: Tar'anath. His Queen was Ilianna, at which Xlotl advised leaving him as she was a Queen of Lies. Tar'anath said that we had got it wrong - she was the Queen of Truth! We left him for now, though, as Xlotl investigated the water.

There was something in there - a scaled, once rainbow-coloured fish but now muted. It responded to Xlotl's voice, saying that it wanted to get back to the river. We worried that it was too far for the poor thing, though, as we would have to carry it. The idea of it breathing Air was alien to it. I healed its wounds, which invigorated it, so at least it would have the best chance at surviving. I still had the waxed bag, which was designed to be waterproof, so we scooped it up with some water, leaving the contents with Xlotl. It was heavy, but I used the Air to help me carry it as quickly as I could to the water's edge in the broken tower that Xlotl had entered through. I tipped it quickly into the water, and it was already growing in size as it leapt out of the bag. It kept growing in the water, though, until it was alarmingly big, becoming a massive beast with tentacles. It was still grateful, thankfully, saying that we had the thanks of Lord Vannetherren, and that it was in our debt.