Editing Journal - Kelditch's Staff (section)

==A Quick Exit and a Strange Journey==

As we walked casually through the cave, I was shouting telepathically to Falcor, who thankfully acknowledged me. I quickly gave him an image of Affiah being enraged and suggested that we might need to leave in a hurry! Falcor made his excuses to Farouk and jogged out towards a larger chamber we had both crossed earlier. Unsurprisingly, he entered as Affiah was striding across it, and when the shaman saw him he ordered the half a dozen or so in sight to stop Falcor. Falcor ran quickly, getting away from the shaman and his followers, who seemed to struggle with their fitness; and the warriors whilst they were asking him to stop seemed confused and didn't want to use force. I had been following my &quot;guide&quot; but as I heard running feet approaching I turned and ran towards the main cavern, seeing Falcor not far behind me as I looked back. We were able to make good on our escape, mainly because the warriors didn't know what was going on so nobody tried to stop us. We were sure that it wouldn't be that easy once Affiah had spoken to Farouk, though, so we kept going into the night until we were forced to rest by a combination of exhaustion and the danger of injury from moving through the rocky landscape in the darkness (well for Falcor anyway).

Falcor was understandably upset by the sudden need to leave, and apparently had been enjoying a pleasant evening with some wine until I messed it all up. Fuck my father, and all the Gods and their ignorant &quot;believers&quot;! Falcor refused to talk about it, so I just tried to get some sleep, eventually managing a fitful slumber, although it was surprisingly late in the morning when I awoke. Falcor was brooding, and when he noticed I was awake he asked into the air &quot;what now?&quot; before stalking off in a strop. I couldn't do much about that, so I started meditating to regain some of my power in case I needed it.

Unbeknown to me at the time, Falcor had sought out a quiet place to commune with Malada. He was transported to her garden, and they spoke of me. The Goddess seemed genuinely shocked that I was Kraldar's daughter, and asked if Falcor was sure that I was the one he sought, which he was. Despite Falcor speaking for me, which I would have been grateful for if he had told me, Malada stressed that I would not be tolerated in her realm. Apparently to invite someone like me in would give me the power to come and go as I pleased, and she was not willing to grant such a thing. There had been only one other, her lost brother, that had been there other than Falcor. She also noted that my use of Kelditch's staff was probably not as it seemed, saying that the power came from within me, and that the item could amplify it but it would not allow me to directly use Kelditch's power. Despite not being able to help Falcor return to the Forge, she restored him fully in mind and body saying that it was the least she could do for him instead. After that he returned to his senses, once more sat in the mountains where he had begun his meditation.

Falcor returned to where we had slept, finding  me still meditating. He left me be despite the time, but an hour and a half later he caught sight of the giant bat we had encountered what seemed like an age ago on our first journey to the cave settlement. It was lazily flying in the distance, but would come close, so Falcor woke me to warn of the danger and we hid amongst the rocks, keeping still until it had passed. I started to meditate again, hoping that it would not come back this way, but annoyingly it did just that, even closer this time. We blanked our minds as we felt a scan from the beast, and thankfully it passed harmlessly over and out of sight again. It was clear that we needed to move, though, so we headed southeast away from what seemed to be the thing's hunting grounds.

After we had traveled for a little way, Falcor produced a wondrous-looking feather from somewhere on his person. He concentrated on it for a minute and it started to glow slightly; in fact I could feel the energy pulsing from it, so it was clearly no simple feather. Shortly afterwards a winged creature that Falcor called a Pegasus, and he called it by his name, Aerganion, appeared in front of Falcor. I would say that Aergarnion was even more wondrous that the feather, which would be true, but at that time it wasn't the first impression that I had... instead he came crashing into the ground beside Falcor, his feathers and body badly burnt and still smoking. He was flanked by two other pegasii, also wounded but not as badly, that seemed only to seek his protection, looking around warily at me and the rocky landscape.

Aergarnion shared an image of him and his followers fighting in a realm that had no land, just air, but was filled with creatures of fire that were almost overwhelming his folk. We got the impression that he was grateful Falcor had called, as it had provided a way for him to escape from a place that had become two realms merged into one: air and fire combined. At that point he slumped into unconsciousness, overcome by the pain of the burns he had suffered. Falcor rushed to his side, clearly concerned and an old acquaintance of this being of Air. He used his mental gifts to heal Aergarnion, and then searched for a potion that could aid him further. Aergarnion regained consciousness after Falcor's aid, but was still weak. The potion, though, that Falcor encouraged him to drink quickly and visibly restored him to full health, feathers regrowing, ash falling away, and a deep inner radiance returning. He threw himself into the air with joy, crying out that the &quot;Guardian&quot; was fated to help him and his realm, and had restored him in his time of need.

I tried to offer my aid to the other two pegasii, but they shied away, nervous of a stranger perhaps, or sensing my father's taint more likely. They accepted Falcor's aid, though, and soon they were all restored and ready to travel again. Aergarnion explained that the Lord of Fire sought to expand his realm into that of Air, and that he had been caught unexpectedly in a place between places. Falcor's call was a saving beacon that allowed him to escape, but he would have to return to fight for his people. Falcor immediately offered his help, which was admirable, but Aergarnion insisted that he had already helped, and that his quest was more important that the fight between Air and Fire. Falcor acknowledged me for the first time, saying that I could help to close portals between realms, but Aergarnion explained that the two realms had crashed together, so there was no simple gate to close. He thanked me, at least, for the offer of help, but instead asked only that we take the fight to those that serve fire whenever we could so that their strength was weakened and diverted.

Falcor spoke of his need for us to travel to the Forge, and Aergarnion at once agreed to take us as far as Borarla. I mounted one of the Pegasii, Aergarnion took Falcor of course, and almost at once I sensed that we had left Karmana and entered somewhere else. There was no time to take this change in, though, as we were almost immediately set upon by creatures of fire! I just got the sense that the world was sort of rushing past below us, despite hardly moving at all in relative terms to the other creatures here. We were in the air, but also in a strange place between worlds.

I was able to use the other part of Kelditch's staff to control one of the fire creatures, convincing it that I was an ally. The unburdened pegasus attacked one foe, summoning hailstones to pelt it, but it didn't have any noticeable effect. Fireballs exploded all around us, and I could see why Aergarnion had been so badly burned! Falcor managed to cast a spell somehow, and ice exploded around the fire creature farthest from us, not once but twice. The fire that made up its form sputtered and died, the black remains within tumbling out of sight rapidly. A ring of fire appeared around Falcor and Aergarnion, but they were able to fly through without damage. Fireballs once again exploded around me, causing more damage, but thankfully not yet setting us on fire.

Aergarnion climbed above the fire, sending intense cold forking into a foe like lightning. Falcor summoned missiles of ice to strike at the same foe, and it too sputtered and died, leaving just two. It seemed that being repeatedly attacked had served some purpose, though, as the one I had controlled earlier rushed to my defence; she crashed into the other foe and they both disappeared leaving us free to fly onward. It seemed like just a moment later that we shifted from the strange rushing motion to being within a forest, my mount flaring its wings to land on the soil. We had arrived in Borarla, the forest Falcor had told me had suffered fire and devastation at the hands of the giantkin.