Felix stood up and nervously walked over to the hole in the ground. He got as close as he dared to, a few feet away from it, and looked at it. Even using Night Eye though, he couldn't see inside of it. His eyes were screaming at him to look away, crying out for light as if he had been in a desert for a month longing for water without dying of thirst somehow. After a few seconds, he had no choice but to back away from the hole, and keep himself from looking at it. Arboro watched this all unfold calmly.

"I couldn't see into it, even using the Night Eye spell." Felix said, panting slightly, and rubbing his eyes.

Arboro smirked at this. "You think such a low grade spell would be able to pierce into the Well of Souls, the origin of all darkness? Please be serious." she said, looking at him like he was a fool.

"I thought you said the Well of Souls was cut off from the physical plane? Then how is it right there?" Felix asked.

"That hole is merely the connection point the Well of Souls has with the physical plane. As the grand dark artifact, it's true form is in the spiritual plane." Arboro said.

"If it was cut off, how is there still darkness in the world after all of this time? Shouldn't it have all been used up after so many years?" Felix asked, while he sat down to meditate.

Arboro snorted again. "Ten thousand years isn't actually very long in terms of the scale of the balance of the elements. There was much darkness in the world, and although it's volume has indeed gone down a notable amount, it would take a much longer time to actually become an issue. But..." Arboro paused.

"But what?" Felix asked.

"I have a theory. I think that Azula may have used his connection with his Yin spirit that was reincarnated to form a direct link to the only living dragon, and may be directly channeling the dark element through him, instead of it's traditional route through this connection point. I can't say this for sure though. But it's the only thing I can think of that may be alleviating the issue." Arboro pondered.

"He was able to connect to his Yin spirit even though it was reincarnated?" Felix asked, surprised.

"Well, again, it's only a theory. I don't know if he did that. But since Azula's Yang spirit was never reincarnated, the connection with his Yin spirit was never truly dissipated." Arboro said.

Felix supposed he had to simply accept this as a possibility. He didn't know enough about spirituality to question it.

"Wait, I just thought of a huge issue. If the Well of Souls is cut off from the physical plane... then how is the great cycle of reincarnation happening still? How are spirits being recycled to form new souls?" Felix asked.

"They aren't." Arboro said simply.

Felix was dumbstruck. "Pardon me?"

"I said they aren't being recycled any more." Arboro repeated.

"But that doesn't make any sense. People are still being born every day. Their spirits have to be coming from somewhere." Felix said, confused.

"There was a very large stockpile of souls at the end of the war of the elements. Many died and were reincarnated. Just because one is processed in the Well of Souls, does not mean they instantly get shoved into a baby. There are many, many more souls than corporeal vessels at any given time." Arboro explained.

"So all the people born in the last ten thousand years are from this stockpile? What happens when the stockpile runs out?" Felix asked.

"Then vessels will not gain spirits, and life will cease throughout the world." Arboro said simply.

Felix furrowed his brow. "Well, why the hell isn't everyone panicking and working to fix the Well of Souls, then?" he asked, puzzled.

"Besides the fact that the number of mortals who know of it's existence can probably be counted on one hand, the only entities qualified to consider doing anything about the Well of Souls would be the great elemental spirits." Arboro said glumly.

"Well, don't the great elemental spirits care about the balance in the world? Why aren't they working to fix it?" Felix asked.

"Several reasons. The most important one would probably be that as long as my spirit has not dissipated or been reincarnated, they cannot control the Well of Souls. Right now, Azula has stolen the sustenance of the Well of Souls, and he can use it as his vessel, but the command authority over it still belongs to me. So they cannot force me to reincarnate. But they don't have to. All they had to do was wait for me to slowly dissipate, and then Azula could claim the command authority over the Well of Souls. That's what was happening when you found me, I was very very slowly dying in spirit. The only reason I lived this long is because of the pure dark elemental energy in this cave, which had the effect of somewhat nourishing my spirit." Azula muttered glumly.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Why do the elemental spirits want Azula to be the new dark elemental spirit so badly? Does it really matter that much if it's you or him?" Felix pondered.

"A couple of reasons. Firstly, as a male aspect, Azula is a Yang spirit. So the forces of the Great Yang would love to install a Yang spirit as the overlord of a Yin element. Secondly, because the four great Yang powers helped Azula to overthrow me all those years ago, he would feel a debt of gratitude to them for that as well. This would further ally Azula to the Great Yang." Arboro explained.

"Well, what about the great Yin powers? Surely they don't want to see the dark element fall into the hands of the Yang faction." Felix argued.

"They don't." Arboro nodded. "But they've been cornered. Firstly, the Yin faction lost the last great war, so they were already suppressed. Secondly, the Yang powers had reason on their side - they argued I was no longer a good pick for the great darkness spirit because I abused the Well of Souls for my own benefit, so none of the Yin powers should help me. And thirdly, there aren't really any alternatives. Azula's Yang spirit is the last dragon spirit around that hasn't already entered the Well of Souls in order to avoid dissipation except for the last living dragon, since there were no other dragon vessels in which to place the reincarnated dragon spirits, and I would obviously never use my command authority to allow them to take a different dragon spirit out of the Well of Souls in order to replace me. So if I had dissipated, they would have had no alternative spirit to put up for the position." Arboro mused.

"Well, now that you're well again, can't we just contact the other Yin powers and have them help you regain your seat of power?" Felix asked.

"No. All of the great elemental spirits agreed not to interfere between mine and Azula's fight. The reasoning was that I had personally betrayed Azula, and so Azula had personally betrayed me back. It was between the two of us, so no one should interfere, and additionally, this would serve as my punishment for my abuse of the artifact. The Yang powers figured they would not need to interfere because they had already secured victory by breaking my connection to the Well of Souls. All they had to do was prevent the Yin powers from helping me, and they figured I would slowly but surely die. The Yin powers were less than pleased, but they had no logical grounds to interfere, and it actually wasn't that bad of a deal to not have the Yang powers not interfere in whatever happened regarding the dark element. The Yin powers of Earth, Metal, and Water have grown just as much, if not slightly more than the Yang powers by taking whatever was occupied by Darkness, since they shared a closer affinity to it's Yin properties. They figured it was better for them to focus and grow the strength of their own elements, and cut their losses on the Dark element." Arboro explained.

"That's foolish. In the long run, obviously the Yang powers would win if they gained control over a 5th element." Felix said, as he spat in disgust.

Arboro sighed. "They know that. But they didn't have any other choice. Were they going to start a second great elemental war right after they lost the first one, but this time without any members of the dragon race whatsoever? That would have been an even worse decision." Arboro stated plainly.

Felix smacked his knee in anger. "Well what the hell do we do, then? Just accept that Azula will be the new spirit of darkness?" he asked, frustrated.

Arboro laughed. "No. We can take back my seat of power. The Yang powers agreed not to interfere because they wanted to force the Yin powers not to interfere as well. But by doing so, they have tied their own hands. The Yang powers never thought anyone would find this place to help me." Arboro chuckled.

"Well... can you blame them? We're several miles underground. If I didn't happen to be a dark aspected mage all the way down here by chance, no one would have ever found you." Felix said.

"Right. But you did find me. So now, all we have to do is make you stronger, and kill Azula in the spiritual plane of the Well of Souls, and I can regain control over it easily with my command authority." Azula said, grinning.

"You want me to kill a grand dragon spirit that has the backing of the four great Yang elemental spirits, fighting in the spiritual plane against a creature of the race of darkness?" Felix asked exasperatedly.

"It won't actually be that difficult. First off, the Yang powers made oaths on their own elemental artifacts not to interfere, beyond the magics they gave Azula to betray me in the first place, in order to convince the Yin powers to do the same. And secondly, although I no longer hold total dominion over the dark element, I still was able to increase your power substantially, and I know many powerful dark spells. After some growth, you can do it." Arboro said cheerfully.

"And why would I put myself in all this danger for you? You barged into my spell space uninvited, and latched on to my spirit. Even if I won this fight, I don't see how I benefit." Felix countered.

Arboro sighed. "You benefit in a few ways, but the most important way is that I can't actually unbind myself from you as my corporeal vessel. It took the combined magics of the 4 great Yang powers to unbind me from the Well of Souls, my spiritual strength is simply too powerful to be severed easily. So if I regain my control over the Well of Souls, you gain access to it's power as well, if only because I have no choice in the matter until you die. And that's besides the fact that I will have to provide you with tons of powerful dark spells for the fight, and you would have my personal gratitude, and the personal gratitude of the other Yin powers as well, for helping our faction to avoid losing an entire element. That level of sway should have obvious benefit for you." Arboro explained.

Felix nodded. This level of reward was acceptable to him. Only a fool wouldn't want to have the personal gratitude of half of the elements of the world, in addition to access to the greatest dark artifact in existence.

Still, he didn't trust Arboro completely. Just because Arboro said she didn't have a way to unbind herself, doesn't mean she actually didn't. And if anyone would have such a power, it would be the great spirit of darkness, which held dominion over spirituality. He decided to keep that thought to himself.

"Your terms are acceptable." Felix said. Arboro gave a sigh of relief.

"So what do we do now? How do I get out of this cave and back to the surface? I can't stay down here forever, I'll starve to death eventually, and then you won't have a corporeal vessel again." Felix questioned her.

"It's fine. The darkness will still obey me that much. Just walk up to the dark veil and place your palm on it, and I can command it to open." Arboro explained.

Felix walked over to the mineshaft, and placed his palm on to the darkness blocking the exit. Arboro muttered something under her breath that he couldn't understand, and the veil opened. Felix took one last look at the hole in the cave floor, and he began to climb, making indents in the walls slowly using Mold Earth.

This was going to take a long time.