A cascade failure was something that was a hell of a lot more impressive in person. First all the stones lit up eye searingly bright, (that would be the sudden influx of overcharge into an already rather dense crystalline formation, one could say a terminal error.) Then came the sudden, and very localised weather instability (the mana battling for dominance over the local area, this usually gets somewhat windy with a chance of lightning.) Then the crystalline lattices desperately expand, (owing to morphogenic instability the lattice tries desperately to burn up some of the existing power in a productive manner, by trying to be big enough to accommodate the new mana input.)

At this point the crackling begins (excess power leakage causing micro-fractures in the latticework, an act made impossible by the crystal attempting to expand at the same time.) Then comes the dramatic bit, as the whole mess suddenly explodes with great fervour, (the crystalline lattice fails in the containment attempt, and the energies within clash in new and very dramatic ways.) Then finally everything turns into a massive mess of whatever energy remains in the form of an extensive elemental intrusion.

Now for those unfamiliar with the significance of this explanation I will try it in layman’s terms, or maybe comic book terms. First the whole mess got really big, (growing doesn’t really make a sound so I’ll leave this bit to your imaginations.) Then it started sparking, (Zap), suddenly things got really bright, and everything went BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. It would be hard to describe the later sounds as everybody found that they suddenly weren’t hearing a lot besides a very loud ringing noise, but judging by the gigantic bloody wave that suddenly flooded out into the area we can safely say the resultant noise was a tad bigger than a mere splash.

Then the ground cracked and shattered in big deep channels as the water suddenly came gushing in.

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Goldun Delishus was somewhat doubtful of The Princesses ability right from the very start, she sounded too much like the guys down the pub bragging over a pint for his tastes, it was very unbecoming of a Princess, let alone a supposed Saintess. Weren’t they supposed to be humble or something? Because humble was definitely something this girl was not. So when she suddenly came back from the forest with a massive list of proposed changes and the promise of a miracle he was all too happy to call her out on it and could hardly wait to see her make the attempt and land on her ass. Princess or not, so keen in fact he decided to ignore the cordon and sneak in for a peek, wait The Princess was dressed in some kind of weird robes, and wearing a ceremonial hat. That was weird it wasn’t like there was anybody there to help her, and for a job that big she HAD to have friends helping out on the sly or it would never work. Oh well, when her friends showed up he would blow the whole thing wide open.

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Then she dragged something out, was that a broomstick? What was she doing with that? He looked down at the glowing rocks around his feet nervously as she got higher and higher into the sky. Maybe on reflection this wasn’t his best idea ever. Suddenly there was a bright light that even hurt his eyes with them shut. He quickly took cover behind a nearby boulder and prayed to whatever gods happened to be listening.

Luckily for him the gods find highly ignorant people amusing, as the next second the world around him went BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

He was tossed up into the air, and by some miracle found himself landing on top of said boulder rather than vice versa when it came down landing in the middle of the crater. Then he wasn’t in a situation to care about much beyond holding onto that bloody rock and holding his breath as all of a sudden the whole area was filled with gallons and gallons of water moving fast enough to practically turn him into powder if he didn’t keep his head down and hang on.

Even the earth itself seemed incapable of standing the rapid influx of water as it cracked and fractured across every field deep enough that it must have gotten into the old limestone caves. He really hoped that this ended soon, because there was water, water everywhere, and he didn’t want to sink. He was extremely fortunate that his little impromptu island didn’t submerge as around him nature decided that it did not approve of mortals mucking about with mana in a manner liable to alter the topography, and let its objections be very clear indeed.

It took a few hours for things to calm down, as the solar crystals were gradually converted into high grade water crystals, (of course he didn’t know that was what it was, being caught in the middle of a miracle tends to be either distracting, terminal, or sometimes all of the above, and once it did it was The Princess who swooped down on her broom to bail him out. (Not literally, no buckets were required I promise.) When he looked downstream it was hard to miss the changes in the land around them. Where before there had been a few dead fields now there was a lake, that seemed to be bubbling up like a spring, then running down until in the distance it was swallowed up by a cave via a waterfall.

He gaped at the aftermath in disbelief as he was set down with his grateful family, (including his wife who after he pulled that stunt was tempted to chuck him in the river herself, or at least let him sleep on the couch for a few weeks, he had scared the hell out of her.)

From that day onward whenever he had a few to drink he would brag about witnessing The Princesses miracle, after all he had believed all along, and never doubted her for a second.