Desari walked through the old streets, familiar once again, leading Mya.
“This area is where most of the teachers live, its close to campus to get back and forth, though a quieter neighbourhood with less places that cater to the students. Also it is closer to the more practical areas of the campus and the higher level libraries,” Desari said as she slipped into the side street, it was well worn and lit.
Teachers chatted to one another, passing back and forth under the aged arches that held up a balcony above.
“Bet you know all of the ways around the city,” Mya said.
Desari hid her grimace. “I used to, and then created some of my own, though a lot of it has changed around while I’ve been gone.”
The street opened up into a courtyard. Three story buildings rose on all sides with arched doorways leading to other parts of the academy. People could be seen in the open windows on different floors talking.
All of the plants had been cared for, the courtyard turned into a plantation of various ingredients.
Mya breathed in. “Water element?”
“The academy needs a lot of ingredients from all over, thankfully there were a lot of seeds with the various agricultural groups and in storage. There are places all over the academy that have been adapted to grow plants that aren’t from here. Some have been modified, but most of those have been edible items as we need them in such quantities and it is not worth the mana cost to grow them at scale.”
“Unless you have a Petor,” Mya said .
“Unless you have a walking mana sieve yes,” Desari smiled as she led through an archway. They came out on a thoroughfare between buildings. One was made of obsidian to the left side, the other from granite, not a seam to be seen.
“We’re heading for there,” Desari pointed at another building down the street, an ironwrought fence creating a sliver of green back from the street’s cobblestones.
“What is it?” Mya asked.
“It’s a summoning building. The different rooms within are attuned to the different elemental planes to make it easier to pierce the veil,” Desari said.
“Seems excessive to have a whole building for it,” Mya said.
“Sometimes you need to summon a certain creature to learn about them. Sometimes you want to make a contract, or you need an ingredient from them. Summoning is a rather diverse field.” Her steps took her to the gate where a man at the gate smiled at her.
“Credentials?”
Desari pulled out an emblem and pushed it through the opening in the gate, an enchantment that blocked spells passing over the emblem and her hand.
“And your guest?” He looked at Mya.
“That’s me, devil summoning assistant.” Mya grabbed the front of her hat, tilting it and her head forward with a wink.
The man’s affable smile never changed, speaking to his tension and the lack of it ever being real. A mask worn to put others at ease.
“Two for the summoning halls.” He said to a man at the door into the building.
He nodded and talked into his armor, his voice never reaching Desari.
The first guard unlocked the gate and opened it wide.
Desari passed through and pocketed her emblem, Mya trailing behind.
“That’s a fun enchantment,” Mya let a shiver run through herself.
“Series of enchantments layered upon one another that pull on the mana of everything that goes through them, breaks up spells and the like,” Desari said.
“So anytime you pushed mana out then the different enchantments would suck it up and then disperse it?” Mya asked as they started up the steps into the building.
“Correct.”
“What for?”
“Any creature trying to escape, will get a bunch of their mana drained from them as they usually have poor control over it. Anyone trying to get in won’t be able to use illusions, charms or other magical means to get inside. Great protection in a magical academy.” Desari blinked against the darkness within the building, her eyesight shifting to match the darker hues.
Her footsteps rang against the massive flagstones on the ground.
Burning torches lit the area instead of magical ones.
“Why no mage lights?” Mya asked.
“Can interfere with the summonings, just one more thing to worry about,” Desari said. A man at the desk looked up from his reading.
His eyes widened as he drew forth a book and a pen, putting it on the counter and stood.
“Miss Desari,” He bowed from behind the counter.
“Thank you Wrexl,” She gave the man a smile. She had spent many an hour in the summoning hall teaching others how to bring elementals forth and create equivalent bonds with one another. She had also spent a lot of time bartering with various creatures for various ingredients required in her alchemy.
It was also one of the few places where she could go knowing no one was able to listen in and communicate with her own elementals.
“Which kind of room would you like to use today?”
“I am hoping an air element and then Earth Element room?”
“Two elements at opposing sides of the scale,” Wrexl stood back up with a twitching smile. “Quite the challenge.”
“Something to test out my skills again,” Desari smiled.
“Of course,” the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes pressed together. “Might I suggest trying out Room A-Four and E-Seven?”
“You always know best Wrexl.”
He gave her a slight bow and held out the pen to her. Desari signed for the rooms and her sign-in time.
“How have the castings been going?” She asked as she wrote.
“Well, it is quite the season for talking to anyone from the fire plane,” Wrexl said dryly. “We went through some renovations and alterations in the other summoning rooms. Thankfully our isolation protocols have the added benefit of reducing the influence of the fire region so summonings from other planes have been rather easy and—well you know of how water elementals have become all the rage. Everyone needs water.”
“And stronger than Fire one for one never hurts.”
“No, but students are students for a reason, they’re here to learn. At least that’s what Zedna keeps saying. I think its more of a mantra to stop herself from getting a head sized imprint in her desk.”
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Desari’s stomach rolled with the laugh as she finished filling in her details. “And Teachers are but students further upon their journeys. Just being taught patience and restraint.”
“I thought that it was a greater tolerance for idiots and the necessary drink it takes to forget them,” Wrexl held his chin, striking the thoughtful scholar to perfection.
“Thanks Wrexl,” Desari said with a smile.
“Not a problem.” Wrexl winked and bowed his head to Mya before closing up the book and pulling it back behind the counter.
Desari moved through the summoning hall, here nothing had changed. The stone was thick and cool, marred with all kinds of experiments.
Different doors were painted various colors with A, F, E or W upon the door followed by a number.
“I’m guessing elemental type and then room number?” Mya asked.
“Got it in one.” Desari reached A-4 and pushed open the door.
Runes of white were carved into the walls, the air shifted randomly, creating gusts or swirling into eddies.
The floor had been scrubbed clean. The air element reached out to her, asking to be used, she held out her hand, the air moving over her hand like silk streamers just beyond touch.
“Okay, lets lay out the summoning circle,” Mya said.
They worked together as they had at Nether Forge to create a summoning circle, this one focused on reaching out to the air plane instead of the fire plane.
It was quick work and Desari found herself standing at the marked off area where the summoner would stand, Mya off to the side.
She shook her hands out, clearing out the nerves a smile threatening to pull at the corners of her mouth. Summoning Aerus first she could then surprise Eira. Through the years, even though they were opposing elements they’d become closer than some couples she’d known.
Then Desari could empower them once more and even pull them across the barriers of planes. To unite them once again.
Desari kneeled and pressed her hand to the white and blue sand that marked off the runes and lines of the summoning circle.
Her purple mana ran through it like flame through alcohol. It spread through all the lines and runes, closing the circle on the opposite side, a purple flame flickering through the sand, turning it into a solid line with the shiny appearance of liquid wax.
Desari reached into herself, to her core, to the parts where she had bound to Aerus and reached out with that to the summoning circle.
Elementals moved close to the veil between planes, flickering closer and then darting away. Stronger presences approached and then moved away, their movements stronger and surer.
Five minutes passed, then ten and twenty.
“Desari?” Mya asked.
“He’s not reaching out to me. I—well he should.” He’d been there to listen to her, to help her. He’d been her first teacher, the one that had raised her up with Eira. He’d reminded her of her grandfather, just sitting there, letting her say everything and then posing questions that would leave her in silence, her mind racing.
She injected more mana into the summoning circle, its sands were fading away, but he had to be out there.
He had been weakened with giving up a part of his soul to repair hers. He was on his own in the air plane.
The colder part of her mind gave rise to such thoughts and realities.
The summoning circle broke, the sand melted up and away. Desari folded back in her mana before it could cause a backlash.
“We’ll reach out to Eira,” Desari said. She reached out to the wind and pulled, scraping the circle’s remains from the ground up into a ball she stored back into the box she’d poured it from, then back into her storage device.
She pushed open the door, her steps carrying her to the earth summoning room. She pushed open the door and took out a green-brown powder and started laying out a new summoning circle.
Mya closed the door behind her. Desari focused on every detail of the summoning circle, her stomach churning as she used her work to push those worries and thoughts from her mind.
Mya helped lay out the summoning circle, Desari toured it once, correcting all the small problems, then went over it a second time. Then a third, it had to be something wrong with the formation.
“Desari,” Mya’s voice pulled her from her checks.
It lit a spark of anger within her, it needed to be perfect! Mya’s eyebrow climbed up. Desari looked away, ashamed. She smacked her hands clear of dust and stood, moving to her position in the summoning circle. She reached out to the sand and spread her mana through it, it hardened to brown-green-purple stone. Others grew thin purple shoots. This broken up landscape ran through the summoning circle, connecting on the other side.
Desari reached out for Eira, she took out a blade and cut the back of her hand, blood dripping on the dirt, staining it and being absorbed.
The mana in the room surged and shuddered.
Elementals that had come up against the barrier retreated or faded away.
Desari’s wound sealed and healed at a visible speed.
An old shadow reached out to the summoning circle, moved around it, tested, checked without passing through.
Desari waited, time passed and a part of the shadow separated, a wisp that passed through the barrier.
A sapling grew in the middle of the summoning circle, stones, dirt and moss growing upon it, only as tall as Desari’s knee.
The materials melded together into a familiar face, its eyes opening to look at Desari.
“Eira,” Desari’s tension bled out in that one breath.
“Little Desari,” Eira said.
The other part of Eira at the boundary, the shadow moved through, the elemental grew, its rough edges smoothing away to form a tanned woman with green eyes, her clothes a deep green sleevless jacket revealing her muscles arms. A tabard covering her parachute pants, all made of the same deep green.
“We did not know if it would work,” She moved across the space and held Desari’s hands, her face crinkling into a smile. “I see you’ve found Irshon and that boy Freddie already.” Her grip tightened.
“I tried to reach out to Aerus.” Desari saw the shift in Eira’s eyes.
“He was summoned.”
The words pulled at Desari’s heart, she had been gone for a long time and he was free to do as he wanted.
“He thought it was you.”
Desari’s head snapped up.
“What?”
“Before we returned to our planes he and I exchanged, essence.”
Desari gripped her hands tight. They were opposing elements, to have a part of another element could slow their progress in gaining strength dramatically. Though it would effectively make them part of one another.
It was a huge sacrifice as it took a part of your own power and gave it to another, then you might never get it back again. It was normal between elementals that wished to conjoin. Though opposing elements, that level of commitment.
“I think it was about time,” Eira smiled, though it was tinged with worry and fear. “It allowed us to communicate with one another, talking to each other we were able to become stronger. We were planning to return to the material plane, we’d both be weaker there, but together.”
Desari pushed out a smile even as that fear, the weight in her stomach was back in full force.
“The summoning, it had a similar signature to you. It didn’t have all of the elements, but the soul, the blood.” Eira looked into Desari’s eyes. “It was very nearly you.”
Desari shuddered and Eira held her steady.
Oh elements, no.
“We thought that your soul might be different from having to be pieced back together. We never thought you’d come back to us. It was three months after you died. We—were so full of hope,” Eira cast her eyes away, her words so full of pain now.
“What’s wrong?” Mya asked.
“One of my siblings summoned Aerus.” Desari said, the pain and worry snapped into clarity looking at Eira. The Earth elemental lowered her head. “I can’t talk to him anymore. I know he’s in the material plane. If I was close enough I could guide you to him. Though I can’t talk to him anymore, when I do its just glimmers of emotions and thoughts. I-I think he was sealed into a weapon.”
Anger and fear warred with one another.
“That’s why you were hesitant about the summoning?” Desari asked. “The small part of you, you allowed through.”
“I had to make sure. Desari, I need your help. Save my bonded Aerus.” Eira’s hands contracted around Desari’s her eyes locked on hers.
“I will, I swear it.”
“Do not blame yourself young one. Where you sought my power and gained my guidance I will offer it once more.” Desari felt the soul tether reach her hands.
“My power is your power, together as equals.” Her words mixed with that tether and reached out to Eira.
The connection pulled on her soul, something lost and something gained.
Desari breathed in, the world coming into greater focus. Eira stood straighter, becoming broader, her features more life-like and powerful.
“Seems that you’ve been working on your level again,” Eira’s voice took on a deeper timber, a spark kindled in her eyes.
“We will find Aerus, we will free him and we will destroy my sibling that captured him,” Desari promised.
Eria nodded.
“Take care young one. With your power I’ll go to Irshon, he has records that will increase my strength once more. Call for me and I will be there.” Eira pulled her through the summoning circle in a show of strength and wrapped up Desari in a hug.
“I love you little one.” The words were for only her ears as Eira faded away, the summoning circle now broken.
“I love you too,” Desari said back. Those words so hard to say when she’d been younger. How many times did she regret not saying them now?
Eira fell through her hands turning to a brown-green mist as the mana filling the summoning circle dissipated.
Desari’s hands tensed into fists as she brought them to her side.
“We’re going to have to get stronger if we’re going to kill my brother.” Desari reached out, the powder on the ground gathering into her open hand.
“How strong is he?” Mya asked.
“He’s the avatar for the Geraxi Pantheon. Some would say he’s unbeatable.” Desari turned her gaze onto Mya.
“If he bleeds he can die, and even if he doesn’t.” Mya’s grin held no warmth. “Well I’ve learned to kill those things too."