"Everything okay?" Nadreen asked, looking back to him.

Jet looked to his hands. The Elemental power in the temple was outstanding. "I think so."

The Elder turned around from the doorway. He smiled and chuckled. "You feel the energy then?"

"I do. Why does the temple feel like this?"

"No one really knew. Some believe that's why they built the temple here in the first place. Now come on inside. I'll tell you the story."

Jet began to enter the temple. His Element continued to flare along his hands and arms. He wondered if the elder and Nadreen were used to it enough to control theirs.

The temple looked unbelievable. Beautiful torches lit the entire sanctuary up. It was one large room with a colorful painting that covered the walls. Jet stood in awe as he tried to take it all in. There were so many images within the painting. "What is all this?"

"This, my boy, is the story of our Element."

Jet began to feel a chill. He was witnessing his history finally. He wished Dustan was there with him.

"Let me start from the beginning," the elder said as he moved over to the left side of the temple. "Before the desert dwelling people we are today, the Spirit Elementalists were actually scholars and pursuers of technology."

"Really?" Jet asked in disbelief. The painting showed his people writing books and constructing a large machine. He immediately thought of the Emperor.

"It is surprising, is it not? We used to build technology because our Element can become an energy source of unimaginable power. But this machine here was what changed everything. It was the tool of our destruction." The elder let out a sigh as if he hated telling that part. Nadreen didn't look too happy about it either.

"What did the machine do?" Jet had to ask. He felt he knew already.

"It was our peoples' way of trying to reach the end, so to speak. You see, our people believe in a plane of existence where we go to when we die. A "spirit plane." This is a place of the fallen before us. Our Element is powered by those Elementalists. This plane of existence is our fuel."

Jet could feel his face grow pale. He had been to their land of the dead? He wondered how that was possible. He would probably sound crazy if he brought it up.

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"As I'm sure you've guess, the machine didn't work out. It was supposed to be a portal, or rift, to this plane. The machine however caused a large devastation in the land. The desert used to be a land of flowing green hills, but now became dead and desolate. The few members of our Element who survived decided that technology was going to be the death of our people. We casted away our books and any remnants of our technology and traversed the desert." The painting continued on to show Elementalists with their backs to the ruins of the machine.

The Emperor was going to cause the other lands to be destroyed. Jet could feel that the Emperor had no means of getting the Spirit Elementalists' work right. Could he? Either way, it put the Kingdom and Lonava in danger. Failing would destroy the Empire, killing thousands of innocents, but succeeding meant the Empire held the power to enter the plane and funnel the direct source of Elemental energy.

"The whole plan of accessing the Spirit Plane was to control the outcome of life and death. Yes, it held untold amounts of Elemental energy, but they used to wonder if we brought a spirit back from the plane, would they be alive once again? The theory was too tempting to be ignored. Now we know it wasn't worth the risk." The elder began to move passed the middle of the painting and over to the right side.

"This brings us to the present. Our people wandered the desert until we set up villages to study ourselves and our Element, instead of pursuing technology powered by our Element." The painting was of a similar village to the one they were in. The Elementalists were building houses and digging wells. "We separated into tribes to study different aspects of the Spirit Element. We spread across the entire world, at least some tribes did. Eventually, we set up a border to keep the rest of the world safe from our Element and urge to seek technology."

"The Spirit Elementalists set up the border?" Jet asked.

"Well who else would have?" Nadreen asked.

"I always thought they Empire did."

Nadreen and the elder shook their heads. "No we allowed them to occupy it. It kept us away from their advancing technology, and the Empire's previous leaders had agreed to aid us in that," the elder explained.

The painting showed how the border was once a simple stone structure. He wondered if they had any idea what the Empire had done to it now.

"Eventually our people receded back into the desert after a few tribes had started trouble with the Empire. Since then, all Spirit Elementalists belong to the deserts of Ahrura."

Jet stood taking their history all in. They had been through so much. He wondered if his parents were some of the ones who caused trouble with the Empire. The painting in the middle of the temple still remained untold.

"What's that in the middle?" Jet asked. Nadreen tried to shush him.

"The elder doesn't like talking about that."

"Now, now. I believe this boy has a right to know. It is true that I don't like mentioning this part to those who will listen. It, like the machine, is a theory."

The center painting was of several people in a land of green. "These are what the beginning desert dwellers called the Planes Walkers. They were few Elementalists that could access the planes without any consequence. The Planes Walkers were the ones that made our ancestors yearn for that power and access. But as I said, they're just a theory. No one has heard of them for many decades, even if they were real."

Jet looked directly to the elder. "I'm a Planes Walker."