Author's Note: If any of you didn't recieve responses to the reviews for the alst chapter, I'm sorry...my wireless was being hiccuppy, but FFN claims that I've sent you all responses, so I think you should be okay.
This chapter is dedicated to Laoris, who always tugs my sleeve when he's trying to get my attention.
The Houses of Guidance in Tethe'alla were certainly, Botta thought to himself, proof that the two worlds had developed along different paths. Despite the superficial similarity – the two-storied design with sleeping quarters on the second floor – the Houses of Guidance were square instead of round, stone instead of wood, and instead of being located on common waypoints between cities their placement seemed to be completely random. He could not, for example, fathom the reasoning behind putting a House of Guidance down here on the southern continent on the far side of the mountains from Heimdall. There was, as far as he could tell, no human civilization closer than Altamira, and if it were here for the sake of travelers to and from the elven village, surely it would be on the same side of the mountain range?
Yuan had just shaken his head and said "There's an abbey even more remote than this one down on an otherwise uninhabited island. You're used to thinking that you can walk anywhere, but here in Tethe'alla people think of boats as the major form of transportation. But you're essentially right; this location was chosen for an entirely different reason. You see, we're directly across from Latheon Gorge." But he'd refused to explain what significance that had, and since Botta had never heard of Latheon Gorge before he could only surmise that there was something important there.
Yuan's priest disguise provided them with a convenient excuse to visit the waypoint, since priests were expected to go on pilgrimages every few years. However, they didn't actually enter the grounds, instead circling around the main building to one of the smaller outbuildings that was up against a rocky cliff face. It looked like a storage building to Botta, but there was a well-tended flowerbed near the entrance full of beautiful white flowers. Ignoring the building, Yuan knelt down and softly caressed one of the flowers. A surge of mana so slight that Botta barely even noticed it turned the flower from white to blue, and Yuan stood up with a smile.
"There," he said. "Now we come back in about an hour, and if it turns green we're welcome to visit the Elven Storyteller. You see, one of the most ancient magical techniques used by the elves is sympathetic magic – in this case, with something innocuous like flowers. You're familiar with sympathetic magic?"
Botta nodded, trying to remember what he'd learned. "If two objects are similar enough, what is done to one will affect the other? But I wasn't aware that it could be used with living things as well…."
"Normally, it doesn't work with living beings. This particular type of flower was developed and bred to specifically respond to changes in the mana flows, and there's a strain of the same breed that grows in the Storyteller's garden. We've used this method for some time to get permission to visit without having to go through the Heimdall Elders."
"Why does the Storyteller live in Latheon Gorge and not Heimdall?" It seemed obvious to Botta that Yuan held a great deal of respect for the Storyteller, so naturally he was curious. Did the Storyteller have something to do with germinating the Great Seed, like Yuan had mentioned at the Temple of Darkness?
"It is the duty of one elf per generation to keep the history of their race – which is more or less the history of the world. They live away from the village so that the history won't be tainted by current attitudes, and because Latheon Gorge is the only place where the Mana Leaf Herb grows, which the Storyteller uses to make a record of the stories. It's important that we visit for two reasons: first, because I am going to give him the official Cruxis version of the most recent Regeneration, and secondly because I think it's important that you know the full story of the Ancient War from a neutral perspective, which I am not," said Yuan, fiddling with one of his rings. "If we are to work together to restore the two worlds to their original state, we're going to have to be very careful about how we do it. The last thing anyone wants is to bring back the war that caused them to split in the first place."
Botta nodded his agreement. Even now, when Yuan's dreams had barely been voiced, Botta knew that it would take centuries to accomplish anything significant. Cruxis's control was too complete to think otherwise, but it was humbling to think that he'd gone from a simple servant to a partner for a life's work in the space of a few words.
It was a good thing that Botta was a patient man.
Just as he was beginning to feel drowsy from the warm sunlight, Yuan's voice snapped Botta out of his reverie. "There!" Sure enough, the flower Yuan had earlier made blue was now a deep green color. "Come on, the entrance is through this shed."
It was dark inside the storage building, but coming from the end set against the cliff face was a familiar concentration of mana. An oracle stone? Not quite, but it activated when Yuan brought out his wings, causing a panel to slide open and reveal a dark tunnel leading off to, Botta suspected, the other side of the mountain range and Latheon Gorge. At a gesture from Yuan, Botta entered the tunnel first. Yuan followed and the panel slid shut with a quiet click.
Gnome was right, he thought to himself. The mana down here feels almost like it did in the Earth Temple. Botta "felt" along the natural pathways of mana and, sure enough, the tunnel continued in one direction all the way to the other side of the mountain. Set along regular intervals were globes in the ceiling that lit up as the half-elves approached, and then faded back into darkness when they'd passed.
"We built this tunnel some time ago," said Yuan, his voice echoing down the narrow passageway, "but it doesn't get used more than a few times a century. Still, it has its uses."
After a few miles, just when Botta was sensing that the other end of the tunnel was close, he became aware of a deep noise not unlike the background buzz of electricity in Volt's temple. Frowning, he quickened his pace to try and figure out what was causing it. The air seemed to be growing thicker even as the sunlight reaching in from the tunnel's egress brightened, though the light was oddly muffled, as though by….
Botta laughed when he realized his mistake. The noise wasn't being caused by electricity – in fact by its very opposite. The tunnel's exit was concealed, or so it appeared from this side, by a giant waterfall. "Sir?" he asked Yuan. "There is a way out of here that doesn't require us to travel directly in the path of that waterfall?"
Yuan laughed as well. "There's a ledge," he answered. "It's a better disguise than you'd think – this place is riddled with caves."
The ledge was wide enough for four or five people, but most of the space was taken up by an odd plant that was rhythmically blowing gusts of air behind the curtain of water. What a strange plant. The gusts were going in the direction opposite of the way the ledge extended, though, so Botta ignored it and followed Yuan into direct sunlight and the side of the waterfall. Once he was out from underneath it, he whistled appreciatively at the size of the torrent. It easily stretched up a thousand meters and down for another fifty, landing in a deep pool and then extending down the length of the gorge out to the ocean, barely visible to the south. Aside from a visit to Lake Umacy as a child, Botta was sure he'd never seen so much fresh water in his life.
Yuan tugged on Botta's sleeve to get his attention. "I'm afraid there's no real path," his boss apologized, "so unless you feel like practicing your Wind magic I'm going to have to carry you up."
Botta eyed the drop suspiciously. "I will take my chances with you, sir."
A short (but nerve-wracking) flight later, Yuan landed them on a walkway leading to a comfortable-looking house surrounded by a large garden. A green flower identical to the one down at the House of Guidance turned back into white with a touch from Yuan, who then called out a greeting to the house.
"Come in, Yuan," said a voice as the front door opened. "I've been expecting you."