The flight was not a long one, but had been strangely uneventful. In her journeys with Arokh, Rynn had gotten used to being attacked by wartok siege engines and dragons of almost every description every step of the way. It was possible their enemies had noticed that there was another Bonded with them and had thus wisely forgone attacking them, but Rynn doubted it. She hadn't seen any creature sight them and flee. The skies were empty, and the grounds devoid of the Dark Union's minions.
She got the nasty feeling that they were all setting up some kind of ambush together, and they'd end up flying into hordes of orcs and wartoks mounted upon skeletal dragons at any minute.
"It makes sense for the orcs and wartoks to be absent," Arokh was saying as he glided with Morghus over a snowy mountain range. "Navaros would probably want his forces close to hand for whatever he's planning next. But the dragons... an area like this should be thick with ebon dragons."
"Thank the elements for small favours," Morghus remarked with a toothy smile.
"That reminds me," Ebontyne said, and asked Morghus to fly closer to Arokh. "Rynn, do you want to learn some earth magic now?"
Rynn accepted, and Ebontyne began the lessons. Earth magic was difficult for many people, the war mage explained. It involved the manipulation of many different substances, and unless one could recognise in one's mind the intricate cellular structure of iron as opposed to something like copper, one would have a hard time. It would be no good if you conjured a weapon to defend yourself with only to find you'd fashioned it from sand instead of steel. Ebontyne didn't show Rynn how to make anything yet, saying that it would be easier when they were actually on the ground and in contact with the element they wanted to summon. She lectured Rynn on the different materials earth had to offer instead, explaining the benefits of one metal against another.
"Can you only use earth to make things?" Rynn asked at one point.
"No," Ebontyne had replied. "But that's what it was mostly used for, and thus a power highly prized for craftmasters. The destructive uses of earth magic involve things like earthquakes, landslides and stuff. Some people also used it to generate life and growth in the plant realm - making flora flourish." The war mage shrugged at that last example.
There was a gigantic, circular valley smack in the middle of the mountains. Rynn thought it looked like a deep cup because its shape looked so precise and the inside slopes so smooth. The snow-covered ruins of a once-mighty fortress could be seen at the very bottom and exact middle of the valley, and it was toward this that the two dragons flew.
"This was the Castle of Seasons, Rynn," Arokh said. He hovered low above a section of ruin - a snowed-in room surrounded by broken walls supporting no roof. "And this was the Dragon Hall." Rynn felt the dragon draw in a breath then release. Fire melted the snow on the floor and it rose in a hissing cloud of steam. When it cleared, a large pattern had been uncovered on the floor. A square, divided into four separate blocks of varying colour and design, with a black circle in the middle covering the intersection of the tiles. "Earth, fire, air, water," Arokh said, landing beside it in the half-melted snow. "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter."
"What's the circle for?" Rynn asked, leaning forward to get a better look at it. "Is there something traced on it?"
"The circle represents the rift." Arokh shifted slightly as Rynn dismounted. "Though some used to say it could be a new moon. The symbol of the Order of the Flame is etched into it."
Rynn knelt on the still-wet tiles and ran her hand across the almost obliterated engraving, feeling the roughness of weathered stone through the warm water, remembering the image from the cover of the book she had found in Atimar's house and from the amulet she'd taken from the goblins for Rimril. "Does the symbol have a specific meaning, Arokh?" she asked curiously. She traced the seven circles in the Order's symbol, which had been jewels in the amulet.
Morghus flew over them and called down, "There are a few goblins camping in the ruins. We'll chase them off."
"Looks like the mountains aren't deserted after all," Rynn said. For some reason, that made her feel better.
Softly, Arokh said, "The Order had seven ideals, each of which was personified by the seven Bonded of the High Council." He indicated each jewel from top to bottom, left to right. "Hope, truth, trust, integrity, courage, honour, justice."
"Sounded like fun," Rynn said dryly.
"It was the golden age of Drakan," Arokh replied sadly, "before Navaros." He settled deeper into the snow, which proceeded to melt around him. "Humans and dragons had stopped warring, had joined together as more than just Bonded. Two races on the edge of a new age."
"How am I supposed to continue that?" Rynn whispered, shivering in the cold. "Rimril... when he died... he said I was the only one left to keep the flame alive."
The red dragon let out a deep breath. "We will worry about that when Navaros is dealt with. I'm inclined to agree with my brother and Ebontyne that this time, he should be destroyed."