Chapter Thirty-nine: The Earth Arcanum
As it turned out, the heat and light spells weren't needed as they stepped into the hollow rock wall. With the wall resealed courtesy of the small russet elf, the air in here was warm and smelt of upturned soil. The place was lite up by both bioluminescent mushrooms that grew in small patches around where the floor met the walls and – far more impressively – by a gorgeous array of shining gemstone whose light was amplified by those mushrooms, covering the high ceiling and illuminating the place. Rubies, sapphires, amethysts, emeralds, ambers, diamonds in every conceivable color; it was as if the stars themselves had followed the group into the cave.
Now they could see what Callum and Rayla recognized as Earthblood elf homes, with two dwellings that sat near each other whose doors were ajar. The black elf gave another yawn.
"Terry, you've got this, right?" he asked, gesturing to the visitors.
"Sure, Naseem, just go back to sleep." The reddish elf told him. Naseem didn't seem to need to be told twice and he returned to one of the open dens. Terry gestured for the others to follow her passed the last open door and into the underground house. The place was, as the home back in the mountains, lite up by magic, though just enough to see five feet in front of one's face. Terry ushered the group into a sitting room and opened a chest next to the couch which held blankets and pillows.
"I don't know who you are or why you're here, but it's late." Terry said. "And winter is always a busy time for us Earthblood elves, so just try to get some sleep. You can tell me what you're doing here and what happened outside tomorrow."
Callum and Rayla looked at each other, confused by this sudden hospitality, in contrast to Soren, Claudia, Ezran and Zephyr who all gratefully – numbly in Claudia's case – took the blankets and pillows, eager to sleep in a warm place. Eventually, the pair conceded silently; it was very late, and it would probably be better to tell her in the morning when everyone was awake.
The sun was barely up when Amaya and Gren made it to the top of the Storm Spire. Entering the sleeping chambers, the queen seemed to be just waking up, the pair of dragonlings still so soundly asleep that they might as well have been unconscious.
"General Amaya. Commander Gren. A bit early for a social call, is it not?" Queen Zubeia asked, making sure to keep her voice soft.
Amaya began sighing, and Gren began translating. "Pardon the hour, Your Majesty, but something came up last night. Something involving Amer." Queen Zubeia's alert look was an intent one. "He's lurking around with someone, who's planning to use him in some sort of plot."
"It could be Aaravos." Kaiya said, gaining the trio's attention. She and a few other Dragonguard were emerging from their living quarters for the day. The queen nodded.
"It may be." She agreed and turned to Ibis. "Ibis, have letters ready to send out to the Moon Nexus and to your son in Aviana. He is a healer, is he not?"
"He is, Your Majesty." Ibis said.
"Have the letters ready to send, but don't send them out until spring." Queen Zubeia told him. "There will be less chance of this information going astray if the actions in the instructions are immediate. The letters will bare details of Aavaros's plans, regardless of whether or not Amer is involved. They will summon all but Lujanne from the Moon Nexus as a precaution, and your son for his medical services. We will no doubt need them all come spring." Ibis bowed. "Although on the subject of Amer, send a letter immediately to Queen Janai about her brother and is antics around here. If nothing else, I see no reason why she shouldn't be made aware of his possible connection to Aaravos."
"Yes, My Queen." Ibis bowed again and turned to return to his living quarters to write the letters. He supposed there would be two more letters joining the one that, hopefully, would never need to be opened, but that he had written as a precaution against what he and the rest of the guard knew very well was a possibility. He still needed to thank Kaiya for her part in the letter, which was the one part that was bound to come to fruition regardless of anything. If nothing else, with the things Callum had told him about his family over their year of training, this would probably mean the world to the boy.
Breakfast was pancakes with winter berries and some sort of sweet, earthy syrup on top. Of the six of them, Callum and Rayla were talking to Terry, each of them taking occasional bites of their food. Claudia was still shook from her near burial in the avalanche last night as well as her lingering fatigue – since such a thing would keep the bravest souls laying awake well into the night – only occasionally and lazily picked at her meal. She was watched with concern by Zephyr who ate a bit more quickly than her, but was still savoring each bite; Earthblood elves made some of the most delicious homecooked meals in Xadia, so this was a real treat as far as she was concerned. In sharp contrast to the girls, Soren and Ezran were wolfing down their plates so quickly, it was a wonder neither of them choked.
"The Earth Arcanum?" Terry asked.
"Yes." Callum nodded. "After I connect to it, I'll train here for a month, than we'll be going home where I'll keep training until the first thunderstorm of the year."
Terry sat back in her chair, thinking. This was certainly a lot to take in. The whole point of Shadow Pass was that it was out of the way and, therefore, protected. Never in her life could she imagine the White Mage coming here of all places to learn his earth primal craft. It was an honor.
"So," Zephyr said, turning to the younger elf. "You're sure everything is okay with their other cliff?"
"Oh yes, we've known it was unstable for some time. It was abandoned decades ago." Terry said. "At least the collapse happened when no one was in the way." With this, the Earthblood elf took on a panicking look. "N-not to devalue our visitors! I, uh…y-you know what I mean."
Callum and Rayla exchanged a look of surprise at this sudden change in demeaner, though this only seemed to rile Terry up even more.
"I-I'm sorry, this is really unprofessional of me." she apologized, and Callum and Rayla instantly saw their younger selves in the uncertain, almost fearful, girl who was suddenly fretting over her shortcomings out of nowhere. "Mages are supposed to be dignified and calm."
"You're a mage?" Soren asked, taking in the girl's slight figure and shorter height. "Kinda young, aren't you?"
"I'm in training." Terry admitted. "Both of my parents are masters."
"Are there any masters awake?" Callum asked, wondering too late if the question was insulting to their host. Terry shook her head in a negative gesture.
"I'm also the oldest one." she said, nervously. "I've been training for six months."
"Okay, good." Callum said. "If I'm only going to be here for a month –"
A knock at the door cut Callum off. Terry excused herself to get the door. The voice of the elf from last night rang out. The guests listened to the conversation.
"Terry! Are you okay, did the intruders hurt you?"
"Calm down, Naseem, I'm fine." Terry's voice had lost its nervousness and now actually held a hint of annoyance, probably over the other elf's protectiveness. "They're okay, but they need my help."
"No, I need your help! I can't take all of these kids by myself!"
Within the hour, all but Callum, Rayla, Zephyr and Terry were outside of the stone cliff watching the younger children who were in aw of the aftermath of the avalanche last night. It had woken many of them up, but a full day of hard play had tuckered them all out too much to get up to investigate. Naseem and Terry had risen only out of their duties as the eldest two. Kids were trying to climb up the now iced-over mound, some occasionally slipping and falling into a pile of soft snow of the ground. Rayla and Zephyr had stayed inside the gem-lite cave with the older kids a little younger than Naseem and Terry, whose job it was to care for the infants and toddlers who were too small for the kind of roughhousing that went on outside. This was typically Terry's primary area, which she would take up after giving Callum an idea of what the Earth arcanum was about.
Currently, Terry was leading Callum into a large bedroom in her house. The bed was occupied by a pair of peacefully sleeping Earthblood elves snuggled up together, a male and female adult, both having an assortment of features – skin tone, horns, eye shape – shared by Terry. Her parents, he guessed. Terry herself didn't seem especially concerned about keeping quiet.
"Shouldn't we be keeping quiet?" Callum asked softly, eyeing the couple as they slumbered. Terry looked at them uncaringly, but also longingly, as if she yearned for their guidance at this time. Callum supposed he understood, it must have been a daunting task to teach a budding archmage, and a famous one besides, while you yourself were still in training.
"Don't worry, nothing short of an earthquake would wake them up." Terry said at a normal volume. "Hibernation isn't as shallow as normal sleep. Not even the avalanche from last night made them stir, they won't wake up until spring arrives and not before."
A wall passed the bed was practically made of bookshelves, packed with thick books, and Callum got the impression that not all of them were spell books. As if she was searching for a specific title, Terry moved her index finger over a patch made up of several large, brown tomes. Eventually, she selected one, took it from the shelf and told Callum to come with her as she left the room, not waiting for him. Callum followed her back to the kitchen.
The table, now clear of breakfast, was practically half hidden under the massive, unfolded volume. Callum was impressed that Terry could handle this bulky and no doubt heavy thing so easily, when she herself was scrawnier than Rayla had been when the two first had met as kids. It was a history book.
"Okay," she began, "it says right here that the earth arcanum is all about history, steadfastness and balance."
The word balance suddenly had Callum thinking of the sun and moon arcanums, and he realized with a shiver of goosebumps that earth was also the second half of another arcanum, but which one? He ruled out star since he himself barely understood it, which left ocean and sky, one ever-changing and the other fleeting like the wind. Strang, they both seemed like fine candidates for it. He shook his head clear; these were thoughts for another time. For now, he needed to focus.
The breeze felt lovely as it rustled the leaves overhead. Callum was laying on his back, the comfort of his resting spot almost making him drowsy. It was a sunny day, with Callum protected from the heat beneath the shade of a large maple tree. Callum hoisted himself up when the leaves began falling. He looked up curiously. The tree's leaves were suddenly a spectrum of yellow, orange, red, brown and everything in between, falling from the branches. Then the tree was bare and there was snow on the ground, though he never noticed the cold setting in. The snow quickly melted away, and Callum watched as buds appeared on the tree and grew until they were again full leaves.
Callum watched as this cycle repeated over and over, with the only changes being the surrounding foliage changing from year to year, and the tree growing bigger over the years, until at last, the tree fell. The rapid turning of seasons continued on, with the log becoming covered in moss and mushrooms, collapsing, delaying until there was nothing left but a patch of grass. Another few seasons passed before some sort of sprout began to grow in the place where the tree had fallen.
Soren hoisted himself up with a yawn. It was the middle of the night, but nature was calling. After relieving himself, Soren trudged back to the living room, looking forward to getting back to sleep. He gave Callum a brief look; he knew he'd be connecting to that earth primal now, but just looking at him one would never think it.
He looked around, but he noticed Zephyr was not here. This woke him up a bit, and he woke up further as he looked around the house for her. Terry was in her room, her ever-slumbering parents in their room, nothing in the kitchen, washroom or storage. As he realized she wasn't in the house, Soren hoped she hadn't somehow gone out into the cold.
Thankfully, he found her just outside the house, though still in the cliff. She was lying on her back, her eyes shimmering. Soren looked up and saw the gemstones glowing beautifully above them. Soren looked back down as Zephyr whose face was illuminated in the gems' light. He hoped she somehow missed the red of his cheeks as he saw the whiteish-blue color of her eyes was made even more alluring by the glow of the gems. Soren wasn't sure if her eyes flickering from him to the ground beside her and then back to him again was an invitation to join her, but she didn't protest when he took it and laid beside her.
Things had been awkward between them for the past months, and perhaps it was time to sort things out at last. Tomorrow, though. It was late, and things were too peaceful to ruin to words now, though neither really noticed when they started holding hands.
Callum found himself in – of all places – the canyon in which he had witnessed the trio of ancient dragons led by King Saluto. There were no star dragons around this time that he could see.
"The tales of the past are of unfathomable importance." spoke a voice from behind that Callum recognized, but couldn't quite place. He turned where he stood and looked up in wonder at the silvery-white dragon with the shining blue eyes. Luna Tenebris. Callum had been expecting someone like his aunt or Ezran to speak to, not the former Dragon Queen. Still, he listened obediently. "The events of the past are what shape our decisions in the present, which will affect the future, and so on and on it goes. No one can stop the flow from going on its way, all we can do is consult the past and hope that the wisdom gained from it has set us on the best possible path for the present."
"I get it." Callum said. "And the balance?"
"You seem to have figured that out for yourself, Callum." Luna Tenebris told him with a warm chuckle. "All that business with the sun and moon, and now earth itself with the sky and ocean. The moon mage was very correct in praising your intelligence."
Callum's cheeks warmed at the flattery. He glanced away for a moment, aware that he was giving the dragon an opportunity to leave, which she seemed to have taken when he looked back to find her gone, as expected.
When Callum awoke, he knew the earth arcanum, but he couldn't help but feel cheated. This should have been a triumphant moment, when he had finally connected to his final arcanum, and now all that was needed to become an archmage was learn the rest of the spells. But he couldn't even work it up to be happy about it. The hard part of his journey might have been over, at least where learning magic was concerned, but that just made spring seem all the closer, giving way to a feeling of dread. Now it was nothing more than a matter of time.
Author's Notes: And that's it, no more arcanums. I had a difficult time deciding who I wanted Callum to encounter in this last vision, but I think this is okay. Parts of Luna Tenebris' speech are from Grandma's Lullaby from one of the Land Before Time movies, it's a pretty song. And just to put it into perspective about hibernation, bears give birth during hibernation, so the sleep is pretty deep. Also, wow I am not good at pre-relationship romance; I'm way more comfortable with romantic couples that have already been established. I kind of have big plans for Soren and Zephyr, and I worry that this is too little, too late to warrant it because we haven't seen a lot of them yet. I think we'll hold off on the time-skip for one more chapter, and the next chapter will spotlight some development that will be needed down the road: no action, no drama, just catching up on some character development. Review.