From the Diary of Rakasha:
Bear with me. You’ve been with me this long that I’m sure you know why the full moon is a big deal to me. I can recount the events of the day but I’m afraid my memory of the night is cloudy. I will do my best to tell you what happened.
I was very sick. Its almost worse than the actual shift. I stormed out of Rock, the events of the past three days seemed like only hours to me. At that moment I didn’t care if they followed me out…I wish they hadn’t. Tally knows but the others…I fear they will be in for a rude awakening.
Tally, bless her nature loving heart, knew why I was ‘moody’, prone to snapping and on the edge of rage. She told me to go ahead of them, to the next essence. I hopped on Rukas and left without argument. It was the first sound idea we’d had in three days. I arrived at the city of wind, only to realize that it was a ghost town…upon further inspection and observations, my eyes lead me towards the sky, where a great mechanical pillar stood towering hundreds and hundreds of feet above me. The wind told me the town’s name, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not pronounce it. I recognized the posters plastered on the buildings; they were all of me, in my other form. One lonely man stood in the remains of what could have been the temple. I told him I was on the quest for the essences and he told me the name of the town again. It was above us. I asked him to lead and he twirled his fingers and the winds carried him aloft.
We landed on the giant metal platform which held the city of winds. The building themselves had a certain…flowyness to it. More than Aquasia, but…weirder. I flew directly to the University of Wind but without proper papers, I was denied entrance. And so, I waited. Rather impatiently. It was midday.
Finally, after two hours, the rest of the party decided to join me. The doors opened and the initiates were showing off their magic. We were told to wait in the amphitheater while he went to fetch the elder. I noticed that even in this sacred place, my wanted posters were smeared on the walls.
The elder returned and proceeded to tell us that only two of us could enter. I volunteered myself and after some bickering back and forth, Elthayr decided to go. The person with the dragon, who understood wind currents made sense to go. The elder grabbed our hands and branded us with a temporary symbol of the wind. I hoped this wouldn’t take to long. The Elder lead us through a door and introduced us to an initiate who would guide us through our tests.
The first room was full of sand. We stood on one platform with enough room for the three of us and a hundred yards ahead of us was a similar platform and a door. I let loose an arrow to the door, to make sure the winds weren’t triggered. Nothing happened, other than my arrow hitting the door perfectly. Elthayr stepped out onto the sand. As he did so, the sands moved to life into a small sandstorm. It struck him dead on and he stumbled back on to the platform. The sand lodged itself into his skin and I could hear it in his throat. I pulled my cold-weather scarf out of my bag and wrapped it around my face, saving a small slit for sight. As I stepped out onto the sand, I began to twirl my bow in a circular fashion to counter the current. The wind roared the sand to life and came at me. The current I was creating protected me and before I knew it, I was on the other platform; unscathed. Elthayr preformed some nimble acrobatics (for a Wyld Elf) and joined me soon after. The initiate conjured the winds and glided over the sands with ease. Show off.
We continued on to the next room which held two platforms and two large vandergraph generators inside. This test would test our Endurance, the initiate said to us. “This is a very simple game, similar to your tennis which is why we bring you in pairs; the object of the game is to topple your opponent.” He created a ball of lightning.
“But If I’m toppling my opponent, will he get to continue on?”
The initiate continued, “Usually our initiates are not as inexperienced as you; it depends. We’ve never tried this with people of your stature but if you’d like, I’d be happy to play against both of you.”
“That’s a better plan, I like that plan.”
So I volunteered to play first and Elthayr was replaced by the initiate. We played tennis with lightning. After a few volleys, I managed to get the hang of it. I aimed the last volley at one of the generators and it erupted into lightning, striking my opponent and toppling him. Though it was more of a cringe and fall over than a topple. Followed by a seizure…I think. Elthayr took my place and did much the same in less time than I had done it. The initiate wasn’t happy that we had beaten him so quickly, but he was a good sport about it.
We continued to the next room which was chilly. There was a hallway leading at least 200 yards down. It was noticeably cold here. I repeated my arrow trick and again nothing happened. I could hear it hit, which meant the hallway was real and not an illusion. Thank the gods for that. I walked ahead since Elthayr had tested the sand and as we walked it got colder. And colder. And colder. We could see our breath. Each step we took it felt like a degree had dropped. The cold attacked us, as we breathed we found it harder to continue. We got a quarter of the way down the hall and Elthayr was at a brisk jog, believing he could warm himself but getting his blood going. I continued my walking pace but it was extremely tough to endurance my way through this blistering cold. The only hope of warmth we had rested upon the wall, slowly flickering in sconces.
I had to stop. My breath hung in the air and dropped as if it were solid. I thought I could die down here, never to feel the warmth of the wind in my face or the breath of my dragon. And if I did…I would be all right with it. I had tried my best and that’s all anyone could ask for. I continued to walk. I let it be, the cold will be cold. I kept close to Elthayr as we kept going. The chill was relentless but I told Elthayr to let it happen…to meditate on anything else but the cold. Our steps were slow, but calculated and finally, we reached the door. Our breath turned to snow. Elthayr in his excitement grabbed it and recoiled as if he had been badly burned. After examining the cause, we realized that the knob was frozen solid, so much so that it burned to touch. I took the scarf from my face and wrapped it around my hands. I opened the door and the room we walked into was a normal, warmer temperature. The room was empty.
Elthayr: How does one contain air?
Initiate: Did no one give you the proper incantation?
Of course! There’s always a catch twenty two to these damn things. After the initiate mumbled under his breath about the ‘dodgey old man who didn’t give us the incantation’ he remembered the phrase and spoke it. The air began to swirl and we could see it as an object. Elthayr used an empty mana vial to contain it. We had done it! And I knew in the deepest pit of my heart that it was dusk. The initiate lead us out. There was something happening when we came back, people were rushing to the front gates.
I couldn’t stay around any longer…it was getting dark. I whistled for Rukas. He came and I asked him to do a fly around, and tell me whats going on. A few moments later, he returned. He couldn’t see what was going on but now the crowds of wind initiates were moving towards us, away from the gate. Elthayr was concerned and he had every right to be. I looked at my hands and realized how pale I had turned, as if I had spent days in that cold hallway. I tried to give Elthayr the earth essence but it slipped through his fingers and reformed, as it had done in the earth temple. I had to hold onto it. I hopped on Rukas who waited patiently and told him to get me to the surface as quick as possible. On our way down, there were several horses waiting on the surface, nearby the one lonely initiate. The symbol on their saddle was that of fire.
I couldn’t let those maniacs hurt my friends or the good people of the wind. I knew what the risk was…but I didn’t care. They had killed to many people already; I wasn’t about to let them do it again. The sun sank and I grabbed one of the horses reins. As the curse took hold of my, I concentrated on the symbol and the smell of the men. I asked Rukas to carry me back up to the gate. I remember my anger, I remember the moon rising and until the wolf left me in peace the next morning, I remembered nothing else.
