The Book of the Twelve:Part Eleven

     XI-I. Zhadoom, the Elementalist

     Zhadoom hailed from Sunny City. In an age where most wizards sought to gain mastery over a single element of magic, Zhadoom aimed to gain complete control over each of the then five known elements. Although many wizards who specialised in a single sphere of magic were more powerful, Zhadoom’s jack of all trades approach made him a powerful creature indeed. He used his abilities to reshape Sunny City and the surrounding Techo Mountains into a maze-like system that defended them from raiders and bandits.

     Invited to the Circle of Twelve for his protection of Sunny City, along with Ifuli Jomm and Lamora, Zhadoom continued his studies while using his abilities to reshape the land, the sea, and the sky of Ancient Neopia to better fit the designs of the Great Empire.

     The Elephante stepped out of the canyon, and the horizon was laid out before him.

     “Perfect, isn’t it?” the Faerie Pteri nearby was saying. “The cliff walls are sheer, there’s no chance anyone has been up here before. We can carve stairs into them, give us access to the sea for fishing. The only way in or out is the canyon we just came from. We’re miles from anywhere. This is it! This is the place!”

     “Yes,” the Elephante agreed absently, staring back at the canyon.

     It certainly was an ideal location. They were far from the road between Kal Panning and the Desert of Roo. Well protected on all sides. Their little band of travellers had been seeking a place to be safe, and this undoubtedly was it. But still, there was something bothering him.

     “Zhadoom?” a young Kau asked. “What is the matter? Don’t you agree with Mistress Ifuli?”

     “No, Lamora, this is the place, I see it,” the Elephante answered. “But one way in also means one way out. If we need to flee this place, we could easily find ourselves trapped.”

     Several of the other travellers murmured agreement. Many had fled their homes. They knew the feeling, and did not want to repeat it.

     “There was a cave off the canyon wall,” one agreed. “If bandits were to hide there during the day, they could attack us at night and we’d never know they were coming.”

     “There must be something we can do,” Lamora said.

     Ifuli flew up with a gust of her wings, examining the canyon wall.

     “Perhaps, if we were to carve more paths in the rock?” she suggested when she returned. They would serve as a means of escape if we needed. It would take a long time, though. My skills with earth magic are not as advanced as I might like. Zhadoom?”

     He nodded, slowly.

     “I could do it, yes,” he said. “But I think… I think I may have a better idea. Wait here for me, I will return.”

     He gave a quick nod to Ifuli and ventured back down the canyon until he reached the cave. He summoned a fireball to hold in his hand, and stepped inside. Carefully, and keeping his free hand near his wand, he went deeper. The cave seemed to twist and spiral downward, going deep. Zhadoom could hear the gentle trickle of water somewhere. Then, he came to a junction. He picked a path, and came to another. Smiling, he turned back the way he had come, and made his way back to the site of their future city.

     “It is not just a cave,” he announced. “But a cave system, with many joined tunnels. Like a warren. It is many orders of magic easier to move a tunnel than to make one, let me tell you. I believe I can do this. Rearrange the cave system to be so confusing that only we would be able to navigate it. I could close off this end of the canyon completely, give us complete secrecy. Engineer exits to Kal Panning and the Desert of Roo.”

     “Then, by all means!” Ifuli agreed.

     Zhadoom gave another nod and lifted himself off the ground with his magic. He floated high above the mountain, and then reached down with his magic, picking out the tunnels by feeling the points where the earth ended and air began. He surprised himself with how many there were. It would take this group many years to fully map the entirety of them. Many large caverns, too. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he felt things moving in some of the tunnels. Creatures, perhaps monsters. They would need to be dealt with, or perhaps they could prove a useful deterrent against anyone who ventured this south.

     With great effort, Zhadoom molded the earth around one of the tunnels, causing it to shift, and move to the east. Gradually, he uncoiled it, until it faced towards Kal Panning. Then, forcing his mind into a fist, he punched a hole into the mountain, forming a new exit for the system. He did the same for a tunnel towards the Desert of Roo. One by one, he moved and twisted the system until it was a maze of his own devising.

     When he was done, he looked towards the canyon, and with a clap of his hands brought the two sides collapsing down on each other. It threw up a cloud of dust that masked him as he returned back to his friends on the ground.

     “It is done,” he said, startling them through the dust. “We will be safe here.”

     ***

     Once the city was founded, Zhadoom left them. He picked out one of the mountain peaks and made a tunnel leading to it, constructing a great castle atop it. There, he told the others, he would perfect his mastery over the elements. The others were sad to see him go, but they understood his research could be dangerous. He didn’t want to risk their lives by doing it in the city itself.

     Zhadoom settled into a life of isolation that was broken by Ifuli Jomm only occasionally when she came to share her successes with the light crystals she was making, or her plans for the lighthouse that would solve their problems. When she eventually succeeded in making it, she didn’t need to visit. Zhadoom knew of the success at once, for it was as if the sun had risen one morning in the bay.

     Some years later, he had an altogether different visitor. Zhadoom saw the Sludgy approaching long before he heard the knock at his door.

     “My name is Xantan,” the Sludgy explained. “A wizard, seeking the mysteries of the Kayannin. Mistress Jomm told me you may be some help in this matter.”

     “I am afraid I will be of little help there,” Zhadoom said as he showed the visitor inside. “What magic I know is from my own study. I know little and less of the Kayannin. The only nugget I have taken to heart is that they once managed to summon the elemental guardians of magic, and bind their power to staves. My end goal is to recreate that magic, but I have had little success.”

     “You misunderstand,” Xantan said with a little chuckle. “I am seeking relics rather than knowledge. My understanding is that Kayannin ruins are spoken of in the Techo Caves below us? Metal with an odd sheen.”

     Zhadoom nodded. They had been found when the first of Sunny City’s settlers had explored the rearranged cave system.

     “Yes, I know the ones you mean. They lie in the middle of an underground lake. The caves around it are patrolled by creatures, we call them Golems. Things of glass and rock, they look similar to Kikos, I’ve always thought. They are protecting it, I’ve always thought. At least, they aren’t friendly to visitors. You will need a guide to avoid them.”

     Xantan’s face brightened.

     “And that is exactly why I have come to you,” Xantan said. “Mistress Jomm said you know these caves better than anyone.”

     Zhadoom had better things to be doing, but there was something about the Sludgy’s curiosity that was infectious.

     “Very well,” he agreed. “But you must do exactly as I say. The Golems are not to be trifled with, we will need to avoid them.”

     Zhadoom fetched his staff and guided Xantan back through the tunnels. He cautioned his companion that they would have to proceed without light, and in as much silence as they could, for the Golems were attracted to both. Thankfully, the tunnels now were a design of Zhadoom’s making. He knew the way without sight, keeping one hand on Xantan’s shoulder to keep them together. Several times, Zhadoom had to keep them still while he felt movement in the tunnel ahead of them. Once the Golem passed, he carried on, gradually navigating through the twisting tunnels until they came across the cavern.

     “They avoid the cavern proper,” Zhadoom said once he was sure they were clear of the tunnels. “Something in the water must keep them away.”

     He lit a fireball and had it float up to the roof of the cavern, illuminating the place. It was filled with a lake, perhaps a half mile across. In the centre, a cylinder of metal with an odd sheen rose up, big as a house and reaching the ceiling. A thin rock bridge stretched out over the lake to reach it.

     “This has been here all this time and you haven’t explored it?” Xantan asked.

     “Oh we have been here before,” Zhadoom said as he led him over the bridge. “But you will see, there appeared to be nothing we could do.”

     When he reached the pillar of metal, he gestured towards a door etched into it with no handle or keyhole.

     “We have never been able to open it,” he said. “We have tried moving it with magic, it resists. I tried melting it, the metal seems immune. Ifuli Jomm was similarly nonplussed. We tried drilling from below and above, but nothing. Whatever secrets are inside, they are well protected.”

     Xantan put his muddy hands on the metal and ran them across it, feeling for something and smiling when he recognised it.

     “A door with no key,” he said. “Very like them, the Kayannin. I have heard of these, vaults, hidden away in the world like buried treasure. Sealed with a spell, and only that specific spell will unlock it. Any other will prove quite fruitless.”

     “Do you know the spell?” Zhadoom asked.

     “It is never the same spell,” Xantan said. “Think of it as a key to a lock. No two are ever the same. Breaking it, sadly, is trial and error. Thankfully, I have studied the Kayannin for years. I know many of their most common spells. It is a safe I should be able to crack, but it may take me some time.”

     “You have done this before?” Zhadoom asked.

     “Once, yes,” Xantan said with a smile. “Fortunately, this one doesn’t appear to have a booby trap like the other. I didn’t always look like this, you know?”

     Zhadoom waited patiently, pacing the outside of the lake to check that none of the Golems were heading their way, while Xantan went about his work. Over several hours, he must have tried hundreds of spells, muttering forgotten languages under his breath as he worked small blasts of magic against the door. All of them failed.

     For quite a while, Xantan was silent in thought. Zhadoom thought perhaps he had fallen asleep for a time, but then the Sludgy abruptly opened his eyes and smiled.

     “Oh, really?” he said more to himself. “It couldn’t be that easy?”

     He pressed his hand against the door and whispered some quick magic. At once, the door reacted, rumbling and sliding back into the rest of the metal.

     “What was it?” Zhadoom asked. “The spell that worked?”

     “Remarkably simple,” Xantan replied. “Likely intended to be so simple that any thieves wouldn’t think to use it. It was an old Kayannin spell they used to teach to children, when they were first learning magic. It makes people smell faintly of dung. A practical joke of sorts.”

     As he approached, Zhadoom did indeed catch a faint, fading whiff of the stuff on the air.

     “Then what is the prize?” the Elephante asked.

     Xantan make his way inside the vault chamber and gasped.

     There, in the heart of it, was a wooden staff, topped with a spherical ruby. It looked like a magic staff, but nothing special. At least to Zhadoom. Xantan clearly thought differently.

     “It can’t be,” he said breathlessly.

     “You recognise it?”

     “I have seen etchings, in other ruins,” Xantan said. “Tales of a staff of fantastical power. The power to bend the very universe to their whim. This is it. The Staff of Ni-Tas!”

     The name meant nothing to Zhadoom. But as Xantan grasped the staff in his hands, the Elephante could not miss the ripple of energy that passed through the air.

     XI-II. Zhadoom, the Stormweaver

     At the battle of the Temple of Roo it was Zhadoom that conjured a storm, the like of which has never been seen before or since, that masked the Empire’s approach. When at last the army was in sight, Lamora’s illusions and the poor visibility caused the priests to target the wrong soldiers. Zhadoom withdrew his storm, making way for Ifuli Jomm’s blinding and scorching light.

     After the fall of the Empire, Zhadoom retreated to his personal fortress in the Techo Mountains. There, he accidentally summoned the five elemental embodiments of magic. Seeing their power, he hoped to overpower them and take their weapons, the five Staves of Brilliance. But, enraged at being torn from their spiritual plane, the five guardians of magic turned on him and defeated him once and for all.

     The Empire’s forces marched south from Meadow Vale towards the Desert of Roo, with the Circle members at the head.

     “They are well fortified,” Mastermind told the others. “We have the element of surprise here, but it will not take them long to get into their positions. Bunkers built for magical artillery. Once they are set up, our progress will be significantly reduced.”

     “Then we must keep the element of surprise for as long as possible,” Ifuli Jomm said.

     “Reduce their visibility,” Lamora suggested. “Then they will not see us until we are almost upon them.”

     “My magic will not reach that far,” Mastermind said.

     “Mine will,” Zhadoom said. “I can summon up a storm. In the desert, it will carry sand with it. A great sandstorm to mask our approach.”

     “You can maintain it for that long?” Mastermind asked.

     Zhadoom laughed.

     “Watch me.”

     As he had done back in Sunny City when he rearranged the Techo Caves, he raised himself up off the ground and flew up in the air. Then, he reached out with his magic. Instead of grabbing onto the ground, he took hold of a different element. He grasped the air with his mind’s eye, and stirred it, whirling it around him in vast circles. He dipped some down to the ground to pick up sand as it went, and he opened his eyes to find himself and the army in the eye of a growing storm. The amount of sand already made it difficult to see, but the storm was picking up more as it went.

     “Forward!” Zhadoom commanded.

     The army marched, and Zhadoom kept the storm with them as they went.

     ***

     After the battle at the Temple of Roo, Zhadoom headed south. Away from Mastermind, he had no desire to take part in the war for the Empire. The thing had never been his goal. He wanted one thing and one thing only, mastery of the elements.

     He saw the devastation wrought by Ifuli Jomm on his approach to Sunny City. The place was burnt to a cinder. He lingered there only long enough to tell her what had happened, that the Circle had been broken, before leaving. He did not want to fight her and she did not want to fight him. They had come to Sunny City to escape such wars.

     Instead, he made his way back to his Mountain Fortress to continue his work.

     Before his time in the Circle, his progress had been slow, and sometimes nonexistent. But on his return, things seemed to flow much better. He felt as if his mind had been opened to entirely new ideas. If he had thought about it, he might have recognised Xantan’s curse as the culprit. The corruption freed his mind from any scruples like morality.

     After several months, he finally saw success.

     He knew as soon as he cast the spell that he had done it. There was a crackle on the air, a fizz of forming magic that was not his own. The very stones of the fortress seemed alive with potential energy.

     Then, they began to arrive. A chill crept into the air which solidified the moisture in the air into snow. This coalesced into the form of a Blumaroo, carved from ice like a sculpture.

     It reflected the light, and from the rays came sparks, electrifying the air and focusing on a single point. The point became a lightning storm, and from it emerged a Splyke, with a back full of jagged hairs like lightning bolts.

     The stray sparks from the Splyke touched Zhadoom’s rug, causing it to set ablaze. The fire funneled, turning into a Grarrl made of flame that gazed at Zhadoom with deep green eyes.

     Around the ice Blumaroo vines were growing, having breached the fortress through Zhadoom’s open window. The vines pooled, and from them rose a Nimmo that seemed to be made from foliage and flowers.

     Finally, behind the other four, the air seemed to twist and warp, and from the created void floated a black Usul. As she entered the room colours spread across her fur, like a shining rainbow.

     The five elemental guardians of the five spheres of magic. Ice, Shock, Fire, Life, and Spectral. Ideas given form. And each of their hands, Zhadoom saw powerful wands. The five Staves of Brilliance. Zhadoom’s goal. His life’s work.

     “I have done it!” he cried. “I have done it! Spirits, I have summoned you! As the Kayannin of old, I will take my boon. The staves, I claim them as my right.”

     It was the Usul, the Guardian of Spectral Magic, who spoke.

     “You have ripped us from our existence,” she said in a distant, cold voice. “Taken the ethereal essences of magic and given them form. Mortal and insipid. We are trapped her, but by your will. Our powers in this realm will fade with time, but only defeat can free us back to the ether. The Kayannin, too, thought to do the same. Take our staves. When they summoned us, legions of their finest fell before us before we relinquished them. And you? You send one trifling wizard? Little mortal fool, let us educate you.”

     The five spirits advanced, snarling and forming their magic. Zhadoom looked aghast. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t how it was meant to go. They were meant to serve him not attack him. It was intolerable, this insolence. The rage built up within Zhadoom and he felt himself lashing out with all his powers over the five elements.

     Magic met magic, and the explosion tore the roof off the fortress and reduced the rest to mere ruin.

     In the aftermath, the five Guardians of Magic roamed the remains, unopposed.

To be continued…