Sanctum of the World

It’s nearing supper time. The land surrounding the greenhouse is mostly solid, with a bit of give in its corners. The building is mostly intact on the edges, but vines keep breaking the glass and frame whenever anyone gets too close. It’s almost as if the vines prefer chaos and destruction, like they have a mind of their own. The Fae, being able to fly, have built up more land underneath. From Amethyst’s view, as she surveys what Tundo is doing, it looks like an iceberg.

“We’ll need to connect this island to the rest of the land mass,” Amethyst remarks.

They’ve been focusing on giving the greenhouse a solid base, but have still left it as a floating island. The molten land bridge created by the controlled explosion of the mirror gates is thin, less than a meter thick.

“Are you worried that it might drift or twist?” Feren remarks.

“I am, yes,” Amethyst nods. “The cooled molten river is not very thick, and I fear the bridge will not suffice to keep this stable.”

“I can work on it with Ciël after we break for a meal. Maybe half a dozen pixies to gather the debris floating around?” Tundo offers.

She looks at her daughter and Ciël nods. “Very well,” Amethyst smiles. “Try not to drain yourselves too much tonight. We have a long day tomorrow.”

“You want us to stay here tonight?” Feren glances at her.

“Unless you have other pressing matters,” Amethyst returns. “We need more hands if we are to truly help rebuild Sanctum. On the morrow, we press forward to create a land bridge to reach the Arvandor Gate. The Elven Druids will be much more adept at what I need than trying to enlist more Fae or Pixies.”

“Do you think the Elves will help us?” Luke queries from above them.

“Millennia ago, the Elves that did not go into exile helped build this realm with humanity. That none of them survived this cataclysm is a loss to your world. Master Telpetmo, do you not want to welcome your people back to Earth?” Amethyst queries.

“Where have you heard that name? Who told it to you?” Luke snaps, nearly tipping into the void as he lashes out.

“It took some time to recognize your family traits,” Amethyst ignores his angry glare. “You come from a great family of noble Elves. Are you ashamed of your heritage, High Magus?”

“I… no I shouldn’t be, should I?” he relaxes somewhat. “I’ve just… hid that name from the world for so long. It almost feels wrong to use it.”

“Arch Mage, did you not use your last name while you were growing up?” Amethyst tilts her head.

“No, I used my uncle’s last name, Archer, for years until I reached adulthood,” Adam remarks. He’s working at rebuilding the frame, trying to keep the vines from destroying the greenhouse all over again. “Even then, few of those outside the magical community know of the last name Arcwave.”

“I see,” Amethyst ponders out loud. “You hide among the world, living beside it. The magical community keeps itself segregated from the rest of humankind?”

“We have to, Mother,” Mélodie replies. She’s controlling their movement on a broom as Penny assists Ciël in binding more landmass to the island. “Humanity, overall, still fears the unknown. We’ve witnessed too many crusades to rid the world of magic throughout history. The less they know of the magical community, the more we can all live in peace.”

“Does it not bother you that you have to hide who you are from the world?” Amethyst returns worriedly.

“Well, until we can rebuild The Sanctum, hiding among humanity and occasionally behind illusions is better than being hunted down,” Adam returns a grim smile.

“Why ever would Gaia create such a race that hates others so vehemently?” Amethyst mumbles out loud.

“Humanity more or less evolved on its own,” Adam remarks. “We have done worse to our own kind. A ruling nation will deem anyone who doesn’t look or think as they do to be inferior or a threat. Over the millennia, we have warred continually against one another — often wiping out entire cultures in the process.”

“That’s horrible!” Amethyst gasps. “However have you advanced to produce such marvels of technology?”

“As you’ve pointed out, humanity is a short-lived race,” Luke retorts. “We also appear to have short memories, often forgetting or ignoring the mistakes of the past. We live less than a century, so we push to discover, progress, and learn. Few will continue the studies or projects of their parents, so it’s up to each generation to achieve what it can. Humanity is competitive, emotional, and reactive. It leads them to be self-serving, jealous and aggressive. Conflict will often spur us on to build faster. If you think that cell phone of yours is a marvel, you’ve never seen the power of a warship.”

“Humanity is so violent,” Amethyst whimpers. She pauses and sighs. “I’ll do what I can to help you rebuild Sanctum. Sadly, as an outsider, I’ll never manage to help you fix your world.”

“Why not?” those around her chime all at once.

“Do you honestly think your world will accept my help when they find out who I truly am?” Amethyst challenges.

“She has a point there,” Adam returns sadly. “People will more likely hunt her down to kill her than want her aid. We’re on our own, aren’t we?”

“Then how…” Luke objects.

“As I said earlier, your people will find its Voice,” Amethyst returns a cunning smile. “Gaia will find her champion to lead you. The miracle will likely be within your lifetime, expect the unexpected.”

“Can you be more specific?” Luke narrows his eyes and then shakes his head as Amethyst smirks. “Will we recognize them?”

“The Fae will recognize their Voice before you do,” Amethyst returns a knowing smile. Feren and Tundo smile at one another.

“How in the blazes are these flighty creatures going to spot a ‘Voice’ before a Mage can? We are ten times better at reading an aura than they are!” Luke spits accusingly.

“Why you entitled Human piece of…” Tundo rises to meet him.

“Children!” Amethyst snaps and Tundo stops. “Your world will never recover if you cannot get along!” she scolds them.

“Yes, Earthen Mother,” the two males hang their heads.

“The Fae are in tune with nature,” Amethyst explains, “The Voice will be a High Priestess of Mother Earth, likely a Druid. They will sense her arrival,” she motions to the Fae.

“So we’re looking for a girl?” Luke raises an eyebrow.

“I’ve said too much, get back to work,” she huffs and flutters away.

“I’ll get it out of her eventually,” Luke offers a challenging smirk.

“You really don’t know when to quit, do you?” Tundo growls at him. “Would you even know what to do when you find the Voice of Gaia?” Luke raises a finger and stops, stumped. “I thought so,” the Fae huffs and flutters down to see how Penny and Ciël are managing.

“What will you do when you find this Voice you seem to know so much about?” Luke challenges as he looks down.

“The Voice of Gaia will guide her children and reunite the world. You might not think you need a Voice, but the Fae desperately do. With the Summer Court in control, global warming is only getting worse with their rampant tampering,” Feren replies. “The Courts have been bordering on war for centuries now. The last remaining royal family of the Winter Court in hiding is the only thing that has kept the Fae from an all-out conflict. Pray that never happens in any lifetime.”

Adam looks out at the shattered remains of his home realm. “A war among the Fae would be disastrous. We can’t allow what happened here to happen on Earth. The Fae won’t care who gets in their way.” He looks at Feren, “As Spring Fae, you would-be victims in this conflict as much as we would.”

“We would,” Feren replies sadly. Penny offers her a sympathetic smile. “Few Spring Fae know any sort of harmful spells. It is the Summer and Winter Court who wield elemental powers. Summer Court Fae can manipulate fire. Winter Court Fae control ice and cold. Fall Court Fae can manipulate the weather and storms. We Spring Fae merely control plants and nature.”

“Don’t underestimate the ability to form earth and stone or throw spikes at your foes,” Luke smiles as he reaches out for a large boulder, pulling it in.

“Or plants. That assassin vine, or whatever it is in the greenhouse, would kill us all if we were to move within its reach,” Adam frowns, glancing over his shoulder.

“I’m pretty sure whatever is controlling the vines is more than a plant,” Tundo remarks. “I can’t control it at all, it’s like it has a will of its own. There is some sense a sentience to it, but it won’t talk to me.”

“You can talk to plants?” Luke blinks. Tundo places a hand on his hip and raises his eyebrow. “You’re a Spring Fae, of course, you can,” Luke mumbles a half-apology.

“All right, I’m drained for now. Let’s break for a meal and recharge,” Adam offers and receives various acknowledgements.

As they leave the school building, Luke stops following the group to the greenhouse and is looking down the road. Two of his acolytes join him before Adam notices. He waves the others to continue on without him before joining the trio.

“What’s on your mind?” Adam questions as he steps beside them.

“I’m of no use with what’s left of the greenhouse,” Luke replies. “I’m likely to start another argument out of boredom.”

“You don’t really get along with the Fae, do you?” Adam returns a disarming smile. He noticed how Luke sat apart from them during dinner, staying with his group of acolytes.

“Is it that obvious?” Luke chuckles nervously. “I don’t know why, but I just can’t relax around them. How do you do it?”

“The Fae bother you because of Melody’s half-blooded nature. You’re still angry at her for hurting Simeon,” Adam remarks, causing Luke to stiffen. “I’ve been working with Penny for a year now, I’ve sort of grown used to their chaotic nature. They’re not all that bad, you know?”

Luke draws a deep breath, “I know.”

Adam pats him on the shoulder. “So, what would you rather do?”

“That village won’t fix itself,” Luke remarks. “All we’ve done with Caster’s View is fix the few buildings along the stable part of the ruin so that the Sages can live in them. There’s an entire hill worth of floating debris we could use to build a small town.” He turns to Adam, “What did Amethyst want again?”

“A town that could house several hundred,” Adam remarks.

There is a hum above them and they glance up. “Are we ready to work on the town?” Amethyst chimes.

“We are,” Adam smiles. “Are we going to do the same with these mirror gates and restore the bridge?”

The Fae shakes her head. “The remnants of the bridge are still here. We just need to pull the island a little closer and we can rebuild it. Then we can restore the canal that used to run underneath it.”

“How much of Sanctum do you remember?” Luke probes.

“Enough,” she smirks. “I’m sure it grew some since it’s creation. We don’t need to rebuild it exactly as it was before, but we can use the ruins for a general idea of what should go where.”

“Are we ready, Mother?” Ciël chimes as she zips past them, she’s only Pixie size right now.

“We are,” Amethyst chimes. “I’ll need you boys to pull the landmass just a few meters, it didn’t drift far.”

Adam, Luke and Steven work at dragging the land masses back together. It’s not easy, Caster’s view is larger than anything else they’ve tried to move so far. Fortunately, as Amethyst pointed out, the void around the islands offers no resistance. Once the land mass is in motion, it’s a matter of stopping it from moving too fast or too far. Amethyst whispers a spell and dismisses the Mirror Gate. Ciël does the same, then the two Fae break the Gates apart to use in the bridge.

Once in place to Amethyst’s satisfaction, the three men work at reassembling the bridge. The fourth in their group, Todd, is fusing the stones together.

“Not sure if this would meet a stone mason’s seal of approval, but it’s sturdy, if not a bit crude,” Adam remarks.

“Let me worry about making it prettier,” Todd remarks as he works at rebuilding the handrails. “I can add a nice artistic flair like we did when we remade the college.”

“Sounds good,” Adam smiles. “At least it’s a short enough bridge. We only needed the one arch without any additional piers or cabling.”

“What motif do you want for the capstone and newel posts?” Todd queries as he softens some of the railing. The design looks Victorian or Moorish.

“I’ve always admired your carving and stonework, Todd,” Adam smiles.

“Just don’t make them silly little cherubs,” Luke remarks. “I don’t need another argument with Morgyn about how feminine it all looks.”

“I thought the cherubs were cute!” Todd argues, causing some chuckles. “Lions?”

“I love the majestic look of a lion as each newel post,” Adam nods.

“Lions it is then,” Todd grins.

The men leave him to his work and cross the bridge. “Someone find Kyle? Todd is likely to fuss with the bridge all night, and I want to make a few houses before we call it a day.”

“I’ll find him!” Ciël chimes and zips off, leaving a small stream of blue and purple sparkles behind.

“Will we be furnishing these houses?” Steven asks as Ciël zips off to find Kyle. “We still have my tower to sleep in tonight.”

Adam shakes his head. “No, we’ll leave them as empty shells and let whomever moves in decide how to design and furnish them. Since we’re setting up dorms for the campus, I want the village to house families.”

“Will we charge people rent or housing?” Luke probes as they assemble the first side street from the main market road.

Adam shakes his head, “I don’t want Earth’s materialism to corrupt Sanctum. When we were younger, most of us lived in manors, estates or villas — seeing as our families were large and often two or three generations in the same home.”

Luke smiles and nods, “Well, a ten to twenty room villa would take up a quarter to half a town block — depending on how large of a road grid we build.”

“Or an entire block for a larger family,” Kyle remarks as he suddenly appears beside them.

Luke jumps slightly, “Wow! That was quick!”

“You made it sound urgent that he join you, so I teleported us back,” Ciël chimes. “Did we startle you?”

“I’ll need to remind myself never to underestimate your abilities again,” Luke points to the blue and purple Pixie. Her giggle is a musical chime.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she beams, leaving the others to chuckle along with her.

“While you were busy with the greenhouse, the rest of the team drafted a few models that we could use for a town,” Kyle remarks.

“I’ll leave this part of the task in your capable hands,” Amethyst remarks as the men gather around the tablet Kyle pulls out. “If you need us, just call,” she reminds them. Adam nods and then is pulled into the conversation. “Come, Ciël, let us leave the boys to their town project.”

“Yes, Mother,” the Pixie chimes and the two of them fly back to the greenhouse.

As Pixies flutter around gathering debris, The Fae are fusing the rocks together with a combination of earth spells. Melody again is just guiding their flight on a broom while Penny works with the Fae to form a solid land mass. Amethyst wasn’t sure about the Human Lightbringer when they first met. Her skills seem to focus more on light, healing and arcane, but she’s proving to be a capable Druid. She might become more with the proper tutelage.

“This is a little soft, I’m not sure how well it’ll hold over time,” Tundo remarks.

“Then perhaps we should reinforce it a little,” Amethyst notes.

The Fae flutters up to a gap they haven’t filled. She reaches into her gem pouch and pulls out what looks like a metallic oval of hematite. She shoves the oval in the gap, whispers a spell, and the stone in her hand grows to be a cylindrical rod, burrowing into both sides.

“A few more of these should give the surrounding dirt something to hold on to,” she remarks to no one in particular. The Fae moves to another gap and repeats the motion.

Once she is done, two dozen rods connect the greenhouse island with the main land mass. She’s planted them at various angles so that they form a loose latticework to fill in.

“There, that should hold,” Amethyst smiles, satisfied. “Let’s call it a night, we have a long day tomorrow.”

No one argues. They merely follow her back to the school where Elphaba has been busy setting up an area for them to sleep in for the night. The newly furnished wing resembles barracks with rows of double bunk beds. The beds are warm, comfortable, and everyone quickly finds a place to settle down for the night.

“Will you not rest with the others, Mother?” Mélodie queries as she joins Amethyst and Elphaba in the kitchen.

“I’ll rest in a bit. Unlike my Fae children, I don’t require six hours of rest. Aren’t you tired, Child?”

“Since I became a Dark Witch, I do not require any rest at all,” Mélodie replies. “Warlocks consume animal blood or Blood Fruit to nourish our bodies. A two-hour ritual meditation is all I require to be fully rested. At that, I do not need to perform it daily.”

“I notice you do eat normal food as well,” Elphaba remarks.

“We can eat food like most mortals do, but it does not fully replenish the nutrients in our bodies, we still need some form of plasma to satiate the Demon’s thirst.”

“Do you miss your former life?” Amethyst probes.

“To be honest, I have been like this for five centuries. What it is like to be Fae is a distant memory,” Mélodie returns a sad smile. “Probably not what you wanted to hear.”

“At least we didn’t lose you completely,” Amethyst smiles, placing a hand on Mélodie’s. “There are so few of you left, have you found my seed?”

“You left a seed on Earth?” Mélodie and Elphaba chime together.

“I did, but you’ve not found it?” she returns calmly. The cousins shake their heads, leaving her to frown. “It’s been long enough, it should have found a host by now, is there that little magic left on Earth?”

“Not enough to birth a Fae of that potential, if I remember what you are speaking of,” Mélodie remarks.

“Do you think the Humans will become suspicious if I poke around a little?” Amethyst queries.

“Mother, what are you planning?” Mélodie frowns worriedly.

“Earth is in peril, you’ve felt it,” the Fae stresses, and her children shuffle nervously. “Gaia’s Voice will need a protector, do you know of any Dragons that are left?”

“I, um, dated one for a while,” Mélodie remarks in a small voice. Amethyst returns a sly smile. “I did not know she was a Dragon at first, Mother, it was a rather startling discovery!” Mélodie blurts.

“She? Do you know her true name?” Amethyst probes and Melody shakes her head. “Do you think she will help?”

“As a Bronze Dragon, unless the future Voice of the Earth Mother is an Elf, I doubt it,” Mélodie grumbles.

“Then I need to find my seed, will you help me?” Amethyst pushes.

“There are nearly ten billion sentient creatures on Earth, Mother, the seed could be anywhere. It will be akin to hunting for a needle in a haystack!”

“Can we enlist other Fae to help find it?” Elphaba probes.

Amethyst glances over her shoulder and lowers her voice. “No, they’re already worked up enough of a possible Voice in this century, I rather not get their hopes up that another prophesy will fulfill in their lifetime.” She’s quiet for a moment then smiles. “With luck, they’ll guide us to my seed without even realizing it. When close to budding, the Seed, like the Voice, will attract Fae. They’ll be drawn to the power and potential, like a moth to a flame.”

“Then it is now necessary that I establish a kinship with my Earthly cousins,” Mélodie remarks.

“If you could do that, My Child, I will never be far. Now that I’ve rediscovered a link to Earth, I’ll strive to keep in touch. The Seed will help heal this world. We need her now more than ever.”

“Her?” Elphaba quirks an eyebrow.

“The visions show the Voice and the Seed are both female,” Amethyst nods. “The prophesy speaks that they will find each other. Let’s hope the prophets were not just being hopeful.”