Edge of Chaos Read online

  Edge of Chaos

  Book 3 of the Divinity Seeds Series

  Copyright Des Pensable 2017

  Published by Des Pensable at Smashwords

  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  About the Title

  A divinity seed is a small piece of divine knowledge forbidden to mortals.

  Cover Design

  Cover design by Renee Barratt, www.TheCoverCounts.com

  Table of Contents

  Overview of previous book

  Chapter 1 M’Lady Warden

  Chapter 2 Glammer’s Secret

  Chapter 3 The Remaking of Glammer

  Chapter 4 Miranda’s Pain

  Chapter 5 Secret Revelations

  Chapter 6 Butterflies and Bats

  Chapter 7 Granddad’s Problem

  Chapter 8 Miranda’s Escape

  Chapter 9 Real or Illusion?

  Chapter 10 The Dogs of War

  Chapter 11 Darkmantle’s Stronghold

  Chapter 12 Family Reunion

  Chapter 13 The Tempest Awakes

  Chapter 14 Puzzle Pieces

  Chapter 15 The Hidden Ones.

  Chapter 16 Gizel’s Story

  Chapter 17 A Taste of Ambrosia

  Chapter 18 Chasing Snowbelle

  Chapter 19 Mothers Lost and Found

  Chapter 20 Pledging Presents

  Chapter 21 The Back Door

  Chapter 22 The Trouble with Helix

  Chapter 23 The Initial Attack

  Chapter 24 Evacuation

  Chapter 25 Run Dragon Run

  Chapter 26 Arrogance and Vanity

  Chapter 27 Return to Astaria

  Chapter 28 Twice the Confusion

  Chapter 29 Problems , Problems

  Chapter 30 The Lady Smiled

  Chapter 31 Astaria’s Secrets

  Chapter 32 Elemental Oasis

  Chapter 33 Miranda Grows Up.

  Chapter 34 Miranda’s Dowry

  Chapter 35 Skeletons in the Closet

  Chapter 36 Puppets of the Gods

  Chapter 37 The Dragon Den

  Chapter 38 It’s All in the Mind

  Chapter 39 Mothers and Fathers

  Chapter 40 A Chat With Granite

  Chapter 41 Taking the Initiative

  Chapter 42 Rori’s Surprise

  Chapter 43 Hidden Agendas

  Chapter 44 Friends and Enemies

  Chapter 45 Plot Revealed

  Chapter 46 Plans Within Plans

  Chapter 47 Confrontations

  Chapter 48 Epilogue

  GLOSSARY

  About the Author

  Connect with Des Pensable

  Overview of Book 2 - Agents of Chaos

  Aquitain wakes up in a Llanllean spider body within a protective circle of candles that provided a protective shield against being scryed. He remembers that he had been killed and reincarnated by the Lady at Miranda’s request after being attacked by renegade druids in Quab’s sanctuary.

  He attends a celebration with a little people tribe in the shape of a yellow scaled little person, gets drunk and is seduced by Shastritara a red scaled little person with a hidden agenda while Miranda is absent.

  Miranda is full of doubt about her own Newman identity believing that she might actually be a Llanllean so travels to the portal to her mother’s world intent on questioning her mother. Her mother is absent. Her childhood nanny greets her but refuses to tell her whether her doubts are true or false.

  On returning to Aquitain she is captured by some of her druid colleagues and put on trial for murdering the druids at Quab’s sanctuary. She is sentenced to death but before the sentence can be carried out she is rescued by her mother.

  Aquitain visits Queen Snowbelle’s Gateworld searching for Miranda where he is entertained by Snowbelle pretending to be Miranda. He realizes that she is a fake but gets some interesting information out of her about the little people before the real Miranda shows up.

  They flee with Miranda’s nanny Allalanllea who has betrayed the queen by tipping off Miranda about her mother’s deception.

  Allalanllea answers Miranda’s question about her past but reveals that the Lady has made unknown changes to the tattoo that seriously complicates its removal. Aquitain discovers that Miranda has sorcerous powers as well as her druid abilities. They get calls for help from both the little people and the water elementals and decide to split up to investigate them.

  Miranda travels to the Wolf people’s village to investigate a mysterious gateway portal, closes it and narrowly avoids being eaten by a Wyvern but is captured by an Elendari Huntmaster, who takes her prisoner and then transports her to Moonmist to meet his boss an Elendari Lord called Darkmantle.

  Aquitain investigates the water elementals problem and is tipped off that his cousin Zephira and his memcrystal Alpha are on another world called Moonmist. He hears that Miranda has been captured and taken there as well, so he decides to follow.

  Miranda is imprisoned by Darkmantle. Prendergrass, the family wizard is ordered to give her a new identity. The wizard recognizes her as Snowbelle’s daughter and fears for her safety. He changes her face using powerful magic so that Lord Darkmantle wouldn’t recognize her. He also covers her with a glamour making her look greenish and insect like to match her new name of Dragonfly.

  On the way to Moonmist, Aquitain is held up on Astaria, a mysterious gateworld that exists in between Mudrun and Moon mist. Llanlorian the ruler of Astaria offers him a job to work for her if he helps her defend the Gate world. He accepts.

  Aquitain travels to Moonmist and meets Llalorax, the royal magician of the Queen of Moonmist. They are rudely taken prisoner by the Queen’s guard and accused of treachery by the Queen and gaoled in a prison in a bottle. Aquitain with the help of a fairy-like person called Glammer escapes the prison bottle.

  He is attacked and his spirit is pulled out of his body and captured in a soul crystal by a malign chaotic spirit called Schlum that has been inflicting its ill will on the people of Moonmist for years.

  In the soul crystal, his spirit form meets the spirit of Llanlorian’s healer sister Yllandril and they exchange stories. Aquitain gets information from her allowing him to discover a way to read his own spirit aura which allows him to unlock previously locked memories.

  Miranda is tortured to convince the guards that she has lost her memory and been changed to her new identity as Dragonfly. She meets Zephira who has had her memory wiped and identity changed and is now known as Lash. She goes on a mission along with Darkmantle’s soldiers and her body is possessed by the malign spirit Schlum, who had earlier captured Aquitain’s spirit.

  Her spirit controlled body accompanies Darkmantle and his attack force as it invades her home gateworld in Snowbelle’s absence. She witnesses her people being slaughtered and is traumatized by the events that happen.

  While in his soul crystal prison Aquitain discovers how to open a divinity seed hidden in his spirit and uses it to gain the knowledge to create two small bodies out of chaos clay to house his and Yllandril’s spirits.

  With Glammer’s help he creates the bodies and Glammer smashes the soul crystal allowing him to escape from the crystal into their new bodies. He and Yllandril teleport into the prison bottle to hide from Schlum but the malign spirit leaves Miranda’s body and follows them. Aquitain
cunningly works out a way to trap it and destroys it.

  Aquitain is hailed as a hero by the Moonmist Collective mind and honored with the title Lord Warden of Moonmist for killing Schlum. He is given a pure heart, a very special type of magic that has both good and bad features. He helps out the Moonmist Collective and is further rewarded with knowledge of illusions and fear magic.

  He accepts a reconnaissance mission from Llalorax to investigate the palace prior to the Queen’s spring ball and meet some Trixies. In the mean while Llalorax rescues Miranda and Yllandril helps her recover from her trauma. They discovered she was Aquitain’s partner.

  Aquitain visits the Trixies and finds out they definitely yellow scaled little people but many are malformed. He meets Bellen who shows him around and takes him to the dragon throne.

  Aquitain checks out the crown on top of the dragon throne and discovers one of the crystals is sentient. It attacks him but he destroys it releasing the spirit of Granite, an elemental dragon that had been trapped there for ages. While waiting on top of the dragon throne’s head to watch the spectacle of the spring ball, Aquitain is overwhelmed by all that has happened begins to believe it is all a dream.

  During one of the entertainment events in the ball, Queen Aurora of Moonmist is caught in a trap set by Darkmantle and dies. Darkmantle proclaims his girlfriend the Princess Gemelica should be crowned Queen but many of the other lords are not happy about this.

  Llalorax, the dead queen’s magician convinces Miranda to challenge for the throne of Moonmist. Both Miranda and Gemelica are tested and found suitable. Darkmantle claims to be Gemelica’s champion. Aquitain agrees to be Miranda’s champion and they duel using conjured animal illusions.

  The contest is interrupted by a fake queen lookalike possessed by a Mentarin spirit. The fake queen’s assistants use magic that shatters Aquitain’s crystal body and encases Miranda in rock. Aquitain repairs himself while the fake queen’s attention is diverted by Yllandril. Aquitain conjures up a mass illusion that panics the fake queen and her spirit supporters who flee the ball taking Miranda’s spirit with them as a hostage. Aquitain is heartbroken, disillusioned and wants to wake up from the dream.

  The story continues here in book 3.

  Chapter 1 M’Lady Warden

  The spring ball was over. Aquitain, the new Warden of Moonmist stood in the Elendari throne room watching the people depart. Beside him was Rat Catcher, the grey and black striped cat lying back licking her fur and Yllandril, the small stone spider.

  He was sad. The dream was over and he was patiently waiting to return to his mundane existence in his Grandfather’s magic shop. It was like the end of a wonderful adventure story. He had countless priceless memories but the most enduring would be the memory of Miranda, his wonderful druid princess.

  He was mainly sad because he had promised to help her find her missing father and to remove the magic tattoo that was a physical barrier stopping them from joining. He was betrothed to her and he loved her dearly. She was so beautiful, so exciting, so loving, caring and trusting. He felt guilty as if he was deserting her and betraying their love. Perhaps he could try and come back in another dream and continue on from where this one had ended.

  The Elendari Lords and their Ladies were leaving discussing the amazing events that had occurred. There was talk of forming a council to discuss the Mentarin threat and a new Queen. Darkmantle and Llalorax had something urgent to do and vanished. The Trixies were starting to clean up.

  Bellen and several of his Trixie friends had Miranda’s body, which had been transformed to stone, on a trolley and were wheeling it down the service corridor within the walls of the palace to a position of eminence within the garden maze. Miranda’s spirit had been stolen by one of the Mentarin. Her body was still technically alive as it had the spirit of Slivver, Miranda’s parasitic creature companion within it.

  ‘When am I going to leave this damn dream and wake up, Terren.’ asked Aquitain impatiently.

  ‘Terren is dead my Lord’ said the Rat Catcher through the mind link. ‘but he did give me a message for you before he died.’

  ‘He said that there has been a problem. You can’t leave yet. In fact it may be some time before you can leave. He said he was going to try and fix it. He suggested that you continue your heroic deeds as normal; find Miranda as she’s lost and in trouble again; help the Elendari fight the Mentarin; fight dragons and the like.’

  ‘Really! Oh Granddad will be disappointed. However, I guess he will keep trying. I think I will go and save Miranda. It would be fun to make her Queen of all Moonmist. Maybe then I can be her king and remove that damn tattoo. I’ll bet Terren’s not dead only trying to make me more independent.’

  ‘Yllandril, we have work to do! So let’s get on with it!’

  He stood thinking about the problem of Miranda’s body. He was sure that within a minute or two after the polymorph power wore off the body would turn to flesh. Slivver’s spirit might be able to keep it alive long enough for Aquitain to do something he never thought he would do.

  Through his mindlink with Bellen which was still intact he said,

  ‘Hello Bellen. Is there any way we could make a copy of Miranda’s body?’

  ‘Um it’s possible Milord, we Trixies knows lots a magic powers but the Queen Aurora says we can’t use them as it wears out the magic. I never knew that, so we does most things without magic these days.’

  ‘Really!’ said Aquitain ‘that explains a lot. I wondered why you didn’t use magic to help set the tables and serve the food.’

  ‘The queen is gone now and I need a copy of Miranda just as she is now. I want to put a copy of her body in the maze garden rather than the real one.’

  ‘Good idea Milord.’ replied Bellen.

  ‘The lichen and moss will grow over her very quickly and then she won’t look so pretty. What do yer want to do with this statue?’

  ‘I want you to keep her real body hidden and secure here in the palace. Can you do that?’ asked Aquitain.

  ‘To be sure! I’ll put it in the room of faces. No one goes there except me.’ replied Bellen.

  ‘That’s an excellent idea. Wait until I join you. Can you put it there first and then go and find out how to make a copy.’

  Bellen waited for Aquitain to arrive then teleported Miranda’s statue, Aquitain, Yllandril, the Rat catcher and himself to the room then left them.

  ‘What are you up to?’ asked Yllandril who was riding along on the body of Miranda just a bit further down from Aquitain. The Rat Catcher was not interested; she was sniffing around the room for mice.

  ‘Both of us have lost our own bodies. I don’t want Miranda to suffer that loss if I can help it. I’ve always been against mind control, possession and anything like that and I know you feel the same way but I also know how important above all it is to have your own body.’

  ‘I’m going to try to preserve Miranda’s body until I can give it back to her. If I don’t do something it’ll truly die and be lost permanently.’

  ‘How do you know her spirit hasn’t gone to the realm of the dead?’ asked Yllandril.

  ‘I don’t.’ replied Aquitain. ‘However, I’ll bet the Mentarin have her spirit imprisoned in a soul crystal somewhere like they did with us. They will probably try to use her spirit as a hostage to ensure Gemelica is made Queen. Until I can find out I have to believe she is alive and preserve her body for her.’

  ‘How can you preserve her body?’ asked Yllandril a little worried. ‘That type of knowledge is forbidden.’

  ‘Yllandril I don’t know if I can yet but as you know I have a lot of information locked up in my mind and some of it may show me the way. As a mind wizard I have been taught that no knowledge is inherently good or bad, it is the intentions behind it’s use that may be good or bad.’

  ‘I know your intensions are good but I worry about the road you are taking.’ replied Yllandril. ‘I have firsthand knowledge of possession and it is malevolent no matter how you argue its b
enefits. What will you do with her body if you discover she is truly dead?’

  ‘I don’t know. I will have to consider that problem when it happens. No more discussion please I must act now or we might lose it.’

  Aquitain in his miniature green crystal body was standing on Miranda’s stone abdomen. He looked around the room and spotted what he needed. The mirror used by Bellen to show trixies fitted with magic wooden masks their new faces. Using telekinesis he picked it up, moved it across the room and laid it on Miranda’s abdomen and stepped onto it.

  He activated his ability to see spirit auras and viewed his own spirit aura in the mirror. He noticed immediately that it was different from before. Terren or his father must have done something to him but he didn’t feel any different. He pondered on what it meant for a while then decided to continue with his current course of action.

  He placed his mind in a state of autohypnosis and called forth the sealed divinity seed that he had taken from the malign spirit Schlum and chanted the mantra to open it.

  He withdrew from the state of autohypnosis and sought the knowledge of how his spirit could escape from his physical body. It turned out to be remarkably simple. The spirit and the body both appeared to have a unique individual identification. By marking the spirit with a sort of psychic tattoo identifying the body in which it was housed, the spirit remained in that body and couldn’t leave it unless the body was destroyed. On the body’s death the tattoo was erased allowing the spirit to leave.

  The divinity seed gave instructions on how to erase and write a new tattoo onto a spirit. This would allow someone to escape their own body and enter and use another body as their own. It also gave him a wealth of other knowledge on the nature of the spirit and how it interacted with the body. He would have to spend considerable time thinking about it to understand how this new knowledge would mesh in with the rest of his knowledge.