Read Online From the Ashes by Gareth K Pengelly - Free Book Online Page A

nodded.
                  “There were times I didn’t even think I’d return to myself. But here we are.”
                  How did you make your way here? Only Wrynn has the power to come and go as he pleases.              
    “Nagini.”
                  The Avatar of Water raised an eyebrow, the simple act of which probably swamped a continent on an unnamed world light years distant.
                  Truly? My handmaiden is a formidable sentry. How did you persuade her? She is very closed minded.
                  “Oh, she opened up in the end.”
                  The Avatar smiled, knowingly, and he knew that she was playing with him. Little got past you when you were a quarter of the universe.
                  “However, to business.” He spoke to the audience at large now, unwilling to allow the thought to register in his mind that he was addressing the masters of the universe as though he were at a board meeting. “You know why I’m here; we face a dark army. My former Councilmembers are empowered. My Clansmen under their control. And they summon allies from beyond the Veil to aid them. We have only a small force with which to try to stop them making their way through the Portal. So I need your help…”
                  Fire spoke, the sound like that of a raging forest-fire consuming all in its path.
                  What would you ask of us?
                  Stone gazed up at the twirling tempest of flames, his enhanced eyes watering as they strove to cope with the intensity.
                  “I ask that you return my shamanic powers to me. Restore your blessing. Your spirits shy away from me,” he continued, “scared of what I’ve been, of whatever traces of the enemy linger within me. But without their aid I don’t think I can defeat the foes we face.”
                  Sylphii swooped down, looping about him in a sparkling orbit as they spoke in melodious, dulcet tones.
                  “You overestimate the power of our children, Stone. Underestimate the power of the enemy.”
                  “How so?”
                  A tiny figure flitted to land on his shoulder; a woman in miniature, though with gossamer butterfly wings that flapped gently as she spoke. She looked at him with dazzling purple eyes that gazed out from behind a curtain of cascading rainbow hair.
                  “In this world we are everything, Stone,” she began to explain, her voice so tinkling, so vibrant, like the chiming of tiny, crystal bells. “From the stars and the planets that orbit them…”
                  Another tiny elfin figure landed on his other shoulder to continue the lesson.
                  “…to the tiniest of worms and the birds which feed on them. We are in everything. We make everything. We bestow it life, for that is our purpose.”
                  The first Sylphii again, now.
                  “But those we face are not from this universe, Stone. They are from elsewhere, a realm of fire and pain that is the opposite to ours. A world of entropy, as opposed to life. A world of despair as opposed to hope. And the power of our children wanes as they near. Such foes as the Seeress summons to guard the Isle of Storms cannot be defeated by the spirits of Earth, Water, Wind or Fire. You shall have to trust in the hearts of men and the strength of their arm.”
                  Stone thought back to the altercation atop the Beacon, the night of the Astral Alignment; his Councilmembers, taking him apart. Kurnos. Memphias. Ceceline. And now, inevitably, Bavard too, for he had seen the madness erupting from within. How could they hope to defeat them? Each would be empowered now, enhanced by the dark influence of their Masters. Not to the same extent as he