Melody of Mana

We walked down through the crater, passing vines that wound and reached across the stone. There were no stairs as such, nor a proper path, but there was ample room to see where we were going between the reaching tendrils.

This was not the cave I had first died in, at least I didn't think it was. For one it was far, far too large, the whole place was easily the size of a stadium, the ceiling barely a blur as much as the pool I now slowly walked towards. Large hulking masses were strewn about a bit, in an almost organized fashion, and though it was far away I could see what looked like a stone desk lurking near the large circle of water perhaps fifty meters across in the center of the room. It stuck out like a sore thumb, clearly something that had been put in after the rest of whatever happened here happened.

"Where what started?" Ulanion asked nervously. He might not be able to see the magic like I could, but even someone without any would certainly feel the power of this place.

"I'm not entirely sure, but whatever caused the elven king, and me, and that mad mage, whatever that was all started here. Let's go find out." I was already walking, because I had to see what was going on here, it was a fascination, not quite like the dreamlike state that preceded my first death, but more a gnawing need to know.

"Alana, this place is dangerous. We should get the others..."

"And tell them what exactly? You might have taken the truth well, but others probably won't, and regardless of how it comes out it's likely to start a civil war somewhere as people argue about what the truth is. Some might call me a demon, or some kind of heavenly messenger, or something else altogether. No, at least not right now." I barely looked back, my feet carrying me closer and closer to the center, to whatever answers there might be.

Before I could take another step my companion rushed in front of me, locking eyes with me. "Alana, this place is weird, consider if it's affecting you. Stop and think, really think."

I did as he told me, looking around a bit. I threw my mind back to my own death before, about the cave and how weird and comforting it seemed. Was that the mana, was the mana here still doing something to me. After several seconds I found a place to sit where I could look away from the pool and it's glow. Since I was backing away the elf didn't seem bothered, but still kept an eye on me.

As I tried to meditate on what he was saying I had to admit that it was doing something, at least a little.

"It's like a flame, attracting moths. Perhaps something about the sheer amount of mana in the air. We shouldn't stay here too long, but I still want to know what we're dealing with, at least on a basic level. There is no chance that this mana isn't what's running that facility, so we've already been exposed a bit. I think it'll be alright as long as we're careful."

"We go quickly then, if you see me doing anything weird, stop me," Ulanion said, nodding a bit at my conclusion.

"Same, if it looks like I'm about to lose it drag me out of here." It was a good plan, flawed, dangerous, but I still had to know.

We worked our way down and down into the center of the crater. I tried not to step on any of the vines or the patterns on the floor, not sure what they did, if anything. As I looked I could tell, these were far more complex than those I'd seen back on earth. It wasn't so obvious at first, but the symbols on the stone moved into more and more complex patterns as they broke from the larger bits.

There was a slight rise that kept us out of the bottom, but with a little bit of help from Ulanion we made it over without too much trouble. The six or so foot tall ring of stone surrounding it an easy jump for him and a quick boost for me. As soon as I got over I could see it, the water at this distance looked like it was siting on a stove, the mana that had looked like a light coming from it from far off looked like a pot on the verge of overflow closer up.

Carefully I approached the pool, a hand landing gently on my shoulder as I got about ten meters away. I'd slowed down, since this was something well out of my normal experience.

"Still good?" he asked. At my nod, Ulanion gave one of his own. "Look there, in the center."

My eyes weren't as sharp as those of an elf, or those of those of a physical magic user, so I strained to look. The massive quantity of magic going on in the pool didn't help at all. All I could see were some strange shapes, looking kind of like mottled boulders.

"What are those?" I asked.

"Either very regular rocks, or very big eggs," he answered. "We might be able to get one if you want."

"I know you can't see the magic, but if you touch that water I imagine it'll cook you. The mana looks like it's literally boiling in it at this distance, big bubbles of light. Not sure what that would do to you, but my guess is nothing healthy." I thought back to how I'd drank similar water, and even tried to crawl into it to cool the burning of my body and cringed.

I walked over towards the little desk I'd seen as we were coming in. It was completely out of place here, but still felt as if it'd been in this place for a long, long time. The facility above was still preserved perfectly, so it wasn't a great surprise that this was as well. While that had been cleaned though this looked like a proper mess. There were piles of papers all about it, and even a teapot off to the side.

I began slowly going through the notes. Most of it was a bit out of my league, and all in rather pretty English calligraphy. These were probably the king's own notes, so it wasn't that much of a surprise that they were complex, since by any guess he'd had well over a thousand years to study magic.

I did gain some insight though. This pool, and this place were most certainly the nexus for a spell the intricacies of which were seemed to eclipse even the knowledge of the writer. He did seem to recognize that it was playing with space and time on a level that was startling, along with some kind of dimensional math that looked like it had come from a quantum physics dissertation.

The symbols were apparently the stand-in for the runes that I was more familiar with, though even the notes indicated that they were poorly understood. The vines were clearly acting as energy conduits for the spell as well, though how someone had made organic conduits for magic like that wasn't explained either.

As I moved through the various piles I noticed a slight smell and looked over. The teapot was still emitting the smell of a lovely blend, and as I put my hand by it I realized it was still warm. There were runes all over it, presumably to keep it warm and the like, but a spell that durable was impressive. The ambient magic was probably enough to make it so it never needed to be charged or anything.

I picked up the pot to give it a closer look. It might be the only thing on the desk I could fully parse. The runes weren't hidden or anything, though there were a few sequences that I didn't recognize at all, and whoever had done it had certainly gone all in. Something mundane like this didn't need the kind of massive complexity that the maker had put in.

A few moments looking around found me one of several cups in a drawer and though it wasn't the sanest thing I'd ever done I poured myself a cup. I took several seconds to look it over, making sure that it wasn't putting out potentially dangerous magic or any off smells before taking a sip.

"Okay wow, that's not bad for millennia old tea," I said as I went back to looking over the notes.

As I continued to mostly waste my time I heard a call off from the side. It appeared Ulanion had taken the time to look about a bit too.

"Alana, you need to see this," he said as he stood near one of the big mounds, looking past the many vines covering it.

I put down my half-drunk cup and made my way over. It was a bit of a walk, but he seemed serious.

"What'd you find?" I asked as I approached.

"Not sure," he responded, moving to let me look. "Whatever it is it's dead."

I gazed past the vines at the bones. It took a few minutes to find the skull, but as soon as we did I was alarmed. It was huge, dwarfing either of us, with teeth like sabers and eyes as tall as I was. The ridges on the head, the shape, the sheer size.

I'd never heard stories of this creature in this world. The massive wings, the breath of fire, it was the end-all be-all of fantasy on Earth, but on this world it was unknown.

"That's... that's..." I struggled.

"The bones of a dragon," a voice said from behind us. Terror creeped up my spine as I processed that it spoke in the same ancient dialect of Atali the golem had used, all except one word, 'Dragon' had been said in English.