BOOK 9: CHAPTER 81: FOUR CORNERS ACCORD

The Elemental Maelstrom had grown no weaker, but to Elijah, its effects were wholly manageable. He’d yet to venture into the storm itself, though he knew that the glyph would allow safe passage. Perhaps not without having to heal a little, but he and the pack could survive it.

That was the power of the Mark of Elements, which was the reward for completing all four trials. Each of them – the Crucible of Fire, the Drowning Depths, the Gauntlet of the Sky Lords, and finally, the Unyielding Path – had awarded one piece of the whole. Those glyphs had functioned to shield them, at least to some degree, from their related element. However, when they came together, the combination was far more powerful than the individual pieces.

Elijah knew he wasn’t immune to the elements. Nothing could do that. He also knew there were limits. If he was forced to endure demi-god level forces, the Mark of Elements would become all but useless.

Yet, it was the key to moving forward.

Resting in a cave, Elijah glanced at Oscar and asked, “What do you think? Should we go into the camp? Or just head straight into the maelstrom to finish this thing off?”

Oscar glanced at the mouth of the cave, then down at the flaming chihuahua filling the space with warmth. He stared at the sleeping dog for a long moment before saying, “This might have been easier if we had stayed in Stillstone and done some research before venturing into the Crystal Fields. We might have saved ourselves a lot of pain and suffering.”

Elijah sighed, leaning back against the jagged wall of the cavern. It dug into his back, but he barely felt it, he was so exhausted. Physically, he was fine. He could keep going for months more without flagging. However, mentally – or perhaps emotionally – he’d been wrung dry. It wasn’t as bad as it had been in the Chimeric Forge, but that was largely because he had company.

Oscar wasn’t much of a conversationalist, but having him around definitely eased the burden of fighting through a Primal Realm. The dogs were the real stars, though. Not for the first time, he considered finding an orphaned guardian with whom to forge a bond. Like Miguel had with Trevor.

But Elijah knew that wasn’t a good idea.

With the places he went and the challenges he faced, trying to keep a companion alive would have been too stressful to truly comprehend. It would take years before they caught up to him, and even then, he questioned whether or not any potential animal friend could keep up.

Was he meant to always fight alone, then?

“I guess we should check it out,” Elijah said at last. “But it’s tense over there. A fight could break out at any moment.”

Indeed, Elijah had visited the camp – if such a large and nearly permanent settlement could be called that – twice already. Both times, he’d used Guise of the Unseen to mask his presence, which gave him the opportunity to get a good look at the situation. And even though the giants were alien creatures with their own cultures, he’d immediately sensed the palpable tension hanging over the camp.

As far as Elijah could tell, the only thing keeping them from going to war with one another was the fact that they’d segregated themselves, laying the camp out similarly to Stillstone itself.

But there was no enforced peace, as there was in the city.

And Elijah knew it wouldn’t be long before everything came to a head. He didn’t want to be inside the camp when that happened, largely because there were some truly powerful giants in there. Could he take them one-on-one? Maybe. Probably. But not when they were surrounded by hundreds – if not thousands – of allies.

It was a recipe for disaster.

Still, he couldn’t deny Oscar’s logic. With that in mind, it wasn’t long before they set out from the cave with Elijah leading the way. Jackson and Sophie flanked him, with everyone else following close behind.

It had been a week since they’d left the Unyielding Path, but in that time, they’d covered quite a bit more ground than they could have before receiving the last glyph and completing the Mark of Elements. Back then, Elijah hadn’t realized just how much the maelstrom’s effects had slowed them down. Now that he could see the difference, he was even more impressed by the storm’s power.

After a few hours of trekking across the landscape, they passed just out of range of the storm. Soon after, the camp came into view.

It was more of a settlement than a camp. Sure, it wasn’t as impressively constructed as Stillstone, but the stone buildings they’d erected were stout and at least semi-permanent. Though those structures were the same throughout the entire settlement, there were four distinct quadrants. Each quarter stood out not because of differing style, but rather, due to the residents.

Elijah knew that the layout roughly resembled the orientation of the trials which surrounded the Elemental Maelstrom. Was that instinctive? Or was there some purpose there he couldn’t see?

After a while, they reached the outskirts of the settlement, where they were greeted by a group of fire giants.

“Cindrandir. Chosen one.”

Elijah nodded, and Escobar let out a chirping bark at the giants’ acknowledgement. They’d approached the fire giant quadrant intentionally. After all, they had already established a relationship with the creatures, and the plan was to exploit that in order to gain the information they needed to finish the Primal Realm.

The entire thing went against Elijah’s instincts. Those told him to forge ahead into the Elemental Maelstrom, challenging it to strike him down along the way. He didn’t need fancy plans or strategy to win. Instead, he just needed his own might to see him through to victory.

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That was the dragon in him. He knew it, and he suppressed it. There was a time to lean into that part of his mind, but this was not one of them.

Instead, he followed the giants into their temporary compound, and he was surprised to find that the interior looked strikingly similar to what he’d seen in Stillstone. When he asked about it, his guide looked at him like he’d gone crazy and asked, “Do you think we would live like savages?”

“I…I guess not,” Elijah answered.

After that, they followed their giant guide deeper into the facility, where they found Werk waiting for them. He looked extremely pleased with himself, though Elijah got the sense that the fire giant was hiding quite a lot of trepidation. He was afraid, and though he did a good job of masking it with self-satisfaction, Elijah could practically smell the fear on him.

Clearly, Oscar and the dogs did as well.

“Cindrandir,” he said, rising from his throne and spreading his arms wide in welcome. “Chosen one. You have returned to the fold. I feared you might not have survived the Crystal Fields.”

“We did more than survive,” Elijah said, taking the lead. “We conquered the trials and attained the Mark of Elements.”

Then, he went on to say that their goal was to forge ahead into the Elemental Maelstrom where they would prove themselves worthy of the Legacy of Titans. Initially, Elijah had thought simply passing the trials would be enough to complete the Primal Realm, but that just wasn’t the case.

“Ah, I see. That explains the prophecy,” said Werk.

“What prophecy?”

In response to that question, the fire giant leader launched into an explanation of what had been happening back in Stillstone. It was easy to forget that months had passed since Elijah and the pack had left the city behind, and in that time, a lot had changed. The most notable difference was that the raiders from Bogotá had finally arrived. However, they hadn’t ventured forth from the city, preferring instead to familiarize themselves with the environment.

“They completed various tasks with us, gaining talismans to protect their fragile bodies against the purity of flame,” Werk answered. “My sources tell me they underwent similar quests with our counterparts among the other clans.”

“Would that allow them to endure the maelstrom?” asked Oscar.

Werk shook his head, his flaming red hair shaking with the motion. “No. Those talismans are too weak. They are meant to assist in the trials, though using them is a sign of weakness that no giant would ever show,” he answered. “They are also incompatible with one another. Fire conflicts with water, air with earth. Using them together is impossible.”

Elijah frowned. While they might have conflicted, they would have made the trials much easier to endure. It seemed that his haste to forge ahead toward the challenges of the Primal Realm had made the task needlessly difficult.

“Have any been successful?”

“I do not know. They keep to themselves. I believe they are quite violent by nature,” Werk answered. “Though we have no room to judge. Giants are a peaceful race until we find our counterparts. Even now, the very thought of being so near to those watery heretics stokes my coals. The peace holds, but it is tentative. Soon, war will come.”

“Then why leave the city?” asked Elijah.

“We follow the prophecy.”

“And that means?”

Then, Werk explained the nature of their oracles’ predictions. Elijah was a little fuzzy on the signs, but the fire giant seemed convinced that they were accurate. “The Elemental Maelstrom will soon fall, and with it, the Legacy of Titans shall be revealed. When we find it, we will ascend to our rightful place among them,” the fire giant stated. “Such is the goal of all true giants. We wish to become one with our element. Every step we take on the path of progression comes with that goal in mind.”

“How does that work?” Elijah asked.

The giant’s coal-black face creased with a frown. “We do not know. The details were lost to us long ago,” he admitted. “That is why we are here. The Legacy of Titans will reveal to us our purpose, our future, and our potential.”

Elijah nodded. “I see.”

Escobar added a bark to that.

Once it was clear that Werk had no more information to offer, Elijah and the pack headed out of the compound. They were reasonably well-rested, so more than anything, they just wanted to complete the Primal Realm. To do that, they needed to forge ahead into the Elemental Maelstrom and find the so-called Legacy of Titans.

However, it wasn’t long before they found their way barred. Not by giants, but rather, by a group of people from Earth. Most were human, but there were two elves among them as well. Elijah even saw a goblin lurking in the back, though the creature’s slightly red skin suggested that his heritage was slightly different from the ones in Ironshore.

“We don’t know you,” said a woman toward the center of the group as she planted the butt of an impressive-looking spear into the ground. She’d probably been quite pretty at one point, but she had clearly eschewed her beauty regimen long ago. Or maybe she’d just not had time to bathe of late. Primal Realms weren’t exactly rife with opportunities for self-care. “Who are you? Why did you come here? This Primal Realm is under the control of the League of Ancients. How did you get past our guards?”

“That’s a lot of questions,” Elijah remarked. He didn’t like being interrogated, but he’d already decided to suppress his more aggressive tendencies. So, he decided to take the path of peace. “Elijah Hart. To rescue a chihuahua. There were no guards when we entered. Oh, and this is Oscar and the pack. They’re friendlier than they look. Sometimes.”

The woman started to speak, but then a man leaned in close, whispering something into her ear. She went pale.

“You can’t be here,” she stated, her voice quivering slightly. “This is our territory. We claimed it.”

Elijah looked around. “Are you seriously trying to claim a Primal Realm?” he asked with a sigh. “When the world’s fate is at stake, no less? Are you an idiot?”

“I don’t like your tone,” she spat, stepping closer. She only took one stride before her path was cut short by a simple growl. Not from one of the dogs. Instead, it came from Oscar. Mustering her courage, she said, “Stand down. We’ll take it from here.”

“No.”

“What? By the Four Corners Accord, we have every right to demand –”

“You have no right to demand anything,” Oscar stated evenly. “You are fleas. Annoying but weak. If you value your lives, you will step aside. If you choose to hinder our progress, every one of you will die screaming.”

Elijah hiked his thumb at the wild pack leader. “What he said.”

Escobar let out a yipping bark – and a fireball that hit the ground at the woman’s feet, melting the terrain in a second.

“This won’t stand,” the woman said.

“I disagree,” Oscar growled.

A few seconds passed without anyone moving. But then, the woman nodded at her people, and they reluctantly stepped aside. Elijah and the pack didn’t acknowledge it. Instead, they just continued on their way.

However, despite his outward placidity, Elijah’s mind whirled with activity. Not because a few of the raiders had tried to stop them. He expected as much based on what he’d seen from them back in Bogotá. He didn’t even blame them – not really. They were fighters, and not without power of their own. They probably weren’t used to being told no.

What intrigued him, though, was the so-called Four Corners Accord and their claim that the Primal Realm was theirs. That did not sound good – at least not in context of Earth’s future.

Those thoughts accompanied him as they left the settlement behind and plunged into the Elemental Maelstrom.