Amber's Enchantment Ch. 07

"Master, Mistress, it was so beautiful. All the colors; mana flowing through the air in gorgeous patterns. Waves of pure white mana cascading out of the sky." Her smile faded as her description continued. "There was black as well. Hundreds of black auras pulsing into and out of existence. Every time one appeared, mana streamed towards it. It was like someone splashing black paint on a work of art."

Both wizards looked at each other in shock. They had feared the black voids being there, but had had no idea to expect white mana. That didn't make sense.

"Amber, where was the white mana coming from?"

"The sky. It was falling out of the sky, like a heavy rain."

Silene shook her head. "It doesn't make sense. I've been outside a lot and I've never seen white mana falling from the sky."

Vesti looked thoughtful. "But not during a burning time. Amber's the first person to see outside during a burning time. Gods! Fron! The only thing different during the burning times is Fron being close. All that white mana is coming from Fron."

"That would mean that Fron is the source of mana; that it pours new mana into the planet every 300 years."

"It's more than that. It pours new mana in, without increasing the overall levels of mana in the world. But for that to happen..."

"Mana has to be being used up in some way. The Laws of Magic are even more wrong than I thought," Silene breathed.

"Yes, but think about this. The voids are slowly draining mana from the world; at a time when massive amounts of mana are being added on a regular basis. Imagine what would happen if this wasn't a burning time."

The look of horror on Silene's face showed just how well she understood the point he was making.

*****

Mining louvet still had to be done the old fashioned way. Using magic to extract the ore changed the mature of the reagent, making it useless for potions. Where there was hard work to be done, there were always those hardy souls who thrived on bending muscle, bone and sinew to the task. The rhythmic clang, clang, clang, of pick hitting stone echoed through the tunnels. Occasionally it was broken up by the scrape of loose rock being shoveled into ore carts.

The vein Corden's gang was mining was particularly rich. The new candles kept the ore rats at bay, eliminating the biggest danger for the miners. The mood was upbeat with the promise of bonuses for everyone. This changed when a young worker's pick made a clunk sound instead of the usual clang, and embedded itself several inches in some much softer substance. Curiosity changed to horror when the substance opened up and engulfed the shocked miner.

The worm was only six inches across, but seemed capable of opening its mouth to four times that size. It pulsed its way out of the rock, its body steaming. A nearby miner instinctively tried to push it away, only to find his hands shredded by razor sharp spines along its body that undulated open and close, back and forth.

Panic ensued as men and women rushed to get clear of the strange beast that had invaded their workplace. A hapless yelti (a smaller breed of yeltin) lunged at the locked down cart it was harnessed to. Unable to escape, it was eaten alive by a mouth designed to eat far harder materials than living flesh. With its strange, new, hunger temporarily satisfied, the worm bored into the wall of the tunnel as easily as a man might walk through the water in a pool. This was to be only the first of many attacks to come. The civilizations of Detran were getting their first real view of the true native ecology of their adopted home, albeit in an agitated and unnatural state.

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Thanks to Sugaro for her editing work. Please give me feedback, but remember, if you want a response from me, it can't be anonymous.