“Ho, Elder Auric. Might I have a word with you?”

Something woke up down below me. A Presence began to expand rapidly at my voice, the rolling waters of this pool in the lake below began to seethe and boil, and with a steaming explosion, the source of the power below came surging forth to see who would dare to bother him.

I was standing in the air as he loomed up before me, bluish-green scales all chased in silver, ridged crest down his back looking like golden razors. Steam was boiling off him, yet the water coursing down about him didn’t stop as the air seethed, heavy with Water Mana that burbled with heat.

Golden eyes focused on me as great jaws opened, registering my size as little more than a snack.

Abruptly, they paused. Just the start of a lunging snap at me froze in place, and was carefully retracted. The boiling cloud about him stilled and went away, and the primitive Saurial Great Commander stared at me thoughtfully.

Me, and all those Tokens winking on my Staff at him.

“Who are you?” he asked, although it sounded more like a hissing teakettle.

“I am Healer Fae. You may or may not have heard of me, but I have spoken to your Great Ancestor, who gave me leave to treat with his descendants.”

His great head retreated another couple of feet in instinctive fear and reverence. The very idea I could claim that while bearing the Tokens of Emperor’s Wills made it very difficult to disbelieve me. “What... do you want?” he asked cautiously.

To his surprise, I zipped up alongside his head, turning and pointing south. “With the leave of Auric Tyrant Emperor, I am working on a little project. It involves the sand coming down from the north.”

His tail switched nervously as he glanced between me, the Tokens, and where I was pointing. “The realm of Infinite Sands Emperor.” His rumble was barely a crackle. “It has been coming this way...”

Of course he could feel it coming, even if he rarely left the waters. “No longer. If you straighten to your full height, you should just be able to see the top of an Obelisk of black stone from here.”

He did indeed rise to his full height, looking over the hills and scrub vegetation, no great trees in the way to interfere with his hundred-foot stature.

“Yes,” he confirmed he could see it.

“That Obelisk is pulling power directly from the earth... the power of Earth and Fire that Infinite Sands is using to expand His Domain. It will prevent the expansion of His desert into these hills.

“This comes with a remarkable bonus. The Obelisk condenses Fire and Earth Mana into Seeds. Specifically, one Earth Soul Seed a year, and one Fire Soul Seed.”

The young Auric Tyrant Saurial’s golden eyes widened with sudden interest. That was an exceptionally good thing!

“Infinite Sands is far too great and lofty to care what we are doing, but the natives of His Sands are doubtless very willing to come down and take these Seeds, so these Obelisks will need a protector.

“For the Fire Soul Seeds that are siphoned from this Obelisk, are you willing to guard it? We would come by once a year to collect the Earth Seed, and you could consume the Fire Seed at that time.

“Also, there are a large number of these Obelisks being set up. Not all of them are as near to water as this one, but if you’ve kin who might want to claim one, I would be happy to visit them. However, if they are weaker than you, this is not advisable. The Beasts coming in out of the desert will likely not be that weak...”

The Auric Tyrant considered that point. He growled something at me, and I nodded to him.

“Yes, I offered the Earth Seed of the Obelisks to the west of yours, the nearest ten miles that way, to the Baron of the Rock Smasher Baboon Tribe that neighbors your territory. He agreed to have his Tribe watch over two of them... but he has a full Tribe to work with, and you’ve only you. If an intruder attacked a second Obelisk, it is unlikely you could reach it in time to prevent it from being destroyed and losing the Seeds.”

He hissed in acknowledgement of that point. Auric Tyrants weren’t particularly swift, and he’d not sense them early enough to make up for his lack of speed.

Still, his affirmation that he was willing to do this was heartfelt.

“Excellent. What I will have some of my people do is set up a water tunnel from your lake here to around the Obelisk, and we’ll surround it with a nice pool for you so you can stay there in comfort. We can even add a Water-gathering Formation to help you out, if you would like.”

The Saurial grunted this time. This was turning out to be a pretty good deal!

“I would also like to know if you’d be willing to help Rock Smasher Baboon Baron if he is attacked by a larger force, in return for him coming to your call if you are faced with a great enemy, such as an enemy Ruler coming out of the desert with its Horde.”

The Saurial thought about that, pride warring with the reality of having to face down a Ruler. Even with a Bloodline as ancient and mighty as his own, that would be a dangerous fight...

He rumbled assent to the agreement. He and the Baboon had a rivalry, but respected one another’s territory. He didn’t press into the hills much, and the Baboons didn’t contest the waters and shores in return.

A guaranteed Fire Soul Seed every year! Even in an area replete with natural treasures like Deepest Africa, that was not something to look down on...

-----

I ‘ported in right next to a massive dark blue hoof after escorting the Auric Tyrant Great Commander to the Obelisk. I left behind a hollow boulder the Saurial could smash if there was a truly great enemy come to deal with him, and I could either send help or come myself to aid him. The fellow was naturally proud and said nothing, but he also carefully observed where I placed it near the Obelisk so he would not forget it, although I made sure the touch of Lightning Mana upon it would make it easy to identify.

Babe had /sent me a message to come see him in person. It wasn’t going to take long, so after setting up the Arch for an Earth Mover crew to come in and pound out that tunnel and a deep pool to the Saurial’s lake, I flitted off to see the Blue Ox.

Michigan’s Guardian lowed down at me, and I zipped up to eye level with him, wondering what he had that was so important that it required my personal appearance.

“What can I do for you, Babe?” I asked politely. The Grand Formation we were powering up was still at least three years away from being ready to fuel a jump through Emperor, even with basically 24/7 pumping Heavy Mana into it. He was discreetly downing the Seeds we were condensing on his behalf, overseeing the gathering of Air and Plant Mana to do so, and even teaching us more about doing the job as he did so, watching them mature.

Spirit and Soul Seeds were nearly useless to him, of course, so we had to pour tons of Mana into making proto-Heaven Seeds for him. The Formation below was basically setting up tons of Earth-Void Heavy Seeds being grown to maturity. They were useless to normal Humans, but to Ruler-Class Beasts, there was literally nothing better to eat.

He lowed at me again, and choffed the ground under one foot, giving me a smug look.

“Something I missed?” I repeated. There were scattered Salt Seeds throughout the Formation, the outer ones all Spirit-class, Soul Seeds gathering at minor Nodes, and exactly three locations on which true Heaven Seeds could grow after we cleared up minor breaks in the Formation.

Tox had deferred taking his Diamond Saltseed until it reached its apex mid-Heaven range, which should take another year or so. The other Heaven Seeds were advancing to Soul Seed status, but only one could reach Heaven-tier at a time.

Babe nodded, the coppery Runes on his horns gleaming. A bit curious, I sent my Awareness straight down where he indicated.

We were in the central Formation near Alma, the ground a couple hundred feet down veritably thrumming with Earth, Plant, and Void Mana. Sunken Mana Wells were down there, gathering the Plant Mana for ingestion, but enough was escaping that the farmlands around here were experiencing the most incredible harvests they had ever imagined, crops sorely needed in this time of war.

All of it was attributed to Babe hanging around and monitoring the Wind Towers generating all that extra Lightning juice, and in truth he was definitely helping. His dung was better than any alchemical fertilizers, and he’d been making sure the acreage around here was only getting more and more productive.

I knew the Formation here intimately, having examined it with Behold the Weave, Commune with Nature, and a Sage’s Awareness, helping devise and set the Wells into place. Babe was saying I had missed something, so it had to be something that would normally only be noticed with prolonged exposure to the Formation.

Finding that annoying, I bent all my concentration to the Formation and how it interacted with the area below me. All the energy flows expanded, the balance of energies and how they settled and flowed exploded into a level of detail probably nobody else on the world could duplicate.

Huh. The Formation was naturally asymmetrical, organic in design and balance, building on the remains of the inland sea that had once existed here, frozen and filled in by the last Ice Age and reduced to the salt layer that existed beneath the island.

We were standing atop the actual ‘center’ of the Formation, where all the natural energies moving through it were at the point of greatest concentration and flux. The Heavy Heaven Seed locations were naturally draining much of this off as they built up one by one, but there was literally no greater center of those energies moving around and past than right below us.

And naturally something had grown up down there, meshing in with the flows of energies and crystallized, diamond-hard salt down there. It was nearly invisible in the passing flows, perfectly harmonized with the Earth Magic here.

My breath hissed out.

Babe huffed once as I glanced at him, sounding rather smug, but his meaning was unmistakable.

I Hummed, and the Sublime Chord lit up around me, spinning and purifying itself to one aspect, dancing on crystalline notes of Earth Magic that reached down into the Formation, and made it sing.

Something very pure and strong echoed back.

A Crystalheart Diamond Saltseed. A high-tier Heaven Seed. With the faint echo of Void Magic in it, perhaps even highest-tier!

I drew in a deep breath, but I let the Chord fade softly.

Babe lowed at me, curious that I had not taken it as he had intended.

“I cannot take an Earth Seed without a similar Air Seed. I know where one such is located. I will return shortly.”

He nodded once and ambled off to one of the nearby Wind Towers that was condensing Heavy Air Mana for a quick drink as I reached out along my Lived-Line and hissed a Word that sent me speeding across the world to its greatest Forbidden Zone.