Waiting at the fountain for a few days, the Mind-Mage realised that once the desired event was to occur, it would not even be able to make contact. Not in any desirable way, at least.
So, it waited, continuing to train without knowing what to do when the wait would finally be over.
Multiple days went by and the rock came up with an idea.
After a few more days it finally happened.
A group of humanoids came along.
While they did their little dance with the water the elemental could see massive amounts of water rushing from down below.
Despite the onrushing water masses, the water level was constantly dropping.
Observing the flow of water, the rock could perceive that the water disappeared as it came close to the dancers.
As the ratio of water-disappearance subsided, the dancers retreated from the onrushing water.
Having accomplished what they had come for, the humanoids left again.
The eight elementals silently followed behind, hidden by a thick layer of sand.
Once the two groups arrived at a settlement the rock waited for a few days. It did not want to create internal strife in the tribe which was about to become its temporary home.
After the rock decided that enough time had gone by it began to search for a Mind-Mage.
Spotting one of these rare things the rock immediately put its plan into action.
By mentally pinging the humanoid Mind-Mage, the elemental one transmitted information about its existence and location to the fleshy one. The rock made it seem as if the humanoid male had gotten this info with his own skills.
This way the rock made sure that the general population did not become aware of its presence, preventing a mass-panic and preventing being showered in aggression from hundreds of Soldiers and Destructors.
The humanoid Mind-Mage did not even inform anyone before invading the elemental’s soul, trying to go for a quick victory before the elemental could spring any kind of surprise attack.
Luring a Mind-Mage into attacking may not have seemed like a good plan, but it was the only plan available to the rock.
“Hi there colleague, how is it going?” the elemental happily greeted the invader.
“What are you?” the completely terrified Mind-Mage questioned the identity of the defender.
“That is not a nice way to greet a like-minded person! But I may as well let you know. I am a MindFucker just like you. Well not really like you, because I am not a humanoid. Anyways what I need from you people is save passage into The Queen’s Paradise.”
“What even is this place?” looking around, the humanoid’s mind was at a loss at the completely unexpected environment.
“Oh, this? Just the void of my soul castle, someone stole it from me, and I still do not know who or how. Nor do I know why the lack of a soul castle changes mind-battles to -” turning around and motioning at the surrounding emptiness “this!”
“…”
“About the passage into the nation?” the elemental reiterated its demand.
“The Queen’s Paradise is no more. Some crazy goddess took over and they don’t let anybody in.” forcing himself out of this stupor the humanoid mind explained why the strange creature’s request is impossible.
In complete bafflement, the rock rejected the humanoid’s facts as insignificant: “Does not matter! I need to get into the nation whatever it may be called. I know some secret paths; I just need one of your people to come along!”
“What is in it for us?” having rebound from the shock the man experienced upon entering this mind-battle, he tried to negotiate with the rock.
“I would have to first check with my contacts, but anything from The Detester’s friendship to a new home is within the realm of possibility!” unable to promise anything, due to not possessing anything the rock gave the most unsatisfying answer.
“The Detester has been inactive for almost a century now!” not being the best negotiator the man tried to dig for better terms.
“Which does not mean that their friendship is worthless!” with this simple sentence the rock shot down any further attempted negotiation.
“As you wish! I will inform the council about this proposal!”
“Very good!” with these words the rock knocked the invader unconscious.
After doing so, the rock waited for a reply, just idly sitting in the ground, surrounded by its seven friends.
“Wake up, Waji!” a handsome man kicked the unconscious Mind-Mage into wakefulness.
“What happened?” briefly confused and only half-awake, Waji responded.
“You tell me, I just came by and saw you lazing around!” the good-looking man reprimanded in a non-threatening tone and posture.
“I did not laze around, I met a nightmare, and it wants to negotiate with us!” the Mind-Mage whispered, trying to defend his behaviour.
“So, you admit to having slept?” following these words came another kick into the ribs of the Mind-Mage.
“No, the nightmare was quite real! I need to talk to the council.” slowly growing fed up with the other man’s abuse, the mind mage stood up.
“If what you say is true, what does your nightmare want from us?” in total disbelief the handsome man tried to call the Mind-Mage’s lie.
“It wants to be smuggled into the Abyss!” claiming such he centred his fist square in the other’s face.
“You sure, you were not dreaming?” with a mocking yet friendly laugh, the handsome man kicked at Waji’s legs.
Jumping over the other man's leg the Mind-Mage kicked at the other man’s face with an angry glare: “I would not be able to make up such an unbelievable story!”
After a short brawl and a hearty laugh, the two men strolled to the centre of the settlement.
Walking arm in arm while beaten black and blue the two made it to the political hub of the tribe.
After checking the identity of the supplicants, the official scheduled them for an audience with the council.
The next day the two friends met in front of the tent of political importance.
After a quick greeting, consisting of meeting each other’s fist with their faces, they entered.
After waiting for the previous matter to be decided on, Waji reiterated his story to the convening council.
Of the politicians, five were sitting at an elevated table in finely crafted, cushioned armchairs. The remaining eight silently stood between the sitting ones. Less elevated, but still at least two steps above the petitioners.
As always Waji was baffled at the sheer impracticality of this massive furniture for a nomadic tribe.
“Can we trust the thing?” the man sitting on the far right of the council-table demanded the Mind-Mage’s opinion.
“Do we have another option, but to agree? I mean if we disagree, all of our civilians might die!” Waji nervously presented his concerns.
“A little more respect, all of us are civilians!” the far-right man demanded a different kind of treatment.
“It is the truth!” suppressing a sneer and without moving his head, Waji looked at the councillor from the corners of his eyes.
“I will not stand for this! You come to us with ridiculous claims and no proof to back them up, and abuse our magnanimity to insult us? I could have you flogged for this impudence!” the councillor spoke in an indifferent tone, but the subtext was screaming of hatred and disgust for the Mind-Mage.
“I can show you!” barely affected by the councillor’s outrage and acting a little bored, Waji offered the proof, so harshly demanded of him, without even looking at the man.
“And lure us into a trap?” the councillor effectively accusing the Mind-Mage of treason, while pushing his political agenda in a loud voice.
“I could also show it to Vebjik” motioning to his brawl-companion, Waji offered another way of delivering the information: “or other MORE trusted warriors than myself! If the council would prefer this course of action I am also willing to show it to some soldiers of the CorpseBrigade!”
“I don’t trust any warrior, you lot have no honour, no loyalty, no passion and no love for our tribe! You are basically mercenaries with some fancy tricks! Hell, most of you are not even Chifu!”
“I would volunteer to have a look at it!” one of the standing politicians offered.
“Hah, you are not even a full member of the council, and yet you want to do all the work?! Quite commendable, but it is not your place to do so!” the offer was shot down by the woman sitting next to the warrior-hating man.
“Then you have nothing to lose by letting me go! Also, it is my job as Arbiter to deliver the facts to the council! Isn’t that right Councillor Waef?” the standing woman argued.
With a disapproving frown, the far-right councillor argued: “In theory, you are right my dear Ertzu, but tell me, would you believe the lover of one of these creatures coming to you to repeat the devil’s falsehoods? I don’t think so! No matter the standing you hold in our society, in this specific case, you are simply too biased!”
“Shouldn’t that be ‘Arbiter Ertzu’? Anyway, as I am part of the council proper, me checking this would be within reason, no? Or do you think me a part of this great conspiracy?” after a short pause, the man sitting at the centre of the table offered the right side of the table the best argument they could ever hope for while sporting the slightest of smiles on his face: “After all, Arbiter Ertzu is my daughter, so it would be valid to claim I had vested interest in helping her in her conspiracy to take over the tribe!”
“Of course not! There is not one person more honourable than Officer Hazvi! But a parent’s love for their children can blind them from the truth. I will have to apologize ‘Arbiter’ Ertzu!” Councillor Waef happily obliged but could not resist speaking her title with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
“Then it is decided: I will personally go to check Warrior Waji’s claims!” Officer Hazvi, de facto leader of the council proclaimed.
“But what if it is a trap?” one of the Arbiters voiced their honest concern for the Officer's life.
“Should I die you have all the reason to expel the warriors. Besides that, I will have seven members of the CorpseBrigade with me! Your worry is displaced young man!” not only did Hazvi omit the man’s title, but he also did not even call him by his name, to show that he strongly disagreed with the feasibility of the proposed conspiracy.
After confirming that none of the other four councillors had any other questions Officer Hazvi dismissed the Mind-Mage.
After another four hours, the council’s meeting was concluded, and a group of eleven men and women met to validate Waji’s claim.
The seven Soldiers were marked by a long and eventful life. Even seeing them would put fear into their designated opponents.
The most pleasing to look at was a woman who was only missing her face. The ever-grinning, emotionless façade was eery enough, yet the others were way more terrifying.
One of the three men was hovering in the air, without any limbs attached to his torso. Even though no part of his body was touching the ground, he left the most impressive trails in the sand.
Another man was missing most of his head, only the brain was proudly defying gravity.
But the most terrifying to look at was the woman without any skin on her body. On some parts of her body, everyone who was daring and curious enough could see her ever so slightly pulsating organs held together by an invisible barrier.
In this kind of environment, two of the participants were exchanging an intimate kiss. Ertzu, the Arbiter to the Council, and Vebjik, the handsome Warrior, simply could not care less.
Once the twos’ lips parted the Arbiter reprimanded the Mind-Mage: “Waji, you really shouldn’t tease the councillor! He has a lot of influence, and every time you interact with him, we are losing ground! And that fast!”
“I couldn’t care less. I am sick and tired of playing politics. Besides if those morons don’t see that his agenda is faulty in every single aspect, it may really be better for us to leave.” sadness permeated every single word.
“I actually agree with him on this note. Sweety, you either win the next round, or you leave before they make you. And if the next Councillor to die turns out to be me, you mustn't wait for the time of mourning to pass. You'll have to leave as fast as possible. Now we should not make our guest wait too much longer!” the old Officer advised his daughter.
Coming back to the place of the encounter with his personal nightmare, the Mind-Mage sat down and waited for the rock to act.
After a few seconds, the rock presented itself similarly to how it did so the first time. But this time, it did not try to cover up its actions. Without much of an emotional reaction, the humanoid Mind-Mage invaded the terrifying void of the rock’s soulcastle.
“Hi, there! Did your leaders come to a decision?” the rock greeted its visitor.
“Not yet, the council wants proof of your existence!” very dissatisfied with how it turned out the invader informed the rock about the situation.
“If you try to play games with me, I will electrocute your body and store your mind in a soul-door!” half of the rocks threat was actually a bluff, as it did not possess any souldoors in its current form.
“I am painfully aware of your capabilities, but the council is not!” the humanoid showed no emotional reaction to the threat.
“This would have been so much easier if you simply hooked yourself up on a coordinator’s network!” the rock lamented.
“Sadly, we do not have anything like that in this tribe! It would make many things a lot easier.” explaining thus, the guest wished this conversation would get to the main topic if only to expedite and shorten this suffering.
“I already figured that out! Just tell me what kind of proof they want! A meteor? A sandstorm? Rain?” the rock granted the unvoiced wish of its guest.
“If you could just write some letters of ice into the sand, that would suffice!” informing the elemental of the Officer's demands he mentally prepared for pain.
“How so? One of the people you brought can do so too!” the confused rock demanded an explanation.
“Yeah, but still!” fed up with the whole situation, the fleshy one did not even care to elaborate and willingly chose physical pain over the mental damages he would take develop if this discussion was prolonged indefinitely.
A bolt of lightning struck the humanoid Mind-Mage, strong enough to make his mind aware of the body’s damage, but not strong enough to knock him out.
“I was not joking!” after mentally commanding one of its pets to shoot lighting at its negotiation partner the rock again demanded an explanation.
“Me neither!” again the humanoid denied giving any.
After knocking the other Mind-Mage unconscious, for the second time in two days, the rock began to construct some patterns out of ice. Not being a hundred per cent sold on how a few letters could possibly convince anybody, the rock decided to spice up the presentation a bit.
Made of nothing but sand a clumsily constructed humanoid form rose out of the sand.
It had no features and the limbs were way too thick to be practicable.
On its face appeared words, crafted from ice: “Greetings and Salutations!”
And the humanoids responded.
In front of the poorly crafted sand-creature words, similarly crafted from ice, formed in the sand: “We are ready to pay whatever necessary, in order to be left alone!”
The head of the sand-creature flattened further and grew a few sizes before words of ice appeared on it: “I demand to be granted save passage into the nation, previously known as Queen’s Paradise!”
“We cannot guarantee that!”
“I can, and all I need is a humanoid escort, as a guise so to speak!”
The reply had the rock waiting. Mostly because two of the humanoids were arguing:
“I can do it!” Ertzu, Arbiter to the Council immediately offered.
“Why? You should stay here. With me! Let this be done by one of the warriors!” Warrior Vebjik, Ertzu's husband did not like the idea.
“I am doing this for us! You know full well that if we don’t get one of ours into the council, all of us might get banished! I think it is much safer to just support this endeavour and get some achievements under our belts when the alternative is running through the desert with a hundred-odd people! Besides, you are out of your mind if you think the Councillors would entrust such a mission to a Warrior. An arbiter will have to go along, so better me than one of the others!” Ertzu raised her eyebrows and inclined her head ever so slightly to the right.
“If it really makes that much of a difference, what makes you think that they’ll let you go?”
“I will argue that she already bonded with the elemental!” the Councillor proposed.
After this exchange, the arguing Warrior wrote more ice letters: “How many do you need?”
Ice-patterns formed on the sand-creatures deformed face: “Preferably only one! But they need to be able to communicate with me!”
After another short pause, more words appeared in the sand: “I hope you are not in a rush! It will take at least two years until we are close enough to the nation. Taking a save path while moving the whole tribe takes time!”
“I already wasted a lot of time, so a few more years are nothing to me?” as the rock realised that Waji, the Mind-Mage, began to stir again, more letters appeared on the screen: “If you wish for it, I can teach your mindfucker-friend a trick or two.”
“He is actually well versed in his trade!”
“If you say so!?”
“But I bet I could learn a thing or two from one such as you!”
“We will see!”
"The council has to convene a second time, but it is only a formality. Afterwards, you will be given the status of a temporary member of this tribe."
The council held a heated discussion, but all the politicians knew that it was only for show and only served to indoctrinate the Arbiters. The decision was irreversible.
“So you’d rather see the tribe destroyed than escorting a sapient being for two short years?! On top of that, it needs none of our resources and could be of help.” Officer Hadzvi began to conclude the discussion.
“Of course not, but there ought to be another way!” the woman to the Officer's left argued.
“There is not! Which means this topic is decided!”
And so, the rock came to live with a tribe of desert-folk for a few short years.
