The Five Calamities

Chapter Three

The Calamity could hear, and see though hazily, what was happening to its chosen vessel. The boy seemed so shaken that the Calamity found it very easy to whisper into his mind.

That was one of the benefits of being trapped in a Reality Ring - it formed a connection between the holder and the Calamity. Although the connection worked mostly one way, allowing the holder to draw power from the Calamity, throughout the years, as different holders came and went, the Calamity of Water had found a way to make the connection work the other way round.

The Calamity of Water was nothing but patient, ancient and meticulous. Among the Five Calamities, it was the most devious and cunning. However, that was its internal construction, on the outside, it had the most innocent demeanor anyone ever had. A façade to hide its insatiable hunger. After all, still waters run deep.

The Calamity saw as the people around its vessel accused the boy of poisoning the rivers, and almost laughed. 'Humans can be such entertaining fools sometimes...'

The fat human next to the boy spoke something that made the human boy, Ahlan, feel an amount of rage that would have made the Calamity of Fire proud.

"...summon the Calamity and ask it how to fix our problems..." The fat prince was saying.

The Calamity was sure the boy did not know the words to say to summon it, and knew what pleasure it would be for it to assist the boy prove his innocence just so that it could drown the pathetic kingdom itself.

"Calm on the surface... Raging storm beneath... The gluttonous devourer...' The Calamity whispered into the mind of the boy as a lover would whisper sweet words in the ears of their lover. 'Say those words and I shall answer you...'

The Calamity saw the boy hesitate but the fat human said something to him that had the boy roll his hands into fists so tight that his knuckles turned white. And then the Calamity saw it - the look one makes when he discovers he has been betrayed by that which he trusted most, the look of overwhelming despair and seething anger being cooked in hell's couldron of desirable revenge.

The Calamity stood on the surface of the calm waters and waited. It had the patience of a river that traveled for miles without worrying about where it ended up. And just as it had been waiting for three millennia to be freed from its watery purgatory, it would wait a bit more for the boy to finally say the words it wanted to hear.

The Calamity saw the boy take a breath and opened his mouth to speak the words that would free it.

'At last...' The Calamity said and dove into the water without making a ripple to disturb the perfectly calm surface, and plunged into the raging storm beneath the waters that were shaking the ocean floor.

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Ahlan took a breath and unfurled his fists at his sides, and looked at the people before him. His eyes set in determination to see the downfall of this wretched kingdom, he cleared his mind and went to the place that he could enter mentally.

"Calm on the surface..." He said and felt the world shift around him. Opening his eyes, he saw he was back in his dreamspace, but the Calamity was nowhere to be seen.

He found himself standing on the surface of the water that was so perfectly calm, it seemed to be made of glass. He looked around him, noticing how his feet made no ripple on the water's surface.

'Go on and finish the words, Ahlan...' He heard the water whisper again.

Steadying himself with a deep intake of breath, he said the next part. "Raging storm beneath..."