Silverclaw

The Diamond Capsule

 Anya stood on the highest point of the mountain and turned slowly, looking for signs of what she needed. It was impossible, however, as the entire plateau was covered in greenery. She sighed, hating that she would have to do this, and lifted her hands as her eyes shone brown.

 The ground shook wildly beneath her as the trees pulled up their roots and walked away from her, their roots writhing as they went. Once the last tree was gone from the plateau, Anya's eyes turned pale blue, and a harsh wind swept the land around her, clearing it of the centuries of dirt that covered the ground. Finally, she called on the water, turning her eyes dark blue, and used the water to wash the remaining dirt away from the plateau, revealing a mosaic of incredible delicacy and intricacy beneath where she now hovered in the air.

 With the first of her tasks completed, Anya lowered herself onto the mosaic, sinking to her knees briefly in exhaustion, gasping for breath as the intensity of her use of Silver sapped her strength. Digging in her belt pouch, she pulled out some dried strips of meat and tore into them with her teeth, eating them quickly but neatly. Swallowing, she followed the food with some water from her flask before pushing herself upright again.

 Dragging in a deep breath, she pulled her belt dagger out and used it to prick one of her fingertips, allowing a few drops of blood to flow from the cut. The drops floated around her, gradually picking up speed until they were spinning at such a high speed that they appeared blurred, creating a ring of red around her. With a shout, she threw her hands up, and the ring flew upwards into the sky; quickly disappearing from sight.

 Anya waited, her eyes and hands lifted to the sky, until a massive thwump reached her ears. She smiled briefly, and then started to float upwards until she was high above the ground. She was still moving upwards when she caught sight of what she searched for, a large, see-through lump of glass that hovered directly over the plateau. Cracks ran through it, smeared with red, and she waved a hand over it, removing the smears so that she could see into the glass, which she could now see was actually pure diamond.

 Inside the crystal was a woman, incredibly old and fragile. The woman stared at her with blinded eyes that could not see, and yet, she somehow knew that Anya was there, reaching out and touching the diamond close to where Anya floated. Anya placed her hand opposite to the woman's, and something passed between them, an understanding as to just whom exactly the woman was.

 A tear ran down each woman's cheek, and Anya let her eyes drift shut briefly before opening them again. This time, her eyes were pure silver, shifting around as if it was truly alive. The cracks in the diamond widened, the reverberations growing louder and louder as Anya's Silver worked its way through several millennia of growth, until, finally, it broke open and the woman fell forward into Anya's arms.

 'I'm sorry,' Anya whispered, just as the woman whispered 'Thank you.'

 The woman's body crumbled to dust, just as the diamond did. Tears flowed freely down Anya's cheeks as she drifted back down to the ground. Once there, she sobbed freely, feeling the loss of the woman she had known was her ancestor keenly in her heart.

 It was a while later when Darian and the others found her, curled up in the centre of the mosaic plateau. She was shivering keenly in her sleep, and Darian frowned as he carefully picked her up, turning to walk back down to the ruined remains of the village below, although he suspected that it would have completely disappeared by the time they got there. Amelie walked next to him, her hand on Anya's ankle as she channelled energy into her friend. Darian slowed slightly to make it easier for her to keep up with him as he reached the edge of the plateau and stepped out onto the disc of light that he had used to bring them up the mountainside, leaving Dievra, Okril and Iris behind to examine the remains of the diamond.

 Dievra bent over to pick up one of the shards, and dropped it again when the sharp edges cut into her fingers, the shard and her blood falling to the plateau beneath them. She and Okril glanced at each other, and Okril used his Silver to lift the shard so they could examine it. The shard glinted in the light as it rotated slowly before them, and Dievra finally nodded.

 'You know what it is Lady Dievra?'

 'I do, Okril. It is a diamond capsule, of a kind I have never seen before.'

 Iris blinked. 'A diamond capsule? How is that possible?'

 Dievra looked over at her. 'With Silver, Lady Firestorm, anything is possible. A diamond capsule is exactly as the name describes it. It is created when a Silver user of great power requires a receptacle of sorts to place their power in to keep a spell going for however long it is required for. They are only used for the most important of spells, due to the high cost of the user.'

 Iris met her gaze calmly. 'And what is that price, Lady Dievra?'

 Dievra didn't answer her. Instead, it was Okril who spoke. 'The price is imprisonment inside the capsule for the rest of time or until the capsule is destroyed, Lady Firestorm. You age, yes, but you cannot die, and as such your spells are preserved for the rest of time. Only those descended from the original spell weaver can break it, however.'

 Iris's eyes widened in shock. 'Then... this capsule would have held...'

  'Yes. Her Majesty's ancestor, Princess Anastasia Castros. The mother of her line. And Her Majesty had to break the diamond that had grown around her in order to break the spells that she had cast.'

 Looking down at the crystal shards, Iris finally felt that she understood what her friend and leader had had to do. She swallowed nervously at the thought of the power Anya must have had to use to break the capsule. 'So... so what happens now, Lady Dievra?'

 'Now, Anya recovers. Once she has, she will open the Portal and the Elvish army will walk this world once more. Only this time, we walk it on the side of the humans that our Queen cares for with all her heart.'