Something was calling to me; a song, plaintive and insistent, had woken me from sleep and brought me outdoors. The music drew me towards it as I walked in the dark of the predawn Anwyn. Droplets of water from the trees overhead echoed the rhythm. The music brought me to the river Rhône, and I sat down on its bank. "Who are you?" I asked. "Why have you summoned me?" The steady rush of the water's flow slowed and then halted. Impossibly, the water was still before me, as if its source was newly dammed. Directly before me, the water level began falling until the black soil of the river's bed was revealed. "Come, join me down here, Magus," sang a voice of tremendous beauty and strength, the singer unseen. Warily, I looked around and took a breath. Sirens and Ondines targeted wizards for death and murdered then in the water's depths; however, I'd spent enough time beneath the waves to have little fear of them. Rather than assuming an aquatic form, I cast a spell that created a net of oxygen around my head and affixed an etheric tether around my waist, securing it on a nearby oak. Should some entity attack me, I could easily extract myself. Climbing down the bank, I stepped gingerly among the rocks and algae of the river's floor. Once I reached the center, I called out, "I'm here! Tell me what you need!" Dark waters encircled my feet. Female forms rose from the water, shimmering in the first rays of sunrise. I saw four women standing around me, made of water and light, yet still somehow substantial. Their voices rose in a chorus. "Our love and reason for being has been stolen from us, Magus." They sang, as my head swam with melody and my heart filled with beauty. "You and the Guild must aid us, for if it is not restored, we will die and so too will the Rhône and the life it sustains." "What has been stolen? By whom?" I asked. The music intoxicated me and I clutched at my tether, resisting the urge to dive into the water with the Maidens. "The Infernal Ones," they sang. "They have crept into the waters and taken the Egg from our depths, the Elixir, that so essential and necessary item!" The Maidens' language and minds weren't like mine: the melody told the story more than the words, and I needed more concrete details than what they offered. "Use the waters," I implored them. "Show me who stole from you and what they took. The Maidens stood in a line before me and coalesced into a single wave. The waters then created a cinema for me: I watched dwarf-like creatures swim to the source of the Rhône and extract something sparkling from the depths. The Rhône became stagnant, then a swamp, and finally a sewer. "I will help you!" I called out. "I will do everything I can! The Rhône must survive." The Maidens emerged again from the waves and cheered me. I promised them everything, and then dragged myself back up the bank, trembling and overwhelmed. The waters rushed back in to fill the absence, and in a moment the river flowed again, like no miracles had disrupted it. I dissolved my tether and popped my oxygen net, reabsorbing the energy.

Magus Juan is drawn into the world of Elementals in this fantasy adventure story, continuing the saga of Gemini and the Wizard Guild