FARHAYVEN: VENGEANCE by S. K. Ng Page B

his finger tips. Thus encouraged, he continued for another half an hour while Ray took a nap under a shady tree. At the end of the session, though, Lance had to dip his fingers in the cool waters of the small river as he felt that they were on fire. Ray walked over and told him not to worry. He said that it was normal for beginners to accidentally burn their fingertips because they did not yet know how to control the soul energy that they had brought forth.
     
         Ray sat down beside Lance and began to explain the nature and limitations of Elemental Sorcery. Elemental Sorcery, Ray explained, was the knowledge of drawing raw energy from the soul and shaping that energy into one of the five elements of nature; namely fire, water, earth, wind and mind. As the drawing of energy from the soul would have weakened it, a normal human being could only draw enough energy to execute the equivalent of nine ‘basic spells’ in a day without harming himself. A Heat Burst Spell, which was the flaming sphere that Lance had seen Ray execute, was one such basic spell. If an Elementhar has used up too much soul energy, he would experience what was called ‘soul depletion’, which could eventually lead to death. Lance was a little shocked to find out that Elemental Sorcery had such a restrictive limit. He was under the impression that it was limitless. Ray then said to him that nothing in the universe was ever limitless.
     
         Ray then explained to Lance that an ‘intermediate spell’ was equivalent to three basic spells and an ‘advanced spell’ would require the same amount of energy as three intermediate spells or nine basic spells. If an Elementhar was in direct physical contact with the natural element of his sorcery, he would be able to extract a small amount of energy from it, thereby making him stronger or increasing his energy recovery rate.
     
         Ray then said that Elementhars could store their excess soul energy into gemstones by touching them and wilfully transferring their energy into them. Therefore the gemstones acted as storage devices for excess soul energy. The Elementhars could then draw the stored energy from these gemstones when they needed them. Normally, an Elementhar would have these gemstones set into bracelets, headbands, necklaces or vambraces which they wore. These items were then known as ‘Reservers’. Rubies were used to store the fire element form of soul energy while brown diamonds, white diamonds and sapphires were used for the earth, wind and water elements respectively. The golden beryl gems were used for the mind element.
     
         Ray then mentioned that gemstones were also used to create what was known as a ‘Sorcerised Item’. A Sorcerised Item was an object that could absorb soul energy, therefore it was used like a shield. The Sorcerised Item would require all five types of gemstone to be set into it using Elemental Sorcery. Each gemstone would function by absorbing the form of soul energy it was associated with, with the exception of the white diamond, which also absorbed ‘dark energy’. Dark energy was the soul energy of demons. Demons would normally condense their dark energy into black, shiny energy spheres, called Dark Orbs, and ‘shoot’ them at their enemies or prey.
     
         Finally, Ray explained that Elementhars could extract and reuse the soul energy that had been absorbed by the gemstones in a sorcerised item. However, he stressed that if a white diamond has absorbed dark energy, an Elementhar must never try to extract energy from it; otherwise he would be possessed by the dark energy and would either lose his sanity, transform into a demon or both. A white diamond, upon turning completely black from the saturation of dark energy, must be carefully removed and buried. Any physical contact with a saturated ‘black diamond’ could lead to dark energy possession. Lance contemplated with utter seriousness Ray’s explanation as he dipped his