Almost twenty years had passed since the Ascendril had created links to the Elemental Planes of Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit and anchored these channels to their Master Crystal in order to restore the elemental imbalance plaguing the Prime Material due to the actions of Severn, the Manipulator. Though the bonds had thus far endured, the unending orbit of the planes on the Planar Spiral - still damaged despite the ongoing work of the Abyssal - all but guaranteed eventual failure.

Said failure manifested in the form of planar misalignnment late in the Year 500. The Ascendril felt a sudden onset of heat, followed by a violent ringing in their ears before all moisture seemed leached from their bodies, leaving them parched and dry. Czcibor, Jhura, and Orunmila immediately rushed to examine the Master Crystal, finding it spinning wildly on its axis and blasting intense, blinding strobe lights with every revolution it made.

Despite their panicked, fearful reactions, Iernos, the Eidolon of Spirit and tutor to the Ascendril Order, remained calm. Though the channels had fragmented, the situation was less dire than first imagined -- an inevitable misalignment, Iernos explained, owing to the nature of the Elemental Planes, and one that could be easily resolved. This "routine maintenance" as the Eidolon called it, was to be expected, and it would not be the last time the Ascendril would need to carry out the recalibration. Only Spirit's channel remained in tact, the element of order having seamlessly repaired its own fault.

Czcibor lead the charge under Iernos's careful guidance, channeling directly into the crystal and willing it to begin realigning with the Plane of Water. Jhura and Orumila lent their own magical prowess to the effort and while the mages' work began haphazardly, either by channelling too much or too little, Water eventually acquiesced. Fire soon followed suit, the Ascendril gaining confidence in the task at hand and channeling with much greater acuity than before. Two of the three were mended.

Turning their attention to the link to Air, the first attempt at re-binding the channel met inexplicable failure, the capricious and fickle element resisting the bond. Not unexpected, Iernos assured them, given the nature of Air, and bid them to continue. The second effort, too, met failure, and the Eidolon simply bid them to try again - though his air of calm serenity had begun to falter, and he mused aloud at the effects that touching the open channel so many times could have.

Determined to succeed on their third attempt, Czcibor and his accompanying mages exerted their full will upon the burgeoning link, and as the Master Crystal returned to its fixed, familiar position with a soft 'click', victory seemed at hand. Yet no celebration came - howling winds poured out of the crystal and washed over Czcibor, encircling him in a tempest of raw power. Gasping for breath, the mage staggered as bolts of lightning formed and raw elemental air took him as a vessel for its power. The Archmage found himself in agony, overwhelmed with the massive volumes of raw energy, as Iernos's collected calm fully shattered - replaced with panic

The links had been fixed, but Czcibor had paid a dire price - bathed in pure air in incalcuable volumes, his balance had been thrown into utter disarray, and death seemed inevitable. The Eidolon wove a shield of spirit around the Archmage in an effort to stymie the worst of the symptoms, but a more permanent solution would be required. There were two ways of fixing an imbalance, Iernos explained: reducing the excess, or increasing the rest to compensate. The latter suggestion seemed absurd - Czcibor could barely withstand the exposure he had already suffered.

Efforts to consult with the Teradrim - those most recently versed in the restoration of an elemental imbalance - only seemed to support Iernos's more radical suggestion. Sheryni explained that the Warband had concentrated their efforts on bringing more earth - and materials associated with it - into the Prime, thus mending the imbalance by increasing the volume of earth instead of reducing the other elements' prominence. And thus the course seemed set.

Iernos directed Czcibor toward the elemental vortex in Mournhold, theorising that the concentrated presence of raw elemental energy would repair the imbalance by greater exposure to the non-air elements - or kill him outright. The shield of spirit protecting the Archmage was strengthened, and Czcibor set off for Mournhold, in agony all the while. Jhura and Orunmila cautiously watched from the sidelines as the vortex reacted to the vast, concentrated amounts of raw air. The elements ripped Czcibor to pieces in moments, spraying sanguine droplets everywhere and shredding flesh to ribbons of ruined tissue.

Death claimed him, then, yet despite a broken body, the mind of the Archmage remained fully whole. Strength continued to suffuse him, somehow - either the lingering presence of air or the sheer might rampaging in the form of the vortex. Reaching out with thought and resolve, Czcibor found himself able to sense every fragmented modicum of his being and, with a tremendous exertion of will, forced them to come together.

Bones reforged under the Archmage's iron command, skin and muscle and organs knit back together, and as his heart jolted back into motion and his eyes snapped open, gone was the excess of air, instead bolstered with torrents of roaring fire, surging water, and ever-implacable earth.

Consciousness returned and the Archmage rose - now a living conduit of unrefined, raw elemental power. Transformed, Czcibor was no more. In his place stood Czcienn Svin - the first mortal in the modern era to survive exposure to the raw elements. A Sagani: a perfect, harmonious fusion of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water.

Penned by my hand on Tisday, the 2nd of Midsummer, in the year 500 MA.
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