With a story as grand as this one, there were many points that could be "the lie". Did I actually kill the pet air elemental? Did I kill the pet air elemental because he went insane? Did he even go insane? Was the child actually from the air elemental? Were we ever at the hotel in the first place? Chasing each thread would only waste some crucial time. Time that I could use to stall and give Zephyr more time to escape. If Ororin did not know what were the actual facts she could start from, she would get nowhere. She looked at me questioningly, but I was not going to volunteer anything. Larry came into the room with Shawn. We both snapped our attention to him. He was startled by that. He asked if everything was alright when he regained composure. I just said "Yeah. I felt bad that the air elemental died. I offered to summon another for Ororin." Larry whistled in appreciation. "That's nice of you, but can I suggest something?" I raised an eyebrow. "We have a whole lot of air elementals here. So many that they keep trying to kill you. Maybe we get a different element and hope they don't notice."
That was actually really smart and astute of him. I looked at Ororin. She sighed and said "He's not a dumb human. He is a lawyer." That was probably the highest praise that she had ever mustered for her husband. I looked in the book and saw that there were indeed variations for all the elements. I asked Larry which one he was thinking about since he came up with the idea. He decided on an earth elemental. I scanned the formulation of the spell. Once I had a good understanding of it, I told her all the ingredients that we needed to get one summoned. Larry and Ororin went out to get them while I drew the circle in their living room. Once they came back, it was time to get to work. I cast the spell and the circle glowed. It took a minute for a figure to materialize inside. Once it was fully formed, we looked at it. It did not like us gawking at it. To be fair, very few creatures would. "Who dares summon a greater earth elemental from their home plane!? You better send me back or face the consequences!" he bellowed in anger. That was a new one. I looked like I had ranked up a bit. Next was a noble.
I looked at him and said "We summoned you here." He banged against the protective barrier of the spell. He really wanted to be sent back. That was not happening though. My spell was strong enough to withstand his massive temper tantrum. Elementals longed to be free on their native plane. That was not in doubt. He would wear out our patience first. Who knew what would happen then? Nothing good, knowing Ororin's temperament. It was never a good ideal to get her mad. "What would you want in return for you to serve Ororin and Larry?" I asked it. It had to want something. The greater earth elemental had to think hard about it. At long last, he gave us his answer. He wanted to eat a very expensive gem. It would be much more expensive than any the air elementals wanted to chow down on. Ororin nodded her head. "Go get the gem and feed it to him." I told her. She nodded and went to the Ethereal Plane. She came back half an hour later. Once the greater earth elemental ate the gem, he was then Ororin's to control. The spell was over and it was time to go. I got away with it all.
