“A prevalent method of using mana involves the use of the caster’s own body as the catalyst for a spell. Such a method brings much danger. For example, a slight mishap when executing a complex spell could lead to the death of the caster or cause their mana reserves to be completely exhausted. To lessen this ever-present threat, casters turn to Magic circles.

Magic circles come in many forms, each built for its respective spell. However, they all share one similarity: ‘Tilla’, or ‘stabilization circle’ which is a crucial part of any magic circle. It is positioned at the outer edge of the circle and ensures that the mana safely makes its way within the circle.”

An excerpt from ‘Workings of a Magic Circle: Book 1’

----------------------------------------

The book that Holt had given me was, interesting even if most words I didn’t understand. Thankfully, those words would be explained by the book, but some weren’t explained at all. And annoyingly enough, Holt wasn’t around for me to ask questions.

It was starting to get boring too.

I had been stuck in this space for a while, I wasn’t sure how long and looking at the ‘pages’ all the time was annoying. Not that I disliked learning, I just needed something else to do.

Like... making a magic circle...

I looked over at the elevated surface which was called a ‘desk’ where one of the moving parts contained the white stick. However, there were two problems, Holt disliked whenever I got too close to any of its things and the desk was far too tall for me.

I stared hard at the desk, annoyed about my own height before I gave up and simply went back to reading.

Except I heard a rattling sound before the blocked entrance opened and in stepped Eline who moved towards me after closing the entrance.

“Good evening, Eclipse!”

And just like that I was picked up and placed close to Eline for just a moment before it let me down lowering itself as well.

“It must be boring here reading that book, sooo even though Holt doesn't want you to exit his room, how about I take you with me on my patrol?”

But...

I wanted to make a magic circle, and I didn’t exactly know what a ‘patrol’ was. But from what I understood, I would finally be able to leave the room.

So, I moved right, signaling I wanted to come with it.

“Did Holt tell you to do that? I’m not sure what that means but I’m taking you anyways!”

And just like that I was picked up once again, however this time I was facing outwards instead of towards Eline’s shell and Eline only used one of its limbs to keep me still along its shell.

I’m starting to think that it’s normal for these creatures to hold other creatures...

“Oh, right Holt doesn’t want Zolton to find out about his literature collection. I would put the book back... but that damn illusion ward makes it difficult!”

Eline used its other appendages to pick up the open maroon book, closing it.

“Hm, what to do with you?”

Eline was quiet for a moment before letting the book drop, making a thudding sound which startled me.

“Oh well, not my fault Holt didn’t have a method of hiding the book if Zolton had walked in. Wait if Zolton had walked in, he would’ve seen you too Eclipse! I swear, Holt can be so dumb sometimes.”

Zolton did see me already, so I didn’t see the reason it would be bad for Zolton to see me again.

But I know I don’t want to see it again... I could still feel that voice scratching in my mind.

Deciding it's not that important, I simply focused on the fact that Eline was starting to take me back into the tunnel.

“We’re going to stop by the cells cause I haven’t ate yet so be ready to meet a lot of new faces!”

And just like that, Eline moved down the dark tunnel after closing the entrance. Compared to Holt’s smooth way of moving, Eline moved roughly and quickly, which was uncomfortable, but manageable.

Thankfully, the quickness of Eline made it so that the plain tunnel passed by quickly allowing me to see the large room with the large magical circle.

“Alright it's going to be a little cramped, but I’ll be fast.”

Eline suddenly stopped and using its other limb, opened its... shell? I watched in fascination as the insides of Eline were shown, they were matte gray with splotches of black and red. Yet as I was pushed against the insides, I felt the same texture of the outer shell.

Did Eline have two shells?

I was certain that what I was feeling wasn’t Eline’s exoskeleton as that was far squishier.

I wasn’t even sure if the limbs are made from an exoskeleton, exoskeletons are hard, not squishy... But Eline wasn’t drying up, so, was it an exoskeleton?

Whatever creatures these were, they were strange.

Eline closed its shell, but I thankfully was still able to see as my head was in the part where Eline’s orifice was. I momentarily tried looking into the darkness of the orifice since I was so close, however there was only darkness.

So instead, I looked over to where the other red blobs were as Eline made its way through the room. Some of the red blobs were dragging a grey blob and bringing it to the middle where a small pile of grey blobs sat, squirming around.

“Eline! We have enough, we don't need more offerings.”

I heard a voice call out from the distance; it had a nice low tone to it. I tried to look at what creature the voice belonged to, however Eline turned slightly, not allowing me to see the creature.

“Oh me? I’m just getting some food before I go on patrol.”

Eline started to slow down.

“You’re going on patrol? We are about to start the summoning.”

“Zolton wants me to go on patrol because we found remains of a camp not too far from the entrance.”

“Oh, I’ll let you go on your way then, good luck with the patrol!”

With that Eline made a weird noise as it raised its free limb and moved it back and forth.

“Yeah, good luck with the summoning!”

And with that Eline once again increased its speed and we made it to another tunnel, this one however had dark red streaks on the floor.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“That was close, damn Furtian that curious bastard. Oh well now at least I know that there shouldn’t be anyone near the cells.”

I was let out of Eline’s shell, but still was in its hold as we continued down the tunnel until we reached a wall with a blocked entrance.

Opening it I heard some sort of noise, like a hiss of sorts alongside shuffling and a constant dripping.

“Sorry Eclipse, it might be a bit dark for you.”

It wasn’t too dark; I just couldn’t see the details of objects.

The room was large, there were thick gray reflective sticks reaching from the floor to the ceiling on either side of the room leaving a spacious middle section. There were times where the sticks stopped and a gray wall was in its placed, but then the sticks would continue in the same pattern. I wasn’t sure if it continued like this for the entire room as it blurred in the distance.

Eline moved into the room, and I immediately felt a shiver as the temperature dropped and the air felt damp. Eline’s movement was slow as it spun its orifice back and forth looking at the other side of the gray sticks.

Interested, I looked and saw that there were strange ugly creatures on the other side which shivered constantly. Well not all of them, some of them were perfectly still.

They had interesting forms, they seemed to all be of the same species and had a similar form to Eline’s species, however they didn’t have a dark red shell. Though some did have a similar inner shell as Eline, however they were far more yellow and were flat. Their limbs were also more noticeable as a similar exoskeleton like Eline’s was shown.

They varied in size; some looked like they wouldn’t be much bigger than me, while others seemed as tall as Holt. But it was hard to tell since most of them were near the ground.

They only had two forward facing eyes, and I didn’t see any antennas or mandibles. However, they did have some fur on top of what I assumed was their heads. Some had fur that was long and some that was short.

Their eyes held so many emotions I wasn’t familiar with, but two had eyes that were dull and lustrous.

There are about... twelve of these creatures?

I wasn’t sure as we didn’t reach the end of the room as Eline stopped in front of a pair of these creatures. And then I was placed down on the ground, which was colder than the air, and I heard some sort of ugly noise from one of the two creatures.

“I shouldn’t take too long, just wait here k?”

I moved a bit to the right as I looked in interest at what Eline was going to do.

Eline in turn moved towards the sticks separating the creatures from us. I looked on as one of the creatures raised itself to its full height, it was only slightly taller than Eline. Its eyes were filled with emotion. The other creature stayed low to the ground and hid its face with its limbs.

Eline in the meantime moved the sticks in a wide swinging motion causing a long creak and whine to sound out. The creature at its full height reacted immediately, it let out a loud sound as it moved quickly at Eline.

Eline didn’t move for a moment, before it raised one of its limbs and its appendages wrapped around the neck of the creature silencing it thankfully.

“Hey can you wait? I’m not here for you, you wouldn’t taste as good.”

There was a sound of the creature trying to inhale alongside the sound of its lower limbs being dragged along the hard rough floor as Eline walked closer to the other creature.

The other creature in turn seemed to stop making the strange ugly noises, and I saw some movement from its limbs, but Eline’s form was hiding the details. I heard a thud and saw that Eline had released the creature it had been holding in its appendages. However, it did move part of its lower body on top of the creature, and I could see the creature squirm more. Eline in turn slightly lowered itself and grabbed onto what I assumed was the other creature.

“Just don’t scream k? It hurts my ears.”

And then Eline moved a bit more. And I could see the limbs of the other creature twitch once, twice, and then stop entirely.

“NO! PLEASE!”

I heard the hoarse voice from one of the creatures, I was assuming it was from the one on the ground as it had started to squirm more. Behind me I could hear some sharp inhales, or shaky exhales.

“Ah that tasted good, do say thanks to her once you join her.”

“ILL FUCKING KILL YOU-”

The creature said before it started struggling to inhale once more.

“Hey, don’t swear, there's a kid here.”

Then some sort of intersecting black stick snaked up the creature’s limbs as it came from the floor itself.

“Though I hate Zolton so much, I’m thankful for him creating this rune for us, makes dealing with troublemakers like you easy.”

And with that Eline turned around with a now skinner creature it held in the grasp of its appendages. I could still see the other creature squirming, but it was silent as the black sticks had covered its head.

Eline came with the limp creature being dragged along the ground and closed the sticks which creaked again.

“Told you it was fast! Now let's get out of this place, the smell here is awful.”

I wasn’t sure if that was true since I couldn’t smell, but this room was making me uncomfortable.

I allowed myself to be picked up and Eline made its way to exit the room with the thin creature joining us, I guess.

Looking at it closely, I saw all kinds of protrusions where its limbs were, however I could no longer see its eyes as Eline appendages were covering it.

Why is it being dragged? I was sure these creatures could move like how Eline moved... Oh, wait this one was on the ground!

There must have been something wrong with it since it wasn’t able to move and now we are going to help it with moving? But where are we moving it? Was it going on this ‘patrol’ with us?

So many questions, but I simply waited.

Thankfully, we were out of the room quickly, I don’t think I would want to go back in there. At least not with Holt or Eline, those other creatures were weird.

Instead of moving back to the large room with the magic circle, we went farther down the tunnel where another blocked entrance sat, this time at the very end. There were muffled sounds of thunking and scraping coming from behind the entrance.

“Don’t make any noises, I won’t need to hide you since Burion doesn’t have eyes, but his hearing is the best there is.”

Why? It's not like I could make any noise... But is there a reason I can’t be heard?

I wasn’t given a chance to think as Eline opened the entrance.

I saw a brightly lit room with strange, intertwined sticks with hooked ends hanging from the ceiling. On some of the hooked ends were these pale chunks while others had sparkling red chunks which dripped a red liquid which added to a dark red spot underneath each chunk.

It was far colder here than in the other room.

“Hey Chef! I brought a fresh one!”

I thought it was Burion...? Oh well Holt was also called Holtan.

I looked at saw a large plump creature which was far bigger than even Holt, it almost touched the very top of the ceiling as it lumbered towards us. It had the same four limbs as the rest of the creatures I had seen, two on the upper body sides, and two on the lower part. But these limbs were like trees. Its exoskeleton was dotted with dark blue marks and had a white and brown shell with red spots; the white part going past the middle of its body.

There were light gray thin rectangular shaped objects tied to a brown strip alongside the middle of its body. One of the rectangular objects was large and had a serrated side, while the others were smaller and had no serration.

I could see why Eline said Burion didn’t have eyes. The top part of its head was missing entirely. Replaced with a stubby white cylinder with creases. I was sure it wasn’t part of Burion’s head as I saw Burion use one of its thick appendages to push it slightly backwards.

“Ah Eline is good to see you again! How have you been?”

Only what I assumed was the mouth was left as Burion bellowed. It wiped its appendages with a white square which turned red quickly, placing the now red square on a long table it used to be at. Below the table, on one side there was a cylinder with an enlarged center which leaked the same red liquid.

On the table itself were red shapes, including cubes, and another large rectangular object without the serration which was slightly in the table.

“I’ve been doing good, I would like to stay, but I have to go on patrol!”

Eline replied.

“Ah I was going to ask for you to try out my new recipe, it has some deer in it, but oh well.”

I watched in disgust as Burion opened its mouth and made it into an upwards crescent showing off a wall of yellow.

“I’ll make sure to stop by afterwards! I just came to give you this!”

Eline sounded excited about this ‘new recipe’ as it used its limb to move the thin creature forwards closer to Burion, who somehow was able to grab it without trouble.

“Wow you must’ve been starving to not even leave a single drop.”

“Yeah, I was, I’m all good now!”

“Thats good to hear, and if you ever feel like your starving, just remember that Zolton never said you can’t drink already spilled blood from the prisoners.”

Burion leaned closer as it spoke quietly and then did another crescent.

“Really? Thank you so much Chef!”

Eline carefully let me down and wrapped its limbs around, or tried to, Burion who in turn wrapped its tree like limbs around Eline.

“Alright I don’t want to keep you from your job so hurry on.”

Burion said as they separated.

“Thanks again Chef!”

Eline quietly and quickly picked me up again making me wonder how good Burion’s hearing was. And off we went out of the room.

After we were far from the entrance of Burion’s room, Eline spoke again.

“That took longer than expected but let's go on the patrol now!”

Finally, though it was kind of fun exploring this side of this place even if it did make me uncomfortable.