“I’m already dead,” he concluded. “That’s what you’re saying.”
“Essentially,” I answered. “We could all be dead already, as well. There’s nothing we can do.”
“How can you know this is true?”
“We don’t. It’s only hypothetical. And while there’s scientific precedent, this is something never before ventured. You would be the first recorded and verified case of clairvoyance. Besides the Merlin, who supposedly saw the future and could do nothing about it, you’re the next closest thing to his achievements.”
“Then I’m truly dead.”
Padrict looked down at his open palms, as if he was watching the reigns of his life slipping, like sand, through his fingers. Trying to clutch at them would be as effective as holding soup with a fork. Expressions flashed, from incredulity to agony. He was doing his darndest to hold back the tears, and he managed to do at least that much, while his eyes turned into shiny, reddish porcelain.
We simply waited for him to come to peace with his terrible fate. This also went for everyone in the small circle. Not a single person standing before him had any say over their destiny. Our futures were so intimately intertwined with his that everything, that was to happen from the moment he cast his spell all the way to his death, was already a done deal.
“I did this to you,” he finally responded.
“Yes,” I said, without trying to beat around the bush.
“How could I be so stupid?”
There was no point in arguing his stupidity, we would not be able to convince him that it didn’t matter, whether he knew or not. All we could do now is move on ever forward.
“What’s done is done,” I said. “Are you gonna take responsibility for this or are you gonna take the coward's way out?”
He looked at me, stupefied.
“Suicide? If my fate is sealed, then I die by Council, not by my own hands.”
“If your fate is sealed, then you don’t die to the dragon. So, you must fight it.”
Confusion was quickly overshadowed by a new emotion. He looked at every single one of us. I could see an inkling of hope behind it all.
“Are you going to make up for your mistakes and fight? Are you going to repay your meddling with something greater? I only see one option before you, Padrict. So, fight with us.”
“You? You’ll fight the dragon?”
“If that is our fate…”
“You can’t. You’ll die.”
“If that is my fate,” I repeated, this time with power behind it, “I will die doing what’s right.”
“You don’t know if that’s your fate!”
“Then it won’t be! If I try to fight the dragon and fate doesn’t allow it, then so be it. But if I must fight, then I will be ready. If I die or if I live. That is what will become of me, but I won’t die a coward.”
“I won’t let him die a coward either,” said Tedet, walking to me and standing beside me.
Tedet’s hand found my shoulder and our camaraderie must have blinded the wizard because he turned his face away, wincing.
“You must fight,” I changed my tactic. “You unleashed this dragon. Now, you must kill it.”
“Not if it must put others’ lives at risk.”
“You no longer get to decide that. Fate has chosen for you, and it chose us.”
His fist clutched his suit; I could see his palm turning white.
“Promise me you won’t die,” he begged.
“I promise you we’ll do our best to live. We won’t become careless just because our fate is sealed.”
Padrict shook his head and after a few seconds, he turned to stare at us, with newfound determination shining through them.
To me, it looked like we had just given the protagonist of a story, the fated one, the encouragement he needed to fight evil, once again. Padrict had seen his life turn upside down and understood the folly of our stubbornness, but he, like the rest of us, had hit rock bottom. Life seemed brighter when you were surrounded by darkness, but only when you dared look at it.
“I’ll fight,” he said, resolute. “I’ll right my wrongs. Even if I must die for my sins, I will pay for them seven-fold, with my actions, while I live.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” said Tedet.
I thought for a moment he was referring to Padrict, but he was looking at me when he said those words. Regardless, I decided not to mull over his words and returned to the matter at hand. Now that we were done explaining to Padrict what lay ahead of him, it was time to talk about the biggest issue: the dragon. Whatever our fates were, all we had to hope was that the dragon’s fate was sealed, and his death was determined as well.
There was not much of a plan to make. We agreed that, if the vampirids and the Faery knew something, they were most likely keeping tabs on Padrict and the object of his investigation, whatever it would have been. If they didn’t know about the dragon, and even if they missed the dragon entering Sovail, they would soon find out about it and they would act faster than the Council would. Faery were not the bureaucratic type.
The plan was simple, really. We would arrive back on Sovail and have Martin call Misa and Grikhat, in the meantime, Padrict would perform a tracking spell using the scale we took. I was glad that the scale was going to be more useful than we thought; I did not put my life at risk simply for a little bit of evidence to the Council… one that we might not even need if we were to kill the dragon. But, alas, the scale was useful.
“Misa,” began Martin. “Are you sure you want to get her involved? She’s not a wizard.”
“Honestly, I wish I didn’t,” I answered. “But I would say the same about Tedet.”
“You’re taking me with you.”
I nodded and shrugged towards Martin.
“This is our contract. Misa is far more capable than you think she is. She’s made me promise to call her when we need help. And I can’t think of the team splitting up now when we need more hands on deck.”
“You think she’s capable, but not me,” he pressured.
I shook my head. “This isn’t a conversation we’re having. Misa can fight; you cannot. You will only hinder us if we need to defend you. So, let it go.”
He tried speaking but I interrupted him. I would not let Martin continue this conversation any further. The decision was made.
“I’m more concerned about Grikhat, I just don’t want to drag her again.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Tedet said. “We’ll need to stock up with weapons and tools before we fight this dragon. It’ll take about an hour or two. Plenty of time to let me have a conversation with her. She’ll say yes, I’m sure of it. You can count on the Galieta family, Ed. You’re part of our circle, now.”
Part of the circle, he said. To anyone who doesn’t know about radera culture, it would seem like a simple comment of camaraderie; however, to me, knowing what it means to be part of a circle, Tedet was confessing both of them saw me as something akin to a brother for humans. They were adopting me as a family member, in a manner of speaking. I was as much a part of their lives as they were to themselves and even their children. This wasn’t something to simply be happy about, this was a full commitment.
I stared down at Tedet's eyes and something in me stirred. It wasn’t the soul gaze, it was something else. It was similar to what I feel when I stare at Martin’s eyes. I knew what it was, but it was that moment of recognition in me that made it complete. Tedet had never told me outright, but I was sure both, he and his girlfriend, had already had this conversation and accepted me in his circle; I was the last piece of the puzzle, they only needed to confess it to me or even ask me if I was willing to do it.
How could I say no?
In a way, you could say I was being asked on a date— Nay! I was being proposed to marriage! There was no question in it, as to be expected by Tedet. Maybe he was wondering when to bring it up or even was nervous to even ask me.
I could see it on his face as it turned green. He became anxious.
“Loedthgeyr,” I recited.
“Sorry, I should’ve talked about this. I just didn’t know when to bring it up.”
I shook my head and a smile drew across my face.
I heard Martin gasp an exclamatory surprise while he covered his mouth. He was just as surprised as I am. Given his relationship with Hayier, I’m sure he was aware of what it meant to officially become part of someone’s circle, a family circle, no less.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
“You’re embarrassed,” I finally spoke. “You’re nervous! I can’t believe this.”
“Come on,” he replied. “This isn’t how I wanted to bring it up. It just slipped.”
But the yellow color kept flashing as he tried controlling his feelings. He quickly shifted from making eye contact to turning away. This was the first time I saw Tedet react this way.
“I was thinking of inviting you to eat with us. That’s when we’d bring it up. I didn’t think I’d screwed it up like this…”
I smiled again and placed my hand on his pseudo-shoulders and gave him a cracking slap that made my hand hurt more than it would Tedet’s shoulder. I sucked up the pain and gave myself the strongest poker smile before I spoke again.
“I’ll be happy to eat with you two.”
Tedet turned red and his voice box made a small croaking sound of agreement. No more words were needed for him to understand what I meant by that. We’d wait for the day we’d eat together, and then both of them would propose to me to become loedthgarn.
“I can count on you and Grikhat for this fight, then,” I concluded, to which Tedet agreed with a croak.
There was not much of a plan to think about. We’d brainstorm ideas but we could not think too much about it. Plans on attacking the dragon by surprise. Using storing stones to blast it, with as much firepower, from the start, to reduce its hit points as much as possible. I was thinking along the lines of video games, but we were on the same page regardless of what kind of analogy I was using.
We agreed to use a surprise attack with a lot of magic power as our starting plan. After that, it was going to be hard to come up with something that would work. After all, it’s not like our plans survive contact with the enemy. Whatever we were to plan, it was surely to be discarded the instant we did anything at all. Still, planning something gave us piece of mind and we decided to use the rest of the days going back to Sovail to come up with more ideas — contingency plans.
I am not an imaginative person. I would come up with a plan to hit it hard and hit it ‘til it dies. I’ll let others, like Padrict, use their expertise in thinking outside the box to come up with something. Tedet might not be an imaginative person, but he was the one to suggest making our own repair shop, so he already was a few points ahead of me.
----------------------------------------
The days went by and thanks to the presence of two wizards, this time, it was impossible for us to receive radio signals. Whatever was happening in Sovail we were completely ignorant of it. But that didn’t matter to us at the moment. Our objective and biggest concern was currently on its way to our home planet, whatever else was happening there was secondary.
Ever since the first night, Padrict woke up in cold sweat and panicking. When I approached to ask him, he always responded with a simple ‘it’s a nightmare.’ I decided to let it go, because, just like him, I was having trouble sleeping and sometimes had nightmares. My only concern was that it was happening consistently. I kept pushing for an answer but all he did was say the same.
It wasn’t until much later that he confessed to me that the nightmares seemed too real to him. They were visions of his same end. He explained he had those exact dreams ever since he first used the spell, but he chucked up to anxiety and trauma. Only one day he confessed to me that he had been dreaming more about his own visions.
“There’s one more dream I’ve been having. I didn’t understand it at first but now I see it clearly.”
I was scared to ask him to describe it, his face warned me I wouldn’t like the explanation. Regardless, I asked to sate my morbid curiosity.
His vivid recount of the dream felt like he had lived it. If an artist were to hear it, they’d be able to recreate the scene almost perfectly. He could recount every step taken, every piece of garbage on the ground. I tried listening and paying attention, trying to find out what kind of hidden message there was behind every object. I used my superb psychological skills to make connections between the things he described and the emotions he expressed. In the end, that wasn’t what had caught my attention.
“Flames,” he said. “Red hot flames consuming everything. The floor, the people, the air. Everything was aflame. And at its center, it was you. I saw your face. You were there screaming. You reached out to see a monster, some kind of demon, maybe. I tried looking at it but all I could find was you.
“I’ve been trying to piece it together. But the monster, the flames, and you? My visions? It could only mean one thing, Ed. It’s got to be the dragon. I can’t make any more sense of it. I was sure of it when I woke up after my anoxia coma. This is why I couldn’t tell you. But I needed to. You confide in me my fate, I wanted to do the same, but I didn’t know how to break it to you.”
I sighed. If I said I wasn’t scared I would be lying. Of course, such a vision made me scared. I didn’t want to die and I didn’t want to die in a fire. The idea of going up in flames made my phantom finger throb. Visions of flying, flaming vampires made me lose my breath for a fraction of a moment. I felt my skin crawl and sweat dripped coldly down my forehead and neck. Of course, this dream would affect me, but I had found my resolution. Just as the fear engulfed me, it also subsided.
“I will die to the dragon,” I tried confirming. “That’s what you’re saying.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what else I’m supposed to make of it.”
“There was no dragon, but only a monster?”
“I’ve had this dream ever since I took flight on my ship. I’ve never seen a dragon, I don’t know if my visions were trying to make sense of the dragon I had never witnessed.”
“And maybe it was also making sense of the person you didn’t know. But once you met me, you decided it was me.”
“Selective memory?”
“You wanted to see what you wanted to see. You remember what you want to remember. A monster was a dragon. An unknown person was me.”
“And the building?”
“Could be anything. I thought we were even talking about someplace outside the city.”
Padrict scratched his head.
“Maybe your clairvoyance didn’t work like you think it did and it simply made you have nightmares. The Council vision was simply a nightmare caused by the spell’s collateral damage.”
I knew he wasn’t convinced, but there was no sense in finding any of this conflicting. Or maybe I was trying to hope that maybe my death wasn’t already fated. Trying to subtly convince him that maybe his spell never worked like we thought it did and he had a chance at living, then maybe so I was trying to convince myself.
“It doesn’t sound too bad, now, doesn’t it?”
I said that as much to him as to myself.
Despite my words, I did not believe anything I said. Maybe Padrict didn’t either. He saw my death by fire, and it was caused by a monster. Maybe it was the dragon or maybe it was a demon. The image of Ssadassar crossed my mind, and I imagined the demon blowing his hellfire toward me, burning me in the process, body and spirit. Or maybe it was a Faery monster, some kind of ancient fairy tale that took form as a monster that ate people through fire or burned them with a touch. Maybe it was a Summer Faery.
And then I took a glancing look at my arm and imagined the magic within thrum. The demon in Yand-Una’s arm had gifted me demonic magic that I had never used and still burned inside me. I had forgotten all about it and only remembered every morning I woke up to the whispers of power. If I ever used the demonic magic, if I ever used hellfire, I could die to the monster within me.
I chuckled and Padrict grimaced.
Doesn’t sound bad, now, does it? I thought. It sounds way worse.
----------------------------------------
Many more days passed by. Things changed little from the start. Our plan didn’t change at all; too many unknowns to do anything about it. We would land and we would set our plan in motion. That same day we will hunt a dragon and we will become the last dragon hunters in history.
Thus, the shuttle latched into the space sling, swinging us for an hour, producing artificial gravity by centrifugal forces. We held to our seats and waited for the countdown to end and for our descent to start.
Reentry was far less dangerous than it used to be centuries ago. Instead of slamming into the atmosphere at speeds that put hypersonic bullets or missiles to shame, and the shuttles required ablating materials to survive the deacceleration through the atmosphere, we would descend much slower. Pushing through air at reentry speeds, even through the thin air of the mesosphere, would ignite iron and steel as the sparse air and rare oxygen molecules smash into the shuttle. But these days, the slings reduced our speed enough to make reentry bearable.
The rumbling cockpit slowly settled as our speed slowed down, leaching energy into the centrifugal forces, and then our heavy bodies became lighter by the seconds after we latched off the sling. A jerk indicated the parachutes opened and reduced our speed even further. The deceleration stretched further, and the parachutes opened wider still. Finally, the thrusters managed the last phase of the deceleration to land and the jerk that came from them compressed my spine for a split second. Then, the world settled around us. Calm. Everything was still and the way my body was pressed against the seat felt right.
We were back home. The trip to Sovail felt like a victory lap of some sort. Or like a pilgrim coming back from a religious journey to a promised land. We were home and everything felt correct. Everything was as it should be. The pang of realization, that one foreign piece was forced upon our complex puzzle, made me shudder. Not everything was right. Our world needed correction and we were on a mission to do so.
The hatch opened before us after we stood to leave. The blinding light made us all react by shielding our eyes with our forearms, even the alien, Tedet. I took a trembling step upon the land that saw me be birthed, and a smile found my lips.
“We’re back,” I said, stating the obvious.
“That, we did,” said Tedet, matter-of-factly.
He didn’t mean to make fun of me but to match my dumb incredulity. Somehow, despite the knowledge that we were coming back and the sensorial facts right before us, there was a question at the back of my head that wondered if this was all just a dream. No sooner did my eyes adjust to the light that the bumming brown and gray colors of the city brought me back to reality, like a slap.
We were home, and this time, it didn’t sit right at all. Our home was dirty and depressing. This wasn’t the kind of home I wanted to be back to. In my mind, I thought of bright blue skies, deep blue seas, and an expansive green forest.
Green? A green forest? Was the beauty I was looking for in nature taking the color green? Like the green trees in the gardens of the rich. The image made me gasp for an inner part of my instinct though that green was right. Green, brown, and blue, the colors of nature. I wanted to see it.
However, my time to reminisce about the scenes I’ve never seen was at an end. There was no time to lose, we had to search for a dragon, search for allies, and find weapons to hunt.
I handed over the scale I was keeping to Padrict while we walked out of the landing area, through the terminal, and out to the parking lot. Martin and Tedet separated themselves from the two wizards to call on the phone. Our wizardry couple looked for a place to draw a circle, but while we held nothing to draw with and there was no place to build a circle with the floor, we took to grab stones from the roadside.
Circles are used to hold magic and manipulate it, the better drawn and the more circular the better. But, just as most things in magic, it is about atmosphere and perception, a circle didn’t have to be a circle. Sometimes the circle didn’t have to be flat or be drawn as a circle from above, so long as what you perceived was a circle, even from an angle it would work. Sometimes, the circle could be simply perceived as complete because it was supposed to represent what a closed circle should be.
Pebble by pebble, we built the circle. Each pebble was placed carefully, with intent and preconception, like we were placing building blocks for a construction site, each block, each pebble had a purpose. We could not rush this, we had to imagine every piece was creating the circle. We imagined the line closing up, slowly, as we placed all the pebbles, like how an enzyme builds a long strand of a molecule, one piece at a time, gluing the next with the one before.
The circle was almost done, there was one last pebble, chosen for its right shape and size, to close the circle entirely. Padrict took the scale and pulled out an analog compass, handed over by Martin, from his pocket. He nodded towards me and placed the pebbled in its place. When the circle closed, I felt the murmur of the magic seal Padrict away from the rest of the world. Where Padrict had stood, he suddenly had disappeared to my magical senses. He sat with the scale and the compass in each hand, as my eyes could perceive and my ears could hear. But to my magical senses — the background humming that comes from a man shrouded in magical energies, passively signaling his presence — he was gone. In his stead, the circle thrummed coldly and peacefully.
Tedet and Martin came back with news of Misa and Grikhat. Misa was going to meet us at the Galieta home, while we were going to take a small detour to my Wizard Tower, for some magical equipment and weaponry. All my storing stones, and my wands and staff, would be useful for the fights. Whatever other things I could think could be useful, I’m sure Padrict would find better use of than me.
Then, Padrict stood up, kicked the circle open and I felt the magic dissipate like a gust of air hitting my face, I felt both refreshed by the blow and damp by the imaginary heat of it. He said: “it’s done,” and presented us with a compass that did not point north.