The following day I took out a large and ancient magic scroll and tore it to shreds.

Several noctav gasped, a few even fainted.

“That wasn’t wise young one!” an old noctav lamented, “I hope whatever was on that scroll was copied.

“Have no fear old sir, the scroll is perfectly fine!” I laughed as I ripped the scroll into smaller and smaller pieces.

Then suddenly I opened the scroll, as good as new.

The old noctav gaped in amazement alongside everyone else. I handed the scroll to him, and he read it energetically.

“Everything is here… It is perfectly intact!” the old noctav marveled.

“And the detector hasn’t sensed a thing!” said a noctav who was right next to my Thaumic Detector.

The audience broke out into applause, an audience of almost thirty noctav. I bowed deeply.

“Thank you again my good people! This then is the end of another great show from me: Twist of Fate! I will see you all again.”

It was the fantastic conclusion of my second show! That time it was a full length and it was a hit! I kept doing my show on the same day for the next couple of weeks.

And soon I decided it was time for me to take my show to the surface! I wanted to explore and bring hope to the races that had suffered under the Divine Conflict. I continued to do my act for another week, when not practicing my tricks I was planning my trip, doing a little bit of spell practice, and trying to do research on Rondo’s rune (of which I could find nothing about).

Finally, it was time for me to make my great journey trek to the surface and begin my new life as an entertainer, I had packed my hat and had my map ready. By Rondo’s request, I had also packed up the rune in my hat, figuring I could get assistance from someone on the surface to decipher it. Before I left though there was one more thing to do: our House was having a meeting. At this point I barely interacted with my family outside of Largo, but it would not feel right to leave without saying goodbye.

I arrived early to the meeting room, there sat Duolo on large couch with an open journal which he was writing in, every once in a while, he would cross something out that he had just wrote. Beside him sat an especially tall and muscled noctav with dark blonde fur who was writing down in a journal of his own. The large noctav turned to me and smiled.

“Hey Twist! How are tricks?” the large noctav said. This was another brother of mine, Bariton. His greatest strength was his physical strength, but he was also incredibly clever and good with machinery.

“Hmm! I’d like to meet this guy” Tenacia said, nodding approvingly.

Twist smiled, “I think you two would get along!”

“Hey Bariton! Its been too long!” I replied, we gave each other a big hug.

“We can have family time later, for now; thinking time” Duolo growled.

Bariton ended the hug and looked at our older brother, a tad testily.

“Hmm okay… Got any good leads yet?” Bariton asked.

“None whatsoever Bariton” Duolo groaned, taking a page out of his journal, crushing it, and throwing it into the fireplace.

“Your aim is getting better at least” Bariton remarked, looking at the fairly substantial field of crumpled paper balls that littered the floor in front of the fireplace.

“Please no jokes Bariton… I get enough tomfoolery from Twist these days”

“Ah yeah Twist, the seventh son. How have you been?” Bariton said as he turned to me.

“Well enough” Duo answered for me.

“Ok really Duo, I get family stuff later, but I haven’t seen and spoken with Twist since he was a kid!” Bariton said reproachfully “The apprenticeship at the House of Gears took up an awful amount of time”

“Time well spent I think, hasn’t your project been a success?” I asked.

“Well yeah, we have been able to replicate some technology we heard of on the surface… But still, I’d like to know how you’ve been y’know? Can’t make a conversation if I don’t know what you have been up to for twelve whole years.”

“Long story short he wants to be an entertainer” Duolo again interrupted, he tore out another page from his journal. This time it missed the fireplace and landed in a flowerpot.

“Oh? Like a bard? A jester?”

“A bit of both, but mostly a… Magician” Duolo responded bitterly, with very clear quotation marks around “magician”.

“Ahh I see, well good on you Twist! I think we got enough researchers around here” he said giving me a thumbs up.

“Fair enough, but still to waste his incredible talents on something so small and trivial…” Duolo began to say.

“It’s his life brother, you can’t tell him what to do with it” said Largo, coming into the room holding a cup of tea in one hand and a stein of warm juice in the other. She gave Duolo a stern look “We should only stop him if the path he has is insincere or ruinous, and I think he has set a good path for himself”

Bariton took the stein of juice “Largo has a point Duo, plus from what I have heard Twist is a willful one. I doubt he’ll even listen to mom if his mind is truly set.”

“Oh he hasn’t listened to her, I can assure you” Duolo groaned as he took the cup of tea, “Mother has been livid these last few months! Just be glad you weren’t here to hear Twist and Mother’s ‘debates’”

“On another note, I am glad your work at the House of Gears went well Bariton” I said, deciding it was time to change the subject.

Bariton shrugged “Ehh, all we did was piece together some ancient technology called an ‘automobile’. It is a neat machine, but nothing really special, which is why we are making improvements to it.”

“Oh?” I said, my eyes glistening in interest.

Bariton gave a deep chortle “I’ll tell you about that later, we got more catching up to do!” he said as Piana walked into the room. She gasped as she viewed Bariton and ran over to hide behind her mother’s wide frame.

“Oh Piana, don’t you worry” Largo said gently, patting her on the head.

“Exactly, this is your Uncle Bariton” I said happily.

“Nice to meet you” Piana squeaked, peeking out from behind Largo.

Bariton chortled again “Yeah, I’m big aren’t I? I had to be in order to get anything done at the House of Gears y’know! There is a lot less book work and a lot more heavy lifting than any other House in the city”

Piana walked out behind me, eyes aglow with curiosity.

“You see Piana my girl, gears and metal can do much more than anyone else knows” Bariton declared proudly “Combined with steam, coal, or even magic you can move a whole mountain!” He took Piana to the other end of the room, so she could not hear the discussion me and my siblings were about to have.

We left them to it, and I turned to my other two siblings.

“Now that you are here Largo, I’ll get to business: progress no good?” I asked, more than a little afraid.

“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to Twist” sighed Duolo.

“I thought as much. I take it Vivace’s suggestion was a Dead End?” I groaned, starting to shuffle my cards nervously.

“Eeyup it was” Largo replied gloomily.

“Shame, I thought the tea leaf idea was solid” I remarked sadly, shaking my head.

“It is my own fault in the end” Duolo groaned, “I had been doing research on divination on the surface, if I had just read more thoroughly I could have found out they had already discovered it was just a parlor trick”

“Don’t blame yourself Duolo” I replied sadly.

“I have to, mother made me the official patriarch nearly a month ago” he said solemnly.

“Okay hold on, are you saying your mom married your brother?!” Tenacia interjected loudly.

Twist snorted and laughed “Hahaha! I am sorry, I am sure that sounded strange! No certainly not, my brother did not marry my mother. The patriarch is simply the male head of the house. It isn’t always the father, it could be a grandfather, a son, or even a distant cousin”

“Ohhh gotcha… Sorry, resume” Tenacia said, blushing.

“Certainly!”

“But you already have enough on your plate, why would she make you the patriarch?” I asked him. Indeed, Duolo was already doing tons of research, the responsibilities of a patriarch included that and far more including planning and diplomacy with other houses.

“Because her other three sons are either too busy at another House, on the surface doing research, or off gallivanting around the city with delusions of grandeur” Duolo growled.

“Oh, I thought you said one of them would be dead, after all I’m pretty sure mom considers me that at this point” I remarked with a smirk.

“Of course, you would laugh about that… What is something you don’t laugh at?” Duolo snapped, tearing out another piece of his journal, this time just in frustration.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Well, if we can’t laugh at life we can’t laugh at anything”

“So, mother’s fury is just a joke to you?”

“It sure is!”

Duolo looked up from his journal to glare at me, I returned that glare. Then our heads were smacked down by two powerful fists.

“That is enough” Largo growled, “Things are high strung here to be sure, but at the end of the day; we are family, and we are going to get through this together. Got that?”

Both Duolo and I looked away, both of use feeling quite guilty, though too proud to apologize to each other.

“So!” I piped “Got any ideas on what we should tackle next?”

“None yet” Duolo replied, returning to his journal “I have gathered plenty of potential routes and trains of thought we can take, but thus far they are either unremarkable or risky.”

“Let’s stick with unremarkable, risky has burned us badly in the past and we have yet to recover.”

“Oh? Were we the other House that caused the Ban?” asked an innocent voice.

The room grew silent, even the crackling of the fire seemed like it got quieter. Everyone turned to Piana who was now standing right next to us, Bariton behind her.

Bariton looked at us apologetically “Sorry, she wanted to see how you guys were doing”

I looked at Largo, who looked at Duolo, who looked at me. Duolo sighed and nodded to me.

“Well long story short Piana, indeed we were” I answered

“What happened? Did anyone get hurt?” Piana asked in concern.

“No one got hurt per say” I said, I began to shuffle my cards more.

“Uncle Twist! Please give me a straight answer!”

“Remember how I said you shouldn’t be too eager for knowledge?”

“Well yeah, many times!”

I took a deep breath and stopped shuffling my cards.

“Twenty years ago, eleven years before you were born, the House of Fate was hitting a lot of Dead Ends. Research into figuring out the future was pretty much at a standstill” I explained.

Duolo nodded “The whole House was beside itself with worry. Your grandmother especially was panicked, she was worried the whole House would lose its standing with the city”

“And panic breeds bad decisions” Twist said grimly.

Duolo groaned deeply “Yes, she had an idea for a special ritual. One that would let us into the world of Ayvum”

Piana looked confused “Ayvum? What is Ayvum”

“The world of Time” said a strained voice.

We all turned, entering the meeting room was Ostinatia. Her wrinkled face was weary and incensed. Not far behind her was Vivace, who was wide-eyed and pale.

“Hello Grandm-“ Piana started before being interrupted by Ostinatia.

“In our world exist thirteen elements, eight of these elements coexist with us. The Terrestrial Elements”

“Fire, water, air, earth, frost, plant, mind, and body, right?” Piana asked.

“I see you’ve kept up in your studies” Largo said gladly.

“The other six however” Ostinatia continued “Exceed the fabric of mortal existence and make up the universe itself. The Transcendent Elements. One of these elements it Time”

“And each element whether it be Terrestrial or Transcendent is embodied in a far-off dimension” I interjected, “The world of time is Ayvum. It is like a huge hallway filled with pictures that lead to different periods of time… And this includes the future.”

Ostinatia got more restless “If we can enter Ayvum, we can see what lies in the future.”

“And the ritual all those years ago was an attempt to enter Ayvum?” Piana asked.

I nodded “Yep, and it did not go well!”

“What happened? Was there an accident? Did someone mess up?”

“Yes, your Uncle Twist ruined the ritual” Ostinatia rumbled, pointing a withered finger at me.

“You kidding me?” Tenacia growled, clenching her fists, and grinding her teeth “She still blamed you for what happened? She held a grudge over it, your own mother?!”

Delphine rolled her eyes at the newest interruption.

“Well regardless of the circumstances, I did stop the ritual” Twist said simply, “And sadly indeed, Ostinatia never forgave me.”

“That’s so stupid! You didn’t do anything wrong; you knew it became a bad idea, you had a supernal literally telling you to stop! She should have stopped it right there!” Tenacia said, raising her voice in indignant anger.

Twist was touched by this; he did not expect Tenacia to take his side so readily.

“Thank you for your vote of confidence Tenacia” Twist said with a big smile “I must admit, I still feel guilt over what happened… So, your compassion is much appreciated”

Tenacia calmed down and sighed “Your welcome, and I’m sorry for getting worked up… I just hate it when people are unfair like that. Especially parents.”

“Ostinatia is easily the smartest woman in Minvaco, but I will be the first to say she isn’t wise” Twist remarked “With my father, she got more and more fervent in opening a portal to Ayvum, to the point of obsession. She claimed we could get it done right the second try and that we could save the House, but I always suspected she just wanted a chance to save Cadenza. Either way, she was about go truly desperate…”

After what Ostinatia had said, Largo stepped forward her eyes ablaze. She said nothing, but she gave Ostinatia a glare that could have gone through mountains.

“The ritual involved drawing magic circle engraved with runes related to space, someone had to be in the circle to open a door to Ayvum” I replied as calmly as I could, “I was picked to open the door so your grandfather Cadenza could look in the halls… But we underestimated the realm, and he was carried off by the beings within there, including the supernal who guards it”

“Father was taken away by a supernal?” Piana gasped.

“No, he is still trapped there” Ostinatia interjected, “Twist was too weak in mind to keep that door open and closed it in fear… We must now go there to save your grandfather as well as our House”

I said nothing, simply frowning and waiting to see what Ostinatia would do.

She reached into her robes and got out some chalk. She quickly began to write runes upon the ground.

“Mother what are you doing?” Largo asked confusedly, moving out of her mother’s way.

“A new circle. One that can get us to the Halls of Time with but one noctav. One that can have no errors” Ostinatia said severely, she finished the circle and began writing various lines and symbols within it. When she was done, Ostinatia’s circle was large with a twelve-pointed star inside of it. Within each point of the star was a different symbol.

“A Grand Elemental Circle” Duolo breathed in amazement.

“A Grand Elemental Circle?!” Delphine shouted in rage and astonishment “Was your mother insane?!”

“Most likely” Twist said with a tired expression, “At that revelation, my fears had been confirmed; Ostinatia wanted Cadenza back. I could truly relate, I would have given almost anything to see my father again, but I knew there was nothing we could do. No power, not even that of the greatest gods, could stand against a supernal. Father was gone.”

“Oh no, a Grand Elemental Gylph could help you stand against the supernals, but the risk is far, FAR too much!” Delphine shouted.

“Okay, hang on a sec” Tenacia said, poking a finger in her ear after Delphine’s raucous reaction “I know about Magic Circles, big circular sigils with runes in their rims that let you do powerful stuff. I know about Elemental Circles too, they call upon the elements specifically to do things… But what is this about a Grand Elemental Circle?”

“Elemental circles call upon multiple elements, but usually just four or five of them” Twist explained.

“Oh true, I always wondered why. Max I’ve seen is six” Tenacia commented “Let me guess, having too many is a bad idea usually?”

“Oh absolutely!” Twist emphasized “A major law of spell casting is the more elements are involved, the harder the spell is to cast and control. Think of it like herding several kinds of animals; you wouldn’t herd a bull the same way you herd a wolf or a boar, the same reasoning applies to the elements. Casting fire magic is very different from casting ice, air, or spirit magic. So not only does the number increase, but so does the complexity with how different each element is from the other.”

“Same reasoning applies in rune magic?” Tenacia asked.

Twist nodded “Precisely, each element has its own rune, and it has to the exact right rune, written precisely correctly, each must be in the proper position, precisely placed… The slightest mistake will spell disaster, for each additional element involved increases the power of the circle.”

Tenacia grimaced “Oh for Chaelum’s sake, I think I get it now… A Grand Elemental Circle uses all twelve elements?”

“Correct” Twist said, his face grim.

“So mother, how do you propose we enter the Halls of Time again with… This?” Duolo asked nervously. He was practically Ostinatia’s shadow, always ready to listen to her, but Duolo was no fool. Just like me, he had seen how much Ostinatia’s emotions had overridden her. And once again: using a Grand Elemental Circle is horrifyingly risky, Duolo looked at the circle with his eyes wide and his hands shaking, as if the circle was ready to explode any second.

“Exactly!” I shouted in anger, not bothering with any sort of decorum, “You need the right runes to channel the magic through all twelve points, but the runes for this circle have been unknown for centuries! And you mean to tell me you found out all of them just like that? Forgive me for my disbelief mother, but this is utter madness!”

I tried to brush off some of the circle with my foot.

“Pause”

I found myself stuck frozen in time.

“You will NOT mess this up for our family this time, Twist” Ostinatia growled, pointing her silver staff at me.

“Mother, I think you need to relax” Largo said, she walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“To be fair, we’ve seen what Twist is like under pressure” Vivace said sadly. Largo turned and glared at her.

“You listen here sister…” Largo began.

“Silence” Ostintatia loudly said, when things were quiet she moved to the center of the glyph and motioned for everyone else to back away “Unpause… Restrain Twist, Bariton”

I was moving through time again, but Bariton wrapped his powerful wings around me.

“Sorry lil’ bro, we gotta listen to mom”

“No we don’t!” I shouted “Mother! Where did you learn the runes?!”

“Twist is right mother” Duolo said, standing up and giving Ostintatia a worried look, “Where did you learn the runes? No one in the city has known which runes to use since before our city was founded”

“From Allegro, your brother on the surface” Ostintatia said, making us all gasp.

Vivace nodded energetically “It is hard to believe, but it is true! We got a letter from him just hours ago! He found the runes in a library of the elves and sent them to me right away.”

“Don’t you think we should have some of the others Houses look at it?” Duolo asked, still hesitant.

Ostinatia responded only by slamming her staff in the center of the circle. The outer circle glowed brightly.

Ostinatia began to chant.

“Oh elements of our world, lend me your might!

With my words and will I shall open a door,

Where knowledge lies that has never seen light!

A realm that is beyond our mere mortal lore…

Oh elements of the beyond, lend me your grace!

With my words and will I break the rift,

Where age is meaningless and its laws defy our race!

A realm where lost souls forever drift…”

Ostinatia raised her staff, the tip began to glow and shift through different colors. The magic that was in the circle began to move through it like water through a stream, making it seem almost as if the circle itself was spinning. Ostinatia buckled a bit and reached into her robes and pulled out a bottle with a clear liquid. I recognized it right away as a vis flask, a bottle filled with pure vis that was used for spells that needed more vis than what could be gotten from the caster’s body. Ostinatia drank it and stood upright again, pointing her staff at one of points.

“Air!”

The magic within the circle began to gather at that point. The rune in the point, which looked like a twirling tornado, glowed a bright green.

“Body!”

The magic in the point began to move down the line to another point. The rune in this point, shaped like a heart, then glowed a blood red.

“Water!”

The magic moved to another point. The rune, a water droplet, in the point glowed a light blue.

“Time!”

Once again the magic moved to a rune, one shaped like an hourglass that then glowed violet. Ostinatia continued her ritual as the whole mansion began to shake.

“Frost! Spirit! Earth!”

The magic kept moving from point to point until more than half of the star was lit with magic. An odd rhythmic thrumming began to come from the circle. Everyone watched in amazement. I must admit I too was fascinated by the ritual before me, it seemed to be working, but I kept a close eye on each rune. Each one was doing well… All except one.

A irony and fate would have it, it was the time rune. After Ostinatia had activated Earth, it began to flicker.

“Mother!” I shouted over the unusual thrumming that came from the circle.

“Mind!”

The time rune began to flicker more. The thrumming got louder, but its rhythm changed. I was once a solid bump, bump, like a drum. Now it was a bmp-bmp, bmp-bmp, like a nervous heartbeat.

“Mother stop!” I yelled. I struggled against Bariton. He looked worried but kept me in place.

“Wood!”

The rune began to flicker more erratically. The thrumming was starting to get deafening and changed to bmp-bmp-bmp, bmp-bmp-bmp. Ostinatia got another vis flask from her robes and drank it.

I grabbed Bariton wings and shouted “Pause!”

Bariton looked surprised and that look stayed. Without any resistance I pulled myself from his warms and pushed him back. Time went normally for him again as he hit the floor.

“Ostinatia stop, you desperate old hag! You are endangering everyone!” I screamed running towards her.

I was intercepted by Duolo.

“Twist stop! I understand your concern but we can’t stop this now!”

“Duolo you idiot! What are-“

“Space!”

The magic channeled to one more point. The rune finally stopped flickering and the thrumming stopped…

Then it went out like a light. The magic in the entire circle began to wiggle and distort as if it were underwater. The thrumming returned, louder than ever now without rhythm, it made a horrible sound like hail hitting a drum.

“Mother stop!” I yelled desperately, though my voice was lost to the cacophonic noise of the circle.

Ostinatia looked extremely nervous as she observed the circle’s wavering, but she just gritted her teeth and shouted.

“Fire!”

The magic tried to move from one point to another, but halfway through the line it stuttered. It was like a pipe that was trying to push water with a leak.

And the leak was the time rune. The thrumming stopped again, as all the magic in the circle and the 12-pointed star gathered to the time rune. It lit up again, and this time it was a horrible overwhelming violet light that hurt my eyes. The thrumming of the circle returned one last time, now a horrible cacophonous rumble, like hundreds of constant thunderstrikes. Everyone was trying to say something, but all that could be heard was the noise from the circle.

Then there was silence.