~~~(Jared)~~~
“Jared,” a voice says from behind me, and I turn around to find Teacher standing there, looking confused as fuck. I really don’t need more of a headache, that boy just disappeared. “What boy?”
“What?”
“Creator,” Teacher says. “Remember? I can hear the thoughts of those around, save for other Creators.”
“I thought you were a dragon?” I ask, then look around.
No one seems to be noticing us.
“A simple spell,” Teacher states. “I cast it so we’d have privacy. And though I’m a dragon, there are still restrictions that affect me, even with my father being who he is. I cannot enter the mind of a Creator without them allowing me in, even if they haven’t discovered their Ability. Will you allow me to enter your mind? It will allow me to get a grasp on the situation without having to worry about verbal communication.”
I nod, and a moment later, feel a presence in my mind. Moments later, it’s gone, and Teacher sighs.
“This is complicated,” he says.
“Complicated how?” I ask.
“I couldn’t see,” he says. “Whoever the boy is who brought Caleb to you. In addition, Caleb seems to have turned himself into a Reality Marble, which means that we need to allow it to run its course, but I’ve never actually heard of this before.”
“Is that even possible?” I ask.
“It is,” Teacher nods. “It will take time for Caleb to release the Reality Marble. Unfortunately, it’s not something the Caleb you’re holding can do – we have to wait for the real Caleb to do it on his own. The binds on Caleb are gone, and he has full access to all of his powers. Be careful with him.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do with him,” I admit. “The facility won’t allow him to be cared for there, and-”
“I can handle that,” Teacher interrupts. “It can be arranged so that you’ve been requested to perform a guardian mission.”
Guardian missions are missions where someone accompanies someone, watches over them, protects them, and so on. Usually reserved for important people.
“I’m not a full agent,” I say. “I-”
“Caleb,” Teacher hesitates, then nods. “Caleb’s father is the Sage.”
The Sage? Caleb’s the son of the Sage?
“He’s still alive?” I ask.
“He is,” Teacher nods. “If I tell the Sage what has happened to his son, he will likely approach the Council of Dreams and place the mission to protect him until he restores himself. I can arrange it so that he requests you – as a member of Caleb’s team, you’d have a greater chance of causing him to release the Reality Marble he’s become.
“However,” Teacher adds. “You cannot take him to the team.”
“Why not?” I ask.
“Their minds,” he answers. “As a Creator, Caleb will be in them. Having people who know him will only confuse him, especially if he sees himself as an older kid in their minds. In addition, the more people who know it’s really him, the more it will be attempted to bring him back, and that will likely hinder it.”
“Wouldn’t I-”
“All dragons,” Teacher says. “Are Creators. You have a draconic heritage, and while it’s not enough to turn you into even a Territory, that protection from mental invasion still exists. I’ve woken it up within you.
“Your father,” Teacher thinks for a moment. “He has a house outside the city, yes?”
“Yeah,” I nod.
“Take Caleb there,” he instructs me. “The space might do him some good, especially with the flowers and trees in bloom right now.”
Father wanted to make sure it was beautiful, no matter what time of year, even if he’s rarely at it.
“Are you able to force your way past the protections?” I ask.
“No,” he answers. “My father can, but I’ve never been able to. It’s a fail-safe my father created in our kind to ensure that we couldn’t infiltrate and abuse others that way. I probably shouldn’t have done that for you, but it’ll prevent Caleb from knowing about who he really is. If it becomes a problem, I could just ask my father to undo it.”
“I thought even the Dragons of Creation couldn’t come in and out of the realm?” I ask.
“I still can’t believe Caleb told you that,” Teacher sighs, shaking his head. “Father managed to figure out why we were unable to pass in and out of this realm. Once he told me, I was able to leave. I can’t believe Caleb really did freeze hell.”
“You went there?”
“To verify,” he nods. “And to partly annoy my father – he hates the cold. I make my own realm freezing just to annoy him and deter him from going there.”
“Don’t you have a beach here?” I ask, thinking about Caleb’s apparent dislike of cold, and wondering if there's a connection between them.
“I like warm places,” Teacher shrugs. “I don’t like the cold, but not to the exaggerated degree my father does. Caleb dislikes the cold as well, it’s something to do with our specific breed of dragons. Father created us specifically, so I’m not surprised we picked up that trait. Will you accept the job of watching over the Sage’s son?”
“Yeah,” I nod. “I’ll call Father and let him know.”
“The Sage will let the Council know,” Teacher says. “As he’s informing them of the job being issued. Your father might contact you.”
A card appears in Teacher’s hand, and he holds it out to me.
“I know you can afford whatever you need,” he says. “But this is to cover the costs of watching Caleb. It likely won’t be much, considering the state he was in last time he was this age, but it has access to my nearly-unlimited funds. Use whatever you need for him. That boy barely ate or did anything, and was so scared of everything.”
“I’ll do my best, sir,” I say. “I’ll head to the manor.”
Teacher nods, then vanishes, and I shift Caleb a little, pulling out my phone and calling a driver to come pick me up. Half an hour later, we arrive at the manor, and I take Caleb to one of the spare rooms, putting him in a bed.
I start to leave the room, but then realize that he might have nightmares, and get scared, waking up in a place by himself, so I lie down next to him, watching him as he sleeps.
My phone vibrating wakes me, and I check it. Father. As carefully as possible, I climb out of bed and step into the hall, closing the door.
“Father,” I answer the phone.
“Jared,” Father says. “The Sage just visited us during a meeting, and explained to us about Caleb. Is he with you?”
“Sleeping,” I answer. “I think he’s exhausted. To him, the Alkran City Massacre just occurred, and he just had a very, very long and terrifying day. I’m surprised he’s sleeping well, though – the entire time I was next to him, he didn’t fidget or whimper or anything once.”
“It might not start right away,” Father states. “It might be a few days before the terrors begin. Keep a careful eye on him, and comfort him as much as possible. We authorized the mission for you, as it was requested by the Sage himself. To think Caleb was his son… then to remember that Caleb’s father is a dragon. It certainly explains how the Sage was able to end the Calamity.”
Yeah, it does.
“Put any expenses needed on your card,” Father says. “I am walking to my office to transfer money into the account. It should be enough to sustain you with him until the card I am sending arrives. That will be good for any amount, and anything you need once it arrives, to care for him, should go on there.”
“Teacher,” I say. “Caleb’s Teacher, that is, gave me a card to cover any expenses. According to him, it has nearly unlimited funds on it, and he told me to use it for any expenses needed for Caleb.”
“Very well, then,” Father says. “Please contact me if you need anything.”
“Will do,” I say.
“Goodbye, Jared.”
“Goodbye, Father.”
We end the call, then I call Kieran.
“What?” He answers on the first ring.
“Grouchy?”
“I always answer like that,” he says. “Though Kilmar vanished, as did the token he created so that Flame could contact him at any time. They were talking, then suddenly, Kilmar and the token were gone.”
I look at the door, and wonder if Caleb reverting to this had anything to do with it. Kilmar was only here because of Caleb, if the familiar’s master no longer is his master, does that sever the bond and prevent the beast from being in this realm?
“That’s strange,” I comment. “I have some questions about Caleb, if you don’t mind answering.”
“Okay.”
“Back in the orphanage,” I say. “What kind of things did he like? Foods, games, fun activities, and so on?”
“In the orphanage?” Kieran asks. “That was forever ago. Foods… he liked bananas, kiwis, and cantaloupe. Games… he loved card games. I didn’t, until the day he started insisting on it. He also loved playing pranks on people. He’d also create Realities all the time for us to play in. It annoyed the staff, because half the students would just vanish on them for hours, and they couldn’t do anything about it until Caleb let us out.
“After the incident, however,” Kieran continues. “Caleb stopped all that. From his records, he wouldn’t play games, he wouldn’t talk to people, and they could barely get him to eat anything. He just clammed up. If you’re thinking of trying to bribe Caleb into returning, it won’t work. He likely won’t return until it’s warmed-up a bit.”
“Thanks, Kieran,” I say.
“So are you going to tell me what this is about?” Kieran asks, causing me to jump, as he said that from right behind me. He hangs up and pockets his phone, frowning and looking at the wall. “Is that-?”
“Yes,” I interrupt him, putting a finger to my lips. “You have to leave before he wakes up, though.”
“How-?”
I explain what little I know, and he nods, then looks thoughtful for a moment.
“It’s unfortunate,” Kieran says. “That this is post-incident Caleb, and not pre-incident.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Pre-incident would be much easier to take care of,” he answers. “And could control his mental invasions. He didn’t, unless he wanted to, and that was the normal state for him, even in his sleep. Good luck, Jared, and let me know if you have anymore questions. From what I understand from his profile, he became a completely different person after the incident.”
Kieran fades to shadows, then vanishes entirely. I slowly open the door, and find the bed empty.
“Caleb?” I ask, and hear a flush.
“I had to pee,” a voice says from the bathroom, and I go over and open it, then help him wash his hands. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” I tell him. “We don’t have any clothes that fit you here, and there isn’t really any food, so would you be alright with going to the store? It’ll be warm in there, and in the car, so you’ll only be cold while we’re outside.”
“Okay,” he sniffles, then grabs my leg and starts crying. I crouch down and pull him against me. “They’re all dead, mister.”
“I know,” I rub his back. “My name’s Jared, and I’m going to be watching you for awhile, okay?”
“I’m Caleb,” he sniffles. “I’m six.”
“I know,” I ruffle his hair. “You came a long way to get here, too, Caleb, so things might be a little different, okay?”
“Okay,” he sniffles, and I give him a squeeze. “You smell nice.”
“Thanks?” I say.
“Like metal,” he mumbles into my shirt. “Metal and dragons. Like Kieran,” he sniffs my shirt, then grabs it and presses it to his nose. “I smell Kieran. But he smells older.”
Uh… Kieran and I have never touched before, to my knowledge, and Caleb can smell him on me?
“But Kieran’s dead,” Caleb sniffles. “He died. I couldn’t save Jon.”
“Everything’s going to be okay,” I tell Caleb, rubbing his back as I wonder what he'd say if he knew Kieran was alive. I clear that thought from my head – he can't find out, or it will overload him. “Why don’t I let you borrow one of my sweaters, and you can wear that to the store? I don’t have any shoes, though.”
“That’s fine,” Caleb mumbles into my shirt.
I take Caleb to my room and dig out one of my sweaters. It’s been years since I was here, so it’s a little bit small. I asses Caleb after he has it on, and I realize something.
He’s small. The real Caleb, I mean. He’s short for his age. This Caleb, on the other hand, is average-sized. I’d actually say he’s a little bit tall. I immediately knew he was around six when I saw him, but the Caleb of now looks closer to eleven most of the time, despite being nearly fourteen.
Did Caleb get stunted somewhere? Did the trauma he suffer prevent him from growing?
I lead Caleb out to the car after the driver pulls around, then we get in and go to the store. Caleb shivers, but doesn’t say anything. At the store, I seat him in the basket of the cart, then push him around, looking for some clothes for both him and for me. He struggles a little with the shoes I have him try on, but I find a pair that fits him that he can walk in comfortably, then we make our way to the grocery section.
When I ask him what foods he wants, he just shrugs. I pick up some bananas and kiwis and cantaloupe, and he doesn’t react to those. I know he’s fond of berries in the real Caleb, so pick up some of those.
Well, by ‘fond’, I mean that he actually eats them. Damn is the real Caleb picky when it comes to food.
We stop in the snacks aisle so I can find something he might like, and after deciding on two packs of pastry roll filled with strawberry and blueberry paste, I turn to put them in the cart, and find Caleb sitting covered in packages of cookies.
They’re all the same one, and he’s staring at me, daring me to take one of them away with that gaze. I’d say he grabbed about fifteen of them. They’re a vanilla cookie with a strawberry icing drizzled on them.
Caleb doesn’t like cookies…
I guess he did, back then.
“Caleb,” I say.
“What?” He asks challengingly.
“Please ask before putting things in the cart.”
“You asked me what I wanted,” he counters. “Then parked right next to them. Those are yucky!”
“These are?” I ask, and he nods. “I like them.”
“They’re yucky!” He shakes his head. “Don’t get them!”
“I’ll get them for me,” I say, and he huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. This is not the same kid everyone says was found after the Massacre. “What do you want for dinner tonight.”
“What are we having?” He asks.
“What do you want?” I ask. “I’ll make it.”
“I get to pick?” He looks surprised.
“Yup,” I smile at him. “You went through something bad, so I figured, I’d make you something you like for dinner.”
“Hm,” he thinks about it, putting a hand to his chin and pursing his lips, twisting them to the left. “Hm…”
He thinks for several minutes, continuing to stare off into space, then his eyes glow, the labyrinth of his Ability forming in them, and I lose my sense of others around me.
“Take me to the bacon.”
“Ask me,” I tell him, and he stares at me. “If you want bacon, ask me, Caleb, don’t order me.”
A timer appears in his hands, a massive hourglass almost as tall as he is, the bottom half filled with a violet sand. He flips it over with ease.
“Let’s see if you can get aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal the ingredients before time runs out!” Caleb declares. “If you fail, you have to be my doggy for the rest of the day!”
Kid-Caleb is terrifying. I do not want to find out what he’ll do in a Reality Marble if I fail and refuse to be his ‘doggy’.
“To the bacon!” He exclaims.
I push the cart to the bacon as quickly as I can, looking at the shelf.
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“Two pounds!” He points at one of them. “That one!”
Is the timer seriously now floating in front of the basket?
I grab the two packs of bacon he wanted and add it to the cart, wondering how this works with us being in a Reality.
The next ingredients he wants are three dozen eggs, a pound of spaghetti, garlic, two loaves of whole-grain bread, tomatoes, another dozen eggs, a pack of sausage links, two boxes of pancake mix, frozen blueberries, lettuce, shredded cheese, taco shells, taco seasoning, two pounds of ground beef, a white onion, a bag of grapes, a pack of carrots, six frozen pizzas (which he didn’t declare he wanted until we were passing by them), all of the sausage-pepperoni variety, a green bell pepper, a yellow bell pepper, a red bell pepper, and an orange bell pepper, a jar of tomato sauce, and after that, I stop trying to keep track of what he’s having me grab. A few of the times, we grab more of something he already ‘declared’.
By the time he declares that our next destination is the register, the timer is almost out, and I’m exhausted. I had to practically run, and the cart is now full. When we reach the register he directed me to, his eyes lose their glow, and we return to reality, people appearing around us.
Several jump, but I notice that we’re first in line, and no one is behind us.
“Whoa!” The cashier exclaims. “I just turned my light on, and you two appeared!”
“Yes, yes,” Caleb starts putting things on the belt. He’s covered in items. “We’re having a feast tonight. Now hurry up, I wanna eat a banana, and some idiot let them be put underneath everything.”
Definitely not the same personality he had in the reports.
We get checked out and go to the car, and my driver helps put everything in the trunk. I made sure to grab a booster seat, so Caleb could be legal in the car, and on the way back to the manor, he stares out the window intently.
Back at the house, the staff puts the groceries away as I take Caleb up to his room with his clothes. I ask him if he’ll be good to get dressed on his own while I put my own clothes away, and he nods. I close the door, then put my stuff up. A few minutes later, there’s a knock on my door.
“Come in,” I say, and the knob wiggles for a moment, then Caleb enters.
“No shoes?” I ask, and he looks down at his bare feet, then back at me. “I got the kind with the straps that stick to themselves, so you don’t have to tie.”
“I’m fine,” Caleb states. “Let’s go eat dinner.”
“What did you want for dinner?” I ask.
“I want burgers,” Caleb says. “With lettuce, bacon, and scrambled eggs on them.”
“Scrambled?” I ask. “Not over-easy?”
“Make them runny, and I will not eat it.”
I lead Caleb to the kitchen, and he watches me prepare the burgers. He even forces me to make my own eggs scrambled, instead of over-easy. When we sit down at the table to eat, he digs into his burger and fries with a hearty appetite, and I wonder why he’s different this time around.
“How are you feeling?” I ask Caleb when he finally relaxes in his seat, his plate completely cleared of food.
“Stuffed,” he groans, rubbing his stomach.
“If you want to talk to me,” I say. “Or cry, or something, just let me know.”
“I already cried,” he states. “You’re fun. I don’t cry for fun things. Let’s play a game.”
His eyes regain their labyrinths, and our surroundings change entirely, becoming a black and white chessboard surrounded by an emptiness.
Each square is approximately one yard across, and it is bordered by children’s alphabet blocks, though every other block has a dragon on it instead of a letter. I am standing on one space, and Caleb is sitting on a throne on the other side, a throne that takes up four squares.
There are teddy bears and stuffed dragons and stuffed wolves roaming the chessboard, balloons floating in the air at various heights. Caleb crosses his right leg over his left knee, propping his head up on his right fist, that arm resting on the right arm of his throne. Sitting atop his head is a golden crown, and he’s got a mischievous look in his eyes, a golden scepter in his right hand.
A look that tells me I’m in for one hell of a time.
----------------------------------------
~~~(Kieran)~~~
Something isn’t right with Caleb. He’s the same kid he was before the incident. He’s nothing like he was in the reports of him from after.
I’m about to leave the manor when I find myself in a familiar Reality, Caleb sitting on his usual throne, his usual smirk on his face. Looking around, it’s just me.
“I’ve got Jared in another one,” Caleb sticks his tongue out at me. “Let’s see who can win first! Jared, or old-Kieran!”
“Old-Kieran?” I ask.
“I know who you are,” his smirk doesn’t fade. “I can enter your mind, even if Jared can block me. I dun understand it, but I know you like having fun with me! So let’s play a game! Who can beat this first?”
No one can beat this one, Caleb…
This particular game disables Gifts, and we have to rely on our aura. The final boss is Caleb himself, and even with my current aura level, there isn’t a chance in existence that I could beat him.
“I don’t want to play,” I say. “Not this time, Caleb.”
“But I wanna!” He pouts.
“I know,” I say. “But I wanna talk with you, Caleb.”
“No!” He points his scepter on me. “Play the game!”
“Can you please release the Marble you’ve placed on yourself?”
“No!” He shakes his head. “I dun wanna! It’s all scary! I dun wanna be scared!”
So he knows, then. He knows what he did. Was it intentional? Or was it accidental? He said he didn’t understand it, though.
“Play the game, Kirru!” He begs me.
“Caleb,” I say. “Did you purposely put yourself into a Reality Marble?”
“No!” He shakes his head. “But it’s all so scary! I dun wanna be grown-up again! I’ll have to fight monsters again! I wanna stay a kid! Play the game!”
“Can you undo it?” I ask.
“I dun wanna!” He screams.
“Please, Caleb?” I ask. “Can you answer my question? You know me, it’s Kieran. I’ll do whatever I can to protect you. I’m not asking you to go back to how you were, I just want to know if you can do it yourself.”
“I can,” he starts crying, pulling his knees up to his chest and putting his head between them, wrapping his arms around himself. “I’ll-I’ll go back if you want me to, Kieran! I’ll fix it and undo my Reality if you want me to, Kieran, but it’s all so scary. I dun wanna.”
“Can you disable the game for me?” I ask, and he shakes his head. “I want to hug you, Caleb. I want to hug you and hold you tight. Can you let me do that?”
Caleb nods, and I take a hesitant step forward. Nothing happens, so I make my way over to him, then crouch down and pull him into a hug against me.
“I love you, Caleb,” I whisper into his ear as he cries into my shirt. “You’re my little brother, and I’ll never let anything hurt you. If you don’t want to be scared, then I won’t make you turn back, okay? I won’t be mean to you.”
“I couldn’t save Jon,” he sniffles.
“I know,” I respond. “But guess what?”
“What?”
“As he died, you were able to move his Gift into me.”
“I could move his Gift?” Caleb asks.
“Uh-huh,” I say, and he looks into my eyes. “I have his Gift of Perception, now. He lives on in me.”
“I dun wanna be grown up again,” Caleb sniffles.
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“You thought it,” he sniffles. “You were thinking that you wanted me to be grown up again. I dun want to. I’m too scared, Kirru. It’s so scary, everything you were thinking.”
“You… read my memories again, didn’t you?”
“You left yourself open to them.”
“We can’t defend against you,” I sigh. “You know that, Cay. And yes, I want you to be grown up again, but if you don’t want to, I won’t ask you to. You’re scared, I know that. You know what I know, and saw what I remember. I can’t ask you to grow up again, not after that. I am going to ask you to think about what you saw, though, Caleb, and see if you’re still scared in a few days.”
“I’m staying scared,” Caleb sniffles, holding me tight. “Monsters are scary. Dying is scary. People are scary. I’m happy here. No one’s poking me. Jared’s a nice boy.”
Jared? Nice?
“Let’s play the game,” I smile at Caleb, and he pulls his head back and grins at me, and I find myself back in the starting square.
This is going to be brutal, but it’ll be worth it for the smiles and giggles he’ll have.
----------------------------------------
~~~(Jared)~~~
That was brutal. I barely made it to the final boss – Caleb himself. If it wasn’t bad enough that I had to rely on my martial arts and aura alone, he started whacking me with that scepter while it was cloaked in his violet aura, and it hurt.
I don’t care what they say – Caleb can definitely enhance shit with his aura. And as a kid, he really, really loved hitting things. Even after he declared me as having lost and the Reality Marble faded, I was still sore.
At least the broken leg is gone.
A groan catches my attention, and I look over to see Kieran lying on the floor, clutching his leg.
“Did you have to whack me in the knee, Caleb?” Kieran sits up. “I’m still hurting.”
“It’s not broken anymore!” Caleb sticks his tongue out at Kieran. “Also – you lost before Jared did, so YOU’RE THE LOSER! Piggy back ride!”
“Can you please let my knee recover first?” Kieran asks.
“No cookies for you!”
“What are you doing here?” I ask Kieran.
“I couldn’t resist,” Kieran looks down. “I wanted to see him again.”
“And you!” Caleb looks at me. “As the winner, I declare that you can have one of my bananas!”
“I bought them.”
“YOU MAY HAVE ONE BANANA!” Caleb yells with glee, then takes off running. “CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!”
I look at Kieran, who just sighs, putting a hand to his head.
“I forgot how much energy he had when we were little,” Kieran says.
“I didn’t see you in the Reality Marble.”
“Separate layers,” Kieran looks at me. “Caleb put us into two different instances. Neither of us fought the real Caleb, just another ‘toy’ in there. The real Caleb was watching us from another instance. As near as we could figure, he could do up to sixty-four – one for each square of the chessboard. One of them was always for him to watch the rest of us from, so he could only take sixty-three of us in at a time. His hall of fun was probably the best, though that one is a close second.”
“Hall of fun?” I ask.
“Don’t ever ask him to take you there,” Kieran suddenly looks horrified, which I didn’t know is an expression he can have when Caleb isn’t in danger or hurt, and I get concerned. “That is not something you ever want to experience, understand? If you thought this beating was bad, do not ever ask him for the hall of fun. You will suffer.”
“Caleb was a sadistic little kid?” I ask.
“No,” Kieran shakes his head, even though I'm positive that he is. “We all enjoyed the games with him. It actually was fun, to us. I had so much fun doing that with him.”
And as usual, Caleb’s gotten you to talk a fair bit.
“He knows, by the way,” Kieran sighs.
“Knows?”
“He read my memories,” Kieran nods. “He knows what happened to him – at least, what of it you told me. He said he can undo it, but is scared to, because he’s scared of what will happen when he does.”
“What will happen?”
“Yeah,” Kieran stands up, then offers me a hand and pulls me to my feet. “He’s scared of facing reality and having to return to life. He feels safe right now. Don’t… don’t try to convince him to undo it – he’ll just freak out on you, like he did me. That’s probably why I lost so fast – he was probably going a lot harder on me than you because I’d asked him to do it.”
“Let’s go find him,” I say, and Kieran nods.
We search through the manor, finding him in the family room, sitting on the couch and flipping through the channels on the T.V. Kieran and I each sit on either side of him, and we start tickling him, making him squeal and giggle and squirm as he tries to escape.
“Huh?” Kieran suddenly looks at the T.V. “Jared – look.”
“What?” I look at the T.V., then grab the remote and turn the volume up.
The news, live.
“As you can see,” the news anchor says from the helicopter she’s standing in the doorway of. “Behind me, Alkran City, where the worst attack from monsters since the Great Calamity itself occurred, has changed. It become Ruins years ago, heavily influenced by the monsters and demons within, and the sheer force of magic contained in such a small space.
“Now,” she looks out across the city as the camera pans in. They’re a fair distance away, but enough to show the damage. “As you can see, there’s a massive crater taking up a huge portion of the center of the city. From what our sources say, it’s no longer Ruins, but just the ruins of the city, inhabited by monsters and demons.
“As of now,” she continues. “There’s no word on what caused this – or the meteor that was seen falling from the sky, burning with a violet light. Magicians across the globe could sense it, and sources indicate that those who did said it was filled with emotional magic, that whoever cast it was casting it from pure, unfiltered rage.
“As a witch myself,” she continues. “One who’s devoted much of her life to learning and detecting magics, I was able to sense it, especially from not being far from here. I even saw the violet meteor form and descend. Whoever cast that spell had an emotional attachment to this place, one stronger than merely having friends or family here during the attack could have.
“In my magical opinion,” she says. “I think there was a survivor, and one who knows real magic. It’s said that there are some gifted children in the Global Magical Defense Federation who have stumbled upon how to use old magic, and I’d say that it’s either one of them, or they know who it was.”
“Someone bombed Alkran?” Caleb asks, and I mute the T.V., looking at him.
Caleb told us that infusing magic with emotions affected them and their power. To create a spell that powerful, and infusing it with his emotions, his attachment to that town, I now understand exactly what happened to him, and why he became this way, why he turned into a little kid.
“Did she say,” Kieran looks at me. “That it is no longer Ruins?”
“Yeah,” I realize. “She did. The magician who hit the Ruins downgraded it.”
We both look down at Caleb, who has passed out. Such a cute little kid… who can deal enough damage with a single spell that Ruins lose their status as Ruins and become just regular ruins, and the damage remain. No longer will magicians and Superhumans find themselves hindered in there.
Superhumans…
“Kieran?” I say, and he looks at me, raising an eyebrow. “Why do you call us Gifted? As a kid, Caleb does, too.”
“It’s what we called ourselves,” Kieran says. “Back at the orphanage. They called us Superhumans, like everyone else, so we rebelled. Caleb started it.”
“Exactly how much did Caleb start?”
“Almost every prank and rebellion we had,” Kieran snorts. “He once gathered a group of us, and we spent three nights blowing up balloons. The three of us with Perception concealed our absence as we did it in a Reality Marble, and Caleb stored them in there until it was time. We stuffed the whole school with them, and in the middle of the night, once we’d finished, Caleb released the Reality Marble.
“The best part,” he smiles a little. “Was when they noticed the balloons – which was quickly, since they had people walking the halls to make sure we stayed in our rooms, and they were in every room, anyway, was that they tried popping them.”
“They couldn’t?” I ask.
“Oh, they could,” his small smiles turns into a full-on grin. “We filled the balloons with glitter. They couldn’t pop them without getting glitter everywhere, and have you ever tried removing two hundred thousand balloons from an area? It isn’t easy, especially when they’re all packed tight. The balloons will just keep sliding around and stuff. They were soooooooo mad, and we all got into so much trouble, but it was so worth it.”
“How’d you guys get the stuff for it?” I ask. “I can’t imagine you getting permission to leave, nor having money.”
“Same way we did everything,” he shrugs. “The three of us with Perception would leave, probably take others with us, and we’d just steal it. There was this one time, Caleb, Jon, Thomas, the other Perception, a dozen others, and myself snuck out, stole four hundred bunches of bananas, transported them back to the facility, and we-”
“I don’t really want to know,” I say.
“-made clothes out of their peels after smearing bananas all over the floor, and walked around wearing those clothes until they managed to catch us. We knew where all the safe spots to walk and run were, and their feet were too big to fit onto them.”
I really didn’t want to know that.
“Wouldn’t the bananas have dried out?” I realize.
“They would have,” he grins at me. “But there’s a Gift for that. We used aura strings to weave the bananas into clothes and hold them together.”
“Whose idea was that?”
“Caleb’s, as usual,” he answers. “Like I said – it was mostly Caleb’s idea to do the stuff we got into trouble for doing, but we all loved him so much that we did it anyway. I’m glad it’s gone, though – Caleb always said there was more to it than they were telling us, and they never did know just how powerful he really was, so they didn’t realize he could read their thoughts and memories.”
“Their memories?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he nods. “Caleb can look into your memories by touch. Well, this Caleb can, ours probably could, if his Gift wasn’t bound. He told me he couldn’t do it, when I asked him. He also can’t do a Reality Summon.”
“A what?” I ask.
“Basically what he did to himself,” Kieran explains. “Only instead of doing it to an object, he creates the object itself as a Reality Marble, but it’s in reality itself. He can do it with magic now, but it’s different when it’s his Gift.”
That sounds pretty cool, to be honest. I wonder what it’s like.
“Absolutely terrifying,” Kieran answers, horror forming in his eyes. “If he ever forms a water gun, run. Don’t ask questions, don’t stick around, don’t look at it – run.”
“Why?”
“Just do it,” he says. “Do it, or your sanity will be gone. We call it Water Gun Roulette, because you never know what it’s in it, and he never misses his targets. He likes hitting eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Thankfully, once he finishes and banishes the Reality Marble that is the water gun, the liquid vanishes. The sting usually does, too, though it might take a few minutes, like the pain did with our injuries from his last game.”
Caleb snuggles up against me, and I look down at him, only now realizing that the Caleb I know had a very, very strange childhood. Kieran commented about the stuff they do as if it’s normal – including the painful parts, like Caleb’s Realities and their games.
The two members of our team who hide the most about themselves had unusual childhoods, probably more so than Flame and Brooks, who were assassins growing up.
“I’m returning to the dorms,” Kieran stands and stretches, then looks at me. “Kid Caleb never liked sleeping alone, just so you know. He’ll probably have bad dreams if he’s alone tonight. He was trying to hide it, but he was scared and worn-out – that’s why he fell asleep between us. He got comfortable and felt safe.”
Kieran turns into shadows, and vanishes again, and hopefully this time, he’s gone.
I pick Caleb up and bring him to my room, laying him down on my bed, then going to my bathroom to take a shower. Once I’m done, I dry off and pull on a tee and some shorts, brush my teeth, then climb into bed, pulling Caleb against me. He snuggles up against me and mumbles something in his sleep.
That wasn’t English.
Careful not to wake him up, I grab my phone and pull up a translator, putting in every variation of spelling I can of what he said, but nothing comes up. I send Flame a text.
Flame: It’s late.
Me: You know magical languages, right?
Flame: Yeah, why?
Me: Can you translate something for me?
Flame: If someone taught me the language, yeah.
I send him a text telling him what it was, and making sure he knows that I don’t know if it’s spelled correctly, just that it’s something I heard, and that I’m not sure if it’s a magical language or not. It takes Flame several minutes before he responds.
Flame: Where did you hear that?
Me: Why?
Flame: Where did you hear that?
Me: Why?
Flame: Where did you hear that?
Me: Does it matter?
Flame: Yes. Where did you hear it?
Me: Someone said it. I didn’t get a good look at them, just thought it sounded strange, and was curious about what it meant. What’s it mean?
Flame: Rough translation. Caleb started teaching it to me, before he quit the GSDF. It’s an origin tongue – Caleb said it’s where all draconic languages came from. Did he say it to you?
Me: No, what’s it mean?
Flame: Rough translation: ‘You smell like good metal’ < that is weird for a random thing, Jared. I can honestly picture Caleb saying that, since you do smell like good metal, when I use my draconic nose. Was it really some random thing?
That is totally like Caleb to say.
Me: Yes. Thanks.
Flame wishes me a goodnight, and I put my phone away, looking down at the sleeping kid in my arms, confused.
Caleb shouldn’t know any draconic languages at his age, but the origin of all draconic languages? How could he possibly have known that? From what I know, even dragons don’t know languages instinctively.
I mean, if he were Teacher’s son, that’d be different, since it’d mean he’s descended of Auriauror, but Teacher said Caleb was the son of the Sage, and-
The son of the Sage…
A boy who knows languages by instinct…
Caleb… is Teacher’s son, isn’t he? He inherited his father’s knowledge of languages, and isn’t really a magictongue or mystictongue or whatever it's called. He knows the languages he does because of his grandfather's power over lineages.
So either Teacher lied about who Caleb’s father is, or Teacher and the Sage are the same person.
Does he know he’s Caleb’s father? According to Caleb, Teacher’s a virgin, which we all found somewhat amusing after finding out that not only is he older than Earth, but he’s also a dragon.
Does Caleb know they’re the same being? I don’t think so – he’s adamant in that Teacher and Sage are two different beings. In other words, Teacher has been lying to Caleb for a long time.
What else has he lied to Caleb about? Has he lied to us?
Does Teacher have ulterior motives? What are his plans? What is he planning?
----------------------------------------
~~~(???)~~~
So that happened. How in the hell did Caleb turn himself into a Reality? That makes absolutely no fucking sense whatsoever.
Yet he did it. He fucking did it.
If he weren't a little kid right now, he'd probably be so fucking smug to me about having done it, too.
I'm not sure if doing that to Jared was the right decision or not. It can prove problematic, if he turns against Caleb. I'll ask Father to change it, if he can, after the incident is over.
Here's hoping Father doesn't find out until after Caleb finally reverts back.
"Your son is really amusing."
Dammit.
"Hello, Father," I turn around and face him. He's… in human form, wearing swim trunks decorated with dragons. "Seriously?"
"You have a beach," he says. "I'm not going to visit a beach and not swim."
"I was referring to the dragons on your shorts."
"Just in case there was any confusion."
"That you're a dragon?"
"On whether or not I like dragons," he responds. "Nice feat, your son did there. I bet you never thought it was possible."
"I never even considered it," I tell him. "Thinking it's not possible would require actually thinking of it. Can you undo it?"
"Yes," he answers. "But I'm not going to, because this is amusing."
"I really wish you hadn't figured out how to get in here."
"Speaking of passing in and out of here," he says. "Caleb knows."
"Knows what?" I ask.
"How to do it," he answers. "He also knows that someone claimed the universe as their Reality. To be honest, it's not surprising, knowing him. He concealed it pretty well."
Father wades into the water and begins splashing around like a little kid, so I wave a pool float into existence, climb onto it, then let it drift near to where Father is. When I get there, he's got a damn turtle sitting on his head, and is talking to it, informing it of the origins of the turtle.
That's where Caleb gets walking around with them on his head from! I knew I'd seen it before!
"Father," I say. "Are you telling me that Caleb lied about not knowing how to pass in and out of our Reality?"
"Yes," Father glares at me. "However, he didn't have the power to do it on his own. Right now, unbound, he does. Being entirely honest, I think he knows who put the universe as their Reality, as well as where they are. Unfortunately, if he knows it, he doesn't know he does, and has hidden it deep within his mind. I've searched it a few times, and apart from him asking me if I was bringing him food, I didn't really see anything unusual there."
"He could sense you?"
"Yes," Father says. "And I'd like to get back to my explanation on the origin of the turtle. I had a hand in that, you know."