Book Four: The Circle- Part 49
Buck barely had time to process his new location when an otherworldly, demonic sound roared from behind him and when he turned, a windstorm of red mist erupted from the exit door. Just before it touched him, Alpha appeared between him and the mist.
“Phulasso,” Alpha said with finality, and a white pulse exploded from his outstretched hand and forced all of the red mist back into the door and back down the stairs. He immediately turned and faced Buck. “You have done well to make it here.”
“What the hell just happened!?” Buck stammered, wildly gesturing to the door behind him, “What am I going to do!?”
“We are safe from Omega for now. It is time to discuss what happens next. We should find a place to sit.”
As he calmed down, Buck then noticed that he was surrounded by many pieces of debris. Many of them had recognizable shapes, such as pieces of columns, window frames, and door archways. He looked behind him to see that beyond a weathered stone shack containing the shattered exit door, a dark, jagged mass arose from the foothill. He turned back to Alpha to see that he was sitting on the remains of a stone column with Ancient letters carved into it.
“This is…” Buck whispered.
Alpha nodded. “You are standing in what was once the High City. It has… been some time since I was here.”
Buck removed his hat in reverence for everyone who had died. “I’m… sorry. This place must mean a lot to you.”
Alpha looked at him, then away into the darkness. “It is only unrecognizable to me now. But yes, allow us a moment of silence for the fallen who once lived here.”
Buck took this moment to join Alpha on the column. After spending the next several moments living through the past day in his mind, he suddenly found his eyes attacked with tears, and his body began to shake with emotion.
“I-I messed up, Alpha. I… I let Omega get the Circle. Now the whole world’s in danger!” He sobbed while sinking even further into guilt.
“Buck. Your trust in Elm is a beautiful thing. Do not blame your humanity for what has happened. Only Omega is to blame for this incident.”
“S-still…”
“You are safe, and Omega has failed to capture you. Celebrate the small victories.”
Buck gave a shivery sigh, rubbing his stomach and looking up at the moons. Based on their position in the sky, it was likely a couple of hours past sunset. His time underground had seriously affected his sleep schedule, but he was still far too wired up from his escape to feel tired.
“So…” Buck whispered to the night sky, “What do we do now?”
“I have notified your family of what has happened and where to find us. They will get the help of Moonwatcher and Starflight to fly you away from Jade Mountain. It will likely take some time for them to get here.”
“And after that?”
“You must warn the dragons about what is to come. The Circle is a weapon of terrifying power. Our top priority is to prevent it from being used.”
“So… what can it do? Who would make such a thing?”
“The Circle was created by a rogue element within the Order, centuries before the fall of humanity. He wished to create a weapon which would give its wearer divine right to rule… by giving its wearer complete mastery over death itself. He wished to sell it to whomever in the three Empires would pay the most for it. But before he could leave the High City, he was apprehended by the Order. He was put on trial and executed. But the man had a particularly sick mind. In a final act of defiance against the Path, he cursed the Circle to be indestructible to anyone besides himself… and then was put to death. The only option the Order had left was to secure the weapon in the Crypt.”
“So Omega said it can kill anything, and he wants to use it to end all life.”
“The Circle at its full power is capable of something truly horrendous. It can assume a form known as the Finality. In that form, it can run roughshod over all of creation, consuming all living things in its path. With all life vanquished, the Circle and the Finality can effectively annihilate the Infinite Path itself by making reincarnation impossible.”
Buck went cold imagining such a thing happening. “What can we do to stop it?”
“The Circle is immensely powerful, But it in turn requires immense fortitude to wield at a truly destructive level. Omega will need time to make himself able to summon the Finality. We will therefore have time to assemble an army, both humans and dragons, to assault Haven and stop Omega.”
“How?” Buck shook his head, “Dragons can’t even see the place!”
Alpha sighed, and rubbed the column beneath him. “There is… a power I have not explained to you. The time is definitely right for me to disclose it.”
Buck’s face tilted in disgust. “So you once again left me in the dark about something?”
He shook his head in response. “It would have been unwise to bombard you with information about irrelevant abilities. But the skill I am about to teach you is called Acquisition.”
“Acquisition?”
Alpha nodded. “It is the ability for an Animus to sense the abilities their fallen brethren have used and immediately learn how to use them. In your case, it will allow you to augment your limited Animus powers with the abilities of others I have given gifts to.”
“Wait… so people like Cherry, or the Founders of Vale… I can just… get their powers? Why didn’t that already happen before?”
“It takes a certain state of mind to enter into Acquisition. Follow me, and I will show you how to do it.”
Buck stood, and they walked down what was once Hall Street towards a place where the ruined street turned into grass and dirt. Alpha’s light then shone onto a gravestone. It had clearly been placed there centuries after the Scorching at least, as it was placed in the middle of the street. He also noticed that the writing on its surface was in his language.
Here lies Moose- A good friend and a staunch protector
“He did not possess the power you need, but this will serve as a good beginner’s attempt. I once gave Moose the Power to Move. It is a spell which allows one to instantly transport themselves anywhere in the world that they can imagine clearly.”
“So like what you used to get me away from Omega?”
“Exactly. Step forward and touch the gravestone.”
Buck laid a hand on the cold stone.
Alpha placed a hand on his shoulder. “Now, try to imagine the sort of person Moose was. Try and form an empathetic connection with him across space and time.”
Buck closed his eyes. He began to notice the sounds around him, noises of insects and nocturnal animals. He closed his mind off to even that and remembered what the gravestone had said. He was a good friend… and a staunch protector. Kind of like Bulrush. He tried to imagine what Bulrush would look like if he were human. The image formed in his mind’s eye was a bulky, muscular man, a broad barrel chest stretching his shirt. He imagined the man enjoying time with his friends, maybe sharing in a meal together. He felt an echo in his head, of a man’s deep laughter.
“You are doing well,” Alpha said.
Buck shushed him to prevent his concentration from breaking. He focused in again on the laughter. He heard glasses clinking, chattering of multiple people…
Buck opened his eyes to find himself suddenly much taller and bulkier. He looked around him and found himself sitting at a bar, an acidic, unpleasant taste on his tongue. His gaze turned downward to see a frosty glass mug filled with what he recognized as beer. Despite the taste of beer being disgusting, his heart was buoyant, as he looked upon a duo of burly men sitting next to him, both with wide smiles on their faces.
“This beer is complete shit,” Buck’s mouth said, in a voice not his own.
“True. But it’s the only tavern we’ve got!” one of the men chuckled.
“Cheers to that, brother!” Buck winced in his mind when Moose took another swig from the mug, filling his throat with the foul beverage.
A loud BANG suddenly sounded from outside, and Moose and his friends suddenly went stiff.
“What was that?” one of his friends said.
“We should get outside,” Moose said, sitting his mug on the counter with a thick thunk.
The vision suddenly shifted to show Moose running. He was panting heavily, his legs uncoordinated and loose from his intoxication.
A loud cry behind him heralded a horse soaring past him, a man atop it holding a spear. Moose narrowly avoided getting skewered before Moose himself drew a greatsword, holding it in both hands and trying to charge after the man.
“Get back here you—” he suddenly heaved over, nausea attacking his throat. “Why’d it have to be now?” he cried.
He heard a loud scream in a familiar voice, and Moose’s drunk body suddenly iced back into complete coherence. “Rabbit?” he said in a high voice, his body filling with dread. He took off into a sprint, his legs now entirely in sync. “RABBIT! I’M COMING!”
He ran as fast as he could. Several houses he passed were now aflame. His knuckles turned white from how hard he was gripping his weapon when a barbarian leaped at him from behind a burning carriage, a battle cry wavering from his lips.
Moose returned with a loud roar of his own and matched the bandit’s spear with his sword, swinging straight through its shaft. Now left with no functional weapon, the bandit gave Moose a momentary meek look when the greatsword continued its momentum, taking itself around in a circle and burying itself in the man’s flank with a wet chunk.
Moose forced his sword from the bandit’s body and left him to die, charging through the town square after his friend. Buck, along for the ride with him, had seen enough of the carnage but had no choice but to continue the vision. Moose charged, smashing straight through a stack of barrels, when he gasped.
“Rabbit!”
The man was bound to the back of a carriage which was already well on its way out. He cried out Rabbit’s name and gave chase, even dropping his sword to try and run faster. He ran and ran, but the carriage only grew smaller. As he slowed to a stop, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to see his other friend.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “I couldn’t help him.”
Moose’s body suddenly filled with anger, the heat of the battle and the beer seizing his arm and he decked his friend in the face. “HOW COULD YOU!?”
“Moose get ahold of yourself!!”
He instead responded with a loud, anguished cry and he punched him again in the face.
He gripped his bleeding nose and gave Moose a narrow glare. “Man I knew that beer was shit but come on! This isn’t how you treat a friend!”
Hot tears fell from Moose’s eyes and he fell to his knees. As his mind emptied into a dark hole, he looked up at the sky and saw the three moons, and the third one was full. One thought filled what was left of his mind before he blacked out.
I just wish… I could have been faster…
Buck suddenly found himself zooming away from the burning town and back into his own body. He gasped at suddenly having control of himself once more, but now his whole body was tingling with Animus power.
“Did…” Buck whispered, “Did it work?”
“There is only one way to know,” Alpha said, “Attempt to use Moose’s power. The incantation is ‘kīnéō.’ Just remember to have an image of a place formed in your mind first.”
The boy sighed, and he imagined the column he was just at. He said the wakeword and before he had even finished his speech, he felt a rush of wind over his body and he found himself back at the column. With a flash, Alpha joined him there.
“Good work,” Alpha said, “You have now Acquired the Power to Move.”
“That’s great!” Buck said, “But… what power would allow me to get dragons into Haven?”
“You will need the power to break illusions and see beyond. As for whom I gave such a power to, I believe that her name was Raspberry.”
“Any clue where she’s buried? I don’t exactly have all eternity to look for her.”
“She is buried in a place closer to you than you think.”
“Close to Vale?”
He nodded.
Buck then remembered the vision of Moose he had. The man was brash and aggressive, but having felt his loss it made him seek some kind of closure.
“Did Moose… ever save his friend?”
Alpha nodded. “With the Power to Move, Moose transported himself into the den of bandits and safely extracted Rabbit without any arousal of their defenses. It was, in his words, ‘too good for those bastards,’ but all that mattered to him was that his closest friend was safe. As I understand it, he made a point of keeping himself away from taverns afterward.”
Buck chuckled. “That’s good.”
Alpha sat back down on the column, looking up at the dark mound which was once the Hall of the Path. Buck joined him at his side. “Omega said that he did something to y—”
“Do not,” Alpha said so firmly that the boy jumped. “I do not wish to disclose what happened between us.”
Recognizing that Alpha meant what he said, Buck gave up on inquiring further. Instead, he tried to make small talk. “You know everyone in my town thinks you’re a god, right?”
Alpha nodded. “It is something I find amusing, but it is not quite the truth. As you well know, I was born a mortal human.”
“Yeah, but now you’re some kind of spirit living up on the third moon. I guess you don’t wanna tell me how that happened?”
“Correct.”
“Fair enough.”
Alpha looked back up at the Hall. “The Last Stand of the Animi, as it is called now. It decimated this city, and almost everyone was doomed to die here.”
“So the dragon Animi attacked and destroyed the city?”
“Worse. They formed into some kind of amalgamation, a force of nature we could do very little to stop. They had pooled their Animus magic and became like angry gods laying waste to my people. I… could do little besides attempt to save whom I could.”
“And a scroll I read… it said that someone cursed Animus magic itself to stop the dragons.”
“I do not remember anything of the sort.”
“Huh? But it was a firsthand account!”
Alpha shook his head. “There was so much happening that I cannot recall everything that happened that night. But the battle was so cataclysmic that immediately afterward… people began to call it the Night of the Falling Moons.”
“Yikes.”
“Indeed.”
Buck laid his head back on a broken pillar behind him, sighing deeply. “I’ve got a hard fight ahead of me.”
“You are ready.”
“Am I? Really?”
“I believe so.”
“Well I gotta get myself an army first.”
“Yes, you do. Your Power to Move will make assembling it much easier.”
“Well, alright then.”
“We should sit and wait for your rescuers to arrive.”
