by R A Lindo
As Meyen Grayling caught larger bouts of oxygen, a sign the curse was being removed, Erent Koll spun a circle of light, smoke billowing around him. It had all the hallmarks of a Cympgus, Kaira thought, as she studied the Williynx breathing ice onto the ever-thickening walls. The blizzard of light now known as the Quliy continued to disappear and reappear in different parts of Quibbs Causeway, avoiding the venom which had felled some of their comrades.
With the circle of smoke-framed light expanding to a scale large enough for Erent Koll to step through, The Prince of the Underworld offered some final words to Casper Renn.
“You should take a leaf out of your grandfather’s book before it’s too late, Casper: embrace the dark side. I will hunt down and find each fragment and, when I do, your powers will be no match for me. Unless, of course, someone in your glorious Society has the guts to kill me. As you’re a man of peace, I imagine our meetings will only ever amount to magic tricks and mistimed interventions.”
“You will be tracked down and punished accordingly.”
“Your magic can’t contain me, Casper. As long as you continue down your path of peace, I will continue to build my army. I lost a small army today, of course: Sylan, Aneesha, Ulyn and Tunula, mainly due to your daughter’s interference in matters beyond her age and station. And, of course, there is Theodore … a man with a vision I’m keen to hear more about.”
“Let’s not forget that your power is diminished within the Society Sphere, Erent,” Kaira’s aunt stated as she helped a befuddled Meyen Grayling regain her equilibrium, “so any army you build will never be able to penetrate our defences.”
“We’ll see, Philomeena. Fate has a way of calling the Renns, as we both know. Perhaps, Kaira won’t want to cower in secret like you and your brother. She may follow Isiah’s path, wanting to embrace the entire realm of our universe: light and dark. Before long, peace will become an illusion once I draw you out of the protective bubble of The Society Sphere. To hunt what we’re both desperate to find, you will need to enter my world where your penchant offers no protection, and a true battle can be fought to determine our future.”
“We have very different futures, Erent,” commented Weyen Lyell. “Your future includes a dramatic demise which I look forward to overseeing. Your lust for power is making you increasingly desperate, and desperate men always make one fatal mistake. It’s only a matter of time.”
“Well, let’s hope time is on your side,” stated Koll before sending out one final streak of black energy from both hands, directed towards the walls of ice. The blast of venomous energy smashed into the towering structures, offering a violent farewell as Erent Koll vanished through the circle of smoke and light.
With the sound of the tide lapping against the vast ice walls, Casper and Philomeena Renn prepared to move Meyen Grayling’s body to safety, leaving Weyen and Ina Lyell to express their gratitude to the Quliy - now appearing in great numbers. Their dark, muscle-bound figures were cloaked in a shimmering light, each particle shifting and reforming with their every move.
Like the scar-ravaged sky urchins who offered Casper Renn protection in Dyil’s Ditch, the Quliy travelled from their home in The Wenlands to offer protection to certain Society members for reasons yet to be made clear to Kaira.
The presence of the Williynx was more understandable to the young trio who studied the conclusion of another battle from the safety of The Cendryll - the colourful, majestic creatures descending along the inner wall of ice before disappearing into the water, beginning their return to Gilweean. As the coloured feathers of the Williynx floated on the water - remnants of battle - Guppy banged her fist on the dining room table again.
“She’s dying,” she stated, surprised by the well of emotion rising in her. “She’s dying and they’re not doing anything.”
“They’re doing exactly what they need to do to keep her alive,” explained Farraday. “Certain places restrict particular types of escape routes, like Cympgus’ for example. The mixture of light and dark energy surrounding Quibbs Causeway complicates the use of our normal modes of travel.”
“Didn’t Erent Koll just disappear through one?” queried Jacob, keeping a close eye on Guppy who was pacing within the circular ring of light.
“Dark magic benefits from dark forces whereas our magic is affected by it. Quibbs Causeway, and any place laced with traces of Gorrah, are more dangerous because of this. Also, don’t forget that a penchant stone loses its colour when a person has actively engaged, experimented or used Gorrah. It’s the way the Society protects itself from enemies entering our midst. They have a limited time to move Meyen to a place outside the Society Sphere where they can apply the necessary remedy to the Voxum Vexa curse, amongst other things.
Once the colour has drained out of your mother’s penchant stone, she’ll neither have protection nor freedom of travel. Periums will be closed to her, meaning she won’t make it to the place they’re headed to now. It’s the only place authorised to house and rehabilitate the wayward, and if it wasn’t for Casper and Phee, even this option would be closed to her. It’s one thing to commit petty crime, but secretly housing a dark artefact with the intention of trading it ...”
Kaira knew that Laudlum healed most curses and wondered if Farraday’s reference to ‘other things’ meant the remedy used to remove criminal thoughts: Revenance Remedy. Also, his final, incomplete comment regarding the scale of Meyen Grayling’s criminal activity suggested that she was getting preferential treatment, either due to her seniority or, more likely, due to the added complication of Guppy and Jacob.
Based on everything Farraday had said, it suggested that Meyen Grayling was minutes away from becoming a Melackin, rehabilitated beyond The Society Sphere - her quest for power extinguished with one false step.
“So, how do they get back?” asked Kaira as Guppy’s anxiety reached new levels.
“The way they entered,” added her dad’s closest ally, “through the south entrance of Helping Hand, giving them enough time to get Meyen to safety.”
“Back here?” asked Guppy, fighting an uncomfortable truth regarding her mother’s future within the S.P.M.A.
“No. To a place out of the reach, for the time being. To put it mildly, Guppy, your mother’s actions have significantly complicated things. In hindsight, it’s a blessing that she brought the two of you into the folds of the Society before her act of madness.”
“So, we’re not going to be kicked out because of what she’s done?” enquired Jacob who was increasingly concerned that Guppy would attempt to escape the restrictive ring of light surrounding them: light that would transform into fire the moment its barriers were threatened.
“No, but your mother won’t receive the same level of sympathy. Sorry to be blunt, but there’s no getting around the consequences of engaging with Gorrah.”
“At least we can watch her being taken there,” uttered Guppy who retreated from the edges of the circle of light at the first flicker of flames.
“That’s unlikely, Guppy,” replied Farraday with an expression of sadness and loss, remembering the young, effervescent Meyen Grayling before a bitter divorce had forever tainted her spirit. “Your mother has brought a certain fate upon herself. Many others will be watching this very scene, reacting with shock and fury at her use of an Invisilis charm to shield her from the dark bargain she had planned, potentially putting the Society in significant danger.
Erent Koll now has a Terrecet fragment in his possession; there can be no other explanation for their secret meeting in such a soulless place. If it wasn’t for the fact that her children were in the Society, she’d be facing the same fate as The Sinister Four. In many ways, you and Jacob are her saving grace: an irony which won’t be lost on her now.
It’s likely that another charm will be used - an emergency charm, making a person’s movements temporarily undetectable. Others will know the place she’s been taken to but not the precise location, offering the necessary time to remedy the Voxum Vexa cur
se before beginning the rehabilitation.”
“So, where are they taking her?” asked Jacob as the small figures in the Follygrin’s illustration began to fade, just as Farraday had suggested it would, the tide framing Quibbs Causeway decorated by the coloured feathers of the fallen Williynx: the concluding image of battle as Helping Hand came into view.
“To another realm for purposes of rehabilitation,” concluded Farraday, “where she’ll have to adapt to a different way of life.”
Kaira thought of her grandfather at the utterance of Farraday’s final words, sensing that the ‘different life’ Meyen Grayling would have to adapt to would be the same existence Isiah Renn had forged: life on the margins of a Society they had both once been the centre of, exchanging it for a shadow world symbolising shame or danger.
How Kaira’s dad and aunt were going to justify their protection of Meyen Grayling was a matter for another time. For now, she needed to weigh her words carefully whilst judging the right time to support her friends - just as Jacob had done in Helping Hand after their brush with death in Dyil’s Ditch.
In some ways, magical universes were no different to normal ones, Kaira reflected. Each was created by human beings with flaws, desires and principles - intertwining forces forging the best laid path to peace and civility, or power and destruction.
“You’ve got less than ten minutes to get Meyen out of the Society Sphere,” Ina Lyell stated once the band of Quliy departed, their intertwining, shimmering blurs signalling movement that bent time and space.
Like the Williynx, the Quliy had also lost comrades, but it was a sacrifice owed and offered to the very people who had fought alongside them in times past. Dressed in the same, ragged black garments as the sky urchins, their muscular forms and tribal marks signified a warrior clan with a proud history.
They had responded to a call to arms in their legendary blizzard of speed and light. For now, it was time to return to mourn their dead and the all-too familiar tradition of burial rites. The problematic question of a Terrecet fragment landing in the hands of Erent Koll would have to wait whilst the one who had betrayed them, dressed in her familiar light blue and struggling for breath, was taken to a place offering mercy and remedy.
“Her penchant’s already losing its colour,” commented Weyen Lyell, the green overcoat of The Orium Circle offering a degree of formality in stark contrast to the flamboyant, afro hair and large, multi-coloured penchant stone.
“There’s only one place to take her with such limited time,” Casper Renn stated, “assuming we have your authority to do so.”
“Take her and use the Vanisiun charm to cover your tracks. No doubt, many others have witnessed Meyen’s attempted betrayal and will move to bring her to justice, wondering why we haven’t. The Vanisiun charm ensures your complete invisibility in all artefacts, sanctioned by me.
Guppy and Jacob will also seek their mother out soon enough so it goes without saying that precautionary measures are necessary. Meyen is about to become a Melackin, banished to the margins of the Society she once loved and cherished: a traumatic reality they will soon have to face.”
22
Necessary Remedy
With the vast walls of ice continuing to protect them from the Mantzils’ cry, and with the Vanisiun charm in place, Casper and Philomeena Renn guided Meyen Grayling’s stricken figure towards the singular, black door linking Quibbs Causeway to Helping Hand. This particular Perium was rarely used due to the obvious dangers the traveller entered into.
Only the highly trained were authorised to make the potentially fatal journey across soulless stretch of land to The Velynx - the faculty housing bad things and bad people, resting in the bowels of the earth and blistered by the evil it was designed to contain.
Things had irrevocably changed with this act of betrayal, Casper Renn knew, a sinister plot which had spectacularly backfired on Meyen Grayling and, in turn, the Society as a whole. A dark fragment in the hands of a dark sorcerer was the worst possible outcome, triggering the beginnings of a Society-wide hunt for the remaining Terrecet fragments which would, inevitably, cause divisions and tear at the fabric of their ancient world of wonders.
Perhaps his father had been right, after all, Casper Renn considered as they entered through the black door and a flood of light, signalling a return to safety … that darkness, in all its forms, needed to be understood in order to be prepared for a fateful day. That day was now upon them, and the familiar winds of war were rising.
“The colour has almost drained from her penchant stone,” stated Philomeena Renn as they stepped into the blinding light which led them to another door.
“We just need to get into the cubicles and wait for the relevant people to appear,” replied Casper Renn. “Scribberals will be rattling up-and-down Sadston with news of Meyen’s betrayal, so let’s just hope they’re expecting us.”
Sadston - better known as Sad Souls - was the place Kaira’s dad and aunt were journeying to with the rapidly fading figure of Meyen Grayling - her light, blue attire now covered in Williynx feathers and particles of sand. The choice of location was due to the unique nature of its inhabitants and, more importantly, their secretive nature. Others searching for Meyen Grayling would receive short shrift, the tradition of polite silence precisely what was currently required.
Within such a private realm, Revenance Remedy could be administered whilst judgement was weighed. There were many barren places to exile Meyen Grayling to, but her children remained the stumbling block to the otherwise simple decision of exile … something The Orium Circle would ponder for some time.
The secret spells weaved into Helping Hand were urgently needed now, the building resting in darkness. Daily activity was carried out by entering through the large, swing doors below the enormous, ornamental hand attached to the shop’s frontage - a hand which moved up and down in a gesture of charity.
Once inside, customers were faced with a large, oak desk lined with middle-aged women wearing permanent smiles. For above ground people, it was another fascinating aspect of Market Square (Founders’ Quad to those in the know). A charity shop with a difference, designed in the eccentric manner befitting to the square most famous for its leaning lane.
Once at the desk, an above-ground customer would be offered a blank piece of paper to write their request on. The request would be studied before a key was provided to one of the twenty cubicles lining the walls on either side. It was simply then a matter of stepping inside the allocated cubicle and waiting for the brass bell to ring. When it did, the brass ‘Help at Hand’ button was pushed which made the mirror spin, revealing the very items requested.
Of course, this was slightly different for members of the S.P.M.A. Their penchant meant that pushing the brass ‘Help at Hand’ button would reveal a Scribberal, hidden within the wooden panelling. With a note quickly scribbled, the brass bell would ring, signalling that the intended recipient had responded, the relevant figure appearing in the mirror as confirmation. A Society member could be called upon for many things, this particular request relying on a response from an inhabitant of Sad Souls.
At such a late hour, the interior of Helping Hand rested in the silence of the night. Two small trays of notepaper remained on top of the large, oak table for matters such as these - night-time emergencies requiring travel to Sad Souls.
With the familiar transaction carried out of communicating with the required resident via a Scribberal, the figure in question appeared in the mirror, causing it to spin, revealing a cobbled street lined with slate-grey buildings far taller than the average house. Sad Souls had come to the rescue just in time.
As the mirror of the cubicle closed behind them, more strikingly tall buildings came into view, decorated by ornate windows, stretching the length of the frontages. The cause of such scale was due to the size of the inhabitants of Sad Souls. Extremely tall figures with a genetic deficiency, causing premature ageing, the Ulux were a mixture of sadness and compassion which was formed from
the sense of alienation they felt.
In many ways, the freedoms afforded to others within the many realms of the S.P.M.A. were limited to them, due to the average-sized doors of most of the Periums and the obvious shock their appearance would cause in the above-ground world. Such limitations meant an existence within a self-contained realm of the Society, its tall inhabitants treating visits with an equal measure of appreciation and resentment.
Over time, Sadston became a place synonymous with sad souls, hence its informal name, and a particular sad soul’s skills were needed before the dark sorcery of Erent Koll took permanent hold. The house Casper and Philomeena Renn were headed to was located down a narrow lane, out of sight of those tracking Meyen Grayling: Melackin in waiting.
Thankful that they had managed to get her through the Perium in Helping Hand before her penchant stone lost all of its colour, Kaira’s dad and aunt were acutely aware that others would follow them - a vengeful mob angry at the sight of their vanishing figures which would, undoubtedly, raise further alarm.
Anger would quickly be mixed with blame, causing the finger of suspicion to fall on every member of the Society until the facts were laid bare - soon to appear for the first time in decades in No News is Good News. The immediate task at hand was escorting Meyen Grayling’s fading figure to the safe house where a trusted few offered refuge. As rain began to lash down - a common visitor in Sad Souls - the sanctuary came into view.
“She needs more Srynx Serum,” uttered Philomeena Renn as the rain splashed over the cobbled streets, bouncing off the grey stones and spitting streaks of muddy water over the collective attire of the three senior members of The Cendryll - soon to be two.
“We’ve used up our supply stabilising her,” replied her brother as they moved through the rain, glancing behind them in anticipation of a sudden rush of activity in Sad Souls.
