The Circle of Duty

by Owen Elgie

  As we approached the main doorway we were confronted with a choice. Should we just follow behind our colleagues or should we separate and go exploring on our own? Both options had merits but they also had potential flaws. Fatal ones at that. We really should have done more planning before we’d got underway. The Elder and Andrea had stopped as they were being introduced to a small pocket of people giving me time to check on the preferred course of action.

  Turning to The Messenger to vent my concerns I caught myself. I couldn’t spend the whole time calling her The Messenger?

  “What’s your name?” Back to the direct approach.

  She gave that same canine head tilt, considering my special brand of nonsense.

  “Are you well? Have you forgotten that I am The Messenger of The Circle?” At least she had a level of concern in her voice for me, that was something.

  “Not your title, your name. I know that there seems to be a real need to have everyone saddled with a title with begins with ‘The’ but what should I call you? I’m Anthony and you are?”

  This time she dropped her line of sight to the floor and made no sound for a handful of seconds.

  “I have no name. I am The Messenger of The Circle and that is all I am. I am to serve at the hand of The Mage and act as his hand in roles beyond his reach.” The deep voice which had been the barer of such authority had now shrunk. Not to a squeak but it had certainly deflated.

  Watching her actions, I could sense that this wasn’t how she would have answered that question when we had first met. Her diction had changed since then but so had she. She was concerned that I might have been having an effect on Andrea but had I already had an effect on her just by being a part of The Circle?

  “How about, rather than the full The Messenger, I just call you Em from now on? Shorthand rather than the full title might make more sense if we get into any trouble.”

  She tilted her head again as she met my eyes with her own and agreed with a short nod. Her expression was back to the usual blank visage showing no signs of any emotions lingering and the confidence was back in her posture. I think she thought that was acceptable.

  Outside the bubble, Andrea and The Elder (what should I call her for shorthand?) were moving off down the corridor towards the back of the house, leaving us still to decide a course of action

  “Follow them or make our own way? Any preference?” I wanted to get to wherever The Drake Stone had been stored before doing anything else but I was still wary of making any choice for fear of how it may be interpreted.

  “We should explore the estate on our own. The Guardians are more than capable of defending themselves against attack should it present itself and we will be more likely to discover something if we are not surrounded by servants.” Her logic was sound, I’d been leaning that way myself, but to hear her call all the people in the estate servants still grated a little.

  We made our way from the entrance hallway and Em sent us to the right.

  “Where are we headed? Are we just going to wander about or do you have a specific destination in mind?”

  “I am aware of where The Drake Stone was located so I feel we should start our investigation there. She may not have known it, but it felt good to know that we had at least agreed on this first course of action.

  Moving at a brisk pace through the labyrinthine corridors of the Argentinian mansion, we soon found ourselves stood before a massive pair of heavy wooden double doors. Black metal studs were everywhere over the surface and there was a definite air of medieval castle to the whole affair. There were even genuine burning torches either side, complete with the smoke staining on the walls and ceiling, truly selling that we were before an ancient stronghold. The massive locks on the door were the icing on the cake.

  “We’d better be careful opening the door. We haven’t passed many people but the last thing we need is to have a stray member of the team here wander by and witness the door magically opening and closing with no help from us.”

  “Not a concern.”

  I hadn’t even had time to respond before Em simple grabbed my arm and marched us both forwards into the closed door. And through and out of the other side.

  I collapsed. My head was spinning in the same way that it does when my danger spidey sense goes off but this time it was dragging around at least a ton of broken glass. I couldn’t open my eyes and was using all of what strength I had left to be able to just hold onto the hard stone floor. The seconds dragged on and the spinning calmed, first losing the extra material it was dragging and then dialing down on the revolutions. It left behind a fuzziness in my mind and a squirming nausea in my stomach.

  “What the hell was that?” I was breathing hard but I was at least able to ease myself back to my feet. Em, as it seemed with every question I asked her, just looked at me.

  “We have passed through the doorway, nothing more.”

  “So we can just walk through things now?”

  “The fields surrounding each of our prisons and estates is of the same magic. It has the ability to remove that which is inside from the same reality of everything which is on the outside. Depending on the type of casting, the size and form, it is possible that a smaller, denser field can carry the occupants through anything which comes in their way.”

  That made sense. It shocked me that she would be so forth-coming with the answers I’d requested though. It did lead to another question though.

  “Why didn’t I feel like I’d been kicked in the mind when I crossed the shield line the first time I entered the mansion in Wales? If this is all the same power, why did it hammer me now?”

  “You are built entirely to function at the site in Wales. All of your powers are woven through every aspect of everything that happens there magically. In this estate you are not the main power so you would have felt a tingle as we came through. The hammer blow you referred to comes from the fact that we have just traversed a great shield wall. It is much more concentrated than the main defences around our various sites. This is a vault which needs to be defended. Also, the entrance way in Wales is designed to allow the smooth passage of people without them feeling any effect.” Em smiled somewhat uncomfortably at me with the last comment. It obviously wasn’t something she was used to doing, the attempt at humour or the smile. I didn’t know what to say in return.

  Em took my sudden silence the wrong way.

  “Did I answer the question to your satisfaction? Have I said something wrong?”

  The spinning in my head was receding to nothing again but that question knocked me off balance again. I wish she’d make her mind up. Was I someone she was keeping a close eye on with the potential of ripping me apart or was she trying to gain my approval as a potential senior member of the group she was serving?

  “Thank you, yes. Everything was good. Where are we?”

  Looking around the room we were now stood in I was surrounded by all manner of artifacts and objects of so many different sizes, shapes and materials that it gave the impression of the most densely packed museum of priceless wonder the world had ever seen. The room was more akin to something which would house an indoor tennis court, large but also at least triple height. On all of the available wall space were hanging all manner of paintings and weapons, tapestries and clothing.

  But the contents didn’t stop at just the wall hangings.

  There were so many pieces on display of every imaginable kind and then so many more I couldn’t have ever imagined, that lounged and crouched and stood proudly, it became difficult for your eyes to focus on any one detail in particular. There was just so much here. Huge panels of deep wood surrounded the room in the same way my own estate was decorated. Opulent function to always envelop the estate. Ragged towers of all kinds of precious objects surged up towards the far away ceiling and their respective bases sprawled out into any and all space which they could find. The way everything was wedged together reminded me of the way ancient trees burst their roots through concrete and just expand
to fill the available area around them, no order, just use of the emptiness they could find.

  Em exhaled in a sigh which was equal parts magical release and pleasure and stretched her back, the spell of her veiling collapsing and draining around us. That stretch reminded me of Andrea. All tight muscle and suggestion.

  I didn’t dare let my mind linger on that thought. The last thing I could afford was to let Em know anything about Andrea and I. Pushing the thoughts away as Em relaxed her posture, all I could do was try to keep things focused on the task at hand.

  “This is a fragment of the collection from Bress Tal?” It was almost too much to believe that what we were looking at, stretching into every available piece of space in the room, including stretching up and reaching to the ornately decorated ceiling, was just a fragment of the repository of wonder which had been held in the fabled mighty city. It was like discovering that King Solomon’s Mines were nothing more than a gift shop and this was the main attraction.

  I made to step forward into the mass of precious everything but Em thrust out an arm and stopped me in my tracks, just as the spinning in my head returned but this time caused by my own early warning system.

  “We must disarm the more subtle defences before we continue.” Her voice was low and she flicked her eyes skywards, directly at the top of the mighty statue which was stood directly in the centre of a pool of golden coins.

  Sat atop the marble column was an exquisite rendering of a lion, carved from the same marble as its perch and sat rigidly at attention. The artwork sat a proud foot in height but had all of the regal wonder of a true lion. The concern for us was it was staring directly at us with a sullen red fire burning in each eye.

  “What is that and why is it looking at us?” Insightful.

  “That is an enchantment of the carving. It is a guard of the room which can just be left once it has been cast. It will attack anything which comes into this room which isn’t coming in in the correct manner.” I took a slow step backwards and the things attention followed me, its marble neck grating ever so slightly as it tracked its target. That meant us.

  “Enchantment of the carving eh? What does it mean to us practically? How are we going to get past it?” I was starting to feel like a mouse who was being watched by an ever so scary owl, trying to edge away without making myself seem like a viable option for dinner. As my wary eyes moved away from the lion for as long as I dared, I could make out several other statues of the same design, some cracked, some whole, some missing the lion altogether and others with much larger lions. Just so you’d never be sure where the attack was coming from.

  My Dragon could squash this thing without a second thought but I couldn’t risk becoming my beast in this enclosed space. We’d have to do this another way.

  “It is quite simple to destroy. It is, after all, just marble. Crack it in half.”

  This time, Em took a step forward, but hers was a forceful incursion rather than my own stuttering effort. The lion leapt from his perch and hurtled directly at Em, its jaws spreading much wider than any real creature would have been able to. Em casually reached out and caught the falling animal by the throat, and with a deft swish of her wrist, wrenched its head clean from its body.

  The two pieces of the creature fell to the floor and lay still, nothing more than the inanimate material, all life effortlessly removed.

  “Not much of a guard.” I was at Em’s side and looked down at the broken statue.

  “It is the perfect guard. The shielding on this room and the strength of the door are such that should someone breach them, they would expect the defences to be at an end. This is nothing more than a surprise for someone who ventures into the room. It does not attack immediately. Instead it is designed to wait until someone has reached a certain point. Even the most basic of weapons can be deadly if you’re not looking for the attack.”

  I was taken back to the memory of our first meeting and being knocked unconscious by a single punch from Em. It certainly was the shots you don’t see that do the most damage.

  “But won’t one of the others attack after we kill that one?” Again, I did my best to keep my focus on the realities of the task at hand.

  “If I had employed magic in my defences, then yes, a further attack would have come but by just using my physical strength, the others haven’t been alerted to the potential threat. To get here, you would have to use magic freely and heavily. Again, using what could be called a simple weapon is the most effective.”

  Em casually stepped over the dusty heap the lion now was and headed into the depths of the collection. I followed behind determined to find out as much as I could as we went, but also to try to build some kind of relationship with Em. She’d have to be conflicted about doing to me what she’d done to that lion if she actually knew me.

  We squeezed through makeshift pathways, edging carefully past gilded weapons and sharpened curiosities and edged deeper towards the centre of the room.

  “This is some collection. This must be almost the sum total of the wealth of the ancient world.” Engaging in gentle conversation, the hallmark of any relationship/friendship.

  She didn’t turn to me as she replied, still struggling deeper into the forest of riches.

  “Such a small part of the whole. The knowledge, wealth and value within Bress Tal was staggering. This is a poor reminder of all that was lost.”

  Really?

  “All of this? How much did they leave behind?”

  This time she did turn to face me.

  “The value of any item is relative. Do you feel that a ruby the size of your fist is valuable? People would pay millions for such an object, yes? If you were marooned in a desert with that same ruby, wouldn’t you exchange it for a glass of water?”

  Her head tilted and it was clear that the would-be rhetorical question, was waiting to be answered.

  “Possibly, depends on the details.” Not the most deeply considered answer.

  “The value of what was lost was vast, so far beyond the comprehension of most, but that which was saved is so much more.” Then she added almost as an afterthought, “Any normal person would take the water but you are not normal. You would refuse it in so many scenarios, would you not?”

  I just shrugged back at her and repeated my earlier comment, “Depends on the details.”

  Em frowned and turned her back on me again, resuming our progress into the vault.

  The remainder of the journey was just ridiculous. The pathway we had been following petered out at the base of a mighty statue of what looked like a jade rendering of Freddy’s Dragon form. I couldn’t be sure as there was only a very limited amount of the statue I could actually make out with the surrounding wealth draping over and around it at so many places that it again gave me the idea of the objects being of nature, growing in, on and around anything and everything they came into contact with. From there Em had simply started to clamber over the piles of gold and jewels which had formed at its base and headed onwards and upwards.

  Behind the statue of the Dragon the landscape changed from the gold and precious stones which had been making up so much of the area we had seen up to now, into craggy cliffs of ancient books. Underneath a canopy of what looked like a huge black sail but could have been practically anything else, we climbed over the treasures. Thousands, if not millions of tomes bound in almost every conceivable material sat in steepling piles, just set rigid against the march of time. They were obviously of great worth to be in this place at all but as I strained for sturdy enough grips and footholds, all I could think of was the question, when was the last time anyone ever actually read from one of these things?

  Shaking my mind back into the here and now, I looked back ahead of me to find that Em was nowhere to be seen. My first thought was ‘great, where has she gone?’ but that was quickly followed by the more worrying thought of ‘how the hell do I get out of here on my own?’ My stomach tightened as I cast my gaze left and right, up and down in a vain attempt to lo
cate my companion but also to pinpoint the best way down from the cliffs of knowledge I found myself on.

  “If you’ve veiled yourself to try to be funny, you’ve picked a very odd time to do it?” I called into the air and waited on the response, should there be one. There wasn’t a sound. Instead, from about ten feet above me, Em poked her head out from beyond an outcropping of darkly bound volumes which were showing their age a little more raggedly than the other books we were surrounded by.

  “I would not veil myself without you being with me. Why would you think I would do that?” She spoke with a sullen fire in her voice.

  I breathed a relieved breath and started my way to her. From her tone, it appeared that she wanted to know why I’d thought what I’d thought. Had I hurt her feelings? As I clambered onto the ledge she was already perched on with far less grace than I imagined she had managed, I started to respond.

  “Sorry, just hadn’t seen you climb in here. Thought you were playing a trick on me that’s all.” I smiled as casually as I could and waited. She cocked her head again in that canine fashion, assessing what I had just said. What little emotion that was in her features drained out to return her blank, business-like expression.

  “We have arrived at our destination. Would you like to see?” Em sounded like my explanation had been enough. Crawling back through the small opening in the books ahead of us, she led me to our intended destination. I followed and did my best not to just stare at her backside as I went. Good God what’s wrong with me?

  Em stopped and crouched on her haunches, waiting for me. I joined her and sat down as comfortably as I could. I was in good condition but I knew my knees were going to thank me for not trying to copy her position. It was surprisingly warm in the tunnel, humid and sticky and the air felt thick on my lips.

  “This is where The Drake Stone was stored to keep it safe. This is where The Mage was reaching from Egypt.” Em was looking directly towards what looked like a beaten and worn old suitcase which had been incorporated into the rear wall of the cramped tunnel. Reaching out she gently eased the hinged front open to expose the interior. Inside it was more of a trunk in size than a suitcase. Tattered cloth lining a very bland box. Aside from a few small blue pebbles in the back right hand corner it was empty and thoroughly unremarkable. Certainly not the place to store a mystical object of supreme power. Maybe that was the point.