by Jae Vogel
“So I hear you are now a fire master?” one of the Naiads said to him. She stood next to her chosen and held the young man’s hand. All this young love was touching, even to Dion.
“The powers were given to me just a few hours ago,” Dion told her. “At least I don’t have to worry about fire elementals making a run at me in the future.”
“Can you make them do anything you want?” she asked him.
“In theory I can, but I won’t do that. You don’t want to make an elemental work and hate you. Not one who can burn things down anyway. I can do a lot with them, but I have to be careful.”
“Let’s see you do something with the bonfire,” she told him, gesturing in the direction of the bonfire.
Dion turned to it and could see the small fire elementals dancing in the flames. They weren’t very large and would be thrilled to show the humans what they could do. Dion closed his eyes, had a small conversation with them, and raised his hand at a ninety-degree angle. This was the signal they should go to work.
The fire swirled together and began to create patterns in the flames. It gathered into itself and created a phoenix, then a burning turtle and finally a horse. The crowd who watched it change each time cheered when the images changed shape. It was better than any firework display any of them had witnessed before. Also, it stayed close to the ground. At Dion’s request, the flames broke into the images of the small fire spirits who danced in the flames, this time where everyone could see them. This produced plenty of gasps.
“Nice job, Dion,” Ken told him. “You should go work for one of those Las Vegas casinos.”
“Thank you for the compliment but my place is here. And I still have to go back in there tomorrow.”
“Back in there? You have four elements, I thought you’d be done by now.”
“I need one more that is inside the clock tower. My uncle is holding the fifth element grandmaster prisoner inside it and my parents too. I need to go get them out tomorrow.” He walked away with Lilly as Ken stood aghast at what he’d been told.
“I can’t believe you’re going back in there tomorrow,” Lilly told him as they watched the water from the bank. “Are you sure you don’t want us to go with you?”
“I can’t have anyone in there but me. The map doesn’t show what’s inside it. I only have a vague idea what is in there other than my parents and the Aether Grandmaster. I have to go in there alone and bring them back.”
“I wish you would let us go in there with you,” Lilly told Dion as she hugged him. “I can’t imagine being without you at this point.”
“I understand, but the battle is my own. Don’t worry; I have four elemental powers and my uncle only has one.”
“But isn’t it the strongest one?”
“The aether is the basis of the power of the other four, this is true. But he lacks the knowledge of how to use it right. My uncle obtained it the wrong way and he only has a vague idea of how to use it. It will work against him when we meet each other in there. But I don’t have any knowledge of what else he has inside the tower. I expect he’s built all kinds of traps inside it to stop me from reaching my parents. It’s why I have to reach the elemental grandmaster first. If I am given full power over the aether, he’ll have nothing to use against me. I expect he knows this and has her hidden away where she won’t be easy to find.”
Dion turned to look at the party in progress and the Naiad sisters with their boyfriends. It was a little strange what he created and he still had no idea how it would all work out in the end. With prom coming up, the chess club would have plenty to plan for and prepare. But this wasn’t his principal concern.
Dion saw a shadow emerge from the edge of the woods and work its way over to him. The shadow was without a companion and at first he thought it might be one of the chess club’s friends. The party was limited to the club and the Naiad sisters, but other people might have heard about it. Dion watched as the shadow worked its way down the bank and came up to him at the edge of the water. It seemed to have a familiar form to it.
And then he recognized the face of his uncle, Seth Bach. The light from the fire illuminated his face and Dion could see the salt and pepper hair and the expensive suit he wore. His uncle recognized Dion and slowly walked up to him.
“Lilly, please go away,” he told her. “I have something to deal with. Give me a few minutes to have a conversation and I’ll be back with you.”
Lilly could tell there was no arguing with Dion and walked away. Still, Lilly kept his image in her face as she went away. She knew something very wrong was about to take place, but there was nothing much she could do about it. She walked over to the bonfire and watched Dion stand his ground as the shadow came up to him. At that minute, she put her hand to her mouth when she realized this had to be his uncle, the man who was the source of all their troubles.
“You have done very well, nephew,” Dion’s uncle said to him. “Better than I expected. You have all four elemental powers and have eluded all attempts I made to get you out of the way.”
“That is some great praise, coming from you, dear uncle. Perhaps you can prevent my assault on your clock tower tomorrow. All you need to do is release the fifth elemental grandmaster and my parents. Do this and I’ll leave you to your mall and whatever wealth it brings you.”
“Nice attempt, nephew, but there is a bigger game played here than my little mall represents. It stands over one of the gates to the abyss, did you realize that?”
“I knew there was some talk of it, uncle. I didn’t know whether or not there was any truth to the matter. I still think you would be wise to take the settlement I’m offering you. This way you can keep the mall and your holdings.”
“Do you realize what is inside the abyss, nephew? There are horrors inside it that human minds cannot comprehend. It is said that one only becomes complete when they cross the abyss, Dion. Would you like to make an abyss crossing?”
“Not under your guidance, uncle. I think I can do it myself quite nicely when the time comes. And, from what I understand, the abyss has no physical reality in this time circle. So how is it you claimed the location was necessary for the mall? You could place it at the entrance to the abyss? Couldn’t you have placed the mall anyplace?”
“Perhaps, but this location suited my purposes. It has the right vibrations and location for my final action. Would you like to know about what I have planned over the next three days for his world?”
“Not in particular. I doubt the end result will be good for anyone.”
“Oh, it will be very good for me,” his uncle snickered. “And I’m willing to let you have a part of it. As a family member, you should have something to do with it. Even I am not immortal. You just might have that ability if you work hard enough.”
“I don’t think so, uncle,” Dion told him. “You can keep your little schemes. You can keep your mall if you return the people I ask. I think I’ve made you a fair offer, why don’t you accept it?”
“You little puke,” his uncle snapped at him. “How dare you talk to me like this? I would like to remind you, Dion that I have the power of the fifth element and you don’t.”
“Perhaps, but I have the other four, which you do not. I don’t care how you came by your full powers, uncle, but you got them the wrong way and they will be your downfall.”
“I will fall down? I don’t think so Dion. I think you should be the one to watch your step.”
His uncle, who wore a black trench coat, stepped back on the little hill and glared at Dion. Next, he closed his eyes and concentrated. Dion could feel the energy in the atmosphere. His uncle was bringing up something from the aether. He could summon some kind of element from the aether realm and had no hesitation doing it.
Dion concentrated as well. He put out orders to all the elementals in earth, air, water and fire round him. He could feel their interests in the atmosphere about him. Even the Naiad sisters let go of their boyfriends and turned to look at Dion. The chess club rea
lized something was wrong and looked in the same direction.
Dion could see a form shimmering in the air next to the creek. His uncle smiled as something began to take form out of the aether and pull itself into the material world. His uncle had brought something down from the abyss, which contained the basic building blocks of matter. He could feel it happen in front of him.
The shimmering form slowly congealed into a solid mass. The mass became a thing of horror as it took shape in front of the crowd around the bonfire. It grew to the size of a bear. It didn’t stop growing until it reached ten feet in height. The Naiads stepped back and formed a protective barrier between themselves and their boyfriends as they had some idea of what it was about. The chess club found themselves pushed back, up toward the top of the embankment as they saw the light strike the beast down on the shore.
“What the hell is that?” Ken finally said.
“I have no idea,” said Sean, who stood next to him.
Sean watched it with curiosity. When he was much younger, his mother made him go outside and dig up some creeping vines, which were growing over her flower garden. Sean went and got the shovel to dig the roots out of the ground. The roots ran back from all parts of the vine to a central point, and then sent runners to other points in the yard where more vines grew. Sean unearthed a root ball at one place, pulled it out of the ground and looked at it. When he saw it up close, the root ball looked disgusting. It was a mass of roots, which grew from a central point. Up close, it appeared to be a mass of worms or small snakes. He tossed the first root ball in the trashcan and burned the next ones he found. It didn’t matter; the disgusting vines returned the next year and in greater quantity.
Right now, he starred at an animated root ball. At least, it’s what it appeared to be from where he stood. But this root ball twisted and turned as it found itself in an unfamiliar territory. It fell over sidewise and tried to right itself as the root ball sent out masses of vines from the center of a body that grabbed any spot they could hang onto. The first twelve of them locked onto a tree to one side, hauled the center section up, and righted it as it grew bigger again.
Dion hadn’t done an extensive amount of research on the fiends which dwelt in the abyss, so he didn’t have a clue what it was. All he knew was that it had to be a dweller of the threshold, one of the primal creatures which controlled the gate to the abyss. There were many of them beyond the gate, but few people knew about them as they never left their home.
Every so often one might gain entrance to this circle of time. Stories would spread about some kind of demon loose on the land. They usually didn’t last long in the corrosive atmosphere of the planet and would break down quickly since the things were made from ectoplasm. Dion felt a certain pulp writer had glimpsed one and it served as the basis for his horror stores. These were cosmic monsters of a terrible appearance.
As it righted itself, the beast sent out more tentacles, which meandered their way toward the light from the bonfire. The creature fed off vibrant energy and the fire was a source of it in which to feed. Dion couldn’t remember what the counter was to those things; he never had the opportunity to talk with Edward about them. He did know they were elementals, which meant there would be a way to stop it; he only had to remember what would do it. The censer he carried in the bag would be useless, so he sat it on the ground.
Two of the Naiad sisters tried to block it as the thing crawled along the ground toward the fire. Both were sent flying into the creek when the tentacles grabbed and tossed them into the air.
“Stay back!” Cynae yelled to the rest of them. “It wants the fire. Stay out of its way because there’s nothing we have here that can stop it.”
“You know about these things?” Dion yelled at her. “What do you need to stop it?”
“A black diamond works best,” she shouted out to them. “Anyone got a black diamond?” One look on the blank faces told her all she needed to know.
“I guess that’s a no,” she yelled back at the rest of them, just loud enough so Dion could hear her.
“Jeweler’s been closed for hours,” Dion shouted back. “Wish I’d know about this thing in advance.”
“Hindsight is no good now,” Sean said. “Anything else can stop it?”
Dion halted as he watched the mass of tentacles slowly work its way to the fire. He worried it would begin to grow enormously if it reached the fire. The beast had an insane demand for energy, if what he remembered was right. There had to be one other way to stop it. He just couldn’t remember what bound it in place beside the black diamond Cynae mentioned. He continued to think as the Naiad sisters moved the boys back and out of its path.
And then he remembered.
Chapter 16
Dion wasn’t sure if they had what was needed. He glanced around and saw a table unfolded next to the bonfire, which was what the chess club brought out to the party. On it were a few chessboards with half-finished games, some hotdogs, buns and mustard. Then he had a thought and ran ahead of the beast to the table. Dion scattered the condiments across the table as the mass began quivering toward the fire. He needed to be quick since the table was in its way.
In the distance, his uncle stood in place with his arms folded and a smile on his face.
Dion grabbed a saltshaker and dumped the contents over a hot dog bun. He rubbed a few more hot dog buns with salt to make sure they were ground into the loaves. The next thing he did was to grab up all the buns and walk into the direction of the tentacles, but he made sure to stay out of their range.
“What’s he doing?” one of the chess club guys asked Emily as Dion slowly made his way to the mass of tentacles. The creature didn’t have any sensory organs. It had no way of seeing or smelling where it was, but it could feel its way about with the scores of pseudopods which spread from the center of it.
“Don’t worry about Dion,” Emily said. “He knows what he’s doing, just let him do it. Or at least I think I he knows what he’s doing.” As Emily watched Dion walk into the path of the monster with a handful of hotdog buns, she wasn’t so sure.
Dion was just out of range of the monster when he hurled the first bun at the creature. The tentacles grasped and then released the bun. The tentacles it used to grab them shook violently when it released the bread. It appeared the creature was in pain, but there was no way to know because it couldn’t make any kind of noise, other than the oozing sound it made as it pulled itself along on the ground.
Dion began to throw more buns at it and the monster retracted its tentacles. It seemed to shrink every time a bun stuck it. Dion waited to throw another one and the creature seemed to wail, even without a mouth to scream. It continued to shrink in scale under it was no more than two feet high. When it had shrunk to the small stump of no more than six inches, Dion walked over to the monster, dropped the final bun on it, and rubbed it into the ground. He lifted the bun and checked underneath it.
“Gone,” Dion announced to the crowd. “Back to where it came. Just don’t eat any of the buns I threw.” There was a muted laughter from the crowd.
Dion went back to the table and grabbed a trash bag. As the rest of them watched, he picked up each bun and placed them in the bag. Then he tied the top of the bag and took it to Ken.
“Make sure you burn this later,” he instructed Ken. His friend nodded and put the bag to one side.
There was a clapping sound from the embankment. Dion turned to see his uncle with a smile on his face again. “Very good, nephew. How did you send it back?”
Dion walked up to him. “I remembered what instrument was the counter against it. Bread and salt. We had the bread in the form of hot dog buns; all I had to do was get the salt on them and hurl the buns back at the monster.”
“You are your father’s son, I have to admit. You do know who your father really is, don’t you?”
“He’s your brother.”
“Not exactly. He never did tell you why the older woman tried to have your nursemaids kill you, d
id he?”
“What are you talking about?” Dion demanded.
“Your real father is Jupiter Olympus, didn’t he ever tell you? No, I guess he didn’t. My brother wouldn’t want it known his wife had an affair with her employer. It didn’t matter that he paid off your parent’s mortgage when Jupiter’s wife found out. She was furious over what happened. It’s why you have the potential for five elemental powers, Dion. You’re half-Olympian yourself. Your parents never told you, but I guessed it a long time ago.”
“You are just saying that to keep me out of the tower,” Dion snarled at him.
“Go ask around. I guess this makes me your half-uncle. I don’t care. Jupiter’s wife found out and tried to have you killed. She can control water elementals too because she is an Olympian. It almost worked, but Jupiter thought she might try to hurt you someday, so he paid one of the men to follow you. He acted as protection until you were big enough to take care of yourself. Even wonder why that truck just happened to be there at the right time? It’s because the man driving it worked for your real father who didn’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Get out of here, uncle!” Dion thundered at him. “You can forget about my allowing you to keep the mall after I rescue my parents and the grandmaster. I will see you are stripped of everything you have!”
“All you have to do is ask around,” Seth Bach laughed as he vanished.
Dion stood in place and swore at the empty space where his uncle had stood. This could be a trick to make him stay away from the tower. But if his uncle was lying, why had he done it in such a way that would allow Dion to check up on what he said? It would be very easy to look into it. His uncle had to know this and had to know that Dion would check up on him. Which meant he had to know that he was right.
If it was true, why had none of his parents told him what happened? Why did they let him go through life and assume he was his father’s son? Were they eventually planning to tell him the truth? He could understand if they hadn’t wanted to talk about such shame on the family. However, he was eighteen. Couldn’t they could have broken the truth to him years ago and prepared him for this? Why did they force him to hear it from his uncle, the man who had imprisoned his parents and forced him to come here in the first place? Dion stood in place and felt the anger inside him.
