“Ugh, I can’t believe you’re leaving Grand-Basin before me, dude…Not cool,” said Olpymia. Her eyes reddening.

Giving me a tight hug. A few drops of salty water spilled from her eyes.

“Do, remember to take care of yourself, Eddy. For our sakes,” said Olympia. Doing a better job of keeping her composure, though I think she might have been suffering from some out-of-season allergies, or a mild case of conjunctivitis, on account of the obvious reddening of her eyes.

“I will,” I said. Nodding. Accepting the order because I already had standing orders from both my original mother, and my current parents, to look after and maintain my well-being.

“Hey, I’m his actual mother, missy. Leave some hugs for me,” said Reina. Gently pushing Ollie aside and pulling me into a hug that made Ollie’s look downright gentle. It’s a good thing I had a reinforced skeletal-structure, or I might well have ended up breaking something.

“Oh, my little boy, I’m going to miss you so much,” said Reina. Letting me go, and pushing me over to Yijun while dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, that she then ruined by blowing her nose into it.

“Heh, look at you my little Edward…Practically all grown up…You were a mysterious little miracle when you popped out, and you're even more so now that you’re big. Come here, son,” said Yijun.

The protocol of the day seemed to be hugging and crying. I was feeling a bit misty-eyed. Perhaps, I’d need to check my systems later to confirm that I hadn’t sprung some kind of leak.

“Be happy, son…” said Yijun. Whispering the words into my ears.

“I…I am happy, mother,” I said. Perplexed.

“I know…At least, I’d hoped…But, a mother knows…Especially, this mother…So, perhaps, I should change the words…Be free, my son…I always got the sense that you’re holding back…Playing a role instead of being yourself…Now that you’re leaving home. I think it’s about time you stop playing and be the ‘real’ you…You’ve shown yourself to be upstanding, responsible, and kind…You’ve been an excellent son, and a good brother, and I’d like to think we’ve shown you that whatever it is you’re afraid of, isn’t likely to happen…So, be free, my son. Take this opportunity, to take that final step and stop holding back,” said Yijun.

“Also…You don’t need to worry so much about ‘them’...Assuming you still ‘are’ worrying about them. Reina, Ferdy, and me, have our own ways of dealing with my family if it comes down to it,” said Yijun.

“.......” I didn’t know what to say. All I can say is that, as I heard my mother’s voice. Something inside me, unclenched. Allowing a weight that I’d been carrying inside me to fall away.

“I…I understand,” I said. Eventually finding my voice again.

The last ones to say goodbye were my father and my siblings. Thad gave me a punch on the shoulder and told me to take care of myself. Emile added to the long litany of tearful hugs. My father pat me on the shoulder and said,

“Walk tall, son…We Dunkels might be simple folk, but we’re still 1 in a million. Go out there and show the world what you’re made of.”

Then with that, the train whistle sang out, I finally said goodbye to my family. Stepping onto the armored-train where the Circus of Arcadia Recruiter was waiting. I waved at the window until I could no longer see my family. Then as they were gone and a part of me disappeared with them.

My hair turned crimson. My eyes turned a more vibrant, more luminous shade of red, I grew several inches taller. My fangs and claws grew more prominent, my musculature and physique grew more vigorous and imposing. My mother was right. There was no longer any need for me to pretend to be the placid, well-behaved, child I’d been pretending to be. So, I…let go…of purely trying to be Edward Dunkel, and slipped into the sea of near-infinite possibilities that lay between my present and past selves.

*************************************************************************************************************

I found the order’s recruiter waiting for me in the train cabin. He looked up from the book he was reading. I saw his eyebrows rise behind the mask he was wearing.

“Hey-hey, looks like someone’s already found their college-self,” said the man. Laughing.

“Hm?” I said. Distracted. Not quite understanding the man’s words.

“Heh, never mind, never mind, take a seat. It’ll be a while before we get back to the Circus’s Headquarters,” said the clownish recruiter.

“Ah, okay, then,” I said. Nodding and plopping myself down into the seat opposite the recruiters. Idly looking out the window, already feeling like the world I saw out there was too small and too limited for my tastes.

*************************************************************************************************************

“So, is this the rumored wonder-recruit?” said an old man’s voice.

“Hm, It seems so,” said the voice of an old woman.

I had arrived at the Circus of Arcadia, and thus far…I wasn’t having a particularly good time. In fact, dare I say it, I was having quite the miserable time. I was feeling nostalgic in the absolute worst way as I once again found myself standing, basically naked, before a group of measuring, judgemental, probing eyes. A position I hadn’t really been put into in this life, outside of the occasional doctor’s visit.

Before I never really thought about it, but now with the distance of an entire lifetime plus the years in the stagnant spirit world that lay in-between those two lifetimes, my frequent examinations with my former-family’s doctors, physicians, mad scientist types, and heretic mages, were probably, maybe, a bit traumatizing for me. Nothing good ever came from them, and they almost always followed, or were followed by, some new horror that’d be inflicted upon me, as part of the never-ending task of making me the perfect heir to my mother’s role of lord and sovereign.

“Hm, nice body…but what about his power,” said a voice from amongst the gawking multitude that currently surrounded me on all sides.

“Ah, one moment, please…Show them what you’re made of, lad,” said the recruiter who’d apparently also taken on the task of showing me to the elders, or “Ringmasters” of the Circus. The man chose the wrong moment to be overly familiar with me, patting me on the shoulder, and eliciting a dull pang of bloodlust with the contact.

The man’s hand froze as my bloodlust flooded the room. I noticed a few other folks getting weapons and spells ready. Then nothing happened, and the mood in the room turned strange. Thankfully, the ringmasters seemed to think nothing of it. Or at the very least, no one said anything. Though I did get a nasty, and somewhat nervous, look from the recruiter.

“Ah…” said one of the ringmasters

“Yikes,” said another.

“My, my, a feisty one isn’t he?” said a third.

“App-...Apologies…I guess, I’m just a bit…tense,” I said. Forcing a smile onto my normally blank face. Sheepishly trying to explain away the lapse in my self-control.

“H-, heh, well…Nothing to be afraid of. We’re all friends here, lad... All friends,” said the recruiter. He raised his hand to pat my shoulder. I gave him a look that made it clear that this would be a bad idea. He pulled his hand away, and awkwardly cleared his throat. Rubbing the back of his head, like he hadn’t been about to touch me again.

“Anyway, let them see what you’ve got, kiddo…The Ringmasters don’t have all day, you know,” said the recruiter. Handing me a high-ranked soul-glimmer stone. One of a higher purity, and “load-potential”, than your average soul-glimmer stone.

I did as he bade me, let my power pour through the stone. There were several gasps as the stone shattered. There were even more gasps as my aura continued to grow and swell. Washing over the entire building. Washing over the entire campus of the order. Twenty-one, glowing, eye-like apertures appeared at my back, and opened wide. Filling the room with twenty-one miniature suns.

I’d held back a tiny bit, when I showed the recruiter what I was capable of, before. Not only had my level of power grown above what I’d seen him last, making me more willing to reveal more of what I could do. I was also choosing now to reveal my access to the seven hidden elements, or inter-elements, that I had access to. Such as ash, dust, magma, ruin, dream, poison, and luck.

“Oh, ho, well, Newton…Guess what,” said one of the Ringmasters. Googling at me and then laughing as he turned to my recruiter.

“...Wh-, what, sir?” said the man.

“Consider yourself off my shit-list…This right here…This recruit that you’ve brought us, makes all those months of lackluster performance into naught but a distant memory,” said the ringmaster.

“Tha-, thank you, sir!” said my clownish recruiter. Bowing at the waist in a crisp and courtly manner.

“Now, scram…This fine young man here, and us Ringmasters, need to have a very important conversation, regarding his future,” said the Ringmaster.

“Yes, sir,” said the recruiter. Quickly making himself scarce.

“Okay, now that Newton’s gone, let’s you and us, have a little chat, young man,” said the Ringmaster.

As I slowly recovered from my altered state of mind, I noted that the Ringmaster that was speaking to me most wore a mask of yellow scales. Like a snake, or some kind of lizard-man clown.

“My name is Carlo Onio…Feel free to call me, Ringmaster Onio…Or just Ringmaster…Now take a load off,” said the man.

I looked behind me and realized that there was a chair. I looked in front, and realized in the fraction of a second where I wasn’t supposed to be paying attention, the Ringmasters were all retrieving seats of various kinds from within their clothes, and their own personal storage spaces and storage devices. It probably would have made for a humbling trick, if my eyes were a little duller.

I sat down, hands folded, and waited for the Ringmasters to address me again.

“You, boy…What are you?” said one of the female ringmasters. The woman wore a doll-like, blue, snow-flake patterned mask. Her “chair” was a pair of puppets in the form of muscular men.

“...Pardon?” I said. Brow furrowing a little. Wishing this world was more web-connected so I could, more easily, look up the identities of all the people present.

“She’s talking about your species…” said Carlo.

“Ah…Er, I am human by birth, but fundamentally, I am vampiric in nature…” I said. Seeing no need to hide what I am, after years of going out of my way to make sure the world had a rough idea of what I actually was.

“A vampire, huh…Does that mean you drink blood?” said the woman. Her tone was curious, but thankfully not alarmed, or repulsed.

“Yes…Alternatively, I can make do with meat that’s raw enough, and fresh enough to still have a decent amount of residual life essence inside it,” I said.

“Interesting….” said the woman. Our words caused the group of Ringmasters to murmur softly around her.

“Fair enough, our circus doesn’t discriminate…So long as you keep those fangs to yourself…And don’t go attacking our people, or our clients. We’ve seen a couple of oddities in our time…Normally folk as strong as you are, as young as you are, tend to be…let’s say… 'older than you look' ...How about it? Are you a reincarnated-soul of some sort?” said another Ringmaster. This one a man. Wearing a mask, that made him look a bit like tin-man, or a robot.

“I believe so…Yes,” I said. Deciding to be roughly as honest with the order as I'd been with my family, for the time being.

“Hm, I appreciate your candor…Any grand ambitions of godhood, and the like?” said the man.

“No?” I said. Puzzled by the question. All souls reincarnate at some point or the other, and becoming a false god, was something done only by the foolish, and most desperately power-hungry. To me, his question was a bit like someone saying “I see you ride the bus, would you like to be President of a country that’s currently both sinking to the bottom of the sea, and on fire?” In other words, his question was gibberish to my ears…Fortunately, I could still roughly get his meaning by stretching my thinking a little.

“Why does that sound like a question…?” said the man.

“Why would I want to be a god?” I said.

“Huh…Odd question…But, you’d be surprised…Folk like you, who’ve managed to figure out the trick of being reborn without losing your memory, are usually pretty ambitious, and tend to get god-complexes real quick…” said the man.

I frowned. I couldn’t deny that I had a bit of ambition, but who didn’t have at least some ambition. Even if I were ten times as ambitious as I was, I still wouldn’t fathom ever developing any kind of god-complex. I knew too much about the cosmos to think of myself as anything more than just one small, and insignificant, part of the greater-totality of existence. With all my power, I was still just a candle flame waiting for the countless squalls and storms to blow me out. I was conditioned to not be the kind of person who gets cocky and full of themselves, because arrogance was one of the most famous destroyers of nations.

“Er…Well, I’m pretty much just here to do my own thing, and live a life without too much strife,” I said.

“Hm, that sounds…Oddly sincere…I guess, we’ll see…Hopefully, you’re telling the truth…” said the man.

“Okay, final question…Why us? Why the Circus?” said Carlo. Finally taking the reins again.

“Your reputation is good, and with my research…I was able to find you have access to a certain stranger from beyond the stars, who deputized you to look after this world and the worlds that are connected to it…” I said. Giving the alternate reasons that I’d eventually come up with, when I needed to convince myself that joining the circus would still be a good deal, even if I wasn’t trying to use them to cow my mother’s family.

“Oh-oh, a future world conqueror are you? Or are you the treasure hunting type? Let me stop you there…Trying to use us as a means to exploit the other dimensions will just get you rubbed out by the will of the worlds,” said the metal-faced ringmaster.

“Actually…I’m just the wandering type…My first life was basically spent in a cage…In my current life, I've lived in the same city, all my life…I’ve never been anywhere…If it’d be alright, I’d like to eventually earn the right to travel the myriad worlds,” I said.

“Oh, he’s good…” said the blue-masked woman.

“Well, I’ll be. A fellow wanderer, after our own hearts…Maybe you 'are' alright, after all?” said the metal-masked man.

“Hm, it’ll take some time for us to see if you can be trusted with the keys that let us travel between the worlds…But for the time being, you’re too big a treat for our order to pass up. So, welcome to the Circus, kid,” said Carlo.

“Thank you, sir,” I said. Bowing.