“____” speaking

‘____’ thoughts

*____* telepathy

translated from Eldritch

---------------------

My dreary haze of a dreamscape felt calm and composed as opposed to the normally turbid and hostile things that would visit me. I was lucid to a small extent in order to be aware of this but I couldn’t fathom the reason why this nap in particular needed me aware.

Looking around my dream, all I could see was black; the obvious filler for unimportant space. It wasn’t until the third turn that I saw anything and when I did it was violet and staring back at me out of a colorless body. I could see myself reflected in the eyes that were watching me; why they were doing so I didn’t know and it worried me.

It was her, the owner of the blue soul that resided inside me. For what reason had she chosen to come out and in a dream of all things; if this really was a dream. She was just floating there with her head resting on the heel of both of her hands.

We stared at each other without moving, blinking, or breaking eye contact for half an eternity. I didn’t know what to do and it was apparent that she didn’t want to do anything so I would follow suit. Her hand twitched causing me to break eye contact and I barely missed the negligible bit of sadness that her eyes held for a moment before returning to empty uncaring voids. By the time I looked back up she had moved away from me while remaining in the same position. One of her hands slipped out from underneath her chin and she tilted it side to side in what I recognized to be a very weak and tiny wave.

Then she, and the dream, was gone. The sleepiness hadn’t quite left me but I was awake and wasn’t going to be falling asleep again any time soon. I had too much to think about now.

I was vaguely aware of what was going on around me and I knew that Ormonde was no longer in the Church of the Dark Sun anymore.

*Where are we?*

Ormonde flinched a little and, after recovering from the momentary shock of another voice in his head, he told me that they had finished the tour a while ago and were currently eating lunch. I had been out for quite some time.

*Does Cecil want me to come out now or wait till we reach the next church?*

Ormonde relayed my question and I got the response that I was expecting; stay hidden for now.

Once their meal was finished the three left and started to head in the direction of the next church. This trip was going to take even longer to get to than the second church and I spent the time thinking about the dream I had had while slowly waking up. I was fully awake and had finished driving myself crazy by thinking about the unnamed woman who occupied a spot in my soul by the time Cecil spoke with the intention of me hearing it.

“Here we are, the Church of the Eternal Spirit.”

‘This is a church?’

The building that Cecil had led Ormonde, and by extension me, to was blank and looked like every other building in the area. How did he know that this was it? Shouldn’t there be banners like there was for the other two churches? The closer we got to the building the more questions I had and none of them were going to be answered unless I waited.

Unlike the other two churches, this one, if it was a church, had an orderly line outside it that was slowly filling into the building. Out of curiosity I checked to see how many spirit where in the area and was blown away by the gathering that had congregated inside the building. Even if it was under fifty, it was still more than I had sensed throughout the rest of the town.

The line was moving slowly but surely and I decided that now was a good time as any to leave Ormonde. Instead of the small uproar that should have occurred to another person leaving someone else, the crowd around us only gave a few cursory glances and the scattered mutter of the word lucky. I turned to Cecil to try and settle some of my confusion before it drove me insane.

“What’s with these people? And the line? And the lack of a banner like the other two churches?”

“Well that line is to get into the church and the lack of a banner is something you’ll have to ask the church not me. As for those around us? Let’s just say that they’re a little jealous.”

“Of what?”

“Of you. Or of Ormonde more likely.”

“Why?”

“You’re a spirit. This church revolves around spirits. Need I say anymore?”

“I guess not. Though I’m still confused.”

“Don’t worry about it. Most of the questions you have will be answered once we get inside.”

‘More waiting. Lovely.’

The line had progressed steadily and we were close enough to the front that I could see a man in a suit letting people in every so often.

‘No robes? What’s with this church? It seems completely backwards.’

I kept my comments to myself and waited as the man let more people in and after a few more minutes we were ushered through the door.

The inside of the church was like the others; high ceiling, well lit, and filled with people, but that was were the similarities ended. Checkered tile covered the floor instead of stone and rugs and only a small part of the room was dedicated to pews while the rest was reserved for desks that had people in suits on one side and people from outside on the other.

“Right this way please.”

A man came and got us before setting off into the throng of people that were moving around the desks expertly zigging and zagging to navigate through whatever space presented itself. While in reality quite short, the journey to the desk at which we were dropped off left me feeling like I had run for an hour without stopping.

I gave the desk in front of me a quick once over while Ormonde and Cecil took a seat in the chairs provided for them. A small piece of wood with the name Cheril written on it was the first thing my eye was drawn to. The rest of the desk was covered with papers in neat stacks and a set of inkpots and pens for both people that would occupy the desk when it was in use.

“Hello and welcome to the Church of the Eternal Spirit. Have you done business with us before?”

“No we haven’t.”

‘Business?’

Cheril leaned over while opening a drawer on her side of the desk and began to pull papers out of it while placing them on the desk. A small stack of paper had begun to accumulate by the time the woman closed the drawer and pushed the papers over to Cecil’s side of the desk.

“The first form you’ll need to fill out is a compliance form agreeing to the terms and conditions set forth by both the church and the spirit that you may be wanting to form a contract with. Even though it is written in the document before you, I am still obligated to tell you that some spirits, even if they meet your requirements, won’t agree to a contract due to external factors such as age, gender, sexuality, race, location, time needed, or personality conflicts. If on the off chance that there is no other spirit that can meet your need at the current time or in the foreseeable future, a temporary contract for a set number of hours, days, months, or uses of power can be arranged. Any questions?”

“We’re not here to form a spirit contract.”

“Oh. I’m sorry about that. Are you here to buy and sell Aldite or instructive books on using Arcane?”

“For the moment no. We’re here for the church part of the church.”

“Okay let me transfer you to someone who’s in that area so you can get the help you need.“

‘I am so lost right now.’

She hit a bell on her desk and put up a pole with an orange end on it and returned her focus to Cecil.

“While you wait is there anything else I can do for you in the mean time?”

“I’ll be selling some Aldite once we’re done with our other business here and there is the chance that we may buy a book or two on the use of specific types of Arcane.”

“Great and do you have the proper authorization forms already filled out or do you need me to get you those?”

“I already have them filled out and filed thank you though.”

“No problem. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.”

‘How in any way is this a church? It’s more like a store that’s saying they’re a church. ’

After about a minute a rather portly man in an old and worn suit came over to the desk and started to talk with Cheril. Once their exchange was done they both turned to us and Cheril introduced him.

“Thank you for your patience. This is Henry and he’ll be taking over for me and will answer any questions you may have in regards to the church portion of our business.”

Cheril turned away from us and rung the bell on her desk again before putting up another pole with a different color on the end of it. Cecil and Ormonde had already stood up and started to walk away and I needed to sprint for a short distance to avoid losing them in the crowd.

Henry led us to the back of the hall were the pews were and had us sit in one row while he walked to the one in front of it and took a seat facing us.

“Now then. I’m sure you have some questions but let me do a quick reintroduction and we can begin. I’m Henry. I’m in charge of most of the going ons in the church portion of the Church of the Eternal Spirit. To answer the question I’m sure all of you have; yes the actual religious portion of this church is very small in both physical size and community. So with that out of the way, what can I do for you?”

‘I don’t think I can get anymore confused but at least I’m getting some answers.’

“We’re looking to possible join this church and would like to know more about it. Who you worship, the church’s beliefs, what the rest of this is, and anything else you think is important.”

“Sure that’s easy enough to do. The first thing to know is that this church has no god. Instead we worship the eternal spirit or the immortal soul. We accept anyone that wishes to join us and witches can always find safe haven here as they have an immortal soul in a mortal body.”

A quick glance was cast in my direction.

‘Why would he do that? Can he see souls? There’s no way he can; there’s nothing different about him than any other human.’

“The practices that we have are few and instead of a text we have more of a single sheet of paper with the few things that are mandatory to know as a member aside from an identification number. This church used to be a safe haven for spirits and it still is but the main focus of the church has shifted from protecting spirits to helping create better relationships between spirits and the other races. This is done by setting up contracts between spirits and someone that wishes to borrow their power.”

It was interesting to say the least but it ran up against the same fundamental problem of a one sided relationship.

“How does the spirit benefit from this?”

“We give spirits knowledge about different types of parts of Arcane as payment for their help. This is a good way for many spirits that are stuck at their current level of understanding or ability to advance without needing to go to more dangerous methods of advancement. Because we have a large amount of spirits that are willing to work with us, we have a lot of possible tutor for education and a lot of different people who can give a different take on certain aspects of one type of Arcane.”

‘That’s actually pretty fair. I like where this is going.’

His words seemed rehearsed, used often and carried little interest in what he was talking about but they were genuine.

“In addition to teaching spirits we also trade Aldite with them. As I’m sure you know, Aldite is a physical manifestation of Arcane and carries with it the same power that was used during its creation. Human and other races need Aldite, it’s a large part of our economy and daily life, and spirit that make us Aldite are usually give a position of power within the church.”

“So then what was the other part of the church over there about?”

Ormonde pointed to the area we had just come from in order to specify what he was talking about.

“That is where we arrange for a person to meet a spirit for a contract or an Aldite smith for the purchase or sale of Aldite. Most of the people who visit the church come here for one of those two things as the purchase of items that use Aldite in some form or fashion is what draws in the most business.”

“What’s a spirit contractor and an Aldite smith? I haven’t heard of those before.”

The look I got made me want to shrink back in embarrassment for asking what was apparently a very stupid question.

“It’s surprising that you don’t know since they’re quite important but I don’t mind explaining. A spirit contractor is exactly what is sound like. They are a group or individual who talks with spirits and tries to broker out a deal with them. The reason for the deal used to be for borrowing the power of spirits for their own use but the number of contractors that deal with balancing out that much power and an even deal for it are few and far between. Aldite smiths work with Aldite as their name implies. Do you know what Aldite is?”

‘Do you know what a spirit is? And I was the one who asked a stupid question?’

The question was directed at Ormonde and I. He most likely took us for children, which was mostly true. I nodded that I did while Ormonde gave a fairly neutral answer since he wasn’t sure or just didn’t remember when I showed it to him.

“This is Aldite.”

Henry reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a small green crystal.

“Aldite is always a crystal but the shape, size, quality, durability, and every other feature is determined by how well the spirit can make Aldite and how well they know the power they are trying to capture in the crystal. An Aldite smith will take one of these crystals and use it in their work. The uses vary from giving weapons an offensive or defensive boost, utilities like light or, like this crystal, cooling air,and jewelry or trinkets that help people make up for personal deficiencies like bad sight or hearing.”

“So anything you can think of can be made?”

“For the most part yes but there are some limitations that I won’t get into since you don’t want to become a smith and you’re not buying something from them. Now that’s all I have to say and if you don’t have any other questions I’d be happy to take you to the room where we have books on Arcane and Aldite on sale and you can peruse our wares.”

A look was passed between the four of us and Cecil was about to say that we were fine when I remembered something that had been bothering me earlier.

“Oh yeah! Why doesn’t your church have a banner like the other two? And no robes?”

“Well since we’re more of a business than a church, and since most spirits can’t wear clothing aside from what they make themselves, the idea of using robes was discarded a number of years ago. As for the lack of a banner, it’s not that we don’t have one, it’s just that we’re currently renovating it and changing it to a design that better fits the image of a business instead of a church and that means we need the artisans to agree with it as well if we want to mark each product we make as coming from us. Anything else?”

Neither Ormonde nor I had any questions left and we stood as a collective group and followed behind Henry as he led us into another room and up a flight of stairs that opened up into another large area.

“Books on general Arcane and Aldite related matters are in this section here.”

‘Books. What fun.’

Henry gestured to a shelf with a small sign on it.

“The more specific books are on shelves that are marked just like this one is. Once you’ve found a book you like just go to this gentleman here and he’ll get you a new and unused copy unless you want something that’s second hand.”

The man behind the counter nodded at us before going back to the book he was reading and ignoring us completely.

“If you’re having trouble finding a book you want you can come and ask him. He may look like a stick in the mud but he’s harmless once you get to know him. Moving on.”

We followed further in the room to an area filled with rows of small colorful crystals.

“This is where you can find Aldite that you may need. Again, just follow the signs and you’ll be fine. Past this we have the items made with pieces of Aldite in them. If you’re looking for weapons you’ll need to go down stairs again and talk to one of our staff about commissioning the item in question. The same applies to any specialty items we may not have in stock. Tutoring must also be requested and set up in advance downstairs in the main area. If you don’t have any further questions I’ll be leaving you here so please feel free to look around at your leisure.”

With his farewell said Henry left us and went back downstairs to do whatever it was he did. Aldite and books were useless to me so I wasn’t interested but Ormonde was practically drooling at the row upon row of books that we had passed.

“Ormonde go ahead and look at the books, Vio just stay with him. I’m going to go sell the Aldite I brought with me and we can leave after that if you haven’t found anything interesting.”

Cecil left us and Ormonde grabbed my wrist and dragged me over to the section of the room containing the books. After he found a section that peaked his interest, Ormonde pulled a random book from the shelf and started to flip through it. I decide to follow suit and pulled one of the more vibrantly colored books from the shelf and opened it. Black squiggles in neatly organized rows filled each page with the occasional rare picture with more squiggles written next to lines that came off the picture.

‘I’m gonna put my head through a wall if this goes on any longer. Why does. Everything! We do involve. Waiting!’

I returned the book to its shelf and sat down on the floor next to where Ormonde was standing and closed my eyes. There was nothing for me to do here and I was going to get bored very quickly at this rate. In an attempt to not disturb Ormonde or any of the other people looking the books, I began to play around with some earth Arcane by molding it into different shapes.

Molding the earth was nothing new or hard if I was using dirt created from Arcane. Using already existing dirt or separating the Arcane from the dirt I made, however, was something that I struggled with and there was no point in doing nothing while I waited.

‘Circle. Sphere. Square. Oval. Ring. What else can I do?’

Having run through the all the basic shapes and forms that I could use I tried to hollow the solid shapes out and then harden the dust I was using into stone. It wasn’t easy and it was almost as dull as waiting while staring at the wall but at least this was doing something for me.

About the time I had hollowed out a small sphere and hardened it into a bad imitation of stone Ormonde came back with two books in hand. I hadn’t even noticed he’d left.

“Vio which one?”

He handed me both of the books and I had no idea what he wanted me to do.

“What do you mean which one?”

“One’s about fire Arcane the other’s about static Arcane. Which one would be better to get?”

‘That’s a no brainer.’

“The static one since I can teach you about fire Arcane.”

“Okay. Take a look through it and tell me if this one seems like it’ll work; they have others.”

“Um. I guess I can flip through it.”

I took the book from Ormonde and opened it and skimmed the pages without actually looking at anything. It was all meaningless to me anyway. Once I had gone through a few more pages I closed the book and handed it back to Ormonde.

“It looks fine but I’d talk with your dad to see if he already has this one or one that could be better.”

Ormonde observed at me with an indecipherable expression on his face and simply turned and went to return the book he wasn’t getting to wherever he had gotten it from. I tried to shrug off the annoyance mixed with something else I couldn’t place from Ormonde but it refused to fully leave my mind. When Ormonde returned he did so following behind Cecil.

“We leaving?”

‘Please say yes. Please say yes.’

“Yes.”

‘Oh thank you! Finally we can do something!’

”We just need to buy this book for Ormonde and then we can go.”

I stood and followed while falling in line with Tanzi. He gave me the same look that Cecil had given me that implied he wanted to ruffle my hair and I returned it with a glare. The overall wait to purchase the book for Ormonde passed quickly and we once again had to brave a large crowd to get back outside to a less cluttered area. The entire time Ormonde was happily clutching the book Cecil had gotten for him to his chest and he continued to do so when we finally got outside.

“What now?”

“Now we go to my office so I can pick up the work I need.”

“And how long will that take?”

“Getting to the school will take about twenty minutes since we’re on the wrong side of the town and the wrong floor. Once we get there it’ll only take me a few minutes at best to gather all the paperwork I need.”

‘More waiting. What did I expect.’

“In that case I’m going back inside Ormonde.”

“That’s fine but just make sure you listen since I’ll be telling Ormonde about the two churches that we can’t and won’t be visiting.”

“I can do that.”

A moment of silence and then I was back to being fully aware of my surroundings and ready to listen to Cecil explanation even if I was doing so begrudgingly.

“So the first church to be aware of that we didn’t visit is the most dangerous of all the churches as far as I know. They don’t have a name for themselves and each area it’s something slightly different but the main thing that connects them all is that they worship the Eldritch. Because of this they’re mostly referred to as the Church of the Eldritch in written reports and other documents. The reason this church is the most dangerous is that they find the people they want to be their members you don’t get to chose if you’re one of them or not and they have the power to make sure you stay.”

Cecil stopped talking for a moment when we entered a more crowded portion of the street that would stop us from hearing him. Once we were through and the noise had subsided somewhat he continued.

“As I already said, they worship the Eldritch and they do so in varying ways. Some just stick to prayers while others do small sacrifices of their own blood and flesh. Then you have the more extreme sects that do full on sacrifices in rituals that are meant to contact or summon Eldritch.”

*Ask your dad why they’re not hunted down if they’re so dangerous and this is known.*

Ormonde conveyed my question and added his own with it.

“Vio, to answer your question first, the reason they haven’t been hunted down is because they have Madman’s Rock and it stops us from finding them since it acts just like Edin. Ormonde, to answer your question, it is because they have things like Madman’s Rock that they don’t need to worry about spirit and other races. Madman’s Rock acts like a proxy of an actual Eldritch and with long enough exposure without release it drives people insane. In case you can’t catch what I’m getting at here, most of the members of the Church of the Eldritch are insane. I’ll tell you this now but never let anyone learn you know what I’m about to tell you.”

Cecil dropped the level of his voice and Ormonde got closer to him in order to hear what he was about to say. I already knew what was going to be said.

“Madman’s Rock is created when a corpse is filled with enough Edin that it solidifies but there’s more that is required than just that. Each Madman’s Rock that we’ve recovered and studied has the same rune written on it and we don’t know why aside from it is used before the rock is created.”

‘Did not know about the rune part.’

We had finally made it to the wall and Cecil took us up a stairwell that could easily fit a dozen people side by side on it. Whoever had designed this place had done so with the intention of letting a large amount of people move very easily up and down the different levels.

“The second church we’re not visiting is the Church of the Ancients. The reason we’re not visiting them is because any human that becomes a member of their church automatically becomes a fugitive and is killed on sight if the knowledge of their membership gets out. And Vio to preempt the question you’re sure to ask, it’s other humans that hunt down and kill the human members.”

The stairs finally stopped and Cecil led us out and into the nearly empty walkway. Before he continued telling us about the church he told us that we were about six minutes away from the school he worked at and that the reason it was so empty was because classes were in session.

“Now onto what the church does. They don’t worship anything and instead they focus on learning about the world by doing experiments and test to figure out how things work and why. They want to know the answer to questions we don’t think about or take for granted.”

*Ask your dad how he knows that stuff if he’s not a member.*

Once again Ormonde faithfully repeated my question for me.

“It’s my job to know things but most of this information can be found with a quick library search on the subject. It’s if you try and find out what they’ve been doing and learn their research that you can get into deep waters. The Ancients learned about different aspects of the world by testing and experimenting and their results made the southern continent of Sunnon uninhabitable so people are adverse to let something like that happen again. Now then, that’s all I have to say on either one of those churches and you won’t be joining either of them.”

Cecil stopped us and motioned towards the building in front of us.

“This is the school I teach at; The Lininard Institute for Education.”

The building that Cecil had claimed to be the school was much larger than any of the others we had encountered before this one. Aside from the impressive size difference, the building was constructed to include more curves in its shape instead of the blocky buildings that filled the first layer. It was also entirely colored and there was an overly large amount of decorative pieces of stonework and planter beds.

“Most people are still in class for the next few minutes so there shouldn’t be anyone in the halls. Try and keep close just in case since the interior can be a bit of a labyrinth if you don’t know your way around it.”

Cecil led us in silence before I asked Ormonde to make him tell us about the school so there was something other than near identical doors, halls, and windows to focus on. It only took a brief moment for Cecil to launch off into his own little world.

“This school is the second largest in the town and is still the best school to go to despite that. It has a long history of teaching both intellectual and physical classes as both are needed to survive outside these walls. Ten years ago we started to mix the two curriculums together so there is no way for a student to take only one type of classes. I myself am on the thinking side of the debate and my teaching focus on the practical application and use of Aldite. There’s more to it than that but there’s no point in trying to explain it to either of you since it devolves into theory very fast and you lack the required background to understand a lot of the terminology used.”

‘Why do I feel like I was just insulted?’

I had long ago lost track of the different turns we had been taking and the only thing I knew for certain was that we were on the third floor.

“Now then, this is us.”

The door Cecil had stopped at was identical to every other door we had passed and I had no idea how he was able to tell which door was his. I wanted to get a better look at things and left Ormonde so I could move around independent of him. On closer inspection I was able to find that there was writing beside the doorframe with what I assumed to be a way to tell whom the room belonged to or separate it from the others.

Ormonde had already entered with Cecil while Tanzi had stayed with me and waited patiently in the doorway. The glance I gave the room from outside revealed a literal mountain of papers everywhere except for the desk and a green board on the wall. There were several shelves covered in books lying haphazardly against and on top of each other. The place was the perfect example of controlled chaos.

I wouldn’t have even bothered to go in but something on one of the shelves reflected light into my face and drew my attention. No one said anything as I entered the room and walked over to the shelf; Ormonde was too engaged in another bookshelf and Cecil was digging through one of his drawers to find what we had come here for.

A small black and purple crystal sat unguarded at roughly eye level on the shelf where I had seen the glimmer of light. I had never been drawn to shiny things but this piece of unknown Aldite was an apparent exception. Just as I was about to touch it someone behind me cleared their throat causing me to stop and turn around.

Tanzi had come into the room and was standing behind me and it wasn’t hard to believe that he must have watching me make a beeline for the shelf.

“I would touch that if I was you.”

“Why? It looks like Aldite.”

“It is Aldite but it isn’t a good type. It’s crystallized corruption.”

“So?”

“We were given that by the Church of the Radiant Sun a little over a year ago after an area north of here spontaneously imploded on itself while leaving a fair bit of this behind. It can corrupt a spirit just by proximity just like Madman’s Rock can cause insanity through exposure.”

“I’m not to worried about that.”

Before Tanzi could speak again I had already grab ahold of the piece of Aldite. At first it felt just like any other piece Aldite but after it had been in my hand for a second the area underneath the crystal felt like it was being pricked by static. The static started to turn into pins and needles before fading into nothing. I turned to look at Tanzi with a shit-eating grin on my face.

“See no problems.”

My eyes went wide as someone, or more likely something, screamed inside my mind while images of various screaming faces covered in blood or flame overrode anything I tried to think about. The screaming and images continued for what felt a minute before fading out into nothing and leaving me feeling full of more energy than I had had in months.

“Whoa.”

An invisible barrier seemed to break and I was made distinctly aware of Tanzi, Cecil, and Ormonde all looking at me with concerned looks on their faces.

“Vio? Are you in there?”

“In where? My own head? I’m fine; never felt better actually. Why? How long was I standing here for?”

“Only four or five seconds at most but still why did you pick it up even though I said not to.”

“Partially because you said not to; also because I wanted to.”

I looked at the crystal in my hand and was shocked to find it had lost the previous luster that had attracted me to it along with its color rendering it a dull grey.

“I seemed to have broken your Aldite. Sorry about that.”

Cecil looked at the contents of my outstretched hand and began sending a barrage of inquiries my way. It took a good five minutes of circular questioning before Cecil finally conceded to my assertion that I had no idea what I had done, how I had done it, or the possible after effects.

“Right. Well now that we’ve dealt with that fiasco we can leave and go back to the inn and rest for the remainder of the day.”

I left the room first closely followed by Ormonde and Tanzi while Cecil finished picking up the papers he needed and put them into an envelope to carry them around in. Just as Cecil stepped out to lock the door I hear someone coming towards us and notified Cecil of what may be someone seeking him out. While he expressed that the chances of that were small there was no harm in waiting for a minute to see who the person was.

It became blatantly obvious once the newcomer was in sight that they had indeed been looking for Cecil and the two started to converse using words I didn’t know at a pace that floored me. Cecil noticed that we had been standing around without anything to do and stopped his conversation for a moment in order to address us.

“Tanzi, can you take Vio and Ormonde to the training field so they can have a little bit of entertainment while waiting for me before Vio lights something on fire in an attempt to move me along?”

Tanzi readily agreed even though he seemed interested in the conversation that had been happening and once again we were led through the labyrinthine corridors. Fortunately, our second time through the maze was much shorter and we were once again outside before I could be forced to walk through the wall to get out.

The area we had arrived in was large and open with a clear view of the sky above us. There were several stone stands to the side of a large area that looked like the pit of an arena and it only took a moment for the connection that this is where we were being taken to happen. However, Cecil had called it a training field and it was boring to watch people train while not doing so yourself and I doubt that was the intention in bringing us here.

“Tanzi, this is going to be just as boring as inside if this is what I think it is.”

“Luckily for you, you’re probably wrong in what you’re thinking.”

Once I could actually see into the pit my skepticism lower slightly. This was going to be better than standing and listen to Cecil’s conversation but it still wasn’t the most entertaining thing I had ever done.

‘What’s the point of watching people fight if you can’t join in?’

Inside the pit were what looked like a normal human and a very feathery human who, on closer inspection, I determined to be a werebird. The two were fighting and it only took a moment to get dragged into their bout; at some point Tanzi started narrating for us.

“The human down there is a spirit contractor who is borrowing the power of a light spirit and he has a fairly good grasp on the lower abilities of what his borrowed strength can do for him. His opponent is a werebird and she focus on speed and precision using projectiles. This particular matchup is in her favor but the point of these current fights is to learn how to reduce the weakness of each person involved.”

The werebird was doing constant attacks at a distance before rushing into the contractor’s blind spot to try and move into a more solid hit without being seen. It was a good tactic and worked the first few times but after the fourth use the contractor disappeared and I recognized it as the same techniques Maka had used to make herself invisible.

With her opponent gone the werebird struggled to come up with a tactic to counter her missing opponent. A bright flash went off momentarily blinding me and I assumed the rest of the people watching and when my vision returned the werebird was pinned to the ground on her stomach with the contractor above her. There was no referee to stop their fight and the werebird surrendered after a few futile attempts to free herself. The two stood and shook hands before leaving the stage while another pair came from the sidelines to take their place.

“Read to go?”

The sudden voice startled me and I felt myself leave the bench I was sitting on before turning to see who had spoken. At some point during the fight Cecil had joined us and I had been none the wiser to his addition at our side. I wanted to watch another fight but a quiet gurgling sound from Ormonde signified that that wasn’t going to happen.

As tempted as I was to return inside Ormonde I decided to once again brave the horrors that were the never ending twists and turns of the school with everyone else. Much to my delight we were able to avoid the inside of the school in its entirety and simply leave through another exit that took us to the main street outside.

Our return trip seemed to go much faster and it only took a few minutes before we had reached the lower layer and were looking for a place to eat. I had to tell Cecil not to waste his money on me again and thankfully he listened this time. The meal was quick to get and eat and the time that passed while waiting wasn’t nearly as bad as everything that had occurred earlier in the day. With the meal finished we continued on with the plan Cecil had laid out for us and started to make our way back to the inn.

The streets on the way back were fairly deserted and I was able to watch dusk slowly fill the sky from the bottom of the town. I had always liked watching sunsets and sunrises and even if this didn’t fit the bill it was just as nice. Tanzi and Cecil were talking to Ormonde and I tuned out most of their conversation in favor of being able to take in the surrounding area as a whole.

While listening to the sounds of the town winding down I picked out one noise that seemed to contradict the others. It sounded like a bell and after the second time it went off I was certain that I wasn’t hearing things.

“Hey Cecil, why would a bell be ringing?”

Cecil turned and stared at me with the most serious face I had ever seen him wear.

“Are you sure it was a bell?”

“Yeah. See? There it is again.”

Cecil grabbed Ormonde’s hand before grabbing mine and started to run in the direction of the inn.

“Cecil? What does the bell mean?”

My question was ignored and Cecil continued forward practically dragging Ormonde behind him. We had been close to the inn and his sudden burst of speed got us there even faster that I had anticipated. The door to the inn was flung open and smashed against the wall behind it as Cecil pushed through without dropping his speed.

“Cecil? What does the bell mean?”

I normally didn’t panic in situations like this but the single bell had been joined by others and the cacophony had reached the point that it was deafening, plus I had never seen Cecil act the way he currently was. He had already taken us up the stairs and had shut the door and locked it before he finally seemed to start to calm down.

“Cecil? What do the bells mean?”

He held his hand up while trying to catch his breath and I suddenly became aware of the fear that I was feeling; equal parts Ormonde’s and mine. After gulping down a few more breaths of air Cecil finally answered my question.

“The bells mean the town is under attack.”

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AN: Hello readers! Not much to say on this one. Once again a big thanks to Gandrasch for the help with German.

Heilige has been changed to Heiliges and Entsetzen Jäger has been changed to Schrekensjägers. Feel free to leave any questions, comments, or concerns you have and until next time I'll bid you adieu.

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