Part.2 The World Wakes

The Play

Eliot scrambled around his school dorm in a flurry of panic and anxiety. He was late for the most important day of class. Henry promised to wake Eliot up, that didn’t happen, even though they all needed to be together for this. Eliot was flicking through explanations in his mind, the most plausible at the forefront: Henry was still holding a grudge against Eliot when he engraved the rune he named Laughing Stock’s Mark. The final exam for passing the classes at The Arcane Academy of Everveil is to create a completely new spell that hasn’t been seen in history, this provides a good level of difficulty and ensures that the amount of spells being made is constant through the years. Most people stress over the complexity and adversity of the challenged; Eliot’s challenge, however, was what the spell should do. After much deliberation, he decided on a spell that affected the ocular senses of whomever was looking at the object the spell was cast on. The spell’s effect made the object look like whatever the viewer would think is the most embarrassing based on their perspective. It was a little tricky, but Eliot figured it out. He also learned that someone’s animus and affinity also affect the ability of making spells; complications did arise when the most embarrassing thing his professor could think of was the spell being a total flop, that was dealt with, though. Shortly after, in fact the time he spent waiting for Henry and Penelope to finish acing their test, Eliot modified it into a rune and he engraved it on Henry’s boots the next chance he got. In hindsight, it might not have been the best idea to mess with a prince’s appearance, especially the crown prince.

After Eliot cast the cleanse spell-the hunch he had the day he learned the cleanse spell was spot on, he used the cleanse spell everyday-Eliot directly used a portal to get to the public wing of the campus. Eliot was pleasantly surprised to see Henry and Penelope equally late and rushing to the scene, arriving outside the door at the same time.

“Why are you guys late?” asked Eliot.

Henry and Penelope didn’t bother with his question, they pushed him out of the way and barged through the door, with only the words, “Not now.” Eliot didn’t hold it against them, he knew how serious this was, and he dashed in after them.

“We’re here, we’re here, don’t mark us absent!” panted Penelope in a start.

The professor actually smiled when he saw the trio, and said, “You arrived just in time, I wasn’t able to stall any longer.” They entered a dark space with polished wooden floors and a dragging curtain shielding the the area they were in from view.

“Go, I’m sure your parents are very worried about why you are the only presentation we had to postpone,” pressed the professor. Henry and Penelope directly rushed onto the stage, past the red curtain hiding them in darkness.

Eliot turned to say one last thank you, “thanks professor, I probably wouldn’t have passed the class if you didn’t help out every now and then.” The professor gleamed with pride.

“Well, I couldn’t let my best student fail, now go.” Eliot nodded in appreciation and dived after Henry and Penelope on the stage. They were in an open air auditorium with thousands of people in the crowd, watching the displays the graduating wizards put on. Before they graduate, students at Everveil Academy need to undergo a series of special events and challenges. The event they were currently holding was a performance for the people, it’s free entry and anyone could enter, which is why next year they’re holding it at the Metropolis square. This year, however, they have it in the public wing of Everveil Academy, meaning the audience is squeezed together like a pack of sardines, uncomfortably so.

Penelope and Henry gave Eliot an eye roll when he finally decided joined them on the stage and stood by his side as they got ready to introduce themselves. Eliot searched the crowd looking for his family and friends; that would usually be impossible in a crowd of this size, luckily they provided private seating near the stage for the students’ families. Eliot had a blinding grin as he waved like it was no big deal to his family and everyone from the orphanage, including the six shadow slaves. Eliot could have sworn that the kids from the orphanage were the source of seventy percent of the noise.

“Welcome!” greeted Eliot, using a voice amplifying spell, “I am Eliot Relius.”

“I am Henry Crucible.”

“I am Penelope Evergreen.”

“Tonight,” continued Eliot, “We have a group presentation for everyone. I hope that everyone enjoys themselves, but, above all, I hope that you can see the ludicrous friendship between a peasant like myself.”

“A holy women like myself,” bridged Penelope.

“And a Crown Prince like myself,” finished Henry. Eliot stepped back and Penelope moved forward, picking up the speaking role.

“Something like our friendship is just the type of crazy fairy tale that parents tell their kids, three completely different people of different backgrounds form the strongest of bonds. Honestly speaking, something I’ve sworn to do at the church, these two drove me crazy sometimes. The dumb and childish things we did made it hard to tell who the peasant was, who the prince was, and who the holy women was. In the end, however, we found a friendship that will last a lifetime.” Penelope rotated with Henry, Penelope joining Eliot and Henry taking over the limelight.

“That is why today, we prepared for you an equally endearing, challenging, and special fairy tale. It is one as old as time itself, some say the the Goddess of creation herself whispered it in the ears of the first humans to put them to rest. However, we changed the ending to better translate the type of bond we share.” Henry stopped talking at the same time that Eliot and Penelope stepped forward to join him.

“Now, without further ado, please enjoy the tale of the prince and peasant girl,” they said in unison. Eliot manipulated shadows to darken the stage and they got into position. Eliot was the narrator.

“Once upon a time, there was a little peasant, who lived in a regular town, on the border of their empire,” began Eliot. On the stage appeared a little girl, being played by Penelope. The center of the stage was lit with a dim light, Penelope the focus, and everything else was barely visible

“This girl lived a sad life of work and struggle just to survive, the loving parents were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the girl had a step family that treated her as a slave.” Penelope was seen going through hardship after hardship and being forced to be a maid for her step family, that were played by shadows, courtesy of Eliot.

“The little girl did not see her life as unfair, though. She knew that she was just living in her place, the place of a peasant, not even comparable to someone of royal blood. A little hope shown in the darkness of her life when, somehow, her stepmother garnered enough money to move. Where did she move? Well, the glorious Metropolis, of course!” On the stage, a carriage mimicked traveling a long distance. When they arrived at the Metropolis, the whole stage lit up like a star, revealing an illusion spell Henry had cast to show the beauty of the Metropolis.

“The little girl was confused, she felt different than she had ever before. It took her some time, but she realized that she was happy. She had been happy once, when her real parents were still alive; that was so long and faded in the little girl’s memory that she almost forgot what happiness felt like. Unfortunately, the girl was subjected to the same treatment as before, she cried herself to sleep, wondering how she could be so sad and dark when she was in the Metropolis, of all places.” The stage slowly fell back into darkness, only illuminating the crying and trembling Penelope.

“Time passed and the girl forgot what happiness was again, falling back into living the life of a lowly peasant. She grew and grew, turning into a fine young lady, catching the eyes of many young men. The abuse got worse because of her jealous step sisters and the girl cried again. She found solace in the only friend she had ever had, Pete the lizard.” The girl slowly grew until Penelope was standing at full height and beautiful as ever. The shadows landed hard blows, sending her crashing into a pool of her own misery. A small ball of fire, lighting up the immediate darkness comforted her.

“Pete the lizard stayed with her and the girl stayed with it. The girl did anything for the little lizard, going as far as to feed it her own pitiful meals of mush to keep it from starving. Pete continued to grow, growing big enough to protect the girl for a change.” The scenes on the stage reflected Eliot’s words, showing the sacrifices that Penelope made to keep the small fire burning, until it grew into a bonfire and protected her from her step sisters.

“The girl’s step family had enough of the maturing lizard stopping them from treating her however they so desired, and kicked out the poor peasant girl. The girl wasn’t sad, though. In fact, she was happy, she was with her only friend, Pete the lizard. They lived for years together, Pete was an intelligent, intimidating lizard and provided for the peasant girl as much as possible. Unfortunately, the guard was notified by the girl’s step family that a dragon was rampaging in the Metropolis. Knights rode valiantly to slay the dragon, leaving the girl alone again.” Penelope was kicked out the door by the shadows and wondered the Metropolis, Pete the Lizard being her only light. The shadows ran to talk to the guards that Henry controlled, using a magical puppet and illusion engravement. The guards slew the dragon, leaving the peasant girl crying with almost no light to see. That was when a blinding white light appeared on the stage.

“The girl was left with nothing, but then the brave prince who had lead the charge in killing the dragon noticed the crying girl among the panic and helped her. The peasant girl and prince fell in love at first sight, not spending a single moment apart. The girl remembered the fiery warmth of her Lizard, but relished in the loving and protecting white light that was the prince.” The crying Penelope was startled when the whole stage was lit with white light, coming from Henry, wearing his ceremonial armor he brought for the presentation. Penlope and Henry hugged and never let go as the scenery rapidly changed and they grew older, Henry gaining a magnificent and majestic beard.

“The peasant girl was still a peasant, but she lived a life of happiness and love. The End… at least that is what the prince and girl had thought. Years into their life, the prince had become king, and the peasant girl queen. They were attacked in their castle by a monstrous, undead dragon. The castle was torn to pieces and their riches melted, but the king had no place in his heart for those things. The prince cried out in anguish as the dragon grabbed the queen and flew off.” Penelope and Henry’s background shifted to the scenery of a castle, they were adorned with jeweler, and they sat on thrones. A giant black dragon, controlled by Eliot using shadow magic, melted and destroyed the illusionary castle and riches, as well as abducting Penelope and bringing her off the stage.

“The brave king had no plans to sit and weep. He grabbed the only good sword in the castle, covered himself with the only pieces of armor not melted, and rode the one living horse to the dragon’s lair. When he arrived, the peasant girl was actually petting the dragon, whispering comforting words in its ear as is slept. The king was almost defeated by that sight alone, but strode yet, declaring his presence and warning the girl that she had been hypnotized. The girl pleaded with the king, but he knew that she wasn’t right in the mind, moving forward to kill the dragon. They had a cataclysmic clash that would be worthy of Gods themselves, with the king being victorious, reducing the dragon to a pile of rotting flesh hanging on bones” Henry was the only one left on the stage. Henry didn’t stay idle, he equipped himself with the only real things among the rubble and cast a flying spell while making the illusion of a horse. They rode in place, with the scenery behind him changing to simulate movement until they reached the dragon’s lair. Eliot smiled when Henry showed up. They had an actual fight, going back and forth, with Henry using a sword and pretending to be on a horse while Eliot had to control a shadow puppet. The stage broke in places, Henry sustained real injuries and Eliot grinned as the giant shadow slapped Henry around. Eliot rolled his eyes as he eventually made the dragon lose the fight. Henry hefted his sword to slay the dragon, but Penelope tackled him off his horse, yelling silent words.

“The King was stopped from killing the dragon by the peasant girl herself. The girl told the king about her pet lizard that was transformed into a dragon, telling him of a filthy necromancer who had risen Pete from the dead. The king dropped his sword and realized he made a grueling mistake. The king forgave and apologized to the dragon with all his heart, causing a miracle to happen!” Henry shook like his world was coming down after Penelope screamed at him in the language of the deaf. Henry fell to his knees before the shadow puppet and hugged its neck, shedding tears. That was when the balck mass of the dragon morphed into flames and shrank until Eliot used Shadow Step to appear in its place. After all was done, Penelope, Henry, and Eliot all hugged.

“They all shared a momentous hug, signalling the start of their family like relationship. Their journey was far from over, though. The necromancer was still at large.” The three of them walked in place with the changing scenery, looking for the necromancer as the seasons changed and they struggled through hard times, their past lives as royals and peasants forgotten. They finally found the necromancer, another one of Eliot’s shadow puppets, in a graveyard.

“They wondered and searched for years, none of them having anything but each other, yet being happy as can be. They finally found the dastardly necromancer in the graveyard of a familiar town, except it wasn’t a necromancer, it was a lich. The lich’s lair was in the graveyard of the peasant girl’s hometown, the lich cackled as it challenged the three to a battle.” The scenery settled on the one of a gloomy graveyard and they fought an orchestrated battle against the lich. Explosions, struggle, and teamwork all shown on the battled, finally ending when Henry, Penelope, and Eliot joined hands to kill the lich with a blast of light.

“The unlikely trio defeated the lich, thrusting the land into a golden age. They completed their journey, but still never left each other. They spent the rest of their time on this planet together and they lived happily ever after.” The stage was obstructed from the audience’s enraptured stares and they uncast any spells they had on going and stood next to each other before Eliot dropped the shadows. The three bowed in unison and announced the end of their performance. The crowd erupted into cheers and applause. They were the last performance, so the red curtains closed on the stage and the students were released to be with their families. The tro split up momentarily, Henry using the flight spell, Eliot using the portal spell, and Penelope running. Eliot indulged in the good reviews and teasing from his friends and family before leading them out of the crowd and somewhere quieter, not in line with the Academy's regulations. That quieter place was already occupied by two families, the monarchy of the Crucible Empire, and the Holy Evergreens. Eliot was filled with nervousness for probably the first time in his life as he walked with his family behind him to greet his friends’ families.

Eliot, Henry, and Penelope met in the middle to introduce everyone.

“This is my mother and Father, King and Queen of the Crucible Empire,” said Henry, a slight edge to his voice.

“He must be nervous too,” thought Eliot, trying to comfort himself. Everyone present bowed, even the kids from the orphanage.

“This is my mother and Father, Jerome and Ferra Evergreen,” said Penelope stoically, completely in her element.

Eliot steeled his resolve and steadied his voice, “These are my parents, Dimitri and Mary Relius.” a little quiver still audible in his voice. Eliot cursed himself over the shaky introduction, but he continued, “And this is my extended family, orphans from the orphanage of my town, but close enough to be called family nonetheless.” as he gestured to the orphans and shadow slaves. With that, they were released to mingle with each other while the three students watched in worry from the side. They all talked together, at first just the parents, but the kids worked up the courage to start talking and were well accepted with their natural cuteness.

“How is it living with such a big family?”

“Well, I am insanely busy most of the time running the empire, I’m sure you could relate working a lot, Mr. Relius.”

“Do you live in a big house?”

“I live with twenty other people.” snippets of conversation bled through. Even the shadow slaves were engaged in conversation every now and then.

“Servants in an orphanage? Please slow down, who did you say your master was?” The only one who didn’t talk with anyone was Cel, he exchanged greetings and then fell to the back in his anti-social ways. Eliot watched with a grin, it was as he predicted. Instead, Eliot lead Cel over to meet Penelope and Henry.

“Cel, this is Henry and Penelope, Henry and Penelope, this is Cel,” introduced Eliot. Cel was hesitant at first, but eventually opened up and had a good time chatting. Eliot stood back and felt proud of himself, glad that everything was going great, even if Cel was sharing some of Eliot’s more embarrassing moments and Henry and Penelope were eating it up. The meeting was not without its observers. Ellulia crouched on the tip of the nearest vantage point high in elevation and watched as the three families talked, feeling glum and livid at Henry for not inviting her.

“How can he not invite me? Instead, I have to sneak out as Beelzebub just to see it. I’m going to give Henry an earful when he gets back. I was finally supposed to talk to Eliot too,” pouted Ellulia. Camie was swinging her legs in delight, happy to see Cel socializing. She was wearing a white shirt with a blue skirt and brown flats. A girl wearing a black hoodie and black jeans, with black shoes sat next to her. The girl had long, white hair and black eyes.

“Thanks for making an exception to the big rule,” said Kelly, smiling as she gazed at Eliot like a proud mother.

Camie shrugged, “It’s nothing, you rarely get to be this close to Eliot, while I’m already considering telling Cel everything, and Kerry already has Caspar as her champion.”

“Still-”stressed Kelly“-I really thank you for this, he’s more special than just a future champion, you know that.” Camie smirked and shrugged again while shoving a lollipop into her mouth. The night was full of cheer and chatter, the trees just blossoming in the spring sun. No one kept track of time, they all enjoyed their themselves and were drunk on the atmosphere, but inevitably, it would come to an end. A royal guard scurried over to the king and whispered something inaudible before the king and queen excused themselves. Shortly after, the Holy Evergreens also left. It was time to go home, Eliot let out a heavy sigh. Eliot created a portal big enough to accommodate his family and bade them goodbye. It was the most fun Eliot had in awhile. Penelope and Henry followed their parents, leaving Eliot to reflect on his own.

“I guess now’s the time to go back,” Kelly sighed sadly as she stood on the branch. Camie copied her and hopped to her feet.

“Wait. Let’s have a bit more fun before you go,” Camie said mischievously. Kelly was at a loss about what Camie was planning and just nodded. Camie flew over to where Elullia was still daydreaming about Eliot. Kelly realized then what Camie was planning and cried out, but it was too late. Camie shoved Ellulia off the roof and falling towards Eliot. Eliot snapped out of his pondering and watched as Ellulia twisted mid air and landed gracefully on her feet.

“What are you doing here?” exclaimed Eliot in disbelief.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” thought Ellulia as she bit her lip. Ellulia immediately ran; Eliot was not about to let that happen, though. A portal teleported split in front of Ellulia and deposited her right next to Eliot, who pounced before Ellulia had a chance to resist. Eliot grabbed Ellulia’s wrist and pulled, at the same time he swept her legs out from under her. With a crash, Elullia was laying on the floor with Eliot holding her down.

“Well, that isn’t what I thought would happen,” chuckled Camie.

“What did you think would happen!” shouted Kelly.

“Finally,” complained Eliot, “I’ve been looking for you for a year! Why do you keep running, when I just want to talk?” Eliot was definitely more than a little fed up. The past year, him, Henry and Penleope have been moving against the Serpentine BrotherHood, mostly just taking out their operation teams. During this time, he had encountered Ellulia disguised as Beelzebub more times than you could count on three hands, but she always ran away. Ellulia took a deep breath and mustered as much courage as she could to sound like the Beelzebub figure she had built up.

“A lot of people ‘just want to talk’. If I was naive enough to believe everyone who said that, I would have been caught years ago,” Ellulia spat.

Eliot shrugged and said, “I actually do just want to talk.”

“Do I have a choice?” she asked rhetorically.

Eliot laughed, “Not anymore.” Eliot cast shadow bindings and let her go. Ellulia sprang to her feet and immediately escaped from sight. Eliot just smiled and yanked the stationary shadow of Ellulia. Ellulia was pushed and sent crashing back into the ground, next to Eliot.

“The spell I’m using, Shadow Bindings, directly locks your soul in one place with your shadow as the middleman. An additional effect of the spell lets me tell whenever you’re lying,” shared Eliot. “Will you answer my questions now?”

Ellulia felt like her world was spinning, her heart and head seemed to be having a race, one pumping blood and the other painfully throbbing. All she wanted to do was talk to him too, but she can’t do that as Beelzebub, she thought that Eliot would immediately dismiss her because she’s a serial killer, a very logical assumption. Now, she was backed into a corner and didn’t know what to do, her head was an amalgamation of vertigo and confusion while her body was a hot mess of pumping blood and nervousness.

“Desperate times, desperate measures,” thought Ellulia as a cloak of pure black appeared over her regular blue cloak. Eliot tensed, aware that she was trying something and ready to do what it took to stop it. Ellulia materialized a scythe out of the darkness and swung it, seemingly randomly. When she swung it, however, the clanging sound of chains being snapped rang out in the silent night. Eliot felt intense pain shooting from his soul itself and he collapsed in.

Afterwards, Eliot was left dumbfounded and alone, he could even swear he heard Beelzebub whisper, “Sorry, but I don’t want to talk, not as Beelzebub.” before she disappeared. In the end, though, Eliot sat with a smile and a hand over his beating heart. Nothing gives him the same feeling as his friendly neighborhood serial killer.

“Next time,” he comforted himself, “Next time I’ll get her.”

Camie was halfway through shoveling pop-corn into her mouth when Kelly sighed in relief. Camie gave her a look while she continued to chow down.

“That could have gone really bad, he’s not supposed to know anything, yet,” answered Kelly.

The popcorn was all gone and Camie licked her fingers in delight as she nodded, “I told you that I always do a controlled experiment whenever I want to try something new, but you were too impatient.”

“I know, I know,” breathed Kelly. “All that stuff about humans being naturally against death, you’ve told me a million times. But I need this to succeed, doing a controlled experiment would just make me second guess myself.” Camie didn’t argue further. Eliot roused himself from his stupor and hummed a catchy tune as he looked forward to buying himself his favorite food in solace.