Heremetic Tournament
Collin giggled. Fire was cool. He liked to watch it. The orange-red flicker moved and licked at the air constantly. Collin knew the flames wanted to spread out, to move to grow, to burn on anything, on everything, to take whatever shape spread it the most, fed its energy. But this time he needed it in a certain shape. That was the key.
The fire flared quite brightly now, in its metal bowl, the bundle of the twigs fueling it, counting as its base, its home. It's starting point.
Collin sat at the table the bowl rested on, his ringed hand extended, as he concentrated. The fire slowly took on distinct shape, instead of its usual random flickering. It was round and bright glowing red at the bottom of the bowl, where the twigs were. But the swaying flickering flames soon branched out, in flickering cylinders of orange light and heat. They began to look like six separate tentacles.
Collin was very fond of his little fire squid. He wished he could take it home with him, and feed it his psychology books. Maybe Mirvin's dresser. He grinned at the thought. It was kinda hard, keeping it that shape, but mostly because any shape was as good as any other to the fire. It wanted to spread out as much as possible only, it resisted form. It wasn't stuck in one shape like boring old matter. Right now all Collin could do was shape the fire a little, or increase/decrease its intensity. But soon, verrrry sooooon he would learn more, then he could do anything!
But first thing's first. Now that he'd created his fire squid, like Dan had suggested, he could get going on that passing that test. (ok, Dan hadn't told him to make a fire-squid; Squidy was Collin's precious creation, after all. He had just told Collin that it might help with his control if he made it into a shape.)
Collin pushed out of his chair and stood up, so he could see both his squid, and the clothesline that hung a few feet over the table. The line was secured into either wall of Dan's apartment room. Twelve leaves hung on the line, each a foot apart. Collin frowned, those ones on the ends were gonna be tough to get at. There were 6 green ones and 6 red ones. And the reds ones definitely had to go.
But he couldn't touch the green ones. This was his like fifth attempt. And the tourney was tomorrow. It was now or never. It was surprisingly hard to make fire grow without burning not only the red leaves, but also the green leaves, the string, the desk, his arm, Dan's jacket, and various other furniture items. But this time, this he had had it for sure! Squidy would take it home.
"Go, My sweet fire squid! DESTROY THE RED ONES!" Dan, who was sitting in a chair nearby, raised an eyebrow, "um sure, whatever, go get 'em, uh… squidy?" Dan paused, confused. "What on earth is squidy?" Collin focused his will on the ring, and the fire surged in intensity, and the "tentacles" of the flame grew and stretched out, reaching, yearning for the red leaves above. Collin had to focus extra hard on the tentacles on the end, as they branched out over and beyond the table, to hit leaves a few feet in the air, and several feet off the end of the table. The fire started to die as it fell away from its fuel, but Collin made the end tentacles burst quick, using up their base fuel faster, just enough to lick the stems of the 2 end leaves. The stems glowed red, the 2 end tentacles died in puff of smoke. Collin held his breath. The two burst into small flames at the same time. YES!
"No SQUIDY NO!" He shouted. "The RED ones! The green are your friends!"
Eventually Collin managed to get all 6 guttering with flame. They burned up the leaves quickly and cleanly, leaving the green ones unsinged.
Collin danced around, delirious with glee.
'Yeah squidy, oh yeah squidy"
Dan laughed. "Good job Collin, and uh… you too… squidy." Collin made one of squidy's fiery tentacles wave at Dan once, before he released his hold on the fire with a satisfied sigh. It immediately dropped down into a slow ember burn, as the twigs were almost consumed now.
"Goodbye squidy, I'll see you soon!"
Dan started at Collin for a moment, forgetting himself. "Um yes. Right. Anyway that was good work Collin, excellent control. Of both the shape and the intensity of the flames. That should come in handy tomorrow… at the tournament. "
Collin whooped, and danced around.
Collin had strange dreams that night.
He was in the middle of the field, and all around him were fire squids. They were flying through the air all around him, dozens, hundreds of them, ranging around, their bodies glowing red, their tentacles flickering with fire and pushing off in the breeze. Collin was laughing maniacally, spinning around, and directing his fire-squids here and there. After a moment, evil shadowy looking figures jumped out from the trees, swinging bats and approaching Collin. Collin directed the fire-squids towards the new evil arrivals. They would float by, and lash out with one of their tentacles, generally in a tentacle shape anyway- the fire swayed and crackled. All around him the squid flew, cracking with energy. They would fly low by one of the evil men, and they would burst into flames, running around comically.
Collin cackled maniacally. "Yes my squid! Kill them! KILL THEM ALL!"
Suddenly an owl, freakishly larger than normal, appeared on a tree to Collin's left. It was almost as big as Collin was, and the branch it lighted on sagged under its weight. It was a regular looking owl, despite its size. It appeared to be a barn owl. White face, in a vague inverted heart shape. It had brown feathers and sharp talons. The eyes were unusually large though, and glowed yellow. "Hooo" it said, mournfully, looking at Collin and cocking its head to the side.
"Shut up!" shouted Collin, trying to focus back on torching people. Suddenly an image appeared in his mind.
It was a memory. Rich, saying "Collin, you imbecile! These are HUMANS not your gi-joe figures!" Then the image went away, and a shadow figure ran right by Collin, chased by a squid and bathed in fire. It was shouting- "Blast you Fire God! You've foiled all my evil plans!"
But right as it got to Collin it changed, and it was the face of the bald man he had fought earlier in the week. He smelled burning flesh, and saw blackened flesh peeling away from his arm, visible under his white shirt. Suddenly the man screamed and screamed, rolling around in agony. The scream seemed to go on and on and-
Collin sat up in his bed, sweat covering his face.
Mirvin's sleepy head appeared from over the side of the upper bunk.
"Please refrain from screaming." He said. "It makes my own efforts most difficult." With that he turned over and was soon snoring through his half blocked air passages. Stupid owl. It was the same one that had bothered his dreams those first few nights after Vertigo. Collin could feel such disappointment coming from that stupid owl. He sighed. Maybe the magical owl was right. He had never even thought about it before. H just liked fire and all. He had worked so hard to be able to use it even a little. And then in that alleyway by Vertigo last week. He had to be more careful- that's all. He would only use squidy to scare people. Or he may need to hurt them a little at the tournament, but he would always quickly put it out. Fire really hurt.
Having come to this epiphany, and having made his decision, Collin finally slept.
In the morning, Collin was late. It was a Saturday again, so there was no school, but he had to be at the Library by 11. As he quickly threw on clothes and brushed his teeth, he looked at himself in the mirror. He quickly combed his dirty blonde hair back, so it staid out of his face. He saw his sharp hazel eyes in the mirror too, and grinned. Fire only turned green when it was really hot. He was excited. Him and squidy were gonna rock today.
When Collin jumped through Hal's weirdly opaque bedroom window at quarter after 11, he immediately heard a shout from across the office room.
"Collin! Get over here, You're LATE!" Collin winced. It was Jeremiah. He trotted down to where a large-ish group of Library people were gathered. A good portion of them were wearing ocean-blue colored cloaks. Collin asked Jeremy about that, before he could yell at Collin more.
"Well, um. Oh that. Yes, our technical name within the Hermetic Order we belong to is "Blue House", hence- the cloaks. "
Collin nodded. "So how late am I? Is it a problem?
Jeremiah shook his head. He smiled thinly.
"Registration is actually at noon. I had a feeling you'd be late. It's good to be early anyway. You'll get a chance to see your competition."
Collin looked around. Everyone was there, looking excited. Hal and Rich were talking, and they greeted Collin when he got to them. Hal told him that Mirvin wasn't there because he had gone to a Hermetic Tournament for Hacker Elites. Apparently had just explained everything Jeremiah had just told them, so Hal quickly filled Collin in. Apparently there were several different competitions, all held at the same time, once ever several months. Dan had entered Hal, Rich and Collin into the tournament for basic Fighting. But there was also one for Espionage, Leadership, and Mechanical Mastery. There were 10 levels a Hermetic mage could achieve. The levels in part provided the structure for leadership. Wizard had apparently been at 10 for a long time. Dan was at 7. He was entering the tournament too, to go for level 8. Hal told Collin that they were actually allowed guns and things after level 6. Jeremy was at 6 himself. Going up a level had a lot of advantages. You could go on a mission level 2 and up, and the higher level you had, the more compensation you could get for them, (and of course the harder the mission.) Hal seemed particularly excited about going on a mission, Collin wasn't certain why. Apparently you got access to much cooler use of equipment and training too. Just imagine TWO squidies! Collin couldn't wait.
After Hal had told him everything he had missed from Jeremiah, he went back to talk to Rich. Collin looked around the sparring platform they were all standing on. Their appeared to be between a dozen and two dozen of them, waiting. Those weird girls Hal seemed hung up on for some reason he wouldn't explain were here too. He listened in on their conversation a little. That guy with the sword- James was giving Kristyna advice and encouragement. He also told Erica not to kill anyone. Was he serious? Erica nodded reluctantly. Collin was scared. NO! Squidy would protect him from anything! Collin put a hand in his back pocket, feeling for his ring, and the Zippo he had bought last week. Dan had told him to get one after Collin had told Dan his problem at the fight.
"You can't make the fire yet, Collin." Dan had told him. "So you should really have a source on you. Tools like that our legal for the tournament at your level. The only thing you can't have is really destructive weapons such as firearms. I get to deal with that this week in the 8 tourney. "Dan had looked thoughtful then. He added "Course the last time someone tried to take me out with a gun, all he managed to do was shoot himself a lot." Dan had laughed then, remembering nostalgically. Collin was really glad he wasn't fighting Dan this week.
Collin turned and heard Dan talking to a muscular man with short sleeves. His right arm was heavily bandaged, but it didn't look injured. Collin wondered why that was.
"So, you looking forward to meeting that creep from Green House this year? Asked the man with the bandaged arm, in a gruff voice.
"Oh heck yeah" said Dan. "He nearly killed my friend at the 7 tournament two years ago. There was no reason for that. Oh"
He turned and called for Kristyna. She came over.
"Hey Kris, be careful, there's a guy from Green house this year who is really good. He's the younger brother of a guy I'll be fighting at 8. He does weird stuff with plants I think, using them as a distraction so he can hit you with stuff using Forces. But without the plants he's nothing. So Listen- don't do anything right off the bat. Wait, defend. Once he has all his plants out, use that trick of yours. It'll burn him straight into the ground. Then you can use the powder. Ok?"
He put out a hand to shake hers and wish her luck.
She gave him a scolding look, but then gave up and flung her arms around him, jumped up and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
"Thanks Dan! You're the best!"
Dan looked slightly embarrassed and nodded. Collin could tell he was desperately thinking of something to say.
"Now don't you dare get yourself killed. I don't want to have to go to Green house avenging your death and blowing things up. It'd really cut into my post-game drinking time."
He grinned, somewhat sheepishly.
"Don't worry Dan, I'll be fine! I'll see you in the winners circle!"
Collin's eyes drifted over to James, as Kristyna ran back to her group that included herself, James, that scary girl in black? What was her name again? Collin couldn't think of it., and that other girl with all the rings and amulets. James had stiffened when Kristyna had thanked Dan. Collin wondered what that was about. Oh well. He went over to join Hal and Rich, and they talked excitedly for another minute or two, until everyone suddenly became quiet. Collin looked up, and saw Wizard stepping across the empty office area. Apparently everyone was already at wherever they were going, ready to watch the events.
"Ok everyone, are we about ready? Good, Good. Let's be off then. I'm sure you will all make Blue House (and me) very proud. Remember, I don't want any deaths this year, on either side." He looked pointedly at Dan.
Dan spread his arms wide, and looked innocent.
"Alright then everyone, let's go."
Wizard turned, and reached out an arm into the air, suddenly making a sharp motion downward. A silver split appeared in the air and a large oval suddenly opened up. Wizard motioned to everyone, then stood aside a ways. Everyone began moving towards it then.
"Oh man I hate going through the Gauntlet" Dan said, already looking sick.
"What's the Gauntlet?" Rich asked Jeremy, who had returned by their side.
It's an area that separates the material world from the spirit world. And to answer your next question, the spirit world (or what we call the "umbra") is where we are going, a specific place that the House of Hermes has constructed for the purpose of holding Tournaments. It is much easier and less dangerous to do magic there, and it is away from any place Sleepers have access to.
Rich looked confused and a little nervous. He had that weird hockey stick of his out, and was tapping it on the floor at present. "Dangerous?" he said, inquiringly.
Jeremiah frowned, and called out to Dan.
"Daniel, you DID tell these students about Paradox, did you not?"
Dan laughed sheepishly. "Heh heh, uh right right." He turned to Collin and his roommates. "It totally sucks. It's like having napalm on your chest. KABOOM." He made a gesture and little noises.
Jeremiah very pointedly did not roll his eyes. Instead he sighed.
"Never mind, we must go now. But you MUST teach them after this Dan. "
Dan nodded. "Right, course."
After everyone else had gone through, Collin, Hal, and Rich approached the portal, and Wizard closed in behind them. As Collin stepped through, he got the sensation that someone had tried to punch him hard in the stomach, and only slightly missed. All the air came out of his body, and he gasped for breath on the floor. Pins and needles covered him all over his arms and legs, and hurt to move them. After a minute the feeling went away and he opened his eyes. His breathing returned to normal pretty fast, but it was still unsettling. He looked up, Rich was standing over him.
"You ok, Collin?" He asked extending a hand. Collin took it, and pulled himself up. Collin nodded, and the both looked over at Hal, who was sitting on the ground, with Wizard talking to him calmly. Hal looked like he was wheezing awfully. Wizard waved them off when they tried to approach, and Hal kept telling them that he was fine, he just needed a breather. Collin and Rich looked at each other and shrugged. A ways off to Collin's left; Dan was bent over double, puking his guts out. After he finished he looked up at them cheerfully.
"Well, glad that's over! Time for the fun!". He rubbed his hands together and waved at Collin and Rich, wishing them luck.
Rich walked over to Jeremy to ask him a question.
"Jeremy, What was that all about? How come walking through hurt some guys more than others? And where exactly are we? The spirit world? What does that mean? I don't think I Understand. Things seem different her at all, somehow but-"
Jeremiah put up a hand. "I'm sorry Rich but there's no time to explain it all to you. You may ask Dan about it later. Come on, we need to get you registered. Everyone else is going up to their levels to get registered as well. And Wizard will shortly leave soon, as he is one of the Judges.
As Jeremy led them on to registration, Collin got a chance to really look around for the first time. They were currently in an area that looked a little like a baseball park. Hal would probably like that. Collin glanced over at him. Wizard was talking to him, and he had stood up. He was looking much better. And staring around, excitement on his face.
They were in the back of the stadium right now; there were stone walls behind them. In various places a long the wall, other doorways of sort were opening. As Collin watched, a vine popped out of the wall and grew, interweaving on itself, and finally, when it was a man sized rectangle of interwoven vine, a seam appeared in one side, and it opened. Young men and women, and a few older adults, all dressed in green cloaks, bustled through. There various other doorways too. Some burst into existence in a rainbow of light, some rose out of the ground, like a dirt tunnel, some seemed to construct themselves block by block of a weird metal that looked vaguely like iron. Many people came out. Most moved to the far wall of the area they were in, behind the main stadium, and climbed up a ladder that appeared to disappear into nothingness. It went into a ceiling that looked a lot like the starless night Collin had seen outside the windows at the Library. When Collin asked, Jeremy told him that there were actually nine levels, one for each Level tournament, all stacked on one another.
Collin nodded and looked around at the arena for the Level 2 tourney. The arena was basically a square that had been separated in the middle. On each square half, there were about twenty rows of bleachers. Every once in a while there was a large stone pillar, that supported a stone ceiling. The bleachers were filled with men and women, young and old, all of which looked excited. Some were wearing House-colored cloaks, some were not.
In the middle, was a circle about a hundred feet in diameter? It was open here, the stone ceiling ended on each side of the ring, leaving the ring open to the uh "sky". Which was really just a blanketed void. This open area apparently was where the fights were to be conducted. It was a bit raised off the ground, ring style. Above each half of the bleachers, was a balcony. Jeremy led them up a ladder that went to their half's balcony now. Here they registered. Hung in front of the balcony on each half was a Scoreboard. It showed eight names. They were Hal, Rich, Collin, Ray, Nate, Rita, John, and Marianne. Off to Collin's left as he climbed the ladder, were a row of seats. Eight were empty at the moment, the rest, were filled with judge-looking people, old men mostly.
After they finished registering, Jeremiah said, "Now be careful you guys. I'll be watching from over here. Good luck to all of you."
The three of them went to sit with the other eight, and their attention was drawn to the center ring, where a middle-aged man in White robes stood.
He spoke, and the air seemed to reverberate around him, making his voice loud and clearly heard to the several hundred of them in both sides of the stands.
"Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the Bi-annual Order of Hermes Fighting-Mage Tournament, Level Two!"
There was a roar of applause, and even some whooping noises.
When it died down, the man continued. "I'd like to welcome our allies from the Akashic House, who are always welcome in House Hermes!" Collin noticed the direction the mane spoke towards, and it was a group of solemn faced men, all wearing modest brown robes.
"As just a reminder, there are no firearms allowed in the Level Two tournament, and killing is frowned upon. The officials will stop any match that has a clear winner. A match is over when a contestant has been killed, knocked unconscious, forced out of the ring for a ten count, or of course, if he or she gives up. Remember, this tournament is to show your fellow Houses your strength and as a way for the House leaders to gauge the strength of each branch of House Hermes! We don't want to lose anyone necessarily, but we can hardly gauge strengths unless you all try your hardest. Our opponents are not push-overs, and if we do not stay strong, humanity may lose all its wonder, not to mention, in some cases, its life! Well then, that is enough of that, good luck to everyone, and enjoy the show!"
There was a roar of approval from the audience, and then a rapid beeping sound. It was the scoreboard in front of them, though they had to watch the one on the other side to see clearly. All eight names were up, and they were all flashing on and off in random patterns, after a moment they stopped on two names.
HAL VS. RAY
Hal gave a great "Woot!" and stood up. Rich and Collin clapped him on the back.
"Alright man, it's all you, use the force!" said Collin. Hal grinned at him and jogged towards the ladder that would take him to the arena. After a moment, another guy got up. And followed Hal down. He was wearing dark tinted sunglasses, and had dark hair, cut bowl-style. He wore a black jacket that had an open panel in the front showing a little white. It seemed to wrap around behind him, fastening on buttons on the back. He stood up calmly, and walked purposefully towards the ladder.
Collin couldn't wait. This was gonna be great. Hal was probably the strongest of all of them.
Hal stood across from his opponent, after he had been announced. He looked like a real punk. Hiding behind those eyeglasses. This "Ray" punk looked Hal up and down and then sniffed.
"You can't beat me." He said, calmly, though there was definitely a little pride in his voice.
"HA!" Shouted Hal. Man he WAS a punk. He was gonna smash his face in.
Ray didn't react at all.
"It is clear who the winner will be, from the way we were brought up. You clearly have no reason to win this match. Nor do you have the strength required. Nor the discipline. I can tell just from looking at you. These are things that are pre-determined, decided at birth by where we grow up, and who we are. And you were obviously not meant to lead this life. You do not carry yourself with the proper air of a Hermetic Mage. It is only fitting that I defeat you, and remove a stain from our Order."
Hal fumed. Punching in his head wasn't good enough; he was going to tear the inflated thing off his shoulders.
The man in white robes shouted "Begin!" And Hal charged in straight away, covering the meters between them in seconds. Ray immediately turned side ways, spreading his feet out, and dropping into a nerdy "kung-fu" stance, like a frickin wanna-be Bruce Lee.
Hal laughed as he ran. This was gonna be easy.