"Is this going to take much longer? 'Cause I'm getting bored." Alfred shuffled his feet to ward off the descending cold. His family ignored him. "C'mon," he whined. "Is it?"
"It'll be done quicker if you'll shut up." Matthew replied flatly, helping Arthur set up the pentagram. Alfred stuck his tongue out. Matthew stuck his out in response. Arthur sighed. Gilbert snickered.
Bhaltair tuned out his nephews' bickering and concentrated on creating the necessary barrier. He sat cross-legged on the grass, eyes closed. He exhaled slowly, steadily and then inhaled sharply. The barrier spread out around him in a single burst, enveloping everything within range.
Nikolai gasped. It was strange, foreign to feel someone else's power around him. Gilbert shivered; he didn't know what that sudden feeling was, but it was something he would never forget. All those related to Bhaltair ignored it, too used to him to pay it much attention.
Bhaltair opened his eyes and smiled almost tiredly at Ceilí. "Your turn, Sis."
Ceilí laughed quietly. "Yeah, I guess it is." Clouds drifted across the waxing moon. Ceilí's brow creased, and the fog slowly lifted, clearing first around her, then gradually dissipating in a large circle, which she was the center of.
Gilbert gave a low whistle of appreciation. "Damn, I wish I could do that."
"Yeah, it does come in handy sometimes." Ceilí stood, brushing dirt off her slacks.
Nikolai cleared his throat. "Matthew, do you have any spare clothing?"
"Um…what?" Matthew looked up from his careful drawing of a point on the pentagram.
"If we animate the avatar as is, it will be naked." Nikolai said flatly.
"Not that I mind showing off my awesome five meters, but it's kinda cold." Gilbert shifted slightly, self-conscious.
"Uh, r-right. I think I've got some stuff that would fit…" Matthew darted back inside, blushing.
Alfred snickered. "But Mattie, this might be the only chance you get to see him naked!" He hollered.
"Sh-shut up, Alfred!"
,,
"All right, let's get this party started." Bhaltair rubbed his hands together, standing at one point of the finished pentagram.
Nikolai nodded silently. He was sitting cross-legged in the center, next to the clay doll.
"What am I supposed to do?" Gilbert waited unsurely just outside the larger circle, unwilling to enter it without permission, a relic of an instinct from a time long past.
"Just hover over the effigy." Arthur instructed. "And don't step in that circle." He pointed to the smaller one. It was just barely touching the edge of the larger diagram, which contained the pentagram as well as the casters. A small portion of the line separating the two had been rubbed out and replaced with a thick trickle of sea salt.
Gilbert complied wordlessly.
"Is everything ready, then?" Ceilí looked around, making sure everything—and everyone—was in position.
There was a general affirmative murmuring around the circle.
"Then let's begin." Ceilí closed her eyes and began the chant. Bhaltair picked up next, followed by Arthur, Alfred and Matthew entering last, in unison.
It was a smooth, melodic sounding language. The syllables rolled off five tongues in chorus, sending an eerie chill down Gilbert's spine.
Nikolai remained silent, tracing summoning runes, sealing runes, protecting runes into the dirt by his side.
Matthew's voice sounded somehow distinct from the rest, clearer, sharper. Power seemed to ripple off him, spreading like someone had dropped a stone in a pond.
The smaller circle—just barely large enough to contain a human form—began to glow. A pentagram, searing white, sung through the circle, no point extending from it, following invisible lines. Thin, blue-white smoke rose from the center and took the shape of a kneeling man, mirroring Gilbert.
It quickly gained a more definite form. Details began to take shape: a grinning mouth, amber eyes, brown hair with a single fly-away curl. After a moment, Arthur recognized the figure's loose, blue and white clothing as a Korean hanbok.
The beaming figure angled his head slightly, examining the group in front of him. "So you all are the ones that summoned me? You must have some sort of specialist here; most people can only summon my sister. Not that there's anything wrong with her, but I'm just more powerful, is all. I mean seriously, all magic did originate from me." His eyes roved over the casters a second time, now focusing on Nikolai. "A High Born?" He giggled, the sound suddenly high and manic, nothing like the excitable, but reasonable tone from before. "It's been decades since I've seen one of you. I didn't know there were any left, actually. Thought you'd gone extinct, like so many of the animals you humans try your damndest to save, even while you destroy them."
"We have summoned you here for a reason," Ceilí announced sharply. "What may we call you?" She knew better than to ask for his real name, knew the power such things held over such creatures.
"Hmm…" He seemed to ponder for a moment. "How about…Yong Soo! Call me Yong Soo." He smiled at them all, bright and sunny once more. "Why did you summon me? Who summoned me? I mean, no offense girly, but you're just not my type." He winked.
"I did." Matthew's voice remained clear as he spoke.
Yong Soo narrowed his eyes. "You summoned me? A scrawny little boy, barely more than a child? I find that hard to believe. Unless, of course, you're one of those. Are you, boy? One of the ones gifted, although others would say cursed, with the ability to summon anything? How many close to you have died, even in the few short years of your existence? How many have suffered, just because you happened to be related to them?" The mocking, sneering hue pulled up into his voice as if from a well.
"That is none of your concern." Arthur's voice was tight, the words spoken through gritted teeth. "We have not brought you here to insult us."
"Well then, what have you brought me here for?" And again he was sunlight and cool breezes and pleasantries.
"We request that you bind this soul to this clay husk." Nikolai finally spoke, the first sound he'd made since the casting began.
Gilbert and Yong Soo met eyes. Both were silent, sizing the other up. "What's so special about him that you'd risk your lives to revive him?" There was nothing but honest curiosity in Yong Soo's voice.
Bhaltair smiled exasperatedly. "You really ask a lot of questions, don't you?"
Yong Soo laughed. "Yeah, I guess. Are you really sure that's what you want me to do, though? It'll be really difficult for me, and really dangerous for you. His soul has been free-standing for so long, it might reject the binding, even though the avatar is a perfect match."
"We're sure." There was a finality in Ceilí's voice not even Yong Soo could argue with.
The creature grinned, a swirling combination of mockery and sincerity. "Then let us begin—"
"Wait!" Alfred almost moved from his corner of the pentagram, but restraint and the current of magic running over his feet stopped him. "What, what is it like in your world?"
Yong Soo stood slowly, the movement slick and fluid. His feet remained at least a foot from the grass beneath him. "It's…pretty, in the same way a picked flower is pretty. Beautiful, but dead. A thousand years ago, a hundred years ago, you couldn't see it. Couldn't see where the rot had begun to set in. But now, now that's all I can see. But I'm old. The younger ones still see only plucked-blossom glamour. The old ones, ones like me, and my sister, we see the decay, see the brown creeping up on the edges of the petals." He smiled, soft and sad. "It's nothing like your world. Here, everything is still alive and young and growing."
Arthur glared daggers at his oldest son. Alfred smiled sheepishly back. "Now that we have that out of the way, why don't we begin in earnest?"
Yong Soo's smile was feline and predatory, the grin of a hunter as he pulls the trigger. "A brilliant idea, Mr. Kirkland." Arthur stiffened, but refused to rise to the bait.
The ethereal being laughed again, and began to change. He became translucent, misty, stretching into a thin, unearthly form that was still very human and yet not.
Gilbert saw stars. He felt like he'd received a blow to the head without the pain, like he'd taken some kind of psychedelic that left him with the strangest high he'd ever felt, but most of all he felt hollow. A vortex opened up in his chest pulling him closer to the doll, or the doll closer to him, and he impacted with smooth, soft clay and went through and everything went black.
..
Wow, I am so sorry it took me so long to write this. I know I say that every time, and I mean it every time, but it still doesn't seem like enough. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, despite the long wait. Demented!Korea was suggested, as was normal Korea, so there you go for the mysterious cameo. Although, I guess the role is a little more important than a cameo. Heh-heh. Oh yeah, the sister he mentions is Taiwan, but I doubt she'll have a larger role. Uh…I think that might be it…Equilibrium…out.