53: The Inner Circle
Theseus cast an eye down at the weapons cache. The RPG launcher would take out the whole group in a bloody mess. Then he glanced at John and shook his head, there mere thought he’d even contemplated it sickening him. He couldn’t do this. He turned his gaze towards Faye again: the blue-haired girl was hovering by the archway. That bubbling resentment, frustration at his helplessness, exposed itself in sharp words.
“Look, faerie, or whatever, or whoever…if you want them dead then do it yourself!”
But then it started. Before anyone could act or anything could be fired the world shimmered and flickered around them, like lights when electricity was failing. The figures in the circle cried out in agony and then…then they began to melt. Their skin dripped like wax into a growing puddle of molten flesh and their faces were caught in perpetual screams: the sort of screams that would haunt Theseus for the rest of his life.
The third phase has begun. You are too late.
***
Phantasia could tell what was about to happen, but was powerless to stop it. The shaman were gathering in the circle, their auras opening to one another, blending, fusing. With the bulk of their sacrifices gone, they were giving up their own lives to complete the ritual – a ritual that was itself incomplete. Without the elemental balance provided by the four towers there would be no demonic manifestation and their suicide would be for nothing. Surely they knew that by now? What purpose would their deaths serve?
The Earth-energy ploughing into the cocoon intensified, tearing through the remaining innocent victims. Even in their unconscious state their auras cried out, unable to resist the avalanche of power pressing against them, forcing them to become one with the hateful figures amassed around the circle. Phantasia started forward to do something – anything – but Ms Chiltern held her back.
“You should get out of here,” said her teacher, “We’ve done everything we could,”
“What about the gateway?” asked Ceres, “Ms Anderson didn’t get an opening to negate it, did she?”
“Forget about the gateway. We’ll deal with that later. If it pulls a demonic spirit through, you girls will be in more trouble than you can handle. We don’t need students or trainees now, we need soldiers,”
Then it began. The third and final phase of the ritual. The currents intensified to a scream, threatening to drag Phantasia and the girls into a spiral of death if they got too close. The victims were ripped apart, their spirits and all the corruptive suffering they experienced colouring the cyclone black as it condensed, pulling everything in the circle into its horrific egg. Something was growing there. A horrible, monstrous amalgam of hatred and suffering and pain.
Ceres tugged at Phantasia’s sleeve, a pained, desperate look on her face. “Tasia, w-we gotta get outta here!”
But Phantasia was too curious, too anxious. If they left now, who knew what would happen? She approached the circle, watching as the monstrosity began to take shape, a distorted form hidden behind a thinning mist. The planes were becoming as one. The gateway was opening. And as it did, she could see a second, greater shadow overlooking everything. The one behind this ritual. The one who sought manifestation. And either he was unaware of its failure, or he was prepared to enter the physical world in his ethereal form. Either way he wouldn’t be happy, and everyone on the other side would suffer his vengeance.
~ What horror will be born from the darkness?! ~
~ Next: The Underground Trembles! ~
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I’ve been sitting on this chapter for a couple of weeks now, waiting to see how it would pan out and go down with people. Thus far I’ve hinted as some underlying horrors (the leansidhe encouraging suicide, the tethered ghost of an innocent girl used as a drug, and the Patriarch), but this is where (I think) I really twist the knife.
Of course the whole idea narratively was to put people in the same position as the human characters: they’ve heard whispers and stories of these things, but they’ve never seen them (or have they – see below!). It’s the sort of genre shift you can’t really pull off in an ordinary novel, but certainly can in something more serialised. And I’m hoping that, but putting a lot of the recent emphasis on normal-guy Theseus I’ve managed to bring out some of the horror they’re experiencing (though this is probably more apparent next chapter).
Had I been telling this from Faye’s view, for example, it would have been a different story (something else I’ll mention below!).
At least that was the intent. I’ll leave it up to you to see if it worked. The next couple of chapters continue the tone somewhat (but don’t worry, I’ve got some light-hearted stuff coming up right after!).
Things to note:
~ Phoenie appears to have some past experience with these kind of disturbing events. What were they and do they have any relation to her current obsessions?
~ Joel was attacked through astral projection. He didn’t suffer any physical damage until his fall, but his brain was momentarily scrambled. This method of attack is seen again when Ms Chiltern engages the shaman. It’s a quite literal clashing of the wills.
~ A detail I didn’t get to drop in: the knives used in the ceremony are carved from horse bones. Alastor’s actual form is only somewhat equine, but to those serving him he would certainly appear as some kind of horse-demon.
~ I think this is the first time I referred to a teacher by military rank? Both Chiltern and Anderson are lieutenants, with Tes being outranked statistically. Payne is Chief, while the other teacher are either lieutenants or commanders. The whole rank/chain of command system is linked to how they’re set up as a cell.
~ Faye’s morality is pure faerie. Because they know death is just a part of the cycle of life, they don’t regard life with the same care that humans tend to. Theseus struggles with the idea of becoming a murderer because, to him, death is absolute. To Faye, and faeries in general, killing is not the same as ending life, no more than washing your clothes is destroying them. As for why Faye didn’t do the killing herself – consider that she has no offensive power, and any she did would likely be ineffective against the magical forces surrounding the circle. Physical force was the only way – and Theseus was the one with both the weapon and the knowledge to use it.
Questions to consider:
~ What exactly did Phantasia do to those shaman? What are her powers really?
~ Why is Ms Chiltern acting so distant? What plane is she actually on?
~ Theseus avoided becoming a murder, but Katrina didn’t. How will this affect her?
~ And what exactly is going on with the ceremony? It’s not unfolding as anticipated, even in lieu of the interference.
Meanwhile!
Basically it involves shifting all the ads down where this comment section is, while extending the main part of the site across the whole page.
Next week you’ll see a slight change to the layout of the site: I’ve come up with a way of making those annoying adverts on the right there less intrusive
This will also make double-spread images workable…
FIRST! I think Phantasia is a partial opposite of the death faeries. I liked how this chapter went, the action scenes were well written and interlaced with plenty of compassion. Joel, useless again was helpful in “lending” his weapon to the cause. An RPG blast might have dispersed the remains enough and damaged the circle enough to stop the ritual right there and then, no? A very exciting chapter and I am deeply looking forward to the next and seeing Phantasia’s powers grow and evolve as she learns more about them. Thanks for the read
Thanks for reading!
The explosive blast wouldn’t have put a stop to the ritual – it was too far gone for that – but it would have lessened the…bulk…of what’s about to emerge from it…
Great chapter!
The moral dilemma got carried over nicely. What I somehow don’t get is the feeling that Phantasia’s power get’s drained. She doesn’t seem to experience any fatigue.
Also I think you actually referred to some teachers by their rank during their assault at Godhand. I think I remember Payne got called Chief and I think the twins Commanders but of that I’m not so sure.
On the question on what exactly Phantasia did to the shaman… I think she purified their mana, removing any self-deceptions. A human truly in peace with him or herself wouldn’t be affected but alas – most of us aren’t.
I think the impact on realizing every single “misstep” would be huge.
Phantasia’s a determined girl, she’s not even thinking about being tired, though she hasn’t used up too much of her strength at present.
If you know the Haans are commanders, then I must have mentioned it somewhere. Sometimes I’m not sure if I’ve edited these things out or not, and my extensive notes on what I actually say in each chapter are still quite a ways behind XD
I thought of something pertaining to audiomancy…I wasn’t sure where to put this, so I’ll mention it here. In real life, it is possible to use highly focused sound to push objects around. NASA experimented with this, if I remember correctly, although I can’t find a specific instance of this. Could an audiomancer use very loud and very focused sound to push objects or opponents around? This could actually be a rather useful combat ability if an enemy where pushed into another solid object at sufficiently high speed.
That’s more a technological application, though at the same time is very similar to powers associated with the ‘wind’ element (I’m going to avoid going off on a tangent here – I can seriously over-think some of this ‘magic’ stuff and start cross-referencing it with science XD). Though in a way there’s a metaphor here: sound transfers energy from one source to another through vibrations, audiomancy does the same thing but on a different level. Usually an empathic, emotional level (the transferral of, say, courage or fear), though the music can help focus other forces in much the same way as chanting or prayer.
Simplified:
Audiomancy = transferral of higher energies using music as a medium.
I mean, you could have a song that strikes fear into an opponent. That would be audiomancy. But then you could have someone who does the same thing with their voice alone – that wouldn’t be audiomancy (but the same basic idea). And then, at its highest level, a person who struck fear in others just with their very presence.
I think I went off on a tangent?
No, audiomancy wouldn’t have that power, but that sort of power could certainly be used elsewhere (Wind faeries, for example, can use sonic and kinetic forces, hence why their element was called ‘Wind’ – to people in ancient times ‘invisible’ forces pushing things around = power of wind!).
Something else to note is that audiomancy, or any powerful music, helps align the mind and soul into a focused or enhanced state. This allows people to do things which would be extremely difficult normally with relative ease. Magic, in particular, is enhanced quite a lot.
On another note, I don’t think cross referencing magic with science is odd at all. In fact if you look at it closely you’ll realize that magic and science share many of the same laws if you think of magic as energy that can be melded into a different form.
Also I really enjoy this story, and you are doing a wonderful job keep it up
There were scientists who decided to study ‘magic’ in scientific terms.
They were laughed at.
They are now very powerful.
Loved it.
It would have been best to put them out of their misery but I don’t know if I could have done so.
And I don’t think many people could. Not unless they were trained to, anyway, or were acting directly on instinct to protect someone/thing they cared about (as Katrina does – note that in Theseus’s case, nothing he holds dear is actually at stake when he’s asked to kill).
Hrm…I don’t know why I expected Astrid’s group to be among the sacrifices. Maybe it’s because their disappearance doesn’t have very much information surrounding it.
In the earliest drafts (we’re talking 2005ish here) there was a named student among the sacrifices, but that gotten written out over time as the motives driving the ritual changed.
Stumbled across this about three days ago, just finished the archives up to this post today and can’t wait for more.
This story has a lot of potential, but it would need some serious attention from an editor (I’m not judging, just stating a point. my own meger works are in need of just as much if not more assistance from an editor.)
I’m currious to know if the author has ever concidered self publishing this in to a physical book? I’ve heard of a few other authors doing it, it may be something they would want to look in to.
Thanks
I’ve got a couple of people combing through it from the beginning, building up a bunch of notes for when I go back and revise everything. The physical collected volumes will follow once I’ve done that and all the accompanying illustration work, depending on how much it would cost (the readers, that is, not myself). I don’t want to be using print-on-demand services charging $20-per-book – that’s fine if you’re printing a single novel, or even a trilogy, but a serial is a different thing altogether!
Oh I understand entirely. Used to read another web serial. Last I heard they were looking in to publishing options. In fact…
*rummages through old favorites* ah! here we go. I don’t know if this will help you any in the future, but that particular writer ended up using this site and each of her books ranges between $13 and $17. I think it might be based on page count. There’s also an option for people to download instead, that costs $1 to $2.
http://www.lulu.com/index.php
I’d really want them to cost close to $10, even if that cuts into my own profit a bit. Probably because the series will eventually look something like this: http://www.narutohaven.com/images/mangavols.jpg in physical form XD
Fair enough. I’ll keep an eye open for you and if I find anything I’ll be sure to send it your way. ^_^
It would have been better to put them out of their misery, and given time I think Theseus would have been able to. I mean only a few minutes, but still far more than he had. The few seconds he had to decide were not enough for his instincts to protect to be overridden.
As to what Phantasia’s power is:
If I remember correctly, the Death Faeries essentially break knots of mana up so that it will better merge back into the normal flow. Corruption is left to the flow of mana to purify. Phantasia I think is to an extent the opposite of this in that she is a composition of all of the elements.
Phantasia didn’t fit with any of the faeries because of this, she isn’t like them. She got along well with Dionysus and Queen Thetis for the same reason: Phantasia is more human than faerie psychologically and spiritually, it is only her form that is faerie. Those who had fought in the Apostle War and been “corrupted” by human nature were more natural to her.
This is where her power comes from, she is a focus of uncorrupted mana, and thus quite able to cleanse corruption, to wash it away with her own strength, just as humans in tune with the divine(in this story, Goddess’) will can-by bathing corruption in pure, uncorrupted mana. When debating on taking out the shamans with her power, she was hesitant because she felt love is as corruptive a force as any, but I must disagree. It simply opens us up, making the susceptibility to corruption greater in those unprepared for it. When she did hit them with her power, the result would have been to open them wide to the corruption they were channeling, and that blow could potentially have consumed their psyches with corruption as they would have had no defense against it.
Love is not corruptive, but by its nature, when bathed in it all of our other defenses go down, and someone who could act as the shamans did would be very stunted in the love department and thus have little to no defense against that power.
Assuming I am correct, it would take someone such as Yuki Shimomura working for months before there would be any chance of them recovering from the damage done. Perhaps less depending on the strength of the shamans themselves. At that point, if Phantasia were to try to cleanse them I think she would be in risk of erasing who they are because of how much the corruption would have distorted and covered their minds.
Each of the element types have very distinguishing attributes until “corrupted” like Queen Thetis and Dionysus. For the reason that she never fit in with any fairy type, I don’t think she contains any of the 4 elements at all. When she absorbed a bit of water element, her hair started to have blue streaks. From this, we can theorize that if her element pulled from any of the normal 4 elements, her hair would reflect it in the same manner that all the other fairies that we’ve seen seem to do.
If I recall, she’s also had trouble trying to restore herself with the element of water when her arm had been “torn off” by the golem that Queen Thetis destroyed. This is why I suspect that ‘Tasia is more aligned with the Goddess’s light as an element. Like the Goddess’s light, she cleanses darkness and purifies corruption. I finally had this theory come together when Dary wrote the chapter where ‘Tasia followed Faye into the challenge of ascention that fairies either finish or get consumed by the darkness inside it.
And what happens to light when it strikes a prism? XD
*epic facedesk* I should have realized that. =)
I suppose I was a little unclear with my choice of wording. In the Western Philosophy, there are five elements, fire, water, air, and earth, and then a fifth that is both a distinct element and the source of the other four, and that is spirit. That is the element Phantasia belongs to, whatever it may be named in this tale.
The reason that Phantasia has trouble regenerating from any individual element is that the elements are too distilled for someone as inexperienced as her to work with. It is also why I think she has so much trouble with the talents of the other faeries, they’re distilled versions of what she is already doing. Reading minds is a very specific subset of reading auras for example. It think that in time she will grow strong enough and wise enough in her own power to work with those that are subsets of what she does, but for now she doesn’t have anywhere near a strong enough understanding to dampen the the competing strengths that interfere with her using just a subset.
Phantasia being a bit uncertain of the full effects of her power if she were to just throw her spiritual weight around makes a lot of sense to me. To compare it with something in science, bleach can do some truly horrible things to a living organism if they get too much of it in them. And yet for precisely that reason we use it to kill germs. I’ve seen write-ups that indicate in a pinch, when boiling (the preferred option) isn’t a possibility one can add very small amounts of it to water to purify it for drinking purposes. But too much used the wrong way can do an awful lot of damage to you.
On a different note, the moral dilemmas do come through. Although I would be kind of shocked if one of the characters suddenly screamed out some magical girl line about beating people up with the power of sweetness and love until they become nicer people, even the most shady main characters in the story seem very unlikely to deliberately do serious harm to another person. With the kind of world they live in it sounds like they’ve been pretty lucky (or the adults around them have been working -very- hard for them to) stay so innocent.
P.S. If the bleach info was new to anyone reading it, I encourage you to verify it with sources you trust. I didn’t say exactly how to do it because I think it’s a really bad idea to take advice with potential health ramifications from random sections of the internet peanut gallery (ie, me!).
The irony is that, while both Payne and Wotan were around playing metaphorical chess against each other, they also managed to keep the town pretty damn safe. Godhand managed to track down and exorcise a lot of the leansidhe (although, in more irony, got suckered by one themselves), so these shaman have certainly had a better run of things with them gone. Plus Titania et al have used illusions to make sure things don’t get out of hand.
And more irony (because I do love it so): the Veritas clique (bar Phoenie) are some of the most innocent of the students in terms of what they’ve experienced, even though they’re the ones who have effectively been looking for trouble.
Like the bleach analogy btw. Even if my first thought upon reading the word was “ARE THEY STILL IN HUECO MUNDO?” >_>
I think Theseus made the right decision with the information he had. If he had been aware of their fate and the consequences I think he probably would have used the RPG, though possibly not before it was too late anyway.
Trainquilization was the humane option. I wouldn’t have killed them, probably because of my inner scientist.
We do what we must, because we can.
If I had the power to decide whether or not a demon was summoned, I would weaken the process, to see what it creates.
I believe the trainquilization likely would make the demon suffer from slow movement for a while, so it’d be easier to observe it.