The Circle of Duty

by Owen Elgie

  “Hello Mr. Johns. My name is Visisamus Ward. I hold the rank of Head of House for her majesty The Elder. I would greatly appreciate it if you would refrain from causing my lady any further discomfort. She has been forced to expend a great deal of energy in the defence of the site in Argentina after you and your teams were so unable to defend the place. We must all really be more careful with what we do, don't you agree?” With the end of the sentence, he leaned forward towards me and a reptilian smile was cut across his face, baring his teeth in a gesture which was part grin, part threat.

  I looked back at him as he smiled and tried to order my feelings on this new addition to The Circles upper tiers. I knew that he was, by definition, lower down the food chain than I was, but he carried with him the confidence of a man who was very used to getting his own way, and that included with Guardians.

  Time for my own opening gambit in this exchange.

  “You're Head of House for The Elder? You'd have thought I would have heard of you by now, wouldn't you?” I shifted my weight and forced myself to sit up as straight as I could muster, keeping my expression as flat as I could as I bared my torso to show him that I was a great deal bigger than him. If this character was used to getting his own way, used to throwing his weight around, then I needed to try and show him who the heavier hitter was.

  There was no reaction from him except the smile spread even further and he took a step closer to me, leaning further forward as he did. It looked like a bow to the outside world but again felt very much like a gesture designed to invade the personal space of the person he was facing.

  “Not at all sir. It is well known amongst every member of The Circle that you are very inexperienced so you must have been busying yourself with the basics up to now. At the ponderous pace you are going, you would have probably been ready to learn about me in about a century.” Another step forward followed so his legs were now brushing the side of my bed. He held the same expression as he stood there despite the exertion it must have been placing on the masseter muscles in his jaws.

  This close to me I could see more detail of him. His face was lined in an unnatural way, as if he had undergone some form of surgical procedure to reduce the wrinkles which hadn't quite managed to work correctly. His disturbing smile was populated by a collection of overly yellowed teeth which looked to each carry the slightest of points – almost harking back to a previous evolutionary trait.

  His glimmering suit of magical power was the most confusing part of him. Up close, he looked to be a not quite polished version of himself. The sheen looked to be missing from his persona but the suit was immaculate. And he caught me looking.

  “Do you admire my dress, sir?” Always the 'sir' despite what he was saying.

  “This was a gift from The Elder herself,” he looked down at his own magnificence and loved himself.

  “A strip of skin from the beast she is guarding was flayed free when they first fought all those centuries ago. She made me this suit as a way of expressing her gratitude for my services. She had kept this pelt for thousands of years but gifted it to me. Please, feel free to admire the quality.”

  With that he proffered an arm for me to inspect. It smelt of nothing more than run of the mill leather but there was a massive significance behind the garment. This suit was a symbol of his power, bestowed on him by The Elder in much the same way as my own Guardianship had been on me. He viewed himself, and perhaps he was viewed by others as well, as a supremely powerful man and that power was shown by his supreme suit of Hive skin. I needed to show him that I wasn't going to be pushed around by him.

  “OK Leatherpants. Go attend to your Master. I'm feeling pretty good at the mo. Don't you worry though, I'll let you know if I need you to get me something.”

  That comment made his carefully controlled exterior crack just slightly. The barest suggestion of something crossed his face but it was hidden almost as fast as it had been created. That carefully rehearsed smile back firmly in place, Leatherpants straightened up and turned back towards The Elder without another word, floating back to her bedside while throwing withering gazes at all of the gathered medical personnel who immediately resumed their deep study of the flooring around them.

  The next ten minutes became a very uncomfortable silence.

  The medical staff passed around all of us in turn, reviewing and assessing what our individual conditions were and addressing them as they deemed necessary while The Elder and I did our best to avoid the others eyes and Leatherpants did his best to always meet mine, that almost painful smile coming with him.

  I had a collection of prods and pokes and the laying on of hands was performed with some dexterity by two of the 'nurses'. After a short time I was told that I was fine and that my passing out had been caused by the effect of The Elders casting. I would need rest to recover but there would be no long term effects of what had happened.

  “What did you do to all of us?” I asked The Elder. This time I had worked out that I didn't need to be confrontational with what I was saying as I truly wanted to know. The Elder simply looked at me as Leatherpants answered for her.

  “Her majesty cast a leeching spell which stole the power and energy from anything it came into contact with. She used the combined strength of those creatures in the area to drive the working to re-build the shield.” The same painful smile remained rigid across his face as he spoke.

  “She sent her power to the edges of the valley and ordered the magic to return to her, bringing with it all the strength of those in the area to complete the spell. The three of you all gave power to the casting, which is why you were rendered unconscious. As always, her magnificence saved you from any further pain by encouraging you back to your human form. Had you been still as Guardians, the power taken could have been a great deal more dangerous.”

  The information that he had given to me seemed to be reasonable. I was still pretty green in terms of casting ability and the power to call the forces of nature to my will but everything did stack up. It still felt like sand in your swimming shorts that he should have this understanding and I didn't.

  Time to get his unending font of knowledge working for me.

  “Thank you for your help providing me with the mechanisms behind our current position. Do you know the fate of the soldiers who were fighting alongside us? How many of our people are safe and well?” I tried my best to inject a measure of decorum into what I was saying but I wasn't very effective by the expression which spread across both The Elders and Leatherpants' face.

  He slithered across the floor between the beds and took up station next to me, again leaning over me with the same forced smile. “Are you not concerned with the condition of the shield that my mistress risked so much to re-build? Do you take your ancient responsibility so lightly that you concern yourself with the fate of a group of nobodies rather than the reason we are all here?”

  It was his stressing of the word nobodies which did the damage.

  I could feel the fire behind my eyes. His words were like daggers to me and I wouldn't, I couldn't, let him continue to think that he could place the value of human life below that of some magical shield.

  My anger whipped up like a violent tropical storm and I was powerless before its force.

  The covers to my bed were still floating gently towards the floor of the room by the time I had burst from my bed, picked the simpering Leatherpants from the floor and slammed him into the opposite wall.

  “HOW DARE YOU CALL THESE PEOPLE NOBODIES? THESE ARE THE REASON WE DO WHAT WE DO.”

  I held him pinned to the wall as he took in what I had said. I was breathing deeply and becoming more and more aware of the fact that I was naked again. I wasn't too sure if this would enhance or diminish the point I was making but I could only keep going forward.

  Leatherpants hadn't even registered my explosion of emotion.

  He dangled before me, me with handfuls of his magically tailored suit bunched under his chin and him with his spindly legs hangi
ng limply beneath him. He regarded me with the same overstretched rictus grin still plastered onto his face with no signs of it slipping in the slightest.

  “None of us who have been called into this most noble and worthwhile cause are anybody.”

  His words came out with no force at all, just a certainty of the message they were conveying.

  “All of the blessed few who have chosen to be a part of what The Circle have to offer, are nothing. None of us amount to anything more than the sum of what we do. You are concerned for the well-being of the few you have met or are aware of. I am concerned for the whole human race. I am concerned for the seven billion people on this planet who don't know we are here but who are utterly dependent on what we do. Shouldn't we all just be glad that we are able to provide the protection we can? Isn't it just your vanity which is making you look beyond the calling to protect the masses?”

  Silence hung between us as my own heavy breath was the only sound I was aware of.

  The same smile stretched even wider as he continued to speak.

  “Look at yourself. You are one of the mightiest creatures on the face of the planet but you are not allowing yourself to look at what is truly important. You are no longer a human being, one of the herd but you still cling to that irrelevance. You are a slave to the most basic urges of yourself and that is why you are on the verge of becoming your Dragon form within the confines of this hospital. If we lose fifty thousand people here shouldn't we rejoice if we save fifty million or more?”

  He continued to stare at me and maintained the question even in the silence.

  I tried to think about the details of what he had just said and I became aware of the fact that I had been letting my inner monster drive what had been going on. I was indeed starting to transform into my red Dragon form as he had pointed out. Leatherpants hung in the air only three or four inches from the ceiling of the room we were in which meant I was holding him at roughly twenty feet from the floor.

  Looking down at myself, I could see that I had grown in size and that my skin had started to transform into the armoured surface of the mighty Dragon and with that realization, I could feel a great deal of the fire draining from me. His words had made me think about what had been happening and my Dragon was being slowly put back into his box.

  I slowly returned to what I should have been and Leatherpants was gradually returned to the floor. I did my best to maintain the feeling of some superiority and dignity despite the fact that he had openly shown my arguments to be floored and he had done so while I was pinning him to the wall. Whilst I was naked.

  Returning to my bed without making it look as if I was in any way slinking, I slowly got myself comfortable and settled back to look upon everyone who was in the room.

  The medical staff all maintained the steadfast view of the tiled floor as they busied themselves all around the beds, righting objects that I had managed to upset in my latest outburst. Leatherpants had smoothed out his prized suit and had floated to the side of his master. The Elder, in turn, was settling herself back under the covers. She had apparently stood as I had boomed across the room at her servant. By the feel of the magical energy in the room slowly deflating, she had been readying herself to react against me had Leatherpants not been able to talk me down.

  My eyes continued around the room and alighted on Andrea’s bed. There was no sign that she had reacted at all to any of the commotion I had been making but now her eyes were open and she was awake.

  She looked at me intently, the covers of the bed still pulled up tight around her chin. There was no movement in her eyes but that seemed to make her attention seem more heavily weighted. Despite her blank expression, and the only sign that she was conscious being her open eyes, I could still feel a mighty level of disappointment coming from her.

  We just stared at each other through the silence of the room.

  Leatherpants was quick to flow to Andrea’s side as soon as he was aware she was awake. She didn't move as he did but her eyes flicked in his direction.

  “There is no need to trouble yourself my lady. The youngster is calm again so there is no more danger. He will learn to show some level of self-control in the future I have no doubt.” The last portion of the sentence was accompanied by a turning glance in my direction, just to prove who he was talking about, in case there had been any doubt.

  Andrea didn't move.

  Leatherpants turned back to face her and looked into her eyes. By his body language, he wasn't welcomed by what he was facing. He shrugged back away from Andrea and quickly made his way back to The Elders bedside.

  The three Guardians in the room remained silent from then on as we all simply laid still. I let my attention run over the various points of my body which hurt in whatever delightful way they could, taking a more detailed list of what I had done to myself. Judging by the way I'd moved when I'd got angry and how the pains I had at present were more annoyance that bone shattering agony, I mustn't have been that badly damaged in the fight. Yay team.

  It was roughly another hour of silence as different medical types flitted in and out, before anyone I knew came in and thankfully it was Mike.

  He moved quickly but steadily across the room, bowing his respect to The Elder and Andrea as he went. Leatherpants seemed to take his signal of deference to The Elder as somehow being aimed at him as well. That man was taking smug to another level.

  “How you doing bach?” said Mike as he approached me. He tried his best to keep his tone low but by the reaction from Leatherpants he hadn't kept it low enough. Another example of the outsider Guardian doing his best to corrupt the purity of what The Circle was all about. It was good to see a friendly face though.

  “Just epic Mike. Absolutely epic. Do you know anything about what happened out there?”

  Mike hadn't been involved in the battle. He had remained back at my estate to ensure everything was safe back home. The Head of House in each of the estates is a very powerful magical being and is very useful in any fight but you would leave your own estate open to attack if you send away all of your biggest guns to each and every fight around the world. Those Guardians who are involved in any fighting will leave a very strong force back home which is always led by the Head of House to protect against being caught by a sucker punch. The Circle insisted upon it but that order did seem to make sense.

  “The Elder took power from all of you to bring the wall back up but she was able to use energy from whatever was gathered in the valley as well. She killed everything and used their magical power to rebuild the shield wall. It would appear that you lost a great deal of power but thankfully not too much, hence the long sleep.”

  “Long sleep? How long have I been asleep?” I didn't think that I'd been out that long but you can't help your mind wandering towards the Aliens end of the spectrum. The sound of '57 years' drifted through my head before Mike responded.

  “Three weeks, give or take a day or two. There had been a fear that you had all given too much to the spell The Elder cast and that you'd never come out of it but Mr. Ward was on hand to assuage any fear we had.”

  I looked at him blankly.

  “Mr. Ward?”

  “My counterpoint in the house of The Elder,” responded Mike with a flick of his head towards Leatherpants.

  I nodded my understanding and was quick to realise that I had already lost his real name in favour of the nickname Leatherpants. Don't call him Leatherpants for God’s sake, I reminded myself. Mike continued.

  “He said that you all had a portion of your reservoirs of life power siphoned off to augment what The Elder had done. All you needed to do was rest and build up your strength again.”

  “Sounds OK but just building up my reserves doesn't take three weeks surely. You're making it sound like it was a very matter of fact event but if the three of us have been unconscious here for almost a month, I'm willing to bet that there was nothing simple about it.”

  Mike considered my words but his only response was that
Leatherpants – damn it, Mr. Ward – had given him all of the information and there was no chance of him questioning him. “Indeed, none of the Heads of House for any of the fallen Guardians had been called here until you had woken up. We've all been marooned at our estates waiting on word.” Mike gripped my arm and squeezed gently, showing me that he was glad I was awake and apparently unharmed. That small gesture made me feel good.

  “What about the other people in the valley? What were our causalities like?” I still wanted, well more needed, to know what had happened to all of the other people who had been involved in this latest skirmish.

  Mike straitened and stiffly started to reel off statistics about the fall-out from the battle. There had been a total loss of one hundred and thirty three people from the shared force, four of which had been people who had come from my house. I listened intently to the names as Mike ran through who was no longer with us and I felt a confusing surge of happiness as there was no mention of Mark amongst the fallen. There was at least that small comfort amongst the death. The four who had fallen were only barely known to me. I thought that I recognized one of the names but I couldn't be sure.

  “The troops swept through the valley after The Elder had finished her working and there was no sign of any of the beetle creatures, the Tayne or anything else. You were picked up and transported here as fast we could. There hasn’t been any further activity from The Hive here or anywhere else, since.” Mike was still standing at my bedside but now that he had recounted the story he seemed to relax and was practically sat next to me on the mattress.

  I mulled over the details he had given me and tried my best to put them into some kind of order. The Elder had managed to sweep in at the last possible minute and save the day, we had experienced a large loss of personnel but we could have been hit a great deal harder, the shield wall was solidly in place and the prison we all guarded was still intact. All things considered, this was a good win in comparison to what we had seen before. This was the first battle in long enough to count where a Guardian Dragon hadn't died. Whatever else had happened, The Elder had made sure that there wasn't going to be further need to perform the Awakening ceremony to call a new Guardian, and so she had done well.