by Owen Elgie
It didn’t work.
She folded her arms and stared at me, standing with her weight on one hip.
“You need to pay attention to so many other things as well.” Her Russian accent was both threatening and alluring. I couldn’t have whatever it was that was angering Andrea remain unresolved. Especially as it was on the brink of what was bearing all of the hallmarks of being my final endeavor within The Circle.
“What?” If in doubt, the direct approach. Showing that I’d listened to every word she’d said about the importance of always being more subtle.
“What is it that I did that you’re holding against me? Believe me, I didn’t do it on purpose, whatever it was and I’m really sorry if I’ve offended you.”
She swayed ever so slightly as she listened but by the look on her face now, what I was saying was having a positive effect. Made a change.
I moved closer to her, feeling that the symbolic freeze between us was beginning to abate. She took a step back and scowled at me, the expression whipping upon her face at a terrifying pace.
“We will return to your estate to continue this conversation. There is a great deal that we have to prepare before we commence our journey to reclaim the Drake Stone.” Her voice was oddly loud and booming in the stone tunnel under the pyramid but it left me in no doubt as to the meaning of her tone. Looking into her eyes as she raised her left arm, I could feel the Cascade Bridge crackle into form behind me and the gentle tidal tug of the power within the construct pulled on my senses like a magnet.
Andrea didn’t let me say another word before she strode purposefully past me and through the bridge. I didn’t let her get wholly past me before I turned and walked with her.
The gateway snapped shut behind us.
Walking from the sauna like temperatures of Egypt into the temperature of South Wales, even during what is considered summer-ish, was a shock to say the least. The only way I can describe the sensation is akin to walking into one of those industrial walk in freezers you get in restaurant kitchens. The feeling of walking between rooms of massive temperature differences isn’t something you get a great deal of practice at.
We both walked through the Cascade Bridge together but our reactions were quite different. I felt like I’d been punched in the chest and couldn’t help myself but cough as we stepped back onto the steps of my mansion in Wales. Andrea on the other hand, took in a deep breath of air and there was a level of tension which left her body at the completion of it.
“It feels good to be out of the heat.” Andrea stretched as she spoke and started to form some very interesting forms with her body. I was looking purely with the eye of the personal trainer you understand. You can’t just turn all that training off, you know.
She turned round slowly and faced me. My chest still felt like I had a lead weight pressing down on me and I swear I could feel every single alveoli in my lungs, each of them shocked by the sudden drop in temperature.
“Are you alright?” She asked with genuine concern.
“I’m fine, wasn’t expecting such a huge temperature change that’s all. Took me by surprise.” I smiled/grimaced at her and straightened up, trying to keep everything all business, just like her.
She rolled her eyes at me.
“We are at your estate, yes?” She was at my side.
“Yes.” Looking around we were stood at the top of the stairs by the front door. The door was shut and there was no sign of there being anyone around us.
“Then you can relax.” What followed next was almost as shocking as any other detail which had come out of the day so far, including the frown from The Mage. She lunged forward, wrapping her arms around my neck and hugged me.
I didn’t know what to do.
I’d been thinking all manner of things could take place but that wasn’t one of them.
I was still stood with my mouth open and in a partial hug/poop stance when she snapped away from me, a fraction of a second before the front door to the estate swung open and Mark and the three members of my honour guard from the Mages cavern marched forward and stood to attention, waiting on the word from me.
I looked at Andrea and then back to Mark. She stood casually ready for anything and wore the expression of casual awareness that someone who hadn’t just been hugging would have. Mark and his band of troops just looked like Mark and his band troops, bound in officialdom but utterly lethal.
In the middle of everyone, I carried the aura of the perpetually lost.
“We will be ready shortly my lord. When can we expect the other Guardian and the remainder of our party to arrive?”
“They will all be here shortly.” Everyone just looked at me with the casual blank expressions of those who aren’t aware that there may be anything else going on. Andrea wore the same expression despite herself.
“Have our other guests been given appropriate accommodation?” I was back to the purely business.
“Yes sir, they have. If you would like, I can take you to see the child.”
“Yes please Mark. We’d both like to make sure she is comfortable.”
Andrea just looked straight at Mark but I could feel that familiar tension return in her from next to me. She obviously wasn’t as keen as I was to see Maria.
“Certainly sir. Please, will you follow me? I believe Llewellyn is still with her.” Mark nodded curtly and turned to dismiss the other guards. Andrea and I casually followed him into the house and we made our way through corridor after corridor, into the guest wing to find Maria. I was slightly reassured that my mighty medic was on hand, especially after what he had done for the fallen guard a few days previous.
As we arrived outside the allotted room, I was struck by the memory I had of my stay in this part of the building. Lloyd had let me sleep here before my own Awakening when I was being pulled apart by the power raging inside me. Maria was going through the same thing but she was a small child. The discomfort must have been almost unbearable.
Mark slowly opened the door and stood to attention as both Andrea and I padded inside as quietly as we could.
Mark pulled the door to behind us and there was barely even a click of the lock as it closed.
Llewellyn was trying to hold a damp cloth to her fevered brow but by the look on his face, he had been fighting a losing battle. Our arrival must have been the last straw in terms of him continuing the task so he instead placed the cloth gently down on the table next to the bed and silently eased his way towards us.
“I’m sorry to report my lord and lady, that I am unable to help her condition in any way. All I can suggest is I give her a massive sedative so at least she’ll be able to sleep through what’s happening to her.”
“She’ll be dreaming and she won’t be able to wake up.” I could remember what it felt like.
“But at least her body will have some much needed rest. I’m sorry but it’s all that I have open to me.”
There was no more said between us and Llewellyn left silently, obviously headed for the infirmary to acquire the sedative.
We were alone with her.
Maria was still mainly in the fetal position but she was writhing and squirming on top of the bed. The covers were a distant memory for her and lay strewn in various heaps all over the floor. She was burning up and the droplets of sweat were very clear to see, matting her hair to her forehead and face. The hair plastered to her face did little to hide the expression of agony she was wearing. It gave her sweet features an almost demonic visage, as if the Dragon itself was pushing its way out against the flesh above it.
She grunted and squeaked, barked and wheezed. There was no doubt to anyone that she had to be helped quickly.
We’d both read the details of what had taken place during the gathering in Egypt and of what must be happening to the poor child but seeing the reality of her condition was something no-one could have been prepared for.
Andrea was hovering back by the door as I sat down slowly on the bed next to Maria. I tried to smooth h
er hair back away from her face, attempting to do something that may be able to have some kind of beneficial effect on her, to show even the barest hint of human concern. Looking down at her twisted body, it re-doubled my feelings on the importance of politics. Turning back to face my Guardian colleague, I repeated my stance.
“This is the reason we do what we do. Yes we have to look at the big picture. Yes we have to consider the population of the world in every choice we make but we can’t look beyond the individual.”
Andrea just stared at Maria, her own pained expression suddenly making me feel that I’d pushed too hard. She must feel more about this situation than I’d thought. Her own Awakening possibly?
I stood and joined Andrea by the door. Her eyes didn’t move from Maria as I stood before her but I spoke to her softly anyway.
“We cannot overlook the pain of one person as an irrelevance. Next it becomes two people, then ten and then a hundred. The Hive think like that don’t they? Caring is what makes us who we are. I think that The Circle has forgotten that.”
She looked up and met my eyes. The conflicted expression remained on her face but the barriers which had for so long held back her emotions finally cracked. One tear fell from her left eye. It streaked down her cheek, leaving a trail on her porcelain skin. A second longer, and the water froze to ice and cracked from her face.
She made no attempt to hide it as she spoke to me. “You are a great quandary to me Anthony. I’ve been working with you for some time and there are so many things about you that make no sense at all. You seem to be permanently at odds with the actions of The Circle but you agree with what we’re doing.”
I considered that for a second but she continued before I could interject.
“I have watched you act in the defence of people no-one expects you to and you seem to want to pick a fight with almost every member of The Circle that you have contact with. You are a man of undisciplined thought.”
I frowned at that but let her continue. She seemed to be ready to give me a huge insight into her character and I didn’t want to break the mood.
“Despite everything that you do being an exercise in heart over head, I’ve found that I’ve started to question if you aren’t in fact correct in the way you are choosing what you do.”
My frown was replaced by an expression of confusion.
“What are you saying? That you don’t believe in what we’re doing, you’re doing, or what I’m doing?” On the ball as ever but this needed to have the details spelled out to prevent even the tiniest of misunderstandings.
Andrea continued.
“I mean that I am looking at the actions of The Circle in this case here but also in so many that I have been dealing with over the years and, because of you, I’m starting to question. I’ve been in this life for so long there has just been the knowledge that things just happen in a certain way because they do, that they always have. I’m no longer sure that what you are saying is wrong because you don’t understand who and what we are.”
She stopped and pushed herself away from me, turning her eyes back to Maria as she continued her own struggle.
“I need to be away from here. I can feel so much power coming from the child, it’s making my mind swim. I need to be away from the surrounds of The Circle, just for a short time but I don’t know where to go. Where can we have some space from this?” Her voice was now far from that of the powerful woman I was used to dealing with. She now sounded unsure where previously there had been certainty. She had been forced to really look at the choices being made. And I knew that I had to do my best to resolve her uncertainty. Her admission to me could have highlighted to anyone perfectly, that she, along with all of the members of The Circle, Guardian or otherwise, was just as important an individual as anyone else.
“I’ve got the perfect place” I said and, reaching out my hand behind me, summoned as gentle a Cascade Bridge as I could. The last thing I wanted to do was cause Maria any further pain or to alert anyone in the estate to what was going on. I knew that when Llewellyn returned that he’d just assume that we had made our way to prepare for the quest at hand so we wouldn’t be missed for some time.
I led us both through the construct. As it snapped shut behind us, Andrea looked around trying to gather some kind of understanding of where I’d just jumped us.
“Where are we? I don’t know this place.” Her emotions were hurriedly being brought back under control as she was trying to discover the details.
We were stood in an alleyway between two buildings, bin bags and litter strewn carelessly about. There was a light drizzle of rain falling on us from the bruised sky above but we were being afforded some level of protection from the tall buildings to either side of us. There was the sound of cars drifting on the air and the hustle and bustle of a city was bubbling along under that.
“I’ve brought you to my home.” I smiled and started to walk away from her, aiming to the end of the alley to my left.
“Your home?” Her confusion was almost amusing but I knew she was hurting so kept the chiding to a minimum. She followed behind me as we exited the alley onto the roadway next to the building housing my flat in London.
We made our way round to the front doors of the building and were inside and out of the rain in no time. Both of us were still wearing the rather official ceremonial dress we had been in Egypt. My grey suit and Andrea’s deep green business attire at least didn’t stand out as much as they would have done to anyone in the Egyptian desert but I knew that the building I lived in wasn’t populated by bankers or business people. I knew that my neighbors would be more used to seeing people in jeans rather than business dress and me specifically in sportswear in my day job as a personal trainer.
We were quick to climb the stairs to my flat and I fumbled around behind the name plate next to the door displaying my flat number, hunting out the spare key I’d squirrelled away. Pushing the door open, it swung smoothly until it heaved against the mound of post which had been building up over the intervening weeks. A small mountain of paperwork, letters, flyers, newspapers and other communications were swept aside as my door became the cow-catcher of the flat. I mounded everything up in one spectacular bundle as close to the wall as I could and beckoned for Andrea to come in. As she stepped gingerly over the threshold, her eyes fell to the pile of papers I was stood before. Perfectly framed on the front of a free newspaper was a picture taken from the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, of a red Dragon swooping in on its white enemy, all under the heading proclaiming ‘I’LL PROVE DRAGONS REAL SAYS EXPERT’.
I dropped the last few papers and menus behind the open door and just smiled at her.
Eventually we were inside and I shut the door against the world with as much ceremonial finality as I could muster.
The place smelled musty and there was a gathering of dust at far too many points around the rooms to be healthy. I’d never been the most fastidious cleaner but this was taking things a bit far. I hadn’t managed to come back here following my almost continuous involvement in the fighting in Argentina and the flats appearance was far too clear an indication of it. Looking back into my bedroom as Andrea passed me I could see that my work phone was flashing to say I had messages. Professionally speaking, I think I was in trouble. All I could do was shrug and return my attention to my guest. One catastrophe at a time.
Andrea had walked into the main room of the flat and just stood staring at me, her face a mixture of emotions.
“You don’t like it?”
“Why do you still have this place? Don’t you have enough from the estate in Wales?” She asked the question but she was unsure of what the answer could mean. Taking my jacket off, I casually wandered back into the comfort of my home.
“I kept this place for just this reason. This is my home, my Fortress of Solitude. You said to me that you needed to get away from The Circle for a short time. So do I. I’ll bet that every Guardian feels exactly the same from time to time.”
Andrea nod
ded along with me, understanding what I’d said as it related to me but still fighting with the thought that any of the other Guardians could have ever felt the same way. She even got the Fortress of Solitude comment. Progress?
I lowered myself into the angle of my corner sofa and relaxed back into the comfortably familiar seat. Andrea just stared at me. She needed more explanation.
“This is where I feel like a human being. I lived here for years before the exciting life of The Circle came knocking on my door. I had a life which was mundanely enjoyable. I worked and then relaxed. The toughest thing that I had to be worried about was the mortgage each month or keeping my business going. No-one was trying to kill me every day.”
Andrea considered the detail of what I was saying but it was clear to see that she wasn’t fully understanding what I was trying to get across. She probably didn’t even understand the concept of a mortgage.
Leaning forward out of the sofa, I reached out and took her hand.
“This is where I feel like I’m not a part of The Circle. This is where I feel that I’m not the barer of the power of a Dragon. This is where I’m normal.”
Looking down at her hand and then to me, I could see the change in her posture as she knew that she was within a safe environment. She lunged forward to me and kissed me deeply, passionately.
That second was something that has had songs sung for it. That was the fraction of time you see in films where the object of his desire suddenly breaks from the normal routine and gives, in the most wonderful display of affection, proof that they have been feeling the same way. For a heartbeat I was rendered motionless as a statue, frozen by the sheer surprise of her actions. I could just imagine the expression on my face, all wide eyes and squashed lips. Finally I caught up with what was happening and began to kiss her back. There was no further awkwardness involved in what we were doing, we both just knew what the other was going to do and what they wanted. There was no further thought of anything which may have been between us. The fears and stresses of The Circle were gone and all that mattered was that we were together.