by Jae Vogel
In the elaborate version of the story, Hades had two horses shot out from under him by the guapos who vowed to bring him back to the Padron’s justice and restore his family honor. Under the light of the full moon, he’d crawled across the barren lands outside a remote town near Savona where he happened on the lone cantina. Once inside he was forced to use his charms and impress a mere kitchen maid who worked there. She hid him in the basement for the night until the gunmen from Don Gordo had passed by and no longer searched for him. From there he returned to Ohio and soon had the restaurant up and running, he paid coyotes at the border tenfold the money they usually received to smuggle people across the Rio Grande to bring her to El Norte. He celebrated her arrival with a huge wedding where peace was declared between the various factions in her town. Even Don Gordo was so impressed he called off his guapos.
If you lingered around the restaurant long enough, after Hades left for the day, the help might tell you their version of the story. They would tell you how he found the cantina design in a comic book and used it as the front piece for his restaurant. His lovely senora wife was from Albuquerque and her family had lived there six generations. Far from being a lowly kitchen maid, her father owned the largest grocery store in town and she’d attended private schools until leaving for college. Mr. Hades was forced to promise his future father in law many grandchildren before he would even consider the marriage. They had three children who worked in the family restaurant, two more at home and another one on the way.
Michael Hades was out arranging the menu display when Dion walked up to him with his friends. The other three hung back as they knew this was a private affair between him and Hades.
“Hello, Mr. Hades,” he announced himself to the restaurant owner. “I’m Dion. I’ve been trying to reach you all day.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you, Dion,” Hades spoke to him. “So is it true your uncle had you create this entire mall at night by levitating blocks of stone from the big quarry in Scipio?”
“If I could do that, Mr. Hades,” Dion said, “I wouldn’t need to come and see you about obtaining full authority for the power of the fourth element.”
“I see. So where do you come from?” He placed both hands on his hips and tried to look the part of an elemental grandmaster, although it was difficult as he wore a white apron and a chef’s hat.
“California, sir. My parents were abducted by my uncle who owns this mall and are held prisoner inside the clock tower. Only I can rescue them.”
“Why is it only you who can rescue them?”
“I will have all four elemental powers should you decide to grant the last one to me. I have possessed the ability to manipulate all four elements since I was a young child, but nothing I ever did had much power. Until I met the other elemental grandmasters, I could only make small things do casual manipulations. Now I have full authority over the first three elements and I will have the fourth with your approval.”
“And with these four elemental powers you will be able to free your parents?”
“No, sir. I need the fifth element to free them. I can only gain the fifth elemental power by entering the clock tower where they are held. But to do that I need all four elemental powers.”
“I see. And where is this fifth elemental grandmaster you hope to find? In the clock tower I assume?”
“No one knows. It is so rare anyone masters the fifth element that few people even know there is a fifth element grandmaster. My uncle gained the power of the fifth element when he by-passed the other four. All he knows is the fifth element. If there is a fifth element grandmaster, he or she will have power over the aether and the abyss. I will have to find him or her inside that clock tower before I can locate my parents.”
“But what if he or she isn’t in the clock tower?”
“Where else would that person be?” Dion asked him. “My uncle lured the other four elemental grandmasters to this mall so he could trap me. He must have the fifth one concealed inside the tower too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has the fifth elemental master trapped in it too.”
“Well and good, Master Dion,” Michael Hades said. “But we must attend to these matters in private. It’s not a good idea to talk about them in front of the uninitiated.”
“I agree, sir. Give me a few minutes to talk to my friends.”
Dion walked over to the other three. “This should only take an hour,” he told them. “Just wait out here, my uncle won’t dare to try anything while I’m inside with the Fire Grandmaster.”
Lilly put her arms around him and gave Dion a big hug. “You come back to me safe!” she whispered to him.
“Don’t worry. I will.”
Dion walked back and vanished inside the restaurant with Hades. Lilly stood and watched him go. When he was inside the restaurant, she turned to Emily. “He wants to marry me,” she said.
“What? That’s wonderful! We can make it a double wedding.”
“That was Dion’s idea too,” she told her, tears streaming from her eyes.
Dion followed the restaurant owner through his chili parlor as they headed for the back office to complete the interview. He stopped at a young man about Dion’s age and spoke a few words in Spanish to him.
They continued on down the restaurant.
“That was my oldest boy,” he explained to Dion. “I told him to leave us alone for an hour as I have some important business to attend. He favors his mother in temperament, but I think someday he’ll be a good fire manipulator someday. It takes time, as you well know. But right now, I have him to the point where he can summon some lesser fire elementals and they’ll roast an entire slab of lamb in the kitchen. Saves a fortune on gas bills.”
Hades opened the door in front of them and allowed Dion to enter his office in front of him. He turned on the light and allowed Dion a chance to see what was inside the office while he locked the door from the inside.
“Take the seat in front of the others,” he instructed Dion. Dion walked over to the single chair situated in the middle of the room and seated himself.
In front of him were the other elemental grandmasters. He’d met each one over the past few days and obtained the full elemental powers from each one. Today he hoped to obtain the fourth one.
“Welcome, Dion,” the pharmacist said to him who gave him his first elemental power, that of earth. “We’ve waited for you today. None of us worried you wouldn’t make it this far, we’ve been very impressed by your performance. But we need to see a final demonstration of your new abilities before we can allow Mr. Hades to give you the full fire elemental power.”
“There is a reason the final elemental power we can bestow on you is fire,” the hobby storeowner announced. “It is the most dangerous of the four. We cannot allow you to have this ability unless we are certain you will use it to establish balance in this reality. We cannot give the ability to set the world on fire to the wrong person.”
Dion sat in the chair and nodded.
“In order to allow Mr. Hades to give you this ability,” the woman who owned the pool supply shop told him, “you must show us what you can do with the talents bestowed on you so far.”
“Note that there are four basins in front of you,” Michael Hades told him. “The first has earth in it, the second has water, and the third is empty as you have plenty of air in the room to work with. The fourth and final one we will tell you about if you satisfy us with the first three. We want to see what you can do with the first three basins, before we proceed.”
“I understand,” Dion said. “Give me some time and I will do what I can.”
Dion sat in the office before the four grandmasters and closed his eyes. This was the final test of sorts. He needed to prove his good intentions before they would allow him the fourth power. Sitting here in front of them in this small restaurant office was not quite as glamorous as the storybooks would have it, but he’d come far to obtain this fourth ability. His parents were dependent on him and he needed to get t
hem out of the tower.
Dion concentrated hard. There came a grinding sound from the first tray and as cloud of dust began to rise from it. Soon, the dust condensed into the figure of an animal. The animal was visible as a bull, the same one that Dion kept running into, since he contacted the same earth spirits that were originally trapped in the bull to animate it. They created a bull made out of clay, which, due to the small amount of dirt, was life size, but hardly weighed anything. The bull walked out of the tray looked around the office, bowed to the grandmasters, turned to Dion, bowed to him, and then returned to the tray. Once it reached the tray, it returned to its form as a cloud of dust and descended into it. There were no dust particles anywhere in the office after it settled into the tray.
“Very nice,” The pool storeowner said to him. “Now let’s see what you can do with the tray of water.”
Once more, Dion closed his eyes and concentrated. All he could think about was the water Naiads and how innocent they seemed. Of all the elementals he’d encountered in his time at the mall, they had been the easiest to work with. The Naiad sisters were so sweet, it made you wonder why humanity had to come in existence and ruin everything. They weren’t as innocent as they seemed; no sentient being could be clueless and survive in the reality that was Earth. He worried that the chess club would have more than it could handle adjusting them to the ways of the world. But to see the Naiads in their human form choose one boy after another was something he could be proud of all his life.
As Dion thought about the innocent water nymphs, one of them suddenly appeared on the edge of the tray. The water stirred and from it raised a beautiful young woman covered by her long hair. She looked around as she surfaced from the tray and laughed. It didn’t make sense; there was very little water it the tray, but it was all the elemental needed to bring itself forth. Dion recognized the form of Cynae who turned to him and giggled. She blew him a kiss and vanished beneath the still water in the tray.
“Now that was something else,” the hobby storeowner said to him. “I heard about those girls. I can’t believe they live over in the creek now.”
Dion wanted to tell him that they wouldn’t be there much longer, but it was time to work his abilities on the final tray for which he had full elemental abilities. He closed his eyes and concentrated once more. There were a few sylphs in the room, they were always about if you knew where to find them. They were very easy to work and Dion had a few of them start up right away. They liked to help him whenever there was an opportunity.
A breeze began to move around the room. Soon it turned into a light wind. Dion was able to get the sylphs to stop the air currents at this point because he didn’t want a hurricane unleashed in the restaurant office. The wind slowly died down and then it was calm again. There was no need to do anything elaborate with the sylphs as they could be counted on to make the air move. To create a humanoid sylph would be a waste of talent and energy and his judges would not look favorably on it.
“Pretty good wind, son,” Michael Hades noted. He still wore his apron and chef’s hat. The wind had not blown it off his head. “Now if you will excuse us, please step outside the room we need to talk about a few things.”
Dion stepped up from his chair, went to the door, unlocked it and let himself out into the dining area. He shut the door behind him. Now would be the time to render an opinion. All he had to do was stand there and wait.
Very few people were in this part of the restaurant. Hade’s staff must’ve been informed to keep it free and away from interference.
Dion stood in silence and waited. There was nothing else he could do. He hoped his demonstration of his ability and his performance would make the grandmasters look favorably on his quest. But he wouldn’t know until they made up their minds.
He waited for a good fifteen minutes until the door opened and the face of the pharmacy owner peered out at him. “You can come back in, Dion.”
Dion stepped back into the room and locked the door behind him. The pharmacist was back in her chair and he realized they wanted him to sit back in the one where he’d sat before. Dion walked back over to his chair and seated himself.
“We have carefully considered your actions this week,” Michael Hades began. “There were some concerns about the flooding of the parking lot. We were also worried about the casual use of an earth elemental in the plastic bull in front of so many people, but the situation did warrant the use. Therefore, we have decided to award you the full abilities of the fire elemental. Stand up, Master Dion!”
Dion stood up in his chair as the others did the same.
Michael Hades walked over and took him by the hand. “Do you swear by the Master of Time not to use this ability for personal gain or to accept monetary payment for the gift which is about to be granted you?”
“I do,” Dion replied.
“Do you swear to use your skills to provide aid and comfort to those who need it?”
“I do.”
“Do you swear to use your talents to fight evil in all its forms?”
“I do.”
“Then make the fire in the final tray dance.”
Dion closed his eyes and brought out the smallest fire elemental he could find inside the last tray. It was metal, so there was on danger of it burning through to the floor. He noted the tray was placed on top of a stone platform. The wood burst into flame and Dion made certain there would be as little smoke as possible from the burning wood. He allowed the flame creature on top of it to dance all over the burning wood, which he kept at a temperature so hot it was reduced to ash in seconds. A few minutes later, the flame was gone and the small fire elemental with it.
“I hereby proclaim you a master of the fire element,” Michael Hades said. He gestured back at the chair. “Please sit down. And don’t worry, I’ll sign the forms today and you’ll get your copy in the mail next week.”
“Have you thought about what to do with your abilities from here on out?” the pharmacist asked Dion.
“My first order of business is to penetrate into the clock tower tomorrow and rescue my parents. I need to obtain the fifth and final element to do that. What can you tell me about the fifth element grandmaster?”
“She vanished into the tower the moment it was built,” the hobby storeowner told him. “No one has heard anything from her since she was lured into the tower soon after it was completed. If you go in there after her, be careful. None of us knows what is inside that tower. All we know is that your uncle had it completed first and according to his personal plans, which are long vanished. But we do know she is still inside. We don’t know anything about her situation.”
“You haven’t told me anything about the fifth element grandmaster,” Dion said to them. “You sit there and talk about her, but I have no clue who she is.”
“Her name is Mary Phologostron,” the pharmacist said. “She ran a travel agency, but she turned down every attempt your uncle fielded to get her to relocate her office from Scipio to the mall. A few months ago, he lured her into the clock tower on the pretext of a meeting to discuss travel plans for his employees. This is the last we have seen of her.”
“What does she look like?” Dion asked. “It would be helpful if I have some idea who I’ll need to find in this place.”
“She’s a white lady,” the pharmacist told him. “About thirty years of age. She wears horn rim glasses and is of medium build. Nothing special about her. She has long black hair if this helps you.”
“At least I’ll not be trying to find a bald man in his fifties,” Dion told them.
“This meeting needs to be adjourned,” Hades announced as he stood up from his chair. “I have a business to run and I’m sure the rest of you are in a similar situation.”
The grandmasters shook Dion’s hand and welcomed him to their ranks. In a way he was about to become a grandmaster himself, should he could obtain the powers of the fifth element. The title was more of a courtesy than anything else.
His friends k
new what had taken place the moment he met them outside the restaurant. Lilly had a look of relief on her face. Both Emily and Sean congratulated him by pumping his hand and slapping him on the back.
“Where to now?” Sean asked him. “You have all four powers. Will you try and get the final one today?”
“No, too much to do before I try to enter that tower. We need to get back home now that I’ve fulfilled today’s objective.”
“I think we might have to put a delay on that,” Sean said. “Look who’s back in action.”
The grey suited security guards poured down the grand concourse in their direction. This time they didn’t even bother to try to act as if they were in the mall on official business. They pushed people out of the way and marched in step toward them until they reached Dion and company. The grey security guard fire elementals surrounded them and glared in anger at the four young people who stood in the concourse.
“We found them,” the elemental who appeared to be the leader of the pack said. “Your little trick sent them into another circle of time and it took us a long time to get them back. We just cut a deal with the man who owns this mall. All four of you are to come with us this very minute.”
“We aren’t going anywhere,” Dion made clear. He looked at the crowd of security guards who surrounded him and smiled. They had no idea he’d been awarded full fire elemental powers.
“I think you will,” the salamander said and the air began to heat up around them. Dion could feel the subtle energy shift from the salamanders in human form into the air.
Dion raised his hands and the room became cooler. Much cooler. Soon the atmosphere in the room was back to normal and the salamanders stood there in amazement.
“Do you understand now?” he said to them. “It doesn’t matter what kind or form of deal you have made with my uncle. I have the full powers of the fourth element and can bind you in any way I choose. Now why don’t you just leave before I find some volcano to send you into for the next ten thousand years?”