CHAPTER 92: THE RITUAL (6)

"Everyone alright?" Sylara asked. "I should have probably warned you earlier."

"I’m okay." Isara rubbed her eyes. "What was that?"

"The end of the ritual - and the reason I put up the protections and wards in the first place, if I didn’t the explosion would level this entire building, and a pillar of fire would reach the sky announcing to everyone Calen’s existence."

"Good call..." She moved closer to the circle. "How long before he wakes up?"

Calen was currently floating mid air with closed eyes - the agony of the ritual was absent from his face, but so was any other expression, giving no indication as to what he was experiencing now.

All in all he didn’t look much different than before the ritual, except one thing - in the place where his heart was, a subtle glow emanated from beneath the clothes, pulsating in the rhythm of his heartbeat.

What was even more puzzling was the behaviour of the flames in braziers - they calmly raised and fell, imitating the unconscious Flamebearer’s breathing.

"To be honest I’m not entirely sure, he went through ritual much quicker than anyone before him, and I can’t say whether it will shorten or extend the recovery time."

"What about Auren? Didn’t the flames hurt him?"

"You can check yourself." Sylara motioned at the place where they have left the wyrm.

There he was - a ball of black scales, sleeping soundly as if nothing happened. Although now that Isara looked at him, something did happen: the wyrm grew significantly, the previously cat-sized reptile was now bigger than most dogs, and his scales carried a hind of gold at the end.

Additionally, on his head a small pair of horns was now visible.

"He’s not quite a legendary beast yet, and won’t be for a while longer, but now he should be able to at least help you in combat." Sylara commented.

"Why the hell did he grow so much?"

"He’s an elemental creature, his source element cannot harm him, but will nourish him instead."

"What do we do now?" Cassian questioned.

"We wait." Sylara snapped her fingers and four chair made of wood suddenly grew out of the floor. "It’s still early afternoon and the celebrations don’t start until dusk, hopefully Calen will wake up before that."

"And if he doesn’t?"

"Then you’re welcome to stay here and keep him company instead of going to the festival, but unfortunately I have a speech to give during the opening ceremony."

Cassian nodded, and sat in one of the chairs - the rest followed his example.

There was nothing they could do but wait.

***

Calen found himself in the dark void where he met the Guardians and the golden figure once more - the only notable difference was that he had his body from the very beginning, and was fully in control of his own actions.

He tried to move - it was difficult but doable, sort of like walking underwater at a significant depth.

When he looked back he noticed that his footsteps were marked in a mix of gold, red, orange and white, making them look like miniature lakes of lava.

"Strange." He said, and then froze.

He wasn’t expecting that he would be able to speak - either something was different about him or the space around him.

"You are the one who changed." A melodic, layered voice came from his left.

Just as he expected, there they were - the golden figure who bestowed all those strange dreams upon him.

Or well, that’s what he assumed the figure was, because they changed as well. Their silhouette was no longer vague and muddled, their flesh no longer like molten gold.

The person standing in front of him was rather androgynous in terms of body build, but appeared a bit more masculine because of their perfectly sculpted muscles. If Calen had to compare them to something, he would say that they looked like one of the drawings depicting a theoretical human - flawless, yet somehow creepy and uncanny.

He still couldn’t make out the face though - the features were definitely there, but for some reason his brain couldn’t register them.

"What do you mean?" He asked. "Is it because of the ritual?"

"You now bear the flame properly, and can exist in this space more freely than before." The figure circled around, inspecting him as if he was a result of a particularly interesting experiment. "Your choices are different from what I expected, but it is of no consequence - you are ultimately just a permutation, and the end result will be predictable."

"I have no idea what you’re talking about." Calen raised an eyebrow. "Would you at least consider introducing yourself?"

"No." The perfect human responded coldly. "I have already interfered too much by talking to you, my identity would influence the outcome even further."

"Then would you at least tell me where are we?"

"This is a theoretical space used by spirits to communicate, mortals can also enter it briefly, but they will not retain most of the information from their time here." The figure’s head snapped to the right and its whole body tensed. "We’re done here."

"What? But I barely-"

Calen felt an invisible hand yank his collar, and drag him back to the spot where he entered this place.

There was a flash of light, and he suddenly found himself somewhere else entirely.

***

"What the...?" Calen felt extremely confused by his current state- he is was back at the ritual site, but for some reason he was levitating a good meter off the ground.

"Cal!" Isara yelled. "You’re awake!"

All of his companions jumped to their feet and ran closer to the ritual circle.

"Good to see you too..." He paused. "Does anyone know how do I stop floating?"

"Extinguish the flames in the braziers, it’s their doing." Sylara instructed.

Previously he wouldn’t be able to control a flame from a distance, but the ritual was supposed to improve his control - why shouldn’t he try?

He closed his eyes and was about to send a mental command, but before he could he fell and landed on his ass.

"What the hell...?" He stood up and massaged his backside. "I haven’t even done anything!"

"You did." Sylara chuckled. "Previously you had to order the flame, tell it what to do directly - but that is a thing of the past, now it is a part of you and will act to fullfil your will without any need for instructions."

"It will act on its own?" He frowned.

"Maybe I phrased that badly, it will act as an additional limb from now on - you do not think about moving your arm, but you do have command over it - does that make sense?"

Calen opened his palm, and a small sphere of multicoloured flame appeared instantly.

"I think so..." He nodded and then looked Sylara directly in the eye. "I met them again."

Her eyes hardened.

"While you were unconscious?"

Calen nodded.

"Did they say anything important? Did they show you another memory?"

"I didn’t understand most of what they said, and no I haven’t seen anything more this time." It wasn’t technically a lie - there was no new memory, he just conviniently didn’t mention that he did see two more since the first one.

It’s not that he didn’t trust Sylara, but he felt that those memories were something he should work out on his own, without any outside biases.

"Um, what are you talking about?" Isara interjected.

"Ah shit, I didn’t tell you all." Calen cringed a little. "The initial reaction of the Guardians kinda freaked me out and I forgot."

He quickly explained the golden figure and the strange memory to his companion.

"While normally I would be pissed off about you keeping secrets from me, I think I’ll let you off the hook this time."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean it would be nice if you told us right away, but since you know virtually nothing about this figure and it doesn’t really change our objective, it’s kinda irrelevant."

"Thanks." Calen smiled. "How long was I out anyway? It felt like I was only there for a few minutes."

"It’s been roughly three hours since the ritual ended, if you’re feeling well we still have plenty of time before the festival."

"Good, because I still have a few questions." He turned to Sylara. "The figure said that the empty space where you first contacted me was a dimension used by spirits to communicate, is that true?"

"It’s an oversimplification, but yes, that was its main purpose when it was still being used."

"Is that what you are then? A spirit?" He questioned.

Sylara sat back in her chair and sighed.

"Are you sure you want to know the answer to this question? If I start explaining this, I will have to discuss other topics that might weigh heavily on your mind - perhaps it would be best if you wait until after the festival for the answers."

"I’ll live with whatever you tell me - you promised answers, and I want them."

"Very well then." She summoned another chair for him. "Sit down, this is one is quite long..."