Chapter 5: The Circle

Darkness crept on Highlands as nightfall owning the night. Magicians loved it. Fires were made and incense burned for the coming of the moons. 

Magicians, both children of demons and angels, displayed their wings and beautiful bodies. No one wore any piece of clothing except their feathers which only covered and made their wings. 

They shone. Every full moon, they made sacrifices to the goddesses and swam on the Lake of Selena. Every full moon, the three moons aligned and that night was sacred as swimming the lake. If they’re lucky, one of them would be chosen. If that happened, it meant that there were coming difficulties, or the gods would join with them to favor them. 

After the Bath, just after midnight, every clan did their ritual to welcome the deities. 

Just as an ordinary night of every Bath, this one particular angel climbed to the hilltop of the Ariums. She was glowing unlike everybody else. Not just that she radiated the brightest, but because her glow was red - she looked on fire. Her feathers were red-orange like the sunset. Though everyone could see her wings, no one could see her face. It was covered by an invisible veil and from afar, anyone could only see her glow and her face was blinding even just to stare.

So, since that night everyone called her the Phoenix. 

The Ariums thought that she’s just an ordinary Magician chosen by the goddesses on one particular night. However, the next night after that, she showed up again. Not just on Ariums’ hilltop but to Zircons’ Coven - then, to each one of the Magical clans.

Fear scattered. Being visited by the Phoenix, the Magicians did not know what it meant. So, they made a transaction. 

“We need to make sure she’ll visit us tonight,” Rex, the Elder Rolvon said. Rolvon was the remaining clan that had never been visited by the Phoenix. 

But the Phoenix did not visit again. Rolvon was confused by this. So they made sacrifices to talk with the deities and give them the signal of what it meant. 

Meanwhile, the Phoenix had been caught by Ariums. This was shown to Rex, being gifted by dreams coming from the deities. They were the seers. 

Angered by it, Rex gathered all the Rolvons and created a group to save the Phoenix. The Ariums, however, being the most powerful clan and gifted by playing the minds of its captors, made every Rolvons crazy except Rex; he was instructed by the Phoenix how to counteract the Ariums’ madness, capturing a deity. 

Rex went to Arium’s hilltop and he saw the Phoenix held in a cage made of layered imagination. Though it was imagination, Ariums did not do anything to her. However, they made her think she’s dying and gave her the utmost cruelty every deity could imagine dying. 

“What are you doing to her?” Rex asked Robin. “She’s a deity!” 

“We just want to know her purpose for coming down here,” Robin the Arium Elder replied. “Besides, she’s not a deity. She’s just an angel.”

“Can you see her face?”

“No.”

“Good for you,” Rex said. “For you cannot see that she’s one of your kinds.”

“What do you mean?”

“You are in a dream.”

“No, I am not.”

“Yes,” Rex said. “You are.”

Robin tried to shake himself out of his trance and see his reality. However, he could not see it. 

“Your clan is under a spell and now you’ll see how your clan made suicide.” Rex was not lying. For whatever reason, they were still on the hilltop just as the night of the Bath was. “It is impossible!” Rex exclaimed. 

“What is impossible?” the Phoenix asked. 

“What happened?” Rex asked, totally confused by the series of events. “Why did you not visit us?”

She smiled, bringing crimson on her pale cheeks. “I did,” the Phoenix answered, and continued, “. . . as I did to other clans.”

“I don’t understand,” Rex said. 

“I know,” the Phoenix replied. “But in time, you’ll know.” 

He could see her now - bright blue eyes with curly long black hair. Her lips formed a perfect curve of seduction. Divine as ever. 

In front of them, down the hilltop, were the strongest of each clan, drinking from the well.

Several bodies scattered - by the look of it, several days dead. 

Rex did not feel any fear. He felt stronger. He felt emboldened. Next to him was the

Phoenix. Then, down them were several powerful Magicians who survived her gift. 

“Should I also drink?”

“Yes.” 

Rex took a handful of water from the well. It tasted bitter at first, then sweet on his throat.

When it reached his stomach, a tremendous blow hit him. He crawled on all fours, screamed his strongest until he could feel the pain subsided. 

“Who are you?” Rex asked in between gasps. 

“You gave me my name,” she replied. “Of all your realities, I like yours the best.” 

“I don’t understand.” 

“Of course, you don’t,” she replied. “But now, join me and welcome a new world.” 

Everyone bowed. Seeing it, Rex followed. She signaled them to rise and they did. 

“You are the Chosen Ones who can see me in my truest form. You cannot tell anyone who I am except for what you named me to be. You cannot draw and show my true face to anyone. I gave you my mark and those of you who will forget and do what they are not supposed to will burn in my fire. I am the Phoenix. Welcome to my Circle.”

Jason woke up. He was still clutching the unfinished scroll he was studying on the Clans of the Magical Highlands. He had to start training Elena by dawn and his first task was to educate her on the limits and gifts of each clan. He realized that he was still in the library and had not taken supper. No one would wonder though. He’s a traveler - and a man. No one would ask. 

He shook himself out of his trance and walked outside the library. It was already dawn and he had something big to prepare.

"So, tell me once again, how was Los Barrios created?" Jason asked Elena as they crossed the hanging bridge that connected the Dwelling and the Time Palace through the rooftops.

"It was fashioned to the design of the Celestial Palaces as shown to Headmaster Rudolf in a vision," Elena answered. Below them was the Residential Garden and Elena saw some of the resident magicians casting some basic incantation or some, maybe, just daydreaming or traveling. Who knew?

"Indeed," Jason said. "So, tell me. What is the most important palace in the Celestial Palaces?"

"The Dwelling."

"Why is that?"

"Because the deities lived there."

"What's the second most important?"

"Time."

“And why?” 

Elena thought something before answering but it was lost on her. She saw that this weird little girl was watching her down below. She wore a red robe and she had black hair. Though she could see her ponytail, she could not see her face. It was covered with a mask. 

“Because time controls the fragments of our destiny,” she answered him straightly. “Do you see her?” 

“I’m sorry?” Jason stopped from his tracks and looked back at Elena who’s pointing someone down below. Looking in the direction, Jason nodded. 

“What’s with Beth?” he asked. “Well, it’s just probably some bad news in evil Los Barrios.”

Evil Los Barrios was what Magicians called the forest of the Night Children. “It was a full moon last two nights ago and probably there were reported missing persons again or just horrible accidents.”

“I know,” Elena said. “But there was a little girl there. I’m not talking about Beth.”            

“There’s no girl, El,” Jason confirmed. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Elena replied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know,” he asked back. “How about a fever?” 

“Nope,” Elena answered and saw the glint in Jason’s eyes. “Oh, you’re just joking!”

Jason blushed and couldn’t contain it anymore, burst out laughing. “I never heard you’ve been sick,” he waited for Elena to join him walking. “Besides, have you been sick?”

“To be honest,” Elena started. “I couldn’t remember. So what should I learn in the Time Palace, mentor?”

She said it playfully, making him blushed even more. 

“Yes,” Jason started. “The Time Palace in Celestial Palaces had the inner workings, as implied, of time. The Past, the Present, the Future. Like machines, there were calculations on how one’s life had to be fulfilled.”

“So let’s say,” Elena clarified. “It looked like a factory.”

“On the inside, yes,” Jason confirmed. “More like a chemical factory. Have you been in one with humans before?” 

“Several times.” 

“What can you say?” 

“There were machines for each solution - for each solution, a certain formula.” 

“Correct,” Jason applauded. They reached the opening of Los Barrios very own Time Palace. “These machines and formulas are only operated by engineers and scientists who are better equipped for the job. Am I right?”

“Yes,” Elena replied as she stepped in for the first time in that said Palace. There were books scattered on the floor like they had been ransacked. 

“I’m sorry about the place,” Jason apologized. “Time Place, like I said, was maintained by engineers and scientists better equipped. It happened that Time Palace also hid dangerous kinds of stuff and only a time traveler knew about.” 

Elena said nothing. She looked everywhere and though it was not dusty due to magic, one could not deny the smell of long absence. It was magic, very powerful magic surrounding them - unused magic, unused energy that for a long time was waiting to be used and rediscovered. 

“As legend said, no one can confirm it, only a descendant of the Angel of Time could hold and know the limit of this Palace. There were formulas that only the Angel of Time knows. Who better could call their parent’s attention more than their children?”

Elena laughed hard. “Are you serious about that?”

“Absolutely.” 

“Then you cannot hope to find anything from me. I never knew them.”

Jason did not even touch a single scrap of paper nor sit on a chair while Elena enjoyed herself on the shelves of stock volumes on the wall. To her, it was energy calling her, making her alive - oh, it was more than that! She was elevating and she liked it. Very much! 

“Has anyone been here before me?” she asked. 

“Yes,” Jason answered. “However, very unlike you. This place holds strange magic.

Some magicians fear what they don’t understand. And, they should.”

“To you,” Elena said as she picked out a book from the wall. “How do you feel about this place?”

“To be honest,” Jason said. “Strange.” 

“Basics of Time Magic,” Elena read aloud. “Maybe, I should start my training here.” 

“I’m happy you enjoyed today.” 

“It’s more than that,” Elena walked towards him and tugged him on the shoulders. Seconds later, they were on the ground floor of the Palace. 

It looked like a lobby where guests were admitted. All kinds of clocks, small and big, decorated the wall. At the center of the floor was the biggest. Elena wondered what was moving. She thought at first that there was some maintenance going on. But it was impossible. The place was magic itself. A word of it and it would be. There were no workers in the Palace of Los Barrios. Magic was perfected there like a program. Then, when she was fully equipped, she realized it was the second hand on the clock ticking, and then she figured the minute hand and then the hour hand. 

“I thought you could not do that!” Jason exclaimed.

“I never brought anyone in my time travel before,” Elena said, surprised by her new ability. “That’s the first. This place is indeed peculiar.” 

Elena did not know what she must say to Jason. So, she hugged him gently and whispered, “Thank you for bringing me home.”

Elena released him and then once again she saw the little girl with the red robe, standing outside the Palace, watching them. 

The messenger arrived. Lights and breeze flooded the room but no one even took a glance at the messenger. If flashy things got ordinary, it became common. 

“What happened now?” a man sitting on the right side of the table asked the messenger. 

There was a long table in the middle of the room. It was surrounded by 13 seats and 12 of those were placed in pairs opposite to each other. At the head of the long table, there was a chair, crimson-fashioned, worthy of royalty. Indeed, it was a seat of a deity whom each of them saw but could not name. The 12 seats were occupied except for the royal seat. 

“She knows of the Palace now,” the messenger replied. 

“Very good,” the same man remarked. 

“Rex, it’s about time you’ll have to remind her.” 

“No one spoke again. The messenger already disappeared. “Time will come and she’ll remember it. I’ll make sure of it.” 

“How are you sure that the Phoenix approved of that plan?” Robin asked. 

“Rex, we are tired of waiting. How long has it been? We have devoted our entire life to this but look what we are doing. We are doing nothing!” 

“I know that Simon,” Rex answered. “All of us offered our life to the service of the Circle. The Phoenix started it with a cause and we should believe it.” 

“We believe it,” Robin batted in. “But for how long?”

“What do you suggest we’d do?” Rex asked all the members at the long table. 

There was a dead silence. No one spoke again until Rex broke the silence. 

“It would never be easy for us travelers to do these things but we cannot tell her who she is. Her magic is stronger even all of us combined.” 

“The Circle needs her now,” Robin protested. “Without her, Time could never be healed again. The Circle would never succeed in its purpose.

“We are the strongest who the Phoenix had chosen for the task. It’s just as good as telling her that we need her back now. The thread of destiny, with us traveling time without the right purpose and plan, went thinner every day. When it collapses, you all know what will happen.” 

Robin caught all the approval of his colleagues. Indeed, it was dangerous to play with time. But, Rex’s history and connection with the Phoenix made Rex more frightening than Robin’s persuasion. Rex was powerful, indeed, with a very fatal flaw. 

“We’ll wait for her Royalty to come back,” Rex said. 

“If she’s not your lover,” Robin said and continued, “. . . will you stake the entire reality just like what you are doing now?”

Rex’s eyes blazed like never before. Anger burned all the patience he had. Good to know that Tony sat beside him and put a stop to that ticking bomb.

“Brothers and sisters,” Tony started, “Without the Phoenix, all reality’s sake is at our hands. She left all of this trusting in the Circle. What do you expect she’ll do knowing that the most powerful magicians she collected to heal time do not trust her back?”

That brought all attention to the present. Everyone pondered deeply. 

“Great,” Robin said. “We’ll just wait for the last moon to explode.”

“No,” Rex batted in. “She promised to come back. She will.”