The Golden Globes of Light: Part Twelve

     It took her several weeks to recover from the time she had overworked herself, but we enjoyed them as much as we could. After storing all the items we had received during our year in Ancient Neopia in Ky’s new chamber, the door was installed and our work on the Citadel was almost complete. We still had one task to do; relinquish most of our power to the golden globe that was to become the Orb of Darigan. Ky explained it like this; “We are an anomaly, Shriek. The wizarding class of spell-casters doesn’t exist in modern Neopia except in a few very powerful faeries. We don’t need all of this power, but the Orb is destined to play a major role in Neopian history.”

     When Ky was fully recovered, we all gathered together and collected a great deal of our powers within the Orb. Unlike the spell cast in the Desert of Roo, I didn’t feel drained, just... relaxed. As if a great responsibility were being taken from me. The process still left me tired, and we had to take another few weeks of rest. When Ky came and told us it was time to go, I was more than ready to go home. Home... We tramped down to the Door of the Founders and placed our hands in the middle of the circle of stones. The portal began to light up, and a familiar scene slowly emerged...

     ****************

     A Mynci cried out in joy and stretched out his hand. Suddenly, we were being pulled through the door, and landed on top of Master Darzul Vex in a heap of arms, legs, wings, and tails.

     “You have returned! By the Founders... You are the Founders! We thought you would never get out of there... You have been gone for days...” Celestial shouted, gathering my sister and her friends up in a hug.

     “Days? But... We spent more than a year in there...” Ky said weakly. “Such a long year it was, too...”

     Lord Draconis Darigan and General Galgarrath both gave her a stare of disbelief. (Apparently, they had joined Celestial and Vex during one of the “days” of our absence.) “But you have barely aged at all...” the Grarrl pointed out gruffly.

     Ky looked down at her coat. It was no longer too small for her; it fit her perfectly, just as the moment we entered Ancient Neopia. “No one is ever going to believe this,” she moaned.

     Vex raised a scarred eyebrow and looked over at Lord Darigan. “I think it is time to hold a Council meeting...”

     We held the meeting then and there. After learning that the Citadel Council had seen the major points of our journey, all that was left was to answer a few questions.

     “By the way, what did... They... have to do with this?” Kassiel coughed, pointing to the three cracked stones on the door.

     Ky sighed. “Amber... she was Ambition, even when she met us. Avery was better known as Avarice, or Greed. Pat is known as Payback or Revenge. They were always out to cause chaos,” she said flatly.

     “And what of Myra?” Lilly added. “She was the odd one out the entire time. Apparently she escaped over the mountains.”

     “Yes, she did escape Fyora’s wrath... at first,” Ky snorted. “The Darkest Faerie couldn’t keep out of the betrayal of Altador, and we all know what happened to her.”

     “There is something I don’t understand. If you made the Orb, then why didn’t it work the second time around? Why did it explode and then, after escaping the explosion in one piece, decide to split in half?” Galgarrath frowned.

     Ky sighed. “There was a third orb,” she said softly. We all gave exclamations of disbelief, and she held out her wings in protest. “Amber and her cohorts created a third orb to encase the second one I made. This orb was corrupt, and caused many terrible things to happen. It aroused greed and a thirst for destruction, and served as a channel between their realm and this realm. When it exploded, the true orb was revealed. However, the orb was... confused is the best way to describe it.” She frowned at Alex, who looked away. “You see, Alex contributed something else in addition to her extra powers to the Orb; she also imbibed it with a desire to serve Meridell. When the Orb was being claimed by both the Citadel and Meridell, it could not take the stress and cracked into two halves.”

     An awkward silence overtook the hallway, and Master Vex skillfully changed the subject. “Technically, the six of you are part of the Citadel Council,” he pointed out.

     Ashiel laughed, and the rest of us had to join in. I wiped away some tears of mirth and grinned at the one Mynci I had been determined to avoid. “Master Vex, I have wanted to get home for a year now. Now we are home. I don’t think any of us care to have the responsibilities of a Citadel Council member. All I want is to join the Eyrie Guard with Ashiel and Kassiel.”

     “I have a tea house to run,” Lilly added sheepishly. “Even though The Shenkuu Tea House is mostly inactive at the moment, we still have customers. I have a duty as a staff member.”

     Alex grinned. “I doubt your people will appreciate a Meridell Knight on your ruling Council. Besides, Lilly isn’t the only one who has duties. I get a new assignment every few weeks. I wouldn’t be able to be of any help.”

     We all looked at Ky expectantly, and she sighed. “As much as the idea tempts me, I don’t think I would enjoy it after a while. Even though we gave up most of our powers to create the Orb of Darigan, we still have a portion of it left. It won’t be apparent except in extreme circumstances, but the training will still be with us. I have finally learned to control my wild imagination and inspirations. I would like to become a Citadel historian.”

     “You will all still have the honorary titles of ‘Lord’ or ‘Lady’, you know. Once you get on the Citadel Council, you never truly leave it,” Vex said with a wry grin.

     Celestial appeared to be deep in thought. “Does this mean you are going to publish an account of your adventures?” she asked suddenly.

     Ky’s answer surprised all of us. “No, I am only going to be doing the proofreading. Shriek is the one that will be writing it.”

     “WHAT?!” I squawked. “I can’t do that! Besides, I have a paper to write! I have to finish my essay!”

     “Then include it in your essay!” Ky retorted. “You are the only one that can read Kayannin script,” she added, shoving the book Faelinn had given to me in my face. It was the same one as the one she had found in the Darigan libraries, the one with the picture of her door in it.

     “I can’t include it in my essay. The essay is about the history of the Citadel. No one will believe a word I write if I include it in my essay,” I countered. I was annoyed to see that everyone other than the two of us found our argument immensely entertaining.

     “Then you will just have to write another story focused entirely around the adventure,” Ky said with a note of finality.

     I groaned. “But there is so much to tell!” I whined. “I’ll never fit it all into a short story.”

     “You won’t be writing a short story. You will be writing a multiseries,” Ky said calmly, as if she were reading out a recipe. “Knowing your obsession with symbols, it will be twelve parts long; one for each member of the last Circle of Twelve.”

     “You had better start writing,” Kassiel said with a grin.

     *****************

     It has taken me two years to write this story to Ky’s satisfaction. Since then, she has conducted several interviews with Citadel Council members and written their stories. She kept hinting at this story at the end of her submissions so that I would be shamed into hurrying up. But I am not like my sister; I can’t just suddenly write the story out of thin air. I had to use the Kayannin’s record book to reference a great deal of information on what happened, but I still had difficulty finding a way to describe our adventure. At last, however, I have completed it.

     Incidentally, you might be wondering what happened during the few days that we were gone on the Citadel, as well as how General Galgarrath and Lord Darigan found the Door of the Founders without a map... When the six of us we transported back in time, Master Vex tried to remove his dagger because it was what had completed the circuit of faerie magic that allowed the transportation to take place. However, The Three were very angry (to say the least!) that their plans had been foiled, and a backlash of dark faerie magic struck Master Vex on his old scar. The result was not pleasant. He returned to the main part of the dungeons, where General Galgarrath questioned him as to what had happened. After recounting his tale, Master Vex was told to remain in his quarters until further notice, and Galgarrath alerted Lord Darigan. The two followed our tracks to the Door, where they met Celestial and waited for us to return. After a few days had passed, Master Vex was sufficiently recovered and joined them in wait.

     Our adventure was neither believable nor heroic. I spent most of my time pining for home; that is, until I forgot what home was. We opened up the door to Ky’s chamber and found it in the exact state we had left it. Lord Darigan insisted we take our weapons and armor after we declined taking the entire lot. Master Vex has arranged to sell the remaining artifacts to Fyora in order to pay of the Citadel’s war debts. Ky stored her articles in our SDB, and I currently carry my enchanted whip and custom armor with me at all times. (Hey, it is cheaper than buying new Eyrie Guard armor!)

     Alex returned to Meridell and was last seen training some rather unruly squires. Kassiel and Ashiel encouraged me to work overtime to earn the rest of the money for the Lab Ray, and I will start zapping tomorrow. Hopefully, it won’t be long before I become a Darigan Eyrie. I have heard many horror stories regarding that machine, but it can’t be that bad! Well, at any rate, it can’t be worse than running from The Three, the Darkest Faerie, and two of the most powerful wizards that ever existed.

     -Shriekofdoom1-

The End

NM greatly appreciated! A big ty to squirtlecutecute, macana, alex0905, and jenninova. 8D