Eleven's Ghost

Chapter 8: Air balloons

“Zultan and Yayis followed me. I didn’t expect them to do that, but they did. Then, a sandstorm started suddenly, and we got lost. We walked for hours, trying to find the way back. We couldn’t. It was a desert, endless, a sea of sand. We decided to look for the border instead. We walked for days, and… we reached the orange zone. Then, strange portals appeared from the sky, and it seemed like it was shredding. It was terrifying. Giants appeared from the sky. They had human faces just like us, but they were so big. They were over thirty meters or even more. Then, Zultan became strange. He had golden light and strange veins all over his body. He seemed tired, but he fought anyway.”

Shams traced the veins on his arms. “Yayis became weird too. His hair shined and burned like red fire, and he had a big red sword. No human could craft that sword. It was straight out of this world. Zultan then summoned flying fish and… strange animals. Yayis stood by my side and guarded me from potential attacks. There were about ten titans in total. Then, that yellow-haired appeared and he had another green-haired woman with him. They… They stabbed Zultan and took him! Before I could react, Yayis took me away, and he had red feathery wings.”

Shams took a deep breath and sat down. “What I saw that day was beyond any technology humans can ever reach. It was otherworldly, truly.” He glanced at Un. “Then, you summoned that strange blue thing, and it removed something from my body. I don’t understand what happened, but now I feel like… I’m not as interested in Sirkus. They don’t impress me anymore. I’m not worshipping them anymore. Maybe seeing the real world and seeing those big trees made me realize that the world is much bigger than Sirkus. There is much more to discover. I don’t know…”

Un smiled sadly. “It’s amazing that you realized all of this at the age of fourteen.” She sighed. “It’s time for the truth.”

Shams’s eyes widened slowly as blue veins extended along Un’s body and started shining. A blue circle appeared under her feet, and blue dragon came out of it. He gasped and fell to his knees. Her eyes were entirely blue. Her gaze softened. “Did Zultan do something like this?”

“Exactly… like this!” He leaned backwards, afraid of her light. “What is this?!”

“This is indeed out of this world.” She knelt in front of him and patted his head. “It’s something you can only learn in the circus academy.”

He frowned. “Circus academy?! Wait… This is familiar.”

He looked away. “Do you mean… the place you wanted me to join two years ago?”

She nodded. “It’s a place where you learn how to practice magic. The minimum age required is fifteen. Once you get there, you will find older people, people who are hundreds of years old. The headquarters of Sirkus is not on Earth. You can call it a galactic or universal circus. It’s difficult to pinpoint where their headquarters are because it’s a constantly moving planet. It moves much faster than other planets. The academy is on this planet too. The students of this academy have a rank system, and the higher their rank, the better the prerogatives they get.”

“But… If you… If you can use this power, it means you… You went there? You studied there?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“Not only her.” A woman walked towards them, her veins shining red. She smiled at them. “All ten village chiefs and their leader studied there and came back here for permanent settlement.”

A phoenix was flying around her. “We are fully human. All eleven of us.”

The nine others stood in front of Shams.

“And we chose you to go represent the human race in the upcoming auditions,” the woman spoke again.

Shams gazed at their colourful lights with round eyes. “Wait… This is… too… sudden.”

“Space is much darker than you think,” a man spoke, adjusting his moustache. A pink light was escaping from his body, and peacock feathers fell on the floor as he walked. “Young man, you seem very resolved to save your friend. We know for sure that he’s in the circus headquarters. Are you ready to go?”

Shams frowned and stood up, his despair fading into determination. “I will do whatever it takes to bring them back. I will make Sirkus pay back.”

The woman in red nodded. “That’s the spirit. You’re a good boy.” She paused. “Well, first, let’s go back to the citadel. We must make proper introductions.”

They walked until the thick trees revealed vast grasslands and plains that extended as far as their eyes could see. The blue sky stretched above their heads, white clouds passing by peacefully. Shams closed his eyes, taking a deep breath of the pure blowing wind.

“The rain moved beyond the forest. It’s raining on the rest of the desert. It’s like…” The woman in red narrowed her eyes. “It’s like someone is moving it on purpose so the sand is removed.”

“Maybe there is a power that is far beyond our reach.” Un gazed up at the blue sky, and the soft wind brushed her long brown hair. “Maybe this person has been watching us this whole time… and we had no idea.”

“We’re like babies in this new world.” Telata spoke. “We’re not used to living in so much space, and we don’t know what to do with it.” She touched a red flower, careful not to pick it. “Everything seems so delicate yet so essential. We don’t know the use of most of these things.”

“Wait…” Shams glanced at them. “Did you all hear what I said to Un?”

They nodded. “We were eavesdropping.”

He pouted. “So why are you not surprised by anything I said?”

The woman in red shrugged. “We already know that Yayis is a jinn. We know about Sirkus. The only thing we don’t know yet are those giants. I have personally seen a few people using giants as familiars. They don’t usually roam freely.”

Telata nodded. “That means someone was targeting Zultan, and he used his familiars. It’s not about being in an orange zone. It would have happened even if you stayed in the green zone.”

“But they didn’t appear like… from under the feet of someone like you did.”

“That form of summoning,” a woman in green spoke, “Is very basic. It’s the easiest summoning. Advanced summoning requires a lot of effort, and naturally, it requires either a miracle or abandoning your humanity altogether. The ten of us chose to keep our humanity, but our ranks remained low in comparison to other people in the academy. We don’t mind though. We will always be human and defend the human race. That’s the oath we took before the king. There are so few of us left. We only have one another.”

Shams frowned. “But these actions… It sounds like you’re–”

“SHAMS!” He heard someone screaming his name from above. Looking up, his eyes widened, seeing several colourful air balloons. His jaw dropped. “What’s… that?!”