The Dangers of Pomegranate Salad

Chapter 33

Chapter 33 The Circulum.

The Circulum is like a gated community mixed with a college campus.  It is surrounded by a tall brick wall, with metal spikes on the top. There are several different buildings, all looking like a school with a grassy green area with benches and trees in the middle. It doesn’t look much like a magic school, aside from the kids running around using magic; it just looks like a regular old college or high school. In a different area, there are shops and buildings. It looks amazing. Besides that are houses and apartments. And then across from that is a big looking house, which I assume is like a town hall. In the middle of all these buildings is a big park. It has trees everywhere and a playground for kids. Surrounding it is a dirt path, on which I see joggers running along. Behind the shops and houses is a small wooded area.  Haden leads me to Circulum’s headquarters main building, where the leader or The Dux (pronounced dukes) is waiting. The Dux is a man in his early thirty’s, he has dark brown hair, and blue grey eyes; he looks a lot like Haden. He is rather tall, and slim. He looks happy to see me. “Ah! Good! You escaped! We were actually planning a way to rescue you. But I see you did it yourself. How did you escape the effects of the Fay food?” he says quickly. I think there was a question in all of that but I’m not sure what it was. Ok, definitely less like Haden than I had originally thought. “Um….” I say Haden leans over “he wants to know how you escaped” he whispers in my ear. “Oh! Yes, well I found this under water pool with little mer-dragons,” I start “there called Sea Wyrms” says the Dux “oh, well an underwater pool with Sea Wyrms and I fell in. I think the water was magic or something because as soon as I touched it I felt the curse fade away” I explain. “Then after quite a bit of wandering I found a tunnel that led out” I tell him. he nods and then asks “so, you were captured by Gea, right?” he asks “yeah” I say “what did she want with you?” he asks “Um, well, she said I was a vessel of pure power, and so she put another spell on my and so that she could steal it for revenge of some sort” I say. “I don’t know who the revenge is for but that’s what she said she was going to do with it” He nods again “and how did you escape this curse? A Sea Wyrm pool isn’t strong enough to break a Syphon Bind.” he asks me. My face feels hot “um, well, I uh, I haven’t broken it, sir” I say weakly. He looks concerned, well, more than concerned, but I don’t know what to call it exactly, a mix between anger and concern I guess. “You mean you are still connected? You can’t use the power if she has control over it” he explains. “Oh, yeah, she mentioned something about that” I say embarrassed. He turns to a blond woman to his side. “How the hell are we going to break a Syphon Bind, Anne?” she looks at him “we can’t Ralph, only Gea or the girl can break it, and I don’t think the girl is strong enough, not while the Bind is in place” she tells him quietly. “What’s a Syphon Bind?” I whisper to Haden. He shrugs “haven’t the foggiest. I just started training” Anne and the Dux keep talking. Haden and I stand there, awkwardly shifting our weight, while they talk about how to keep me safe, and how to break the ‘Syphon Bond’ and a bunch of other magic-y stuff that I didn’t understand. I hope perhaps they’ll let me go home. I want to see my mom and siblings again. Eventually they finished talking and turned to us. “”We can’t train you if you don’t have power, but we can’t let you go, or else Gea will catch you” says the Dux. I nod. There go my hopes of going home. “So we will teach you about magic and its history” says Anne. “Haden, please take Terre to the mess hall” says the Dux. “Thank you Dux,” I say. The Dux laughs. “Please, call me Ralph. Everyone else does, and I like it that way. We only use Dux for formal things.” He says. I nod, “thank you, Ralph” I say. Haden takes my hand and leads me to the mess hall. “So who is the blond woman?” I ask Haden “is she his wife?” Haden snorts. “Anne? No she’s his sister” I blush, “Oh” I say. “Yeah. Let’s get you to the Infirmary” Haden says.