The Ripple In The Void[part 6]

This modest place where the Lunar-Festival was being celebrated with a blissful inertia, was called Hellesport. It was located in the province of Parnassus, the southern most province of the country, Argos. This province was governed by the Magalhaes clan. They were not a family that had any sort of noble blood coursing through their veins, the were once merchants, and some of their ancestors even worked in the mines. So they were particularly famous among the working class of society.

Today was an auspicious day for this town, music, dancing, fireworks, were in the air. The coast was even more vibrant, for today two very special people came to join the festivities, one of them was Comte Magalhaes, the lord patriarch of the Magalhaes family and somebody he was escorting himself, as the patriarch of the Magalhaes family. That person was wearing an azure robe with three headed black snake painted on his back, almost everybody thought that this man's social status was on the same level as the patriarch, it was just that the patriarch was being humble; but very few there knew the legend behind the heraldry of the three headed black snake and the patriarch was one of them.

"Are you sure its here in this town, Comte?" said the man veiled in azure

"Yes my venerable Lord" said Comte with a visage of utmost respect.

"It better be, I have searched for it ever since the plague but to no avail. I am at the end of my patience, and if this also ends up in a failure, then I don't know what I might do, I might even wipe your entire clan out of existence." said the man in azure clad in the most relaxed manner as if wiping out a high ranking judicial clan of the country wasn't enough to make him anxious.

Comte shuddered a little but quickly regained his composure and said "I fully believe you my lord, but this time your endeavour will give you the prize you had been searching for, you see my Lord just now I got the message that things are going accordingly to our wishes."

"If thats true and I get what I came here for, then, according to our deal i will take your son as my student." said the man in azure without even looking at Comte.

"Thank you, my Lord, it will be the greatest honour my family has ever had." Comte clapsed his hand and bowed deeply towards the man in azure.

The man looked at Comte and nodded said " When do we start?"

"Not long my Lord, not long at all." said Comte as the both walk away from the crowd.

The Lunar-Dust festival had many sacred rituals, and one such was the pine-needle dance. The pine tree had always been regarded as a sacred entity, whatever the culture, whatever race or caste or creed it always symbolizes totality and immortality. The pine-needle dance is a ritualistic dance where seven women who had gone through the purification rituals use their ki or ether or mana to sing and do a mock battle in order to invoke the Lunar-Immortal. People from all over the town had gathered to see this hallowed ritual.

While the ritual was just about to start, two precocious young boys wriggled their way through the crowd and somehow managed to get in front of the crowd.

"What are we doing here Hermes, the auction is going to start?" said the chubby boy.

"We are here to hire a spectre, Orion" said Hermes mischeavously.

"Spectre?"asked Orion while being confused.

"Yes, finally, the purification ritual is done, he is free now. Listen Orion, this is a serious matter, always remember the three following things." spoke Hermes in a sombre manner.

"What?" said Orion.

"First, never look directly into his eye, unless you want to be stuck in illusion limbo for eternity." said Hermes.

"Okay"said Orion as he nodded vehemently.

"Second, never respond to anything he asks or else you won't be able to talk for the rest of your life." said Hermes.

"Of course." said Orion.

"And third, dont be as gullible as you are now for he will take every thing you have." said Hermes while laughing out loud.

"What, what!. . . Is this your way of getting back at me for the earlier Herpes jab? you've gone too far this time Hermes ... i mean Herpes .... damn it to hel" growled Orion as he lunged towards Hermes.

The fight only lasted a few seconds as they were met with angry howls from the bystanders as they were disturbed out of their blissful trance while enjoying the pine-needle dance.

Both the boys stood back up, dispersed the dust which gathered on their clothes and started walking. Hermes was in the lead for this was his aquaintance. As they walked towards a small and old temple with green vines growing out its walls, Orion got nervous as he caught a glimse of the man

to whom they were walking. He was only five feet tall but he was not a dwarf and a nostalgic feeling from the depth of his soul was slowly surging out of him it was as if the vibration inside his soul had the same wavelength as this man. He wanted to ask the man why he was feeling this way but before he could speak, the man who seemed like fifty years old, suddenly stood up and took his giant hammer and started walking towards them.

Every step he took, the air got heavier and he had to take a lot of steps as he was very short; Then suddenly the man looked at Hermes and said in a resounding voice " THE PALACE OF SPECTRE is closed today!"