Closing the Circle

The sound of shuffling there in the darkness woke her from her sleep.  The campfire from before had been long dead, now it was just Margot and Darsey there beneath the night sky.  Both of them had come to rest against the large stone hours ago but something had clearly woken up the blind bean.  His large walking stick was raking against the earth but in very precise movements.  Rikki-Tikki made small clicking sounds moving from one scratching to the other.

“So that represents Mercury… and this one is Sulfur.  The last piece is salt.”

His stick began to move once more, raking and scratching away the soil beneath.  He stepped away and stared ahead, his pale eyes wide with anticipation.

“Salt?” he asked.

The little Repea hissed before scampering to Darsey’s side.  Darsey threw his walking stick to the earth in frustration before kicking away at the marking.  He dropped to the ground, holding his head in frustration before tugging at his brown hair on his Mohawk.  Margot lifted herself from the dirt and walked over to him, placing a reassuring paw on his shoulder.

“Is everything all right?” she asked.

Darsey sighed.  “I’m sorry if I woke you up, Margot.  Don’t worry, I’ll be heading back to sleep soon.”

She looked down at the soil where the markings were made, puzzling to herself over the strange patterns etched into the ground.  The first resembled a gigantic circle, a wide “u” topping it and a small cross dangling beneath.  The second was definitely a triangle with another cross dangling beneath it.  As for the last one, some kicked up soil had obscured most of the symbol but it vaguely resembled a large “D”.

“What are all these funny markings?”

He lowered his arm and let Rikki-Tikki scamper up onto his shoulder.  The little lizard’s hairs puffed up before it made itself comfortable draping itself from one arm to the next.

“This is alchemy.”

“What’s alchemy?”

“It’s a old human art I learned of during my identity trial.  You could call it the perfect blend of science and magic.”

Margot looked back to the symbols, her eyes wide with fascination.

“Science and magic?  How does that work?”

Darsey stood up and tried reaching out for his walking stick.  He was padding around in the dark, unsure of where he had thrown it.  Margot was quick to fetch it and hold it aloft for him.  With the stick back in hand, Darsey began sketching in the soil once more; this time it was a gigantic circle big enough to fit him inside.

“Everything in creation is divided into two physical properties, matter and anti-matter.  Everything within matter is composed of elements and compounds that make something what it is.  For example, the air we breathe is a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen molecules mixed with carbon and oxygen molecules, nitrogen, and trace amounts of argon.”

Margot innocently cocked her head.  She knew basic science but this description seemed to be veering off the original topic she had asked.

“Yeah?” she asked.

Darsey pawed around at the earth below until he found a stone.

“Let’s use this pebble as an example.  What would you say if I told you that I could turn this pebble into both a pearl and a steel ring but without using any magical power of my own?”

“Oh?” Margot asked, now more interested than ever.  “Alchemy can do that?”

“Absolutely.  You see this pebble is composed of—”  Darsey sniffed the stone and gave it a small lick.  He let the flavor sit on his tongue for a moment before spitting it out.  “…Oxygen, silicone, Aluminum, and iron.  Using a transmutation circle and harvesting the energy of the planet itself I could isolate the silicone, aluminum, and iron from the oxygen, I could turn fifty pebbles into about twenty-five saltwater pearls and sixty-three iron rings.  Best of all, there’s no true magic involved so you can use all the dispelling magic in the world and it couldn’t revert to its original state.”

Margot clapped, her eyes widened with awe.

“That all sounds so complicated but amazing!  And you can do this Alchemy already?”

Darsey shook his head.  “No, I’m still training to be an alchemist.  There’s a lot of practicing involved, some of which is hard to do since I can’t read books anymore.  And drawing a transmutation circle is especially hard considering I cannot see.”

“But you drew these symbols already!” she exclaimed, kneeling down in the sand. “This one, this one, and yeah you kinda smudged this symbol but still it looks precise!”

“I drew that last one wrong,” Darsey frowned.  “Tell me, what does it look like?”

“Like a large D.”

He shook his head.  “It’s mean to resemble an O with a line separating the middle.”

Margot blinked.  “What do these symbols mean?”

“They represent the three primes used in basic transmutation.  This is Mercury, the essence of the planet’s soul.”  Darsey carved out the symbol of the circle bearing a cross once more.  “This next one is sulfur, the blood and heart of the planet itself.”  Next he drew out the triangle bearing a cross.  “This last symbol is salt, the core component of the planet’s body.”  He attempted to draw a circle and carve a line through it.  This one did indeed cut through the middle of the shape but it was also bleeding out of the side.  Rikki-Tikki hissed and clicked, a clear vocalization that he had screwed up once more.  Frustrated, he threw his stick to the earth again and tugged hard at his ears.

“Why is it that I can never get this one symbol right?!” he groaned.

She bit her lower lip, looking back and forth between both Darsey and the thrown walking stick.  Kneeling down to the sand, she took her claw and drew out a rough circle in the sand, cutting a line through the middle evenly.  She tried again next to the other shape she drew before, this one a bit smoother than the other.  Again and again she kept drawing the same symbol until she got it to look as precise as Darsey’s other symbols.

“Like this?” she asked, gesturing for Rikki-Tikki to look over.

The little Repea clicked, fluttering the fur on his back in affirmation. 

“Heh, maybe you should also be an alchemist,” Darsey smiled.  “You got that symbol right on your first try.”

She felt honored by his words even as false as they were.  Margot lifted herself back up, pulled over to the walking stick and took it back to Darsey.  Rather than handing it back, she took his hand into hers and held herself right behind him.

“Shush, let me help you,” she said, sensing confusion from the blind bean.  “Move with me.”

Her hands helped him trace the perfect circle into the sand once more, however this time adding a small extra spin to the circle outline.  Pausing halfway through the second spin, they cut across neatly to the other side.  Rikki-Tikki clicked, his fur fluttering once more.

“Now let’s try it again,” she said.

Three times over she helped him trace the shape perfectly in the sand.  Rikki-Tikki clicked and fluttered at each perfect symbol.  On the fourth round, she released Darsey’s hands and took a few steps back.

“Now let’s see you try it.  Use the same method I used.”

The blind bean nodded and quickly put the method to work.  Suddenly all doubt and clarity was pulled from his head, it all became so easy now!  As he closed the circle and began the second spin around, his tail began to tremble with anxiety and anticipation.  The second spin connected and now came the halfway third spin.  A sudden stop where he was sure it needed to be, followed by a quick dash across to the other side.  Pause and silence, he awaited Rikki-Tikki’s judgement. 

The little Repea clicked and fluttered, he had done it!  Darsey’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened in disbelief.  This little trick had worked, he had now mastered drawing the third prime, and even in his blind state.

“Margot, thank you!” he beamed, tears of utter joy dribbling from his pale eyes.

The little songstress bean blushed, giggling with pride over herself. “It was nothing really.”

“’Nothing really’?!  You helped me more than you even realize!”  He dropped his stick and rushed forward, at least to where he had last heard.  Margot had little time to react as Darsey spread his arms out wide.  Suddenly he caught himself and backed down.

“Darsey?” she flinched.  She was expecting an embrace, that’s what he looked like he was trying to do.

“I’m sorry, I’m being silly,” he said, brushing the tears from his eyes.  “I got so caught up, I haven’t asked you about yourself yet.  I’m so selfish, I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s all right.”  Margot held herself, her body sulking forward and her head dripping down.  “Well…my story isn’t too happy either.”

Darsey’s arms dropped.

“You ever hear the saying, ‘look before you leap’?  If that were in some dictionary somewhere, you’d see my picture next to the definition.”

He remained silent; there was nothing he could say to ease the clear pain on Margot’s mind and heart.

“My identity trial, my first soul mate, everything I rushed into and…  I wish I could redo it over,” she whispered, crying into her hands.

He took a deep breath before slowly walking forward.  His arms draped over her shoulders as he pulled her close to him.  She could hear his heart beating fast within his chest, like a drum in a chorus building up to a finale.

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t know,” he said, his voice wavering slightly.  “If it’s too painful for you, please forget I said a thing.”

She weakly smiled before burying her head in his chest.  “No, I’m sorry for breaking down like that.  I shouldn’t trouble you with it.”

He released her before kneeling down to her eye-level.  Margot was looking eye to eye with Darsey, even though he couldn’t see her he was still trying to make the effort.

“No, I understand what it means to lose something through rushing.”  His hand pressed against his right eye and lightly pulled.  “Had I not been so eager in my own trial, I wouldn’t have lost my sight.”

Margot’s breath paused.  She didn’t ask him to reveal how he became blind and yet he was so open and honest.  Why?  She took his hand and led him back to the stone.

“Listen, I’ll be performing tomorrow in Soy.  You’re free to attend if you like.”

Darsey could feel the tension within her as her paws were shaking like mad.

“Yes, I’d like that very much.  Thank you.”