Theodore Chrono

by Shanon Chong

  “What now?”

  “Well, you only have to do that once a day,” Harrold finally said as he crawled to the exit of the small, enclosed room. “I have to go to that teacher’s meeting. I’ll see you tomorrow for some more training.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m getting paid to do this, and if I do a favour for your father, I’m set for life.” Harrold laughed. “I’m joking. Anyway, make sure you stretch your body and have a warm shower to get your blood flowing.”

  “Sure will,” I replied, not really meaning anything I said. Harrold walked away, his footsteps echoing slightly as he disappeared around the corner.

  Sliding out of the sub-sized room, I decided to return to Rachel. Following the gravel path to the dormitory, I entered through the bottom floor and slowly climbed the stairs until I had reached our room. Grabbing the key out of the hidden pocket in my pants, I unlocked the door, remaining quiet in the rare case that Rachel was asleep.

  Rachel lay on her back on the low table, reading a book. Her head hung off the edge, reading upside down. Placing her book to her chest, she looked at me dully. Then she sat up and looked at me properly.

  “Welcome back,” she greeted, bowing slightly as she marked the page she had reached.

  “Thanks.”

  “Theo…I’ve got a place to show you tonight. I’ll bring you there at midnight.”

  Chapter 16: A Journey through the Dark

  “Are we going to sleep first? Or are we going straight away?” I asked. “How long are we going to be there? The entire night?”

  “I can’t sleep anymore,” replied Rachel, but if you want to sleep, then go ahead.”

  “Thanks. I’m a little tired after all the exercise.”

  “Are you going to bed covered in sweat?” Her eyes widened as she saw the wide patch of sweat on my shirt.

  “I’ll sleep on the lounge. I just need some rest,” I replied, changing direction and plopping myself horizontally across the leather daybed. I closed my eyes, feeling the supple material underneath me.

  Delving into the world of my dreams, a forest appeared before me, the trees blocking out the sun. Within my hands were two simple items: the stake and a torch. My legs were bound once again within the endless maze of trees. I waited for an indication that this was the second time I had entered this dream. “Child of Arcanas!” the sudden shout echoed. “This is your second attempt!”

  “Right.” I sighed and glanced at the utensils within my hands; the objective of the test was unclear. What to do? What to do? I bent my knees, crouching low to the ground to more closely examine the roots that bound me. Was I to escape? Did I have to get out? I rubbed my finger down the greased stake’s side; the black slippery wooden material smelled of gasoline. I set the stake down and ran my hand past the flame of the torch. Small patches of inky black liquid on my hand burned with fervour before dying out. “Oil?”

  As I reached for the stake, I noticed a gap between the roots. I stabbed into the thickest part of the wooden chains. I lowered the torch, holding it slightly above the oily black stake. Would I be burned? My hand told me the answer: no. Dropping the fire to the stake, I straightened up and stood tall. An explosive chain reaction burned through the wood, leaving a pile of ash where I stood.

  I stepped through the circle of fire that had risen, the ashy black smoke that rose in a plume covered the low canopy of the forest. Breaking into a sprint, I searched for an exit. The dirt at my feet became softer the further I ran; bubbles popped on the dirt surface as if magma had reached the ground and I was going to be burned. A final hurdle approached as a wall of flames blocked me from what seemed to be an oasis.

  Leap. Take a leap of faith, I told myself inwardly, losing control over my sanity.

  I jumped. Grabbing onto the burning edge of safety, I lifted myself up to the pure white utopia I had leapt to.

  “Congratulations. Arcanas was right.” An elderly figure stood looking at me, a shocked look on his face. He patted my shoulder lightly. “Bring forth the new era, child of Arcanas,” he muttered, waving his palm before my eyes.

  Snapping awake, I jerked up. Rachel stood next to me, holding a cup of coffee. She looked at me oddly. “You have a nightmare or something?”

  “It-it’s hard to describe.” I thought for a second. “I mean, it felt strange, really.”

  “Check if there’s a book in the library about dreams,” Rachel replied, holding her book for me to see, “This has information about dreams, but it’s like trials and stuff…” She flipped to a page deep within the book. “Talks about a forest.”

  “Can I have that?” I asked, holding my hand out expectantly.

  “It’s Juno’s. I’ll ask her if you can have a look after I’m done.”

  “Can I just, well, have a brief look?”

  “It wouldn’t be anything like yours. It’s fiction, after all.”

  “Please?”

  “Fine, we’ll have a look at it together after I bring you to the place I was talking about,” Rachel proposed. “That’s fine with you, right?”

  “Yeah, that fine with me.”

  “You okay if I stop by my mum’s office to get something?”

  “Sure, go ahead, by all means.” I opened the door for her.

  I followed close behind her as we went up one floor before taking the bridge between the dormitory and the main building to reach the teacher’s floor. Rachel made her way directly to her mother’s office and knocked before opening the door. I waited at the fourth-floor stairs, listening to the wind whistling outside as I waited for her. I wasn’t patient by any means, but I could definitely wait a reasonable amount of time. I exhaled, tapping my foot on the floor, creating a melody I hadn’t heard before. The only clock on the fourth floor read twelve forty. Of course, that had ticked to twelve fifty before Rachel exited her mother’s office.

  “Done.”

  “What object takes ten minutes to retrieve?”

  “A key!” Rachel declared triumphantly, placing her left hand to her hip and raising a long metal key to the sky. “This…this is the key to exploration!” Rachel repeated confidently.

  “Right, do we have classes tomorrow?”

  “Sunday? No. Anyway, let’s go!”

  Rachel marched forward. Turning, she ran back and grabbed me, and then we continued our journey. The city passed by as she expertly navigated the streets. Of course, I had no idea where we were headed, but I guessed it would be relatively important in the grander scheme of things.

  From the corner of my vision, a gate appeared. Made of a copper alloy, its splendid reflective surface radiated the golden-brown colour of the metal. The arch that hung over the gate didn’t show any obvious pulleys or levers to open the city’s defensive mechanism.

  Without speaking, Rachel signalled for the operator to open the gate. Remaining in his booth, he slowly lifted the gate with a system that was hidden from view. The screech of metal against the walls beside the gate left a troubled frown on Rachel’s face. Three moons peeked out from behind the gate, and the door hovered in the air for several seconds before the operator waved for us to head on through.

  Rachel dragged me through, forcibly exposing me to the brightly lit path. Frowning, she began to walk ahead, leaving me to chase after her. Where were we going? She looked into the forest beside us. Straying from the main path, she leapt into the foliage.

  “Rachel!”

  “Just follow me, okay?” she replied, awkwardly pushing away branches as she forged a path through the forest’s lower branches and leaves. I remained silent, following closely behind her, letting my eyes adapt to the lightless setting. I yawned slightly, rubbing my eyes as I continued forward. A burning sensation ran through my eyes as I opened them. Fluorescent colours lit the entire forest, ranging from neon green to bright yellow.

  “What the…”

  “The sap glows in the dark. Normally, someone collects it,” Rachel explained.

  “I mean, what
does it do?” I held a tree for balance as I regained my eyesight. Lifting my palm from the bark, a sticky, glowing liquid adhered to my hand.

  “Nothing much.” She tossed me a handkerchief and then turned to keep walking. “Well, it attracts insects. It cleans off easily, though.”

  Running my palm across the cloth, I felt the liquid lift off my palm effortlessly as I cleaned off my hand. Folding the handkerchief carefully, I placed it on the ground beside a pink tree.

  The forest was so distracting that I had already forgotten our purpose for coming out this far. However, we eventually came upon a clearing. The ground around the area felt soft and mushy as I marched through the bog-like dirt.

  A temple stood in the middle of the clearing. Its gabled roof curved down, and the red brick tiles they had used for the roof had turned brown with age. The red wooden walls glowed a soft red; the surface was slightly reflective and crystalline. Golden ornaments embedded into the walls had slowly turned an off-silver with the loss of their original coat of paint. Leading to the grand entrance of the building were three wooden steps, their surface engraved with scenes of war and blood.

  The arched entrance curved smoothly, leaving the building symmetrical and perfect to the eye. Rachel waited for me at the wooden porch that let us wait in front of the grand entrance. Smiling, she turned to face me. “Well, go ahead and have a look around.” Pushing the doors open, Rachel waved for me to enter the building. Following, I carefully watched the floor to ensure my safety within the unknown building.

  Swiftly walking from corner to corner, Rachel fiddled with the contraptions within the room. A mechanical ticking began to echo within the shrine, and the unlit main room began to glow slightly with the illumination of lamps. The statue on the shrine displayed the visage of a vaguely female goddess statue with nine tails spread wide like wings. Draped over the shoulders of the goddess was a dusty fur mantle that hadn’t been cleaned for centuries. Directly before the stature, a blank stone slate and a recessed metal plate were displayed prominently, with the wooden frame built into the building itself.

  “What are we here for?” I turned to face Rachel, who stood by my shoulder.

  “Well, the shrine represents heritage…and there’s an entire bookshelf with books of ancestries,” she explained, placing a book in my hands. The cover read, “Arcanas,” and engraved in the surface was a sigil I hadn’t seen before. Its distinctly curved and smooth lines all led to the centre of the seal. Opening it, I looked at the book’s index, which was filled with names I hadn’t seen before. Searching for a common point in my memory, I found Anton Arcanas and Andreas Arcanas within the latter part of the book. Flipping to the three hundredth page of the book, I read the title of the section aloud, “Anton Arcanas: The Time Breaker.”

  “Your grandfather?” Rachel replied, holding her own book, which read, “Indallias,” on the cover. The sigil on hers was definitely well known; I had seen that exact symbol across military vests and next to Rachel’s name on her belongings.

  “Yeah,” I confirmed as I looked through the book’s entire recounting of my grandfather’s life. From birth to death, the book had every single moment of his time on this planet. My father’s section remained unfinished, with words appearing on the pages as I read. “This is still being written?”

  “These books must be divine…” Rachel hypothesised. “I mean, there’s been evidence of divine beings, right?”

  “Does this make the Church legitimate?” I asked, reading the words that appeared in my father’s section. “My father is apparently up north. He’s currently making negotiations at the border between the Assimilator and Mage territory.”

  “Do these books have anything on us?” Rachel asked, suddenly flipping to the front of the book again. Running her finger along the edge of the book, she read the names one by one. “I found me.”

  “So, I would be here, too?” I flipped to the front, just as Rachel had. “Yeah, I am here.”

  “You see anything?” she inquired. “Mine is terrifyingly detailed.”

  “Yeah…” I read the first few lines, and shivers went down my spine,

  The fabled one,

  the blessed one,

  the child to slay gods,

  the child to slay time,

  a single change to break the loop.

  “I don’t know what mine really means,” I said.

  “Want me to have a read?”

  “Sure, go ahead.” I handed her the book. “I’ve never seen that before.”

  “The first few lines are from a book. If I remember correctly, it’s called Noble Prophecy. Though I remember the writer saying it was fiction.”

  “Well, the more you know.” I took the book from Rachel’s hands, not reading any further into my own section. “I’ll put yours back, too,” I offered, holding my hand out.

  “Thanks,” Rachel replied quickly. “I’ll fiddle with the family tree tablet.”

  “What’s that?” I asked, still focused on returning the books to their correct positions.

  “It gives your entire family tree on the stone tablet,” Rachel explained as I returned my attention to her. “And all it requires…is a drop of blood.”

  “So, that’s all?”

  “It has a short summary of your family’s maximum strength.” Rachel rubbed her thumb and index finger together anxiously. “So, it gives your ancestors’ energy capacity. I think so, at least.”

  “I’ll let you go first.”

  “Thank you.” Rachel sighed. “But I’d like to have a look around first. You help yourself.”

  She walked away to look at the remaining books on the shelf. Approaching the ancestry tablet, I realised the metal plate’s purpose: collecting the blood. I looked to the side of the altar, where a short ceremonial knife lay conveniently. Lifting the blade by the handle, I cautiously turned the weapon around, looking for any obvious red flags. Not finding anything that seemed to be dangerous, I pricked my thumb with the tip of the serrated edge. A single drop fell onto the metal plate that lay embedded within the stone. I wiped the blade on the fabric of my pants and returned it to the side of the shrine. A purple flame ran down its edge as I returned it to its home, and whatever remained of my blood evaporated away quickly.

  I returned my gaze to the stone tablet. My blood was slowly creeping along two channels built into the tablet, up to its pinnacle. As it dripped slowly down the stone’s surface, thin lines appeared, creating letters and numbers. The letters formed into words as I examined the tablet closely. Finding my father’s name directly above my own, I looked at what the tablet read.

  Andreas Arcanas

  Mage of the Eternum Seal

  853

  I had heard the title numerous times; however, I had never seen the number before. Remembering the information I had received from Rachel, I soon understood the number’s meaning. It was his strength. I held my palm to my forehead… How had I not thought of that? Armed with the knowledge of the numbers, I looked at the next familiar name, Anton.

  Anton Arcanas

  The Time Breaker

  694

  It was their maximum possible strength, right? I hadn’t looked at my own yet, and I was afraid to do so. However, curiosity got the better of me, and I panned my eyes to the final name on the tree.

  Theodore Arcanas

  Timeless Sage

  1241

  “What are you looking at, Theo?” Rachel tapped me on the shoulder. “Your mouth’s hanging open…” She lifted my jaw shut, only to watch it fall open again.

  “How?”

  “How what?”

  “How am I meant to become that strong?” I asked disbelievingly, pointing at the tablet. “I mean, that’s my potential strength, right?” Having experienced my grandfather’s strength within my dream, I could only imagine myself as being slightly less than two times as strong.

  “Well, you have time to get there,” Rachel argued, “though potential strength doesn’t guarantee you’ll be tha
t strong.” She continued to examine the tablet. “I’ll record these. This may be important later…and it’s interesting.” She scribbled messily onto a notepad the size of my palm; her writing seemed minuscule even in comparison with the size of the book. “Barely legible” were the first words that came to mind when I tried to read her tiny writing.

  “Your turn, I’m guessing?” I suggested when she finally stopped writing.

  “Yeah, of course it’s my turn.” Rachel poked her finger with the blade. “Let’s see what we have here.” She hummed a merry tune as she returned the knife to its position beside the altar. She held her notebook, staring keenly at the tablet’s surface, and scribbled down a list of numbers and names as her eyes trailed down the tablet to the bottom.

  Rachel Indallias

  Incarnate of War

  724

  She grinned slightly at the title below her name. “I think I like that name,” she muttered under her breath, barely loud enough for me hear her. “Anyway, let’s get back to the academy; we don’t want the guards locking up the place!”

  She flipped the cover of her notebook shut and grabbed another handkerchief from her pocket. Kneeling before the altar, she wiped the metal surface our blood had stained. Patting her pockets, she smiled as she grabbed my hand, and then she cheerfully pulled me out of the shrine. The door slammed shut, the noise of the crash echoing behind us.

  “Still want your handkerchief from earlier?” I asked, pointing to the ground where the bright pink cloth lay beside the tree. “I mean, it can still be washed.”

  “Leave it. We can come back another time.” Rachel tugged at my hand, leading me toward the main road again. “I mean, maybe we can come here again.”

  “Sure,” I replied, looking at the gate as it slowly rose. “It’s only the start of the year.”

  “An entire year of schoolwork and school life.”