by L. C. Maciel
-I thought he wouldn't come anymore. - She said with her delicate hands dirty with dirt.
-I need to talk fast. Like I said, I'll fake a disease. You'll confirm everything to the masters and watch the inner corridors as I enter the rooms.
-But what about the assembly? I'm always at Pythagoras' side.
-You say you're not feeling well, and you withdraw before the high school debate. I'll be waiting for you in the hall.
-Okay. Now go before someone sees us. She ordered a reprimand.
I left the meditation area, headed into the room, for a music metaphysics class. When I got to the Ruales entrance, she warned me:
-You're late, Aryon.
-I'm sorry, dear master, I think I'm a little sick. -I'm sorry. I was picking some herbs to make some tea after school.
-Come in. If you feel ill, you're allowed to leave the room.
-Thank you for your understanding. -I said it without letting my irony show. -Oh.
I sat strategically next to Fadel. I needed to ask you some questions.
-Fadel... Hey Fadel... -I used a very low tone of voice. -Oh.
What was it? We're in class!
-I need to talk to you. -Some students noticed the whispers. -Oh!
-Can't it be later?
-Wait for me at the end of class.
Ruales explained about the legitimate essence of musical notes. There was a strange relationship with the laws that governed the universe.
-The universe is like a symphony that faithfully obeys a score with pre-established notes. -He said. -When I say score with predetermined notes, I have no intention of committing redundancy. I use this statement to stress that notes are immutable, as are physical laws.
-Who created the notes and the score? -Yes. -Chilla asked.
-And who performs the symphony? -The voice was Abnara's.
-These questions are for Professor Isocles, in the logic and metaphysics class.
The students were discussing Ruales' statements with excitement. Although the subject was interesting, my head was focused on the coming night.
The class passed slowly intensifying my anxiety. I tried to keep a tired expression so that everyone would believe my illness during the assembly.
When class was over, I approached Fadel before he left.
-Can we talk now?
-Sure.
-Who told you about the myth? -Yes.
-The myth of the equation?
-No! -The myth of the Mediterranean dragon! Of course it's the myth of the equation!
-Most citizens in my city know that story. I'm not from Crotona, have you forgotten? I'm from Samos, just like Pythagoras. I came here after he built the school.
-So all your countrymen know about the equation? -Yeah.
-Whatever. If this equation exists... Do you believe it?
-Me? -Of course not! Nonsense... But it's an interesting myth.
-Yes... I have to go, I want to take a swim before dark. -Fadel disappeared before my eyes, in a migration. -Oh!
The students were moving into their quarters. The early evening meal would be served in a few moments. Even though I was hungry I would not eat at twilight to reinforce the idea that I was really sick. When I arrived in the room Icarus and Damocles were getting ready for the meal. They were exchanging their school tunics for more formal tunics. I lay on a layered woolen mattress, sewn with linen, superimposed on a marble bed.
- What do you have Aryon? Aren't you going to get ready? - Damocles asked.
-I'm not well. I think I'm sick.
- What do you feel? Do you have a fever?
-I don't know. My head and muscles keep hurting.
- When you feed, you'll feel better. - Icarus said.
-I won't eat. I don't have an appetite. - My voice sounded exhausting.
-You sound pretty bad. - Damocles is finished. We're leaving now, we'll save a place for you if you get better soon.
I lay there until the silence invaded the hall. When the students had finished their meal, they would go straight to the assembly hall.
I got up and went to the entrance to check if there was still any movement. I heard conversations coming from one of the rooms located at the end. I followed the sound of the voices to the end of the hall. The torches fixed on the walls were already lit awaiting the darkness of the night. I approached the entrance discreetly, covered with sand-colored linen curtains. The voices were from Pythagoras and Isocles.
- How did the students know?
-Fadel, the student of Samos, knew about the myth and asked me during class. I had no way out of it.
- And what did you say?
-I told the truth.
-How could you tell the truth Isocles? -Isocles. Have you gone crazy?
-Pythagoras... -There was a long pause. - I pondered before and concluded that the story was so surreal that no one would believe it. Obviously, I made it very clear that it was nothing but a myth.
-Maybe you're right. But still, it's dangerous. We need to get the papyrus out of here.
-Is he still in school? -Yeah. And in the same hiding place?
-Yes, you know where.
At a glance they noticed my shadow on the curtain. I quickly returned to the room before I was discovered.
For a moment, I couldn't believe what my ears heard. I had a
confirmation of the truth, taken from the best possible source: Pythagoras.
- I will find this equation, I swear.
Walking around the room, I was waiting for the right time to act, attentive to the murmur produced by the students walking towards the assembly room. I was surprised when Icarus suddenly entered the room:
-Is it better now? I see he is standing...
-I felt a strong nausea, so I stood up. - I said hoping the sentence would sound true.
-Will you be able to attend the assembly?
-I don't know yet. I'll stay here for now until I get better.
-Okay. I'll let the superiors know.
When Icarus retired, I glued my ears to the entrance. The noise was slowly concentrated in the room to the west.
-Everyone's far enough away. - I concluded confidently.
There was little time left. Theano would appear in the hall soon. A severe silence echoed through the school warning me that the assembly had begun. Soon after I could hear a distant voice. It was the opening speech.
I went down the hall to check the void. There was no movement as I had imagined. I walked to the edge of the meditation area. A relatively long time passed before the beautiful young woman appeared.
-Aryon, I think we should give up, it's too dangerous. If anyone sees us...
-No way! Now we'll go all the way. - I said interrupting her. - You confirmed my illness?
- Yes, Icarus warned the masters, and I confirmed Pythagoras.
-Good, now pay attention: keep an eye on both ends of the hall. If you hear any noise, mentalize the invisibility. Can you do that?
-Claro...
-But only if you hear noise. Don't waste mental energy by being invisible all the time. You can exhaust your base reserve, and when you really need it...
-I get it, you don't have to teach me about mentalism. -I get it. -She interrupted with a proud tone. -Now go.
Theano remained exactly in the middle of the central corridor that connected all the other exits. I returned to the parallel corridor and entered the room where Pythagoras and Isocles were talking before the assembly. It was my first guess.
The place was kept dark in the absence of Pythagoras. I carried part of the fire that lit the other rooms and lit the torches in the room. The light revealed to me a beautiful place. A bronze table decorated with paintings and stones that occupied the center of the room, surrounded by chairs perfectly made of the same material. The walls had a texture that I had never seen before making the room different from any school. A small wooden shelf was located in the right corner. It housed several symmetrically arranged papyruses. I began to analyze them one by one with
caution, taking care to keep them in order.
There were ontological essays, geometric figures, numerical relations, but no explicit equations. One of the papyruses contained a strange coded handwriting, and symbols that I did not know.
I looked around looking for a chest or something, but there wasn't.
-It's not here.
Before I put out the torches to leave the room, I watched closely the strange carpet that lay below the chairs and the table. It was a kind of carpet delicately painted by some craftsman. Intuiating that he was hiding something, I abruptly removed the furniture by means of a kinetic mentalism. I manually pulled the carpet tip.
-By Zeus!
I looked in amazement at what was ahead of me. A wooden plate covering a large open square in the floor. It was an underground entrance.
I removed the sign to observe the passage. I couldn't see the bottom, the darkness reigned in place. I debugged myself holding my hands firmly to the edge and tilted my head as far as I could into the space. I let go of one hand and materialized a torch to hold and stretch as far as I could. To my surprise, there was not so much depth. I would just have to jump.
I made the torch disappear for a moment. After climbing up again the part of my body that was leaning downwards, I sat down on the edge leaving my feet free within the height. I jumped on an impulse.
The dirt floor had not cushioned my fall. I felt the bone in my arm hitting violently against the ground. A deep pain expanded from my wrist to my shoulder. I brought the torch back and discovered that my bone had broken. The elbow was slightly out of place, misaligning the limb. As there was no one around to report me for expressly forbidden effects, I applied the regressive effect, which healed instantly. The pain had ceased completely and my arm was moving widely, as before the fall.
I passed the torch to my right hand and began to walk around the place. To leave no trace, I remembered to return the plate, the carpet and the furniture of the room to their proper places.
There was nothing but dark walls and insects that wandered quickly through the underground tunnel. The low ceiling made the place muffled and an unpleasant smell hovered in the hot air making my stomach sick. I was looking at the floor, avoiding stumbling on the scattered slopes. My gentle steps made as little noise as possible. The only flame lit was a limited light and I couldn't see a final exit. I kept walking until I reached a front wall. The tunnel was divided into two passages, forcing me to choose a side to proceed. Intuitively, I turned to the right side almost stumbling over a slope on the beaten floor. The ground became progressively looser, causing small clods of earth to come loose as I stepped. The vibration produced by my walking feet bothered a row of spiders moving through the seemingly narrowest walls in the new corridor.
By my calculations I was under some classroom near the meditation area. As I approached what I thought was the end of the tunnel, the flash of fire revealed something to me. A hiding place crammed with almost rotten wooden trunks scattered in a disorganized manner. Most of them were open overflowing with strange objects, which looked like extraordinary inventions. I began to spread them quickly, focused on finding the great secret. There was a chest full of fabrics with beautiful colors and strange textures. Some had elastic properties that I had never imagined, besides charming designs and sparkles. Everything seemed to have come out of a distant place, extremely evolved.
-Where did it come from? And why is it hidden?
I found a round object that had indecipherable symbols aligned respecting the circumference. Two lines located in the middle moved at different rhythms, among the strange numbers protected by a transparent film that although hard seemed fragile.
I held the object by a metallic chain, hanging from a small wedge wedged to the piece, which fixed the last golden link.
Despite my curiosity, I kept searching for the equation. I removed the unknown objects one by one, taking apart what I could and analyzing all the spaces in the chest. There was no papyrus.
-Damn you! -I said impatient. -If the equation is not here, where is it?
There was only one more place to look. The second part of the tunnel located under the east side of the school. I organized the objects using my mental abilities, returning everything to its original place.
I started to walk the other way faster than before. The noise of insects living in the dark place hit my ears as I inhaled the stench that was most intense in some parts of the narrow corridor.
A feeling that mixed anxiety and hopelessness came over me, speeding up my beats and making my hands sweat cold.
- I will find it. I'll find it.
When I reached the middle of the path that divided the tunnels into three passages, I went straight ahead without looking at the middle corridor, which had led me there. I continued with heavy and fast steps, without worrying about a consequent noise, until I found the new hiding place. The place was identical to the first, except for the trunks, having the same simple raw brick walls that revealed a building much older than the school.
The absence of objects intrigued me to the point of blinking my eyes several times to make sure that was really the reality. I would look around looking for anything that didn't mean empty.
Analyzing the various corners of the place, I noticed that part of the wall to my left had a slightly different color in the center than the rest. It was of a thicker earthy tone and I knew what that meant: stones placed to cover some entrance.
I began to hit the central part of the wall and confirmed what I was predicting: it was hollow. The anxiety was approaching, speeding up the steps I would take. Even knowing that my base energy was almost at an end, I began to pierce the place using a mentalism. It was the only way.
The first layer was thicker than I thought. The vertically positioned stones made a barrier, bent, hard to break.
I struggled with scarce energy and punctured the thick protection bit by bit. The second layer was well deteriorated by the weather exhibiting deep cracks in the raw brick.
When I managed to break the two layers a small hole appeared before my eyes. It was a kind of open vault that housed what to some was just a myth. A small, well-preserved papyrus was inside it. My eyes glowed with an overwhelming curiosity that made my hands tingle. I had found it.
I took the scroll rolled up and held by a thin strip of linen almost the same color as the papyrus. I carefully analyzed the tiny symbols ordered before and after equality. I had to admit that this was the most complex equation I had ever seen. I gathered all the mathematical knowledge acquired over the four years of initiation by studying each digit. My mind infiltrated between the lines of each number trying to establish the powerful relationship with the cosmos, which would reveal to me the great secret.
I remained trying, fearing that my effort would be useless in the end.
After some time, the truth began to appear simple and crystal clear to my eyes that reflected the light of the torch. I could hardly believe it. The secret was surprisingly powerful and fitted elegantly into the perfect universal order.
I lost myself in ecstatic thoughts for the power I now possessed. A single thought stood out, galloping frantically through the expanse of my mind: I would be a god.
Accident
I tried to sleep in every possible way, but the effort seemed futile. I put a pillow against the glass, and I leaned over my head in the hope of getting a migraine that hadn't given me a rest for days.
My body was tense, and I couldn't feel comfortable in the tiny seat of the train. I felt uncomfortable for the lack of freedom. A girl was traveling in the seat next to me.
I still could not assimilate my new reality. The latest events remained intact in my mind. Felicia had left me at the station, with an indifferent expression, saying only to call if I needed to. Her bright blue eyes showed a disturbing coldness.
While waiting for the moment of departure, I wondered why Giuseppe had married her. The difference in personalities intrigued me.
S
he clearly showed that she was there, just fulfilling an obligation, or perhaps her good deed of the day.
Now I was in a train, leaving the chaos of Naples, the place where everything that had changed my life had happened.
It was three o'clock on Saturday afternoon when I received a call from a stranger with a stunned voice. He was trying to tell me about an accident involving two people I possibly knew, because the number he was calling was in his personal documents.
At this moment, I felt my legs wobble. It was as if I lost all my strength, and I saw myself about to fall when I heard someone knocking on the door. There was only one person knocking on the door, instead of playing the intercom: Giuseppe.
Even before I opened the door completely, I heard his voice say:
-Cecilia, I need you to stay calm. We'll have to leave now, it seems your parents had an accident.
My hands sweat cold, with the confirmation of the news.
I closed the door, and we went down the few stairs at a fast pace. The car was parked a few feet from the small building where I lived.
Giuseppe was driving much faster than allowed inside Naples. He kept a worried expression, but he wasn't desperate like me.
-Cecilia, take it easy. -It won't be serious. Believe me.
I couldn't pronounce a word.
My parents had left for Caserta on Saturday morning for an appointment with a renowned doctor in the Campania area. My mother was suffering from an infection that couldn't be cured by administering ordinary antibiotics. Several treatments were done without results until Dad decided to change doctors.
I preferred to stay at home researching the best universities in Italy. The third year was already coming to an end and I still did not know which institution I would go to. In fact, I didn't even know what profession I intended to follow.
-Where did the accident happen? -My voice had almost whispered
-More or less in the middle of the journey between Salerno and Caserta- Giuseppe replied.
Inside the car time seemed to have stopped. The journey from Salerno to Caserta was not so long, but at that moment it seemed to be the end of the world. Giuseppe was in high speed and we should reach it in 25 minutes at the most.
