by Katrina Ryan
Victoria blinked at her, not following entirely.
“The stone used in most Atlanteans buildings is remarkably strong,” Athelea concluded. “I believe that the dexes fortifying them may have broken during the earthquake, causing more damage than the earthquake itself. The buildings, however, should be perfectly safe.”
“What is a dex?” Victoria interrupted.
“Sorry!” Athelea exclaimed. “I forgot you aren’t familiar with Atlantean words. Dexterity is simply the manipulation of energy. I suppose you could think of a dex as a sort of magic spell. Atlanteans have used them for thousands of years. I’m sure you’ve already seen me use a few.”
Victoria thought back to when Athelea had healed her hand in the Forest. It had reminded her of magic, and she was sure she’d seen both Gryffin and Caelan do something similar. She had so many questions now. “Is that why the stones broke in places? The dexes have stopped working?”
Athelea nodded. “I believe so. Atlan stone is even stronger than diamond. Only something as powerful as a dex could break them, and only something as powerful as that earthquake could break a dex.”
“Oh,” Victoria said. “Can we fix the dexes somehow?”
Athelea looked at Victoria with an expression of intense curiosity. What’s that about? Victoria wondered. “I suppose so,” Athelea said. “The most difficult task will be determining exactly which dexes the original masons used, which could take significant time. Once we know, I’d imagine we could restore all the dexes on the island in a matter of weeks.”
Weeks. Victoria sighed, glancing at Sarah to gauge her reaction. She didn’t look anywhere near as lost as Victoria felt, and Victoria understood. The others had probably already discussed this in greater detail, and Sarah knew whatever truth Athelea was withholding.
“We should look for a temporary dex as soon as possible, but why don’t we focus on moving this rubble away in the mean time?” Victoria suggested, trying not to sound too frustrated. “At least we can make the streets cleaner and safer.”
“That is a strong plan,” Athelea said, though Victoria sensed she would have much preferred to work another time. They spent a few minutes moving the lighter stones into a pile at the side of the street, and Athelea fell silent. Victoria could only imagine the hopelessness and despair she was feeling at seeing the city deteriorating more every day.
“Athelea’s fighting a losing battle,” Sarah whispered after they’d been working ten minutes. They stopped for a moment to watch Athelea use dexterity to float an impossibly large stone to the side of the road with no apparent effort. Together, the women had cleared up nearly the entire block, but Victoria was conscious that the rest the rest of the city was still a mess. “Atlantis is too big for one person to manage, and it’s not like the Atlanteans are just going to show up and help her.”
Victoria suddenly understood what they were doing wrong. “We should be protecting these buildings before anything happens, instead of fixing them every time something breaks.”
Sarah inclined her head in a gesture that looked like reluctant agreement.
Passing a block of abandonment houses, Victoria could feel emptiness and silence in the dark windows and doorways. She couldn’t grasp how these streets had once been bursting with an entire civilization. “How did everyone disappear?” she wondered to Sarah. “Not even Athelea knows what had happened.”
“Atlantean society is very different from the rest of the world,” Athelea said. Victoria jumped, not having heard her approach. “To us, technology and science are a blessing that became a curse. They were the reason we existed and thrived and, I believe, the reason we fell. You ladies must learn some of our history while you are here. Understanding our past could provide great insight into not only the present, but the future.”
“Our history?” Victoria asked, wondering if this was something else she’d missed while she was unconscious. “You’re English?”
Athelea laughed. “Of course not. But I want to tell you about my past here so that you can better understand what happened to Atlantis. Hopefully you’ll be able to make some sense of why you are here now and what we should do next.”
“Go for it,” Sarah panted, rolling a stone to the side of the street. Victoria didn’t see any reason why she and Sarah shouldn’t get to know Athelea better. She hoped her earlier suspicions had been unreasonable, especially since Athelea had found Sarah, but she sensed Athelea still wasn’t being fully honest. That secrecy, coupled with the fact that Athelea was the only Atlantean left, made it difficult to trust her. But they were probably going to be in Atlantis a while, and Athelea was their only ally.
“I will start at the very beginning, as even the earliest details are incredibly important,” Athelea began when they moved on to a new street. This bordered one of the larger canals, which was still empty. “Atlantean legend says that the gods became jealous of humanity while they watched over us thousands of years ago. They envied our freedom to love who we wanted, to go where we pleased, and to forge our own destinies. One day, they created Atlantis so they could live amongst us. It was a perfect, beautiful place, a paradise. The gods took human lovers and lived here for a thousand years, but they began to long for their home in the heavens.
“When the gods eventually left, our first king was a wise man named Atlas. He united the Atlanteans, expanded the city, and established the guilds that helped Atlantis thrive. His laws were fair, and the Atlanteans loved and respected him. Atlantis grew even more prosperous, but after generations, the Atlanteans became discontent. They wanted more land, wealth, and power than ever before. They fought, firstly amongst themselves, and later with other countries around the world, to secure this. Atlantis became so militant and so hungry for what it didn’t deserve that any other civilization in the world could have sense we were doomed.”
Victoria looked around the street with a new perspective of how much history Atlantis had. Athelea’s story wasn’t anything like the Atlantean mythology she’d read at home. It was so similar to mythology from other ancient cultures, but so incredibly different because she was here, and it was history.
“Nobody remembers exactly when the Great War began, since we had been at war for generations, but it was many centuries before I was born,” Athelea continued when they finished clearing the section of the street, which contained more buildings that Victoria guessed had been stores. “Most Atlanteans in my generation believed victory would ensure our return to prosperity, and the Atlantean military was unrivaled under my father’s command. Our technology and dexterity would have secured our victory in any battle we fought, but my father refused to use it. He was a strict and incredibly traditional man. As his only heir, my education was his foremost priority, and I attended nearly every diplomatic event with him. He hoped that one day I would be fit to rule Atlantis.”
Victoria could only imagine the sheltered life Athelea had lived, burdened with responsibility and expectations. But the woman she saw now was the only survivor of a horrible disaster, and Athelea still seemed enslaved to her responsibility to Atlantis. Victoria couldn’t imagine a more difficult fate.
“I met a man named Tristan a few years before the end of the war. We were both eighteen, and though he came from a civilian family, we quickly fell in love. When I wasn’t fulfilling royal obligations and he wasn’t busy with his education and the military, we met in secret. I led a normal life when I was with him, one where I didn’t have to live up to my father’s expectations or the demands of our citizens. For the first time in my life, I was free to be myself, I realized within one summer that I had found my Forever Love.”
Sarah coughed. Athelea looked at her with a quizzical expression, but Sarah didn’t say anything. Victoria knew she didn’t believe in true love.
“Quite a few Atlanteans in every generation are lucky enough in their lives to find their true soulmate,” Athelea continued. “The legends say that these Forever Loves are destined to be together and find each other in eve
ry life they live. Though many Atlanteans no longer believed in reincarnation by my generation, the idea of Forever Love, a profound bond between two Atlanteans, was still holy. To hinder Forever love is the greatest crime in our society, after murder.”
Victoria couldn’t help but think of Tom now. The similarities between in their relationship and Athelea’s story were unsettling, but Athelea didn’t know any of that. Victoria had a vague sense of where the story was going now, though she wasn’t sure how it related to what she knew about Athelea moments before the Destruction.
“At that time, Atlantean law prohibited the marriage of royal blood to common. These laws were the only exception to the rules of Forever Love. The commoners were modern people and couldn’t care less about who the royals married, but these ancient laws were still scared to my father. Hell broke loose with his fury when I told him that Tristan was my Love, and I didn’t dare to ask if he could move into the palace. My father forbade me to ever see again.”
Victoria heard the sadness in her voice and knew the story wouldn’t end well. For the second time that night, she felt a connection with Athelea that she was certain Sarah wouldn’t understand, and again, she felt another twinge of guilt for distrusting Athelea.
“There’s one more place I need to visit before we go to the Isle of the Gods,” Athelea said. “Follow me, ladies. It won’t take long.”
Victoria and Sarah followed Athelea down the street. After a minute, they stopped in front of a building that took up the whole block of the street, surrounded by low walls covered in some of the only flowers Victoria had seen in Atlantis. It reminded her of a cathedral, and she wondered how she’d missed it walking around with the orb. The Atlan stone gave it a medieval look, though the design seemed Mediterranean to Victoria the more she looked at it. They walked through a beautiful garden to the building’s enormous front doors.
“This is the Hall of Divinity,” Athelea said, unlocking the doors with a wave of her hand. Seeing inside the building, Victoria found herself speechless, and Sarah looked equally staggered. The interior resembled a cathedral as much as its exterior, but thousands of small candles were burning on the pews, in the aisles, and around the building, some even floating in the air like a starry sky. Real roses twirled up the pillars, and it took Victoria a second to realize that underneath it all, the ground was grass rather than Atlan stone, making the building seem at harmony with nature.
“I’ve lit a candle for the Atlanteans every night since the Destruction,” Athelea said softly. Victoria felt her throat constrict. Athelea’s sorrow was palpable, but all the prayers in the world hadn’t helped bring the Atlanteans back. Athelea gently picked up a candle from the altar. The wick burst into flame a second later, though Athelea hadn’t used any sort of match or lighter, and Athelea pushed the candle away. It began to float towards the others in midair, beautiful magic to behold.
“Isn’t it dangerous to leave these burning?” Sarah whispered.
“They won’t set anything on fire,” Athelea said, not sounding offended by the comment. “It’s a special type of flame monitored by a dex.”
Sarah flashed a guilty look at Victoria while Athelea closed her eyes in what appeared to be a prayer. Victoria busied herself by walking around the building with Sarah. She guessed it must be Atlantean magic, probably dexes, that kept the candles floating and burning for so long. “Athelea had put so much energy into this place,” Victoria whispered to Sarah when they were at the far end of the Hall. “I don’t think she’s dangerous, do you? She misses the Atlanteans.”
Sarah shook her head, seeming unusually somber. Victoria sensed she was pondering the meaning of Athelea’s story. It’s still too soon to tell them about Gryffin, Victoria thought, though still couldn’t help but wonder where the Atlanteans had gone. With Sarah close behind, she slowly made her way back towards Athelea, wondering when the opportune moment would be.
“My father forbade me to ever see Tristan again and ensured I had no communication with anyone outside the palace,” Athelea continued when she’d finished her prayers. She had a mischievous glint in her eyes now, and the gravity of the moment subsided. “At the end of the summer, despite being under constant watch, I received a final message from Tristan through one of my cousins. I managed to leave the palace unescorted that night, and Tristan found me in the city. He said he had accepted military duty and would leave Atlantis the next day, fearing what my father would do if he discovered we were still in love. In this very Hall, the High Priestess secretly married us. Maybe she didn’t recognize me, or maybe she did and wanted to help. Tristan and I spent the entire evening together, and he was aboard a warship before the sun had risen.”
Victoria looked around the building with a newfound appreciation for her surroundings. Atlantis had richer history than she’d realized, and she was sure that if the buildings could speak, they would have countless more amazing stories to tell. “This would be a beautiful setting for a wedding,” she said.
“After Tristan left, everything in my life changed. Atlantis started to feel like a prison, and I resented my father for pushing Tristan from me. It was the darkest time of my life, and I believed I had nothing to live for. My mother could see how deeply separation from my Forever Love pained me, and she begged my father to bring Tristan back to Atlantis, but it was too late. Only weeks after he had left, I received a letter from the military saying that Tristan had died in battle. I would never see him again.”
Even now, her eyes filled with tears. She took a few deep breaths before she seemed to regain her composure. Victoria could see that no matter how many years or generations had passed on the outside world, the loss of her Forever Love still pained Athelea. Sarah seemed to be fighting tears, too, but Victoria knew there was more to the story than the others realized.
Your son is alive, she wanted to tell Athelea, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. The implications were too severe.
Finished with her vigil, Athelea led them out of the Hall and locked the doors. “But it’s getting late now,” Athelea said, “and we still have much to do. I’m sorry, ladies, but the rest of my story will have to wait for another time.”
Chapter Fifteen
THE ISLE OF THE GODS
Athelea led them to the Plaza, taking a route Victoria didn’t recognize. The massive building with all the mirrors seemed to be glowing in the evening sun, and it seemed to be perfectly intact after the earthquake. “That is the Reflector,” Athelea said, catching Victoria looking at it. “From the reign of King Atlas, it has been the heart of travel in Atlantis. Every important room or building in Atlantis has an enormous mirror in it that is linked to its twin mirror in the Reflector. They are used as portals, going in both directions. Unfortunately, they haven’t worked since the Atlanteans disappeared. I have not done extensive research on portals, but I would love to find a way to fix them. Traveling would be much simpler if they were functioning. I suspect the dexes supporting the system have grown weak.”
Victoria stared around the Reflector in amazement. She’d always thought the building had a lot of mirrors when she’d visited on her own, but knowing their function made her see everything in a new light. “Can we go in quickly?” she asked.
Athelea diverted their course without question. Peering into the Reflector from its entrance, Victoria felt her breath catch in her throat. There must be hundreds of mirrors, she thought, amazed, hundreds of portals to get around Atlantis. She wanted to count, but she had a feeling it could take longer than the others would be willing to wait.
“There are exactly a thousand mirrors,” Athelea whispered.
Victoria grinned in thanks and walked to the third mirror on her left. It looked darker than the others, like it was soaking up the evening sunlight instead of reflecting it. Even if the Reflector had been dark, she was sure she couldn’t have missed it. I really wasn’t paying attention when I was here before, she thought.
“What’s the story about the mirror on the
left?” she asked, walking up to it.
“That is the Broken Portal,” Athelea said with a smile. “For as long as anybody can remember, it has just been a mirror. Many scholars have tried to explain why it hasn’t worked or where it might lead if it did, but nobody knows. It is one of the biggest mysteries in Atlantis.”
Victoria looked at the mirror more closely, intrigued. Her reflection stared back, like it knew a secret that Victoria never would, and she was disappointed that nobody had found out. It was strange to think that Atlantis had its own riddles, when the place was still such a mystery to the rest of the world. For a second, Victoria imagined the building bustling with people as they commuted to work or brought their children to school, and tears suddenly stung her eyes. Everything Athelea had said about the missing Atlanteans was insufficient. Victoria wanted to see them, to talk to them and hear about the lives they’d lived.
“Why aren’t they here?” Victoria whispered, shivering despite the warm evening. She knew she’d asked before, but the question was still burning within her since she’d seen the Hall of Divinity.
Athelea lowered her gaze, and for a second, Victoria wondered if she would cry, too. But Athelea simply took a deep breath and shrugged. “I don’t know why or where they have gone, or how to bring them back,” she admitted. “After all the research I’ve done, I only have a few theories remaining.”
Victoria felt her pulse speed up. The Broken Portal suddenly seemed unimportant. “Really? Like what?”
“I haven’t been able to test many of them,” Athelea disclaimed, “but I believe fate has sent you for that purpose. Together, we might finally be able to restore Atlantis and bring the Atlanteans back.”
Victoria fought a sigh. Caelan had nearly the same words, and she had no idea where everyone was getting such a ridiculous notion. “Why do you think I could, if you couldn’t? It’s not like I can go back in time and change anything, right?”
