by Sanders, Dan
Rupurt jumped onto Aldrick’s desk and said, “You must believe us. Emily is the Chosen One. Magas said so. Besides, she is the only one who can open it.”
“Rest easy, Rupurt,” Emily said. She held her forepaw up to a stream of light, revealing the red mark of Eostra. Sabina’s eyes widened. Emily spoke seriously to Aldrick, “Sabina’s right, Professor. I have no idea how to achieve this task, or why I was picked.”
Sabina knelt beside Emily and gently held her white forepaw, fingering the scar.
“Melder Whiteoak gave you this task?”
“He said if I fail, Annwyn and Earth will come under the dark shadow.”
The room went quiet. Sabina’s fingers twitched with the Seltan pendant on her neck, its green crystal flickered light across her chin.
“I agree,” Emily said. “I’m not much to look at, but I believe the worlds are worth saving, and I can’t return to my own life, much as I would like to.” She looked longingly at Noogie. “The prophecy is no help though. I can’t read it. I can feel impressions, but nothing specific.”
Daimon stepped out of the shadows and bowed slightly to Sabina. “We hope you can help us decipher it. Aldrick spent the past few days regaling us with great tales of your abilities.”
Aldrick cleared his throat.
“Really, me? How, Uncle?”
“The prophecy manuscript is in an obscure language. I know this was a love in your early studies and thought you could help.”
“That’s very kind, Uncle. I don’t think my knowledge is sufficient, but we must…” Sabina didn’t finish her thought. “Show me the document.”
Emily opened the cylinder as she had in Lupi’s tree-home. Once again it glowed an incandescent orange, and the same surge of joy and friendship crept over her, but this time with greater urgency. She lifted the manuscript to Sabina. She spread it open on Aldrick’s desk.
“I never thought I would live to see a prophecy come to pass. The seers of Wellwyn left a few prophecies but many say they have little insight into the real events of the modern world.”
“Please, Miss Sabina, can you help?” Noogie flew next to Sabina, who leaned onto her elbows and studied the text. Lupi resumed her place on the windowsill. Sabina did not notice when Daimon laid his CBlade on the desk next to her.
“This certainly is an ancient language. See these diagrams and small drawing constructs…” Sabina twisted her hair in her forefingers. After some time she looked up to see nobody had moved.
“This is in the hand of the seers of Wellwyn,” she continued. “It was their preferred semiotic structure, designed to confuse the normal language syntax and symbolic meaning.”
She fingered the Seltan necklace, the line of her mouth thinning. “There is a problem…” Her voice trailed away in thought.
Lupi flew over to the desk. She said to Sabina, “Can you please make sense.” Lupi turned to Aldrick. “Does she always talk like this?”
Sabina seemed not to hear the barb. Aldrick smiled at Lupi and said, “Afraid so.”
“I can make out a few words. See, there are a number of words frequently used. The word ‘circle’; ‘chosen one’; twin; harp; kettle; dagger…”
“Did you say dagger?” Daimon said.
Lupi laughed and patted his shoulder. “Settle soldier, that’s not a call to war just yet.”
“That’s not what I meant. Professor, could it be referring to the Adros Dagger? Magas said it will be important in shaping the future of our worlds.”
“Mmm, probably not. I think Magas meant the Adros Dagger will be used to find new Lore discoveries between the Twin Worlds.”
“Why would somebody want to steal it?” Daimon said.
“Steal the Dagger?” Sabina said, her emerald eyes glancing at Aldrick.
“Unfortunately, the Dagger has been stolen,” Aldrick said.
“Excuse me, Sabina,” said Emily. “We should stay focused on the prophecy. We must find out what to do next.”
“Do you know what such power is capable of?” Sabina paced the room, banging her hand on the credenza, knocking vials of coloured liquids onto the stone floor. “I work with the multi-world Lore masters. They recently perfected two way travel between the worlds.”
“Binny, relax.” Aldrick patted her wrist. “We will find those responsible. Perhaps Daimon is right and the two are connected. A dagger with that power could influence the outcome of this struggle.”
Sabina ignored Aldrick. “All those years with Earthlings coming from Earth and not being able to see their world. We could finally travel to the Earth world; maybe even send them back. Imagine the possibilities. I was going to—”
“Sabina, there is another reason for concern,” Aldrick interrupted. “We can’t rule out the political motivations behind this theft which may affect the aims of the confederation. The Dagger must be found and those responsible must be held to account before the upcoming vote.”
Sabina grabbed the prophecy from the desk and held it to the light. “The missing words seem to be left out deliberately. Perhaps it has something to do with the foreign fabric used.”
“What do you mean?” Emily said.
“It has a pseudo-crystalline structure woven into the fabric.”
Emily hopped forward and placed her paws onto the desk, “I don’t know if this helps, but I feel things from the prophecy. Mostly music fills my head, but sometimes I feel urgency and longing, a sadness that makes my heart ache. As if it’s telling a story and gets to sad parts, over and over again.”
“Really?” Sabina closed her eyes. Concentration furrowed her brow. After a moment she huffed in disappointment and turned directly to Emily. It was the first time Emily was struck and intimidated by Sabina’s green gaze. Sabina came close and gently wrapped her fingers around the back of Emily’s furry head. She tasted the sweet smell from Sabina’s breath.
“Hold still,” Sabina said.
Before she could ask what the strange girl meant, Emily felt an itching at the edge of her mind. The room swirled, fading in and out, and finally all Emily saw was a blazing green, boring at the door to her mind. Sabina’s glance held her firm. With a mighty effort Emily concentrated her will and kept the door shut, scared of such an unwanted intrusion. Surely it couldn’t come from somebody meant to help her. In a corner of her mind, she felt stronger, as though some unseen force gently coached her to focus her thoughts. Had Magas taught her this? Whimpering, Emily yelled at the intruder to get out. She scraped her paws at her nose. Suddenly the probe went limp and the room took form again. Rupurt’s black pearly eyes and blue muzzle filled her vision.
“What are you doing to her?” Lupi yanked Sabina’s arm, her wings buzzing as she hovered near the tall woman’s face. Daimon glared at Sabina.
“No harm done.” Sabina turned to Aldrick who was whispering to his assistant. “Just trying to find out exactly what Emily was feeling so I could understand the makeup of the script.”
“It was wrong of you to force yourself into Emily’s mind,” chided Aldrick. “I’ve told you before, it’s bad manners.”
“Bad manners?” Lupi said. “It goes against everything Eostra and the Lore believe. Don’t mistake good intent for personal harm. You’re unbelievable.”
Sabina shrugged, her mind solving the puzzle before her. “Uncle, I can’t connect with the document the same way. Can you?”
Aldrick stared at Sabina, shaking his curly head in disappointment. Sabina looked around at the other scared and hurt faces, and threw her arms up in resignation. “Oh, all right. Sorry Emily. I was just trying to help. Anyway Uncle, I wouldn’t worry about this one; she is strong. And her connection with the land is powerful, especially for an Earth being.”
“Was that so difficult?” Lupi said sarcastically.
Aldrick continued, “No Binny, the document is impervious to my mental connection. Only Emily seems to have this connection. Perhaps the crystal is a living part of the document and the rest of the message is masked by the
se crystalline elements. We need a way to see through to see what can’t be seen.”
“You make no sense at all,” Daimon said as he squinted into the document.
“I know what you mean,” Sabina said, pacing the room, messing her own hair in frustration. She hitched the sleeves of her robe up her arms.
Aldrick’s assistant scurried in with a bag of egg-shaped crystals, their mustard light filling the room.
“Hand one to each and I’ll explain on the way. I have a hunch.”
The assistant handed one to Aldrick, Daimon, Lupi and Sabina. Emily and Rupurt declined as they could see well in caves. Noogie flew onto Daimon’s shoulder.
Sabina faced the group. “These Arkonite crystals will bring light to our journey, but we have only a few hours before they need recharging from their mother stone.”
“Don’t touch anything. We enter an area where few beings have set foot,” Aldrick warned.
“Great, trouble follows me everywhere,” Lupi sighed.
Daimon flicked her wings and laughed. She smiled, swooped around his head and tugged his golden hair.
“Stop it you two,” Aldrick grumbled as he strode through the door.
Aldrick led the group down a winding corridor and swirling staircase. Emily’s feet slapped against the polished stone floors. Bubbles of light from their Arkonite crystals bobbed against the faded orange walls. Emily’s long shadowy ears were jumpy companions walking on the walls.
Lupi and Noogie became stressed the deeper they travelled. A smell of sulphur and acid burned their nostrils. Sabina was attentive to Aldrick, offering a cloth to wipe his brow when he frequently slumped out of breath on the cold stone path.
Emily stopped and rubbed her sore head. Part of her was excited at the thought of somebody as smart as Sabina helping her solve the riddle of the prophecy. Perhaps she could also help Daimon develop a connection with the land so he could use his CBlade.
As they progressed deeper into the tunnels, the stone floor gave way to sandy loam, sometimes muddy from the drips of underground water falling from the ceiling. Emily felt they were being watched. She saw red dots staring up at her from the ground before they disappeared back into the muddy floor. After nearly an hour they arrived at a small cavern with four crystal stone doors.
“Let’s hope what we seek is through that door,” Aldrick whispered, pointing to the second red door. He signalled to the group. “Quiet, I don’t want to disturb the keepers of these vaults.”
“Who else would be here?” Daimon asked. He rested his hand on his blue blade and peered into the shadows.
“The Zerali mud people have claimed passage of the lower earth. They are mean-spirited beings who seek complete dominance of the lower realms. There is an agreement that these tombs will remain untouched, in exchange for free passage across these underground lands. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop them from hindering our activities or selling our whereabouts to the highest bidder.”
Emily hissed to Aldrick, “I have felt us being watched…” She didn’t want to finish in case it made them real.
“We must be quick, Binny,” Aldrick whispered. “Our presence may soon be known by our enemies.”
“Are there dead people here?” Daimon said. Noogie flapped her wings and bobbed her beak.
“Through the other doors,” Aldrick whispered, pressing his hands on two circles engraved in the red door, “lie the personal artefacts of important people on Annwyn. Many are previous Hawkmoth Academy masters and some are powerful Lore masters, including a few Melders, who don’t want their treasures known. This door conceals lost and forgotten artefacts that some consider useless and others consider dangerous.”
The door briefly glowed a faded coral before sliding open on floating hinges. The air was stale in the room and all light was sucked from their stones. Emily relied on heightened hearing and feelings to make her way. The room seemed much too large for the two long wooden desks, scattered with manuscripts and crystals.
“This doesn’t look impressive,” Lupi said flicking the pages of a book.
“Refrain from touching the artefacts.” Sabina scowled. “About thirty years ago, the vaults were broken into and many treasures stolen. I hope what we seek is still here.”
Sabina took the manuscript from Lupi and laid it flat on the table. She picked up a discarded crystal, laid it on a page and tried to read the script through the crystal. She exhaled an annoyed ‘humf’, before progressing to the next coloured stone. Eventually the stones ran out and so did Sabina’s patience.
“It’s useless. The stones reveal nothing. The one I sought has been stolen. We’re defeated already.”
Lupi and Daimon slumped in defeat. Only the edges of their bodies could be made out in the darkened room.
“Our lights are fading,” Aldrick said. “We cannot stay here, else we be swallowed by the darkness of these realms.” He picked up Sabina’s pack.
As Daimon rose, his blade swung on his hip and struck an object on the floor, flinging it against the wall under the table. Rupurt fetched the small artefact. Sabina took it and held it close to her fading light stone. It was a pair of glasses with a single round crystal sphere in place of an ordinary flat lens. The other lens was empty. “These are just broken glasses, Uncle.”
“Not broken, Binny. I have seen another pair similar to this. My friend, Professor Sashiel of the Jalpari has one. I think this is the seer-stone you were seeking.”
Emily hopped forward and gently took the rimmed glasses from Aldrick’s hand. She felt more useful now she was comfortable with her new body. She held the crystal over the manuscript. For a moment her whiskers smiled before fading in disappointment.
“I felt something from this object, and when I hold it to the script I see missing pictures that Sabina mentioned. But I can’t read them. Sabina, can you try?”
Sabina pulled the glasses onto her nose. She adjusted them to balance with the weight of the one-sided crystal lens. Everybody huddled around her, their faces so close that Emily could smell Lupi’s breath, like the purest of air and honey. Her nose twitched.
Sabina spoke her thoughts as she read the prophecy with the seer-stone glasses perched at the end of her nose. “The crystal changes the light refraction embedded in the manuscript, and allows me to connect with it mentally. It’s incredible. Words form on the script once I connect.”
“But what’s it say?” Lupi said impatiently.
“Settle,” said Daimon. “Give her a chance.”
Sabina ignored the whispers and continued. “I can read scattered words forming sentences. It changes the closer I look, as though there are things it doesn’t want the reader to see yet.”
Lupi flew to the table and sat cross-legged. The lights from the crystals bobbed shadows on her spiky hair.
“Yes,” Sabina said, suddenly excited. “A whole sentence, and… and nearly a whole paragraph. There are words missing but…”
“Tell us what it says before it disappears again.”
“The words refer to a circle. I don’t understand what they mean by a circle. They speak as if it is a living thing, but in none of the historical recordings is there a symbol of such a circle. The closest references I have are the Alaswen symbols of light and energy; the five pointed pentagram surrounded by a circle. But this is more specific when referring to the Circle prophecy. Listen:
“From the Twin Worlds will the Circle form
To find what has been lost,
To bind what has been loosed.
What once was six
Will join as one.
In finding each other, and their inner self,
With gifts and artefacts waiting their time,
Harmony will rein the Elements so wild,
Earth, Water, Fire and Air,
In — bay
—— Egg will finally —“
“It’s as though they are speaking of things as beings,” Daimon said, his face close to Sabina.
“Gone,” Sabina said
, frustrated. She looked at Daimon as though registering his presence for the first time, and smiled, impressed by his idea. He smiled sheepishly.
“Well done, Sabina,“ Emily said. “But what did it mean by the six will join as one?”
“Maybe a group or nations,” Aldrick said. “Perhaps it is a reference to the Confederation, six nations coming together.”
Lupi said, “But Aldrick, there are many more nations in the confederation now.”
“Not when this was written three hundred years ago.”
“True, true,”Lupi said, “but if they have come together, why so long for the rest of the prophecy to come to light? I’ve been carrying that thing for half my life. Surely something would happen before now?”
“We are not working to normal concepts of time,” Sabina said. “This is Elemental time. It clearly refers to harmonising the elements. I think this is tied up with the rumours of the dark one spreading from the Abandoned Lands.“
“Surely, you don’t mean–” Lupi said.
“I don’t know anything for sure,” Sabina said, standing. “But it does make sense. If the rumours are true, then Eostra has to respond. Perhaps Magas is right and Emily has been called to defeat Gorgos. Aldrick was right; we must find the other half of the seer-stones.”
“We need to go,” Emily spurted to the group.
“Emily,” Rupurt said, “what’s the matter?”
“The prophecy spoke to me. We must hurry. She–I think it’s a ‘she’–will reveal more in time, but for now we must get to Ibendari.”
The group stared at Emily and then looked to Aldrick for direction. He scratched his greying curls and said, “Listen to her. We have learned all we can for now. Let’s move on.” He rushed to the door. “Take the glasses and hurry.”
They scuffled through the cramped tunnels as fast as the fading light stones could show their way. Emily felt the watching presence increase, dripping with annoyance and opportunity.
“I saw something in the floor Emily,” Noogie Thoughtspoke ahead in the caves with Daimon. “Be careful.”
“Thanks, you too.”
