The Elemental Read online

  Elara frowned at Neptune, suspicious.

  “Oh?” said Miela, also struggling to maintain a neutral face as the Professor mentioned the very year of the attack that they were trying to prevent.

  Did he know something?

  Miela glanced at Neptune, who was smiling, satisfied that he managed to capture his audience’s attention. He chuckled lightly at their serious faces. “I’m just saying, the possibility of Pi is endless. Maybe you should try looking there for your answers.”

  “Do you think that dates have a correlation with the numbers?” asked Noiro.

  Neptune shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not going to spoon-feed you the answers, Noiro. You should know that by now,” he said, a hint of mirth playing in his voice.

  Noiro grunted, but respected Neptune’s method.

  “But that’s the dilemma with looking at Pi. Anything is possible. There could be ties, and there could just be coincidences,” Neptune continued. “What did you say this was for, again?”

  “A side project,” Noiro asserted. “I also just wanted another excuse to see you again.”

  Neptune smiled at Noiro.

  “Ah. It’s nice to know that you still enjoy the company of an old man like me, Noiro,” Neptune chuckled. “Now, tell me, how is your current assignment for the Royal Family going? I dare say, your subject of choice has me absolutely captivated.”

  “Thank you, Neptune.” Noiro smiled sheepishly. “Elara and I are actually working on it together.” He gestured to Elara, who sat perched at the edge of her seat.

  “We’re still at the very beginning,” assured Elara firmly, pushing the thought of the completed research book from the future to the back of her mind.

  Professor Neptune nodded.

  The group stared at the man as he sat in his seat, his head lifted up towards the ceiling, deep in thought.

  The sound of gears suddenly shifting into place and clicking fervently pierced through the silence. Elara tilted her head towards the source of the sound, which seemed to be coming from the apparatus Argon was examining earlier.

  Argon had his hands up at chest level, as if to prove he hadn’t touched the delicate device. “I don’t know what happened,” he blurted out over the growing clicking noise emitting from the device. “I was watching the movement, and suddenly…”

  Neptune smiled. “That’s one of my own inventions.”

  “What is it?” asked Argon.

  “It’s an Element Dial. Still a work in progress, really.” Professor Neptune proudly strode over to the device, gently nudging a piece of wood back into place. “I’m working on developing a model to track movements of elemental energy.”

  “Elemental energy?” echoed Noiro, intrigued.

  “Yes,” said Neptune. “You see, we have sundials placed all over Polaris, which gives us a way to keep track of time using shadows cast by the dial. We also have the lesser known moon dials, which tracks planetary movements. Both useful, but quite predictable after you track patterns and movements long enough.

  “I realized that while we have dials to track objects moving in space, we don’t have any dials in place to track objects on Earth.” Professor Neptune smiled. “Even more so, how amazing would it be to track the energy of the elements? To predict the patterns of elements? Their movements? What if we could push the boundaries of energy further? Think of the power we could harness…” the Professor trailed off in his wonderment. “I want to push the boundaries of what we know about the Earth’s power.” He paused, waiting for someone to prompt him to continue speaking. He seemed to rather enjoy the attention he was getting from the group.

  “Marvelous work,” Noiro remarked, examining the dial closely.

  Neptune chortled, satisfied that he had the prompt he was looking for.

  “I’ve managed to come up with a way to identify elemental energy, but I can’t figure out a way to measure its movements,” admitted Neptune. “I’m sure I’ll figure it out, though.”

  “You always do,” Noiro assured him.

  The Professor smiled at Noiro, and then turned to Argon, gazing at him curiously. “It’s strange,” he murmured. “It’s never done that before. You sure you didn’t touch it?”

  Argon raised an eyebrow at the Professor’s fixated gaze.

  Professor Neptune narrowed his eyes, and then turned away, looking back at the Elemental Dial. It was a delicately designed model, with metal crafted so finely that it looked like gleaming strands of thread that held up the models of elemental bodies: a deep green emerald encased in a layer of clay, a sparkling sapphire suspended in a shallow glass sphere of water, a small diamond balanced perfectly on a thin stand, and a raw, uncut ruby embedded into a glowing ember. The four stones, once solitary and immobile, were slowly pulsating, as if they were almost vibrating, yet their movements were so fluid that it was difficult to believe that it was a simple model constructed out of wood and stone. At the base of the model was a large, thin marble slab, with measurements and plot lines carved delicately into its surface.

  “Why is it going off like that?” asked Elara curiously. “Are you sure it’s never done that before?”

  “Never,” Professor Neptune shook his head. “It’s curious. I’ll need to take a closer look later.” He glanced at Argon again, furrowing his brow.

  “It’s marvelous,” said Noiro, still examining the device. “I’m sure this is something the Royal Family would be quite interested in. What do you think, Elara?”

  “I think so,” Elara agreed, “It would definitely be a useful—”

  “I’ve just remembered,” Neptune interrupted the two uneasily. “I have to start to leave for an engagement.” He moved himself in between Noiro and the dial, blocking it from his view.

  Noiro folded his arms hesitantly. The shift in his old friend’s demeanor had certainly caught him off guard. “We have to get going as well.” He stood up, taking the hint. “Thank you for your time, Professor.”

  “Any time,” Neptune chirped, clapping a hefty hand against Noiro’s back. “Bye, now!” All traces of his friendly manner were wiped clean off his face, and he ushered them quickly out the door.

  “Well. That was odd,” said Miela, wiping her forehead as they clambered out of the cavern’s steps. Elara nodded in agreement.

  “Ah, it’s natural of him to be wary of prying eyes,” said Noiro. “Scholars are usually quite protective of their work, especially when they’re still in the process of researching something new. If he makes a breakthrough, I’m sure he wouldn’t want to share credit with anyone else, nor risk someone else claiming that his work was their own.”

  “Hmm,” Elara murmured. As curious as their visit was, she could understand why Professor Neptune was held with such high respect. She thought back to his explanation on the House of Wisdom, and his leading them through their conversation to draw connections between knowledge, civilization, and power. The significance of the Old Archive seemed more momentous now. She turned her head back to the cavern’s entrance, the gravity of the world’s knowledge encapsulated in the Earth’s belly almost drawing her back in.

  Indeed, Professor Neptune was a thought-provoking scholar. She could have never imagined herself be so engaged in a conversation about Pi, and yet, the Professor gripped them into a captivating lecture surrounding Pi and its mysteries.

  She turned her attention to Noiro.

  “Insightful visit,” remarked Noiro as he clambered out behind the group. He slipped on the last step, almost knocking his head onto the stony platform. Argon, who had emerged just seconds before, turned instinctively and grabbed Noiro’s arm, stopping him from hitting the floor. “Thank you,” Noiro grunted, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. Argon inclined his head at the man, saying nothing.

  The group stood at the mouth of the cavern. The wind whistled through the rocks, ringing in Elara’s ears.

  Elara gasped suddenly. “The codes!” She whipped her head around back to the cavern’s opening. “We left the
copy of the codes with the Professor!”

  “It’s okay,” Noiro reassured. “We can go get them back—”

  “What if he figures it out? What if—”

  “That’s why we went down there to begin with,” Noiro argued gently. “Besides, wouldn’t it be a good thing if he figured them out? We can’t seem to make any sense of them, ourselves.”

  “I think he’ll have a hard time figuring the codes out,” said Miela with a smirk. She gestured her head towards the path, silently ushering the group towards the pathway leading back towards the city. “I swiped them off of his desk.”

  Elara breathed a sigh of relief as Miela flashed them a handful of crumpled up papers from her pocket. “You’re brilliant, Miela,” she said, beaming at her friend. Even though they visited Professor Neptune for his help with the codes, the thought of having a copy of the codes with someone else made her stomach squirm.

  “I am brilliant.” Miela chuckled. “Come on. Let’s go back to Noiro’s.”

  The group walked along the pathway, following the way back to the heart of Polaris. Elara welcomed the growing warmth around her, which was far more comfortable than the chilly air that blew through the Old Archive caves.

  The caves were well-hidden, almost impossible to find if one didn’t know what to look for. Hidden in the outskirts of the coast, at the edge of a thick forest that surrounded the city of Polaris, the caves of the Old Archive were quite a trek from the main city’s entrance. The pathway from the forest was covered in small shrubberies and lined with thick, leafy trees, their branches growing and interlocking with one another, blocking out the sunlight the deeper the path went into the forest. Eventually the trees cleared, and the forest’s path turned from dirt to stony rubble and beach sand. High cliffs lined the coastline, and cold, icy winds gusted across the grey, foamy sea. The cave’s entrance was etched into the side of one of the cliffs, shrouded by overgrown bushes and thick, long grass which blew in the wind, and further camouflaged by large stones and rocks. To the untrained eye, the cave’s entrance appeared to be a shallow nook etched into the cliff’s side. The only indicator that marked the cave’s presence was the small symbol of Polaris etched into a stone in the center of the cave’s entrance.

  A few paces into the cavern, cloaked in the dark depths of the cavern’s walls, stood a tall stone figure of a woman. The statue was weathered with age, and the carefully carved features were faded and smooth. The woman’s long hair seeped from her head and into the rocky wall, and her flowing, stone dress was swept behind her. Her hands, stretched out before her and cupped together, cradled something in her grasp that was no longer there; her empty hands now caught the water droplets that dripped from the cave’s ceiling, wearing away at her palms. On the floor, beneath the woman’s feet, was an etched script that had eroded away with time. Elara could only ever make out the letter L.

  Elara’s mind wandered as she walked along the pathway. She wondered how Helia was doing. She couldn’t take Helia along with them on their trek to the Old Archive, lest they draw more attention to the toddler. Elara bit her lip, remembering her struggle earlier that morning; she couldn’t very well leave the toddler by herself at home, and she couldn’t bring the toddler out with her, either. Although they faced little inquiry about Helia during their time at the Guardians’ Headquarters, she did not want to take any chances and risk exposing Helia to any unwanted attention.

  Miela suggested they leave Helia with their old friend, Tami Nassah, assuring Elara that Helia would be in the best care possible while they were on their mission.

  Tami was a gentle soul, yet fierce with determination. As one of Polaris’s renowned medics, she was held with the highest regards in medical circles. She also happened to have two adorable little puppies, which had the initially hesitant Helia, reluctant to leave her mother’s side, delightfully bounding away with Tami’s puppies, her anxiety about being without her mother for a few hours completely forgotten.

  Elara was glad that Helia had her own ways of having fun, and hadn’t seemed to pay much attention to the changes around her world, compared to what her world in the future must have been like. Elara wondered what her own life looked like during Helia’s time.

  She sighed.

  There was no way to tell exactly what had happened in the future. She wished that Helia was old enough to recount her tale, or that her future self had written down clear, regular journal entries, instead of a series of codes.

  “Here we are,” said Noiro, interrupting Elara’s thoughts. They had arrived at their home earlier than she had expected. Noiro pushed open his cottage’s door, letting the group in.

  “I’m famished,” Miela stated, rubbing her belly as she walked in. “All those stairs…”

  “I think I have some sandwiches in the kitchen,” commented Noiro, leading the way to the kitchen. Miela followed, her stomach rumbling loudly.

  With Miela and Noiro gone, Argon stood awkwardly in the middle of the cottage. Other than spending most of their childhood tormenting each other, he had rarely interacted with Elara before. He glanced at her, watching as she walked over to the sitting room, plopping herself down onto one of the chairs.

  Argon frowned. He could hear Noiro and Miela chatter away in the kitchen. Elara was reaching for a book, paying no heed to the man standing in the middle of the house.

  What was he doing here?

  Argon walked over to one of the couches, setting himself down.

  Here he was, involved in an intense case with people he was unfamiliar with, and even more so, quite not fond of. He toyed with the thought of making up an excuse to leave, and save himself from an evening of forced conversations and small talk.

  “You can leave, you know,” murmured Elara, not unkindly. She could only begin to understand the predicament he was in, and knew that if the roles were reversed somehow, and she were the one in a house with people she either disliked, or didn’t know very well, that she would also be uncomfortable and awkward.

  Argon shook his head. “We need to figure out those codes,” he said. “What can I do to help?”

  Elara looked at him contemplatively. Compared to the way he initially reacted when they revealed Helia and his adamant denial, he seemed completely invested in their tasks at hand. “Well, we’re stuck on the codes for now,” admitted Elara, “so until we crack the codes and figure out what they mean, let’s try and gather every piece of information that we know so far.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” agreed Noiro, walking back into the sitting room with a plate of stacked sandwiches, followed by Miela, who was contentedly munching away on her own sandwich. He set the plate down onto the table. “It’ll be helpful to have everything we know in one place. Hold on, let me get some materials that might help us… Miela, could you give me a hand?”

  Noiro and Miela trudged up the stairs, leaving Elara and Argon alone in the sitting room once again. It was quiet, save for the small sound of Noiro scuffling about on the second floor.

  “I’d like to apologize,” Argon blurted, breaking the silence.

  Elara tilted her head curiously at the man, who was looking intently at her. “Apologize?” she repeated, surprised.

  Argon nodded, looking down at his lap for a moment. “I was…unkind earlier,” he acknowledged frankly, “when we met at the Guardians’ Headquarters. It was uncalled for. I’d like to apologize for my behavior.”

  Elara was silent.

  He continued, unwilling to carry on with the room’s silence. “And the kid…Helia,” he uttered, saying her name for the first time, “I regret the way I handled, well, everything. I’ve always been told that I don’t take surprises very well. I guess it’s true.” He rubbed the back of his head in defeat.

  “Being surprised doesn’t give you a free pass to act however you like,” Elara scolded. She hadn’t forgotten the look on Helia’s face as Argon spewed angrily at them in Miela’s office. “She’s a child, you know.”

  “I know,” Argon counte
red, his voice hardening. “And I’m trying to apologize.”

  “Does it matter? You shouldn’t treat people like that.” Her tone was sharp. She knew that he was trying to apologize, but her mind kept going back to his angry face, and then to Helia’s heartbroken one. Anger ignited inside her, and her blood boiled. “And not just Helia. Look at the way you’ve treated me, ever since we were kids! You tormented me. You were cruel. How am I supposed to respect someone who thinks it’s okay to treat people like that?”

  “You’re holding my behavior towards you when we were children against me?” Argon demanded, bewildered and angry. “We were kids! Kids fight all the time!”

  “You haven’t changed one bit.” Elara scoffed. “You still just stand there in the corner, sulking away like a little boy.”

  “You haven’t changed either,” Argon shot back. “You’re still a stubborn, insufferable know-it-all.”

  “I see you’re both getting along swimmingly, as usual,” Miela interrupted dryly as she descended the stairs, lugging along a large tray of books balanced on a giant board. Noiro trailed behind her, carrying an armful of books.

  “He’s unbearable,” Elara huffed, turning around and crossing her arms disdainfully.

  “Yeah, you’re no walk in the park, either,” spat Argon angrily.

  “Fighting like this isn’t doing anything to help,” Noiro chastised, raising his voice over the bickering. “Grow up, the two of you. We have some work to do.” He set down the books he was carrying on the table in the sitting room.

  The two begrudgingly turned their attention to Noiro as he began to organize their materials. Noiro set up a large chalkboard at the head of the room. He drew a long line, marked with some points along the line’s axis. Underneath each point, he stuck a few blank notes stacked underneath.

  “This is the timeline,” stated Noiro, pointing to the long line. “And these points represent points in time.” He pointed to the marks he drew along the line.

  Everyone nodded.

  “All right, we’ll start with the very basics,” said Noiro. “What do we know?”