Aurum and Dios felt heaviness when they were under Pina Tuvo’s attack. Dios was already losing weight over the ordeal of the week. Aurum faced Nase and asked, “Can you teach Dios how to not feel pain?”
“I would have to extend my ability to him and that would kill me at this point. We are all barely hanging on.” Nase wanted to help but he was also weakened by the energy that was oppressing everyone else. “I need an elder bark to enhance my power. I can help him if I had one of those.”
“What the heck is an elder bark?” Felip asked. Aurum raised her hand because she knew the answer. “Fine, Miss Know-it-all, what is it?”
“The elder bark is a bark from an elder tree. It has to be at least a thousand years old. The older the tree, the more powerful magic it would hold.” The rest of them laughed at how Aurum beams when she is able to answer a question properly.
“She is such a magic maniac, isn’t she?” Cullen asked Vester who was quiet as usual. They knew he was projecting, trying to gain information from outside the walls. He was trying to cloak by asking us to talk a lot around him. If Pina Tuvo tried to look at them with his mind’s eye, he would see that everyone was talking and assume that Vester was just listening to them. But he was reaching outside of the camp and trying to see if there was anyone there who were looking for them.
“Estelia to Vester? Are you even awake?” Aurum asked.
Vester opened his eyes slowly. “I’m still sleepy.” The question and the answer were code words in order to prevent anyone listening in to figure out what they were trying to do. Aurum was waiting for Vester to say I’m awake which meant someone was outside the camp is capable to rescuing them.
“Tomorrow then,” Aurum answered softly, each time she said it the others looked like they were about to give up. "The sun always breaks the darkness, remember?” That part of the story always gave her hope. She used it now to keep the hopes up of everyone in the room.
Renmar snarled at her. “You say that when in fact you know that what we are doing is never going to work. The guards won’t even let us pee outside without someone watching us. What makes you think they would open up the gates to anyone outside asked to take a look inside this place?”
“Just because you have resigned yourself to staying here doesn’t mean the rest of us would have to follow suit.” Dios talked back at Renmar who smirked at the prince.
“You don’t like the fact that in Nevernight you are equal to me, don’t you? You want to go back to your castle and lord over all the people like your dirty ancestors did!”
“Are you fully brainwashed now?” Aurum shook her head in dismay. “All of us are Estelians. Our families lived there for thousands of years. We are not Earthens. Those people who believe that they are Earthens probably just hate the monarchy and are trying to bring it down. They want to rule the kingdom so they are pretending that it’s theirs in the first place.”
“You are the one whose vision and memory is distorted. If you fools didn’t resist the training, your mind would be enlightened by now.” Renmar got up and walked away from the group. He sat down on the meditation mat and began to hum.
“Should we leave him here when it’s time to go?” Felip liked to joke when the mood was heavy. It was one of his strengths but often also a weakness.
The weeks passed and the meditation training came to an end. Each one of them was able to pass after they did a mind-reading session with Pina Tuvo. The five guys were asked to come to the main training room while Aurum was asked to go to the personal training area of Pina.
“Don’t give him attitude. You have to remember your training.” Nase had been teaching all of them for the past weeks how to block thoughts of escaping and to simulate the mindset of someone whose will has been broken.
Whenever they were outside of their room, they were all very lethargic. But inside their room, they used Nase’s ability to talk with each other and gather their energy for the real battle. Once they were trained to do various things, they would have to endure it.
Cullen told them of a dream that he had which disturbed all of them. “Someone in this room is going to die. I don’t know who it is but it’s what my dream told me.”
Everyone including Renmar was very interested in that because no one wanted to die. They wanted to be free and are willing to take the risks for that but it was far from their goal to be remembered as a hero. “Heroes die. I don’t want to die.” Renmar said adamantly.
“No one is dying. A seer can only see a part of the future.” Nase explained it to them. “If we do things differently, then there is a chance that the future will change.” He looked at Cullen and said, “The fact that you told us about what would happen would not either cause it to change or make it happen faster.”
Cullen was dumbstruck by that information, “I have never really told anyone apart from my mother so I never had to deal with this kind of situation before.” He was very apologetic.
“Knowing is being more prepared than not having any idea what is coming. We have a limited view of our future. But if we can get Cullen to see some of it, we can prepare for the worst.” Aurum was always very optimistic.
She was worried that she was too optimistic for her own good.
Standing in front of the door that leads into the private meditation room of Pina Tuvo was making her regret the positive front she made with the guys. She was clearly out of her element in the NEO youth camp. Nevernight was a bedtime story for her. Godsgrave was not even her own hometown. She didn’t want to be an Earthen and she didn’t have the abilities that the Estelians had. She was just very interested in machines and how steam punk works. She wanted to be able to wield some kind of magic. But for her it was not meant to be.
Whatever Pina Tuvo wanted from her, she would have to pretend that she was completely under his control. Otherwise, their plans would fail before they even start.
Chapter 7: Top Class Inventor
Pina Tuvo was standing in the center of the quiet room when Aurum entered. He was looking up from the skylight and he had an air of mystery around him. He didn’t look like a crazed ethnic group leader. He was just a big and pensive man basked in the moonlight.
“Welcome, Aurum.” She was a bit startled when he spoke because he wasn’t even looking at her. “Your mind is very noisy right now.” He gave the answer to her silent inquiry.
“Why did you ask me to come here?” She was old enough to fear for her purity around a man like him.
“You have nothing to fear from me, Aurum. In fact, Godsgrave might be the safest place in all of Nevernight for you.”
Aurum voiced out her confusion, “Why would I be in danger?” Apart from the fact that megalomaniacs with a massive delusion of grandeur like you is keeping me from going back to my family.
“Aurum, you are a rare creature in this place.” Aurum was afraid that he had found out that she was a girl. “You are a figure of legend, of a prophecy.”
“What prophecy?” Aurum knew he was a crazy person and as many of them are, going against them would set them off. Without anyone to come to her aide, she had to indulge his delusion.
“You are the shining dawn that would come from the darkness. And you would raise the flags of the fallen tribes of Nevernight. You are the chieftain we have all been waiting for.”
“Wait, aren’t you the chieftain? I can’t be a chieftain. I am a woman!” As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Aurum knew she was done for.
“Our people didn’t care about gender when it came to who would lead us. If the gods we worship says to pick the strongest, that tribe chooses a chief who is the most powerful of them all. If the god the tribe worships likes the most cunning, then they pick the wealthiest one who was able to con the most of their own tribe. Whatever is asked of us, the person who best embodies that trait is our leader.”
Aurum couldn’t’ help but ask, “Then why would you follow a prophecy when you can just choose the strongest, most cunning and I don’t know, the most hands
ome one.”
Pina Tuvo’s laugh was deep yet bright. He wiped a tear from his eyes and then faced Aurum. “Our preferences can be misleading that is why we have people like you who shine a light on our people.” Pina Tuvo walked toward a long rope hanging from the ceiling. He pulled on it and Aurum could hear steam coming out from the walls and she feared for her life.
“I already told you, there is nothing to worry about when you are with me.” The sound of the steam gave way to the clucks and crackles of a machine that was opening something. Then the wall split apart. Pina Tuvo flicked his fingers and the torches in the long hallway lit up.
Aurum hesitantly walked toward the same direction Pina Tuvo went in. When he got to the end he placed his hand on top of the wall and it opened. “How did you do that?” She couldn’t deny being fascinated.
“The door is made from steam punk technology but it opens when the mind of the person who wants to enter bears no ill will.” Aurum was sure it was to prevent thieves from getting what was on the other side.
Aurum gasped when she saw that it was something even more familiar than her own bedroom. It was a workshop that had tools and small parts of something that was clearly abandoned halfway through. “What is this place?”
“There was once a great alchemist, even better than all of Estelians and Earthens who set forth to create a machine that would allow intergalactic travel. He managed to escape this world with his son but the machine blew up. All that was saved was the information he packed away. The chieftains had kept this secret for a very long time. People in the island had to pretend to be backwater dwellers when in fact; we have the most advanced knowledge in magic and steam punk technology.”
“Why do you have to do that?” Aurum was never the kind to keep such an achievement to herself.
“It is because we were told to wait. We were granted the knowledge that was so dangerous that fighting with the Estelians further would have caused this technology to fall into the wrong hands.”
“And by wrong hands, you mean the royal family.” Aurum confirmed it.
Pina Tuvo nodded and opened up another door. Inside was a machine that looked for like a guillotine than an intergalactic machine. “This machine would allow our people to be free. That was what that inventor had said. But he didn’t get any support from the chieftains then. They didn’t have any reason to leave such a wonderfully fertile land. And so he left just before the Estelians attacked Nevernight.”
“That makes him a coward then.” Aurum said with a bitter tone.
“Protecting who and what you love is not cowardice. It’s is just what is necessary.” Aurum had a feeling that the leader was talking about his own experience and not the inventor’s.
“Why are you showing me all this?” She loped back to her original question. “I am not the person in your so-called legend.”
“A legend is a story people create about real people’s exaggerated greatness. But a prophecy is a promise. It is the promise that brings us to you, Aurum.” He gestured to the machine and the workshop. “These things are for you to inspect and use. You can come and go you please.”
“All I have to do is make sure to build you this crazy contraption?”
“It is your gift, is it not?” Pina Tuvo knew about her ability more than the others. He was able to see her memories, those that she was not able to seal away.
“I will make your stupid machine but you have to do something for me in exchange, three in fact.”
“As you command, my chief.” Pina Tuvo bowed in front of her like a soldier would.
“First, I want my friends to help me. The more hands and brilliant minds with me would help me figure out how to fix this faster.” Pina Tuvo nodded in agreement. “Second, take off our bracelets. Lastly, make sure that you free all of us when we fix this machine.”
“Friendship, freedom, and the future, your wishes are quiet exotic for someone your age.” He looked intrigued.
“Say you agree or I am walking back to my room right now.” Aurum had to be firm. If the big baboon figures out she is trying to be vague about it, she was toast.”
“Agreed.” Pina Tuvo promised.
“All words. I need a blood pact.” She has met people who came into his workshop who were his blood brothers. When she asked what it was, her father said that they made a blood contract with each other in order to never betray each other.
Pinatubo’s laughter was even more dangerous sounding that the wood slicer in her home. He slashed his right hand and gave the small knife to Aurum. “Well, then? Are you not going through with it?”
Aurum had no choice but to cut her own palm as little as possible. She felt not just warm blood coming from the hand that shook hers but an energy exchange as well.
“What did you do?” Aurum took her hand away.
“I am the keeper of the prophecy and now it is you. My duty is now over.” Pina Tuvo smiled at her. “I shall let you do your work, master creator.”
She didn’t want to say no to him. The machine was begging her to fix it. She’s always been able to see how something I broken.
She had always loved puzzles just like what her mom made for her in the past. This new task was going to help all of them escape. Not for a second did she believe that Pina Tuvo would keep his word. But if they had the workshop and make the machine work. Fit for intergalactic travel or not, the workshops meant supplies and time to perfect their plan.
“One intergalactic machine, coming right up.”
Chapter 8: A Glitch In The System
“Are you sure that it’s okay that all of us change to our training?” Dios wondered why the fix of them were being moved.
Renmar also complained. “Why are you including me? I can’t leave with you guys. I am staying in Nevernight.”
“We know.” Aurum faced Renmar. “That is why it is very important for you to be there while we are making that thing from scratch.” Aurum had a plan to make Renmar a double agent. It was to gain time to convince him that he should leave with the rest of them.
“So I would be left behind to be the master creator?” Renmar was ecstatic. Aurum knew it could go south for the ambitious friend so she wanted to make sure to keep him in line. If he was part of the plan, they could control what information he can leak out if ever. And it was beneficial to the ambition Renmar if they leave and he was the only one who could make the machine work.
Nase winked at Aurum when they exchanged thoughts. Weeks of training with Nase had helped Aurum learn how to project at most a couple of words towards a specific mind. This particular time, she said, “Pathetic idiot.” talking about Renmar’s current delusion of grandeur.
Everyone was visibly shaken once she showed them what they were all supposed to work on. “This is some crazy scientist stuff right here!” Cullen whistled when he saw the machine.
“Can someone really travel to another galaxy through this machine?” Vester was fascinated with the idea that one could transport a human body across galaxies.
“We can’t really know for sure until we study everything that is in here. Then we can learn it together.” Aurum looked at Nase who was already looking defeated.
“We know you love to read. Don’t even pretend that you don’t want to do it.” The whole group had already mastered the skill that Nase had painstakingly taught them. He called it One Mind, which is an ability shared by a group of individual that functions as a squad. Their squad was able to hear each other’s thoughts slightly and can feel the emotions of each other. Having Nase, Cullen and Dios in their group made the One Mind details clearer.
They all gathered the notes and diagrams around and arranged everything in order for Nase to read them. The rest of them sat down on the floor and meditated. Once they were able to reach Nase’s shared mind, they were able to see and hear what he was reading and saying.
Some of the details were too graphic for Cullen and Dios so they were gagging in disgust during some of the notes about experimentation.
As Nase read, Aurum realized that the machine was not something that was made to take the people out of Nevernight for their safety. It was a death chamber chair. The tribes wanted to take away the worst kind of people from their land by making sure they could not come back. It was a one-way ticket and that was why the master creator was never able to come back. She wondered what world would be so horrible that someone like the Earthens would send their sociopaths there.
After the mind-reader broke contact, the rest of them lied down on the floor. If anyone asks how hard sharing the mind of one person is, then tell them it is so hard that your brain would get cramps. They were all massaging their temples and in tears by the time they were freed from the link.
“That is literally TMI. I do not wish to do something like that again in the future. “I would much rather learn everything first hand.”
Aurum rolled her eyes at Dios who looked like he didn’t read a single book from the palace library. “Says that nerd who needs to read some more.”
“Sister, I don’t think this machine is meant to save people.” Vester was not as impressed anymore. Learning that it was a death chamber chair did not sit well with the passive opera singer.
“The world isn’t always full of good and noble things. Good must exist with the bad as if it is some cosmic joke. But we can make this machine, gain our freedom and maybe free the people in this camp too.”
“I prefer going through the gates please. I don’t want to end up on some weird place in the middle of an unknown galaxy.” Renmar explained.
“You are just too lazy to relearn a whole new culture.” Felip said to Renmar who nodded.
The Wonders of Estelia- Aurum’s Shining Dawn Page 3