by Ariane Souza
Ed sighed, impatient, and walked to where Timothy was, putting his own right pinkie finger in the water.
“Everything you see around you is like the surface of this water, all this space, and landscapes. Think about everything you know as the surface of a lake, and the hole you make in it with your finger, as a nil.” He said, still looking at the water.
“That’s what timers do. We make holes in the surface. We open these holes of nothingness that lead to other places. However, it’s not as easy as putting a finger in the water, we have to find on the surface the points that are more likely to give in, and that requires a lot of concentration and practice. Sometimes, though, there are no such points, and the surface becomes impassable. That’s what we call sealed zones, areas whose loss of flexibility turned them into difficult, almost impossible places to get out from. Areas where there are no points that give in.
Now, when you take your finger out of the water, do you see how fast the hole vanishes? How quick the surface recovers itself?” He asked, drying his finger on his cloak.
“Yes.” Timothy promptly answered.
“That’s why it takes so much energy to open nils, because the surface is always there, intending to recover, just waiting for your intervention to cease. And we have to make an effort to keep the intervention happening, to keep the overture happening so we can cross through it.”
He started walking back toward Hugo.
“That’s why your eyes are different? Because you can see the points that are most prone to give in?” Timothy asked following him.
“Yes, you can say so.” Ed was already climbing on Hugo, who was eating some fake stars from his back branches.
“We should fly over the sea. There must be an unsealed area over there.” Ed suggested, wishing to finish that conversation. Zian nodded and used his whistle again, so Hugo understood it was time to fly.
*
It was almost noon, and they had overflown Nagranto’s sea and backed to the beach many times during the morning. They even tried inspecting other parts of the city as well, while listening to Ed saying “Irc Mariesa” repeatedly. However, they got no nils. Ed lay down on Hugo’s back for a moment, sweaty and with outstretched arms as in clear fatigue, staring at the sky with the sun rays obfuscating his view. Before sitting again, Zian turned Hugo’s strings toward the beach once more, saying:
“I think we’d better back to the beach, Hugo needs to rest too. We’ve been flying for hours.”
“There’s been a while since I wasn’t beaten continually in such a short time.” Ed said, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, then he continued: “First, the dismissal from my first big singing, then Tris wanting to arrest me. And, on the day next, having to flee in such a miserable way again because of two mere timers. And now I can’t open any nil with these whole sealed zones around.” He sighed.
“About the timers system, what the amber cloak means?” Timothy asked, staring at his own reflection in the water below them. Remembering of Zian’s reaction when he saw that cloak color.
“Timothy,” Ed took another deep breath as struggling to keep patient. Still lying he turned his head to the boy and opened his piercing silver eyes toward him, saying:
“I want to make a deal with you. I don’t know for how long we are going to continue stuck in this city, flying on this dragon. It can take all day, or it can take just a few more minutes. But, in the case of being the first option, I don’t want to spend the rest of the day listening to your endless questions. So, here’s the deal: you’ll have one hour to ask me everything you want to know about Iliona, ilions, timers, Hugo, the planet, anything. And I’ll answer you. On the other hand, you will not be able to ask anything else around me forever. What do you say?”
“Forever?” Timothy repeated the word, feeling both offended and undecided because he had more questions indeed.
“Forever is too long,” Zian observed. “C’mon Ed, you would be curious too if you went to another world that you never knew it existed, with beings you never heard of. You could decrease this deadline to a week.”
“I don’t plan to be around him an entire week,” Ed replied seriously, still looking at Timothy, who was starting to feel scared with that steady gaze.
“One day,” Timothy said. “I promise not to ask anything around you for an entire day.”
“So forever means just one day for you? To me, it means ‘till the last day you live. Nonetheless, if you want to shorten your forever I’ll be glad to help.”
“Ed!” Zian protested.
“What? I’m talking about changing his memories to make him believe his forever is done.”
Despite the sun and the hot weather, Timothy felt chills down his spine.
“Is that even possible? To make someone live believing they’re already dead?” He asked.
“I just heard stories about it. But, would you like to try it?” Ed said, with a tone of whom was not kidding.
Timothy said nothing to that. And a silence grew between them, interrupted only by the sound of the wind in their clothes and the sea bellow them.
“I didn’t think you would, anyway.” He added, taking Timothy’s silence as a denial. “Zian, you clock it. I’m ready.” He announced, handing his cell phone to Zian and closing his eyes again.
“Fine, then,” Timothy said, frightened enough to argue any further.
Zian also lay down in Hugo’s back, and set one hour on Ed’s phone alarm. While Timothy sat with his legs crossed and got ready to start asking:
“We can start with the question I made just a few minutes ago, about the cloaks.”
“There are five main colors of cloaks in Timer’s order, according to the abilities chosen by the timer. White cloaks are healers; dark blue cloaks are students and teachers, amber cloaks are fighters, purple cloaks goes to the ones who are wandering between groups, learning a bit of each. And black cloaks are the ones who study everything in a most integrated way for not agreeing with these divisions. But all cloaks have a blue stripe in their sheaths, meaning any of these choices imply preparation and studying.”
“Deeply skilled fighters.” Zian was keen to highlight this information.
“What do you mean fighters?”
“They combine the timer’s techniques with whatever other fighting technique they would like,” Ed answered him.
“Why do they need to use force when they can just tell their opponent to forget?”
“First, fighting demands more than physical force, there’s a lot of self-control involved, which requires mind training. And secondly, because there are situations you can’t just concentrate and start singing to your opponent when he’s coming to attack you.”
“Hmm. Right.” Timothy said thoughtfully. Then jumped to the next question. “About the singing, how is it done for the deaf one?” He wanted to know.
“That’s finally a good question,” Ed admitted. “Well, the loud chant will not reach them. Nonetheless, music reverberates in other ways too, like vibration. We have a tool to improve this vibration we call it absorber whistle. You speak or sing wherever you want inside it, and it absorbs the words. When you blew it, the words are expelled along with their effects. So they can be heard, and felt by the skin of their listeners.”
“So, this absorber whistle is like a voice recorder?”
“You can say so. But, it doesn’t last that long. When the words within the whistle come to an end, so does it.”
“So, it’s not the case of yours, right?” He turned to Zian, remembering his orange whistle.
“Oh no, mine is an average one. I mean, not so average since it’s a whistle for dragons, but it can’t be compared with an absorber one. Nowadays, we don’t have many sower dragons in Iliona City anymore, but in other cities, where their number is higher, it’s easier to find these whistles. They are good to calm the dragons down and to teach them some commands.” Zian said.
“Plus, absorber whistles are dangerous tools. We can’t just di
stribute them to everybody. Only timers use them.” Ed remarked.
“And how do you do, to not be affected by it, while using it?”
“Not all the absorber whistles improve words vibrations. Some can just be heard and not felt. When we need it to be felt, though, the person who blows it, uses special clothes that block this vibration, and doesn’t feel any effects, therefore.” Ed explained. “And, about the singing process, we use special earphones that prevent us from hearing the words.” He had added before Timothy asked.
“Ok.” Timothy paused for a moment.
“So, there aren’t many dragons left in Iliona City anymore…” He restarted trying to link subjects. “Zian told me about another city of Iliona called Dandelion. Apart from this one and yours, what are the other towns that exist in the Iliona world?”
“We use the word ‘city’ to express larger areas than the ones you use it for. So, in Iliona there are four major territories, four major cities: Iliona City, Dandelion, Rissa, and Krombey. But there are also many smaller ones.”
“And none of them had contact with humans before?”
“Of course they had. Some of them had openly contact with humans, like Dandelion for example. Others chose to remain secret as ours was so far.”
“Dandelion practically sold their city to the humans, and it was ruined. Nowadays, Dandelion is not even a shadow of what it was once.” Zian also commented. “The most beautiful outcome of this relationship was the dandelions flowers, brought by humans, which quickly spread throughout the city. That’s where its name comes from. It’s the only place in Iliona where you can find green leaves.” Zian added, knowing Timothy would understand that last reference.
“That’s why Iliona City doesn’t want humans?”
“In part yes. Also because of an isolation idea that has endured in Iliona City since ancient times. It’s something cultural. As if living in some hidden and hard to access place was something to brag about. And the ilions of our city can be big fans of such tradition.” Ed said.
“And what do you think about this?” Timothy asked toward Zian.
“When I remember Dandelion history, I understand the fear that some ilions have of humans. On the other hand, I think tolerance is something we can always learn.” Zian answered him. “Dandelion though is not a good example of human relations in Iliona. I’m pretty sure this interchange can be positive for both sides if made with balance. In Dandelion, they say this balance has to be the basis of infiesa. Because this city was one of the first to have direct contact with humans, many words we have to describe you or our relations with you come from their vocabulary. For example, Infiesa means ties with humans.”
“Infiesa,” Timothy repeated to himself. “And do you have a word for us? I mean a word that means human being?”
“Yes, and it comes from Dandelion’s vocabulary as well. It’s Infinzy, and it means being of infinite wishes. Since infin means both being and infinite, and zy means wish.” Ed restarted answering.
“There are fake stars in Dandelion’s sky too?”
“Yes, the whole Iliona has them. It’s the only thing that can nourish us.”
“It must be boring to eat the same thing for the rest of your life.” Timothy thought aloud.
“Not at all. We make soups, candies, pies, juices, teas, and they all taste a bit different.” Ed commented.
“Would you like to try some?” Zian asked him, standing up, and reaching a fake star in one of Hugo’s branches.
He handed it to Timothy, who looked at it, suspiciously. The one Zian put in his hand was the size of a lemon, but it was black and wrinkly and smelled to nothing. “And can I just eat it like this? I mean, there’s no need to wash it or something?”
Zian smiled softly. “No, there’s no need for such things. You just have to bite it.”
He ate a little piece. It wasn’t soft as its crumpled exterior made it look. It tasted sour at first but then sweetened to become salty at the end.
“It’s not that bad,” Zian said to his grimace. “It’s just we have different palates. They taste pretty delicious to us.”
“Well, I wouldn’t want a soup of it,” Timothy said, handing the rest of the star to Zian, who ate it with one bite only.
“Do we need the nils to go to the other cities as well?” He asked, still chewing a bit. It wasn’t easy to swallow, it looked like jelly beans.
“Just if you are coming from the human world. Once in Iliona, you can go to any city you’d like, and you don’t necessarily have to use a nil to do so.”
“About nils yet, why sometimes there’s a small light before you opening them, and others, don’t? Like when you opened it at Winda’s.” Timothy asked as if checking an invisible list of queries.
“The characteristics of the nil depends on of the timer’s energy condition. To open a nil without making a sound or any spark is usually the goal of all timers because it means a high level of abilities. When a timer is too tired, though, or just doesn’t have enough energy for some other reason, there are sparks and sounds before the nil opening. I was fatigued in the Grooves Valley and stressed at Winda’s that’s why you saw that blue spark.”
“And what Irc Mariesa means? Is it a Dandelion expression too? Why you say it every time before opening a nil?”
“Irc Mariesa is an ilion expression, and it means ‘Be It.' Some words and expressions potentiate the ability of opening nils. We learn them in Timers College, but instead of saying them repeatedly, we just have to say them in the apex of our concentration. Each timer chooses the expression that fits him better. Mine, I chose Irc Mariesa.”
“Cool. The brooch in your cloak is also to potentiate your abilities?” Timothy asked, indicating Ed’s silver pin.
“Of course not,” Ed answered with his usual obviousness tone. He took it off and handed it to Timothy, who carefully touched it, and it was heavier than he had thought. “This brooch is the timer’s symbol: a crooked gear inside a broken circle. The broken circle represents the mind that’s not something perfect and straightforward as a complete circle, that’s why we represent it as a gaped hoop. The gear represents the time, which receives the pressure of the mind, and therefore becomes crooked. Altogether, the symbol means the mind protects the time. Since for us timers, it’s because of the mind that we perceive the time.”
“Deep isn’t it? And it fits all in a pin.” Zian said to Timothy’s frowning.
He gave the brooch back to Ed, without quite understanding his explanation about it.
“Anything else?” Ed asked, noticing Timothy’s sudden silence. Who was thinking about the pin yet.
“Hmm…is there something you like about humans? I don’t mean things from our world, but something in our behavior.”
Ed and Zian looked at Timothy at the same time. Even Zian felt curious to know Ed’s response:
“I like to see you trying.” He said, turning his stare to the sky again, and then closing his eyes because of its clarity.
“Trying what?” Timothy asked.
"Anything. You call it hope. Especially when it's about something very unlikely, as having your wishes turned real by someone eating your fake star. You are creatures of hope, even when the situation does not make much sense. That’s what I think both ridiculous and amusing about you.”
“Thanks, Ed,” Timothy replied a bit surprised with his answer.
“I guess I agree with him on this,” Zian said with a smile.
“There’s no reason to thank me. I did not mean it as a compliment.” He remarked, gravely.
“But I guess such observation coming from you can be taken as one,” Timothy said with a smile. After pausing a moment as wondering if he should ask the next thing he had in mind, he just put it out: “And why don’t you like being called Edgar Indigo?”
Zian looked at Timothy, startled with that name coming out from his lips. But Ed remained apparently calm:
“That’s an impertinent question. It’s none of your business.”
“But you said you would answer anything.”
“Well, life is disappointing sometimes.” He sat. “And how come you know that?” He said turning his gear eyes at him again.
“I just noticed you didn’t like when that girl in the lake called you so.”
“Are you getting to feel any unsealed area?” Zian asked toward Ed, clearly trying to change the subject because the last thing he wanted at that moment was a peevished Ed.
“If you stop talking I might feel it,” Ed said more irritated that time he knew even Timothy was aware of his full name. He cleaned his sweaty forehead with his cloak and said, “Over that broken gazebo, let’s try over there before Hugo land to rest again.” He pointed ahead as they were approaching the beach.
“But I still have some minutes left, isn’t it Zian?”
“You have ten minutes left.”
“Irc Mariesa,” Ed said again, but that time a blue light appeared over the broken gazebo followed by a scratching sound. “Finally.” He said to himself between clenched teeth.
“It seems like the sealing effect is fading out. Nagranto must be close to waking up.” Zian commented, guiding Hugo toward it.
“So I have ten minutes of credit?” Timothy asked toward Ed before they disappear into the nil.
Ed responded looking ahead: “Not even in your dreams, kid.” And before he could help it, a gust of warm wind took his cloak away, since he had kept the brooch in his pocket, and forgot to pin it again. The floating cloak rested by the side of Timothy’s gazebo debris after they were gone.
19
Dawn in the Valley
While Zian, Ed, Timothy, and Hugo were in Nagranto under the morning sun, trying to find an unsealed area, Muriel was in the night Iliona City, waiting for a train. It was almost one a.m., and the station she was in wasn’t crowded. First, because the peak hour had passed long ago. Secondly, because she was waiting for the train whose last stop was the Grooves Valley Station, and apart from whom worked in there, people would not usually visit the valley.