Iliona and the resumption of ties

by Ariane Souza

  “Good. So I’ll be part of the reinforcement as well.”

  He looked surprised at her statement. The daily Administration matters were mostly internal ones, and Lumma almost never left the building to solve the external ones directly.

  “This time is different Flen.” She read the amazement in his hazel eyes. “Humans may be coming to here in amounts we can’t tell. Iliona City will never be the same after this. It’s time to get out of this building.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.” He said handing the black card back to her.

  “We have to hurry, Nagranto is almost awakening.” She said walking past him toward the door. And he followed her when she turned off the white lights in the reunion room and left.

  21

  Whistles and ropes

  A Slicing wind. That was the wind sensation Zian and Ed were experiencing on their faces while searching for Muriel across the Grooves Valley dawn.

  “I don’t see her,” Ed announced, looking through the night vision binoculars.

  “I’ll go check near that crevice!” Zian said aloud because of the growing wind carrying his words away. First, he knelt, then he lay down by the side of the nearest groove and started creeping like a caterpillar to get to its edge.

  “What are you doing?” Ed said clearly thinking that pathetic.

  “I don’t want to fall down there!” Zian screamed again.

  Despite the freezing wind on their faces, they weren’t feeling so cold anymore due to the warm windproof coats and gloves Nense had lent them. They headed in the direction Nense and Ed had seen Muriel, but now they were down there, they weren’t so sure what direction she disappeared into anymore.

  When he thought he was close enough, Zian craned his head over the groove illuminating in that direction, while Ed knelt by his side and turned his binoculars downward.

  “Turn off your flashlight.” He said to Zian.

  “What?” He didn’t hear him.

  He leaned forward Zian, took his flashlight out of his hand and turned it off.

  “There.” Ed gave Zian the binoculars and pointed down to their left side. “Do you see it?”

  Below them, there were other hills cut by dark crevices. And there was a bridge connecting two cliffs toward where Ed was pointing, which was being crossed by three people at that moment. They were not using flashlights, though, so Zian just could see them because of Nense’s binoculars.

  He followed them with his eyes ‘till they entered into one of the many abandoned caves of the valley.

  Next, they heard a stronger whistle than the one made by the wind, and despite it was Zian who was using the binoculars, Ed could notice the slender sower dragon flying above them. He flew over their heads, but the groove near them was too narrow for him to fit in. So the dragon headed west of them, and landed a few meters away, near the gap border. And when he did, Zian, who was using the binoculars, saw two people climbing down from him and going down what it appeared to be a ladder carved at the very edge of the crevice.

  “So this is the dragon of before?” Ed said, focused on following the dragon movements.

  “It seems so. And it was carrying two people on his back.” Zian stopped using the binoculars and looked at Ed. “It seems there are steps carved into the groove’s edge. They are descending it.”

  “So that’s how we’ll get down in there too,” Ed announced, standing up.

  “Ed, do you realize what this looks like, don’t you? I mean, Muriel meeting in here with these people, in such a sneakily way. It just reinforces the Administration’s suspicions.” He spoke the words as someone who admits oil floats on water, after a long time believing it didn’t.

  “You’re quick to judge. But if that’s the case, isn’t it marvellous, then?” Ed said looking ahead, as trying to see the sower dragon in the darkness.

  “Marvellous?” Zian repeated incredulously, standing up as well.

  “Of course it’s marvelous. How boring life would be without the elements of surprise.”

  “What? I…” Zian started, but just stopped and took a deep breath. “THIS element of surprise, though, can cause her much trouble. Like having her memory altered, and making her forget about all of us. But I forgot you don’t care, do you?”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “If you don’t care, then why are you here?”

  “Because I like to watch.” He said. “And because I’m also in trouble because of her. She has to undo what put me in such situation.” Ed took the flashlight from him again and turned it on, walking westward. Zian stood a few steps behind him, static and angry for hearing that words pronounced in such a calm way.

  *

  Bronze scales shaped as spearheads, white horns and pitch black eyes that reflected the fake stars above them. The flashlight Ed was holding lit the face of the sower dragon it had flown past them few minutes ago. By the sight of them, the sower dragon opened his bronze wings in a threatening manner.

  Ed stopped walking, and waited for Zian who was coming behind him, still upset with his words:

  “You’re the one who understands about dragons. What should we do then?” He said when Zian was by his side.

  But Zian passed straight by him. Walking toward the dragon, he took out of his pocket the same orange whistle he had used to make Hugo fly. However, he blew a melody on it. And about five minutes later, the dragon finally started to close his wings and lower his head.

  “I thought he wouldn’t surrender to the whistle because he was too cranky. His antennae are torn off.” Zian observed when the dragon’s chin softly hit the ground, and his eyes started to close. “They tend to be adrift if you tear them off. He must be puzzled and compensates it with roughness, as a matter of protection.” He said in a serious tone to Ed behind him. “Let’s go, light this area over here, we need to find the steps.”

  Ed illuminated the edges of the groove near them, trying to find the steps. But they just saw it when they walked some meters past the dragon, who despite his closed eyes was starting to be unquiet again.

  As Zian had presumed, the steps were carved on the very soil of the groove, beginning at its edge and heading to its bottom. He hung the binoculars around his neck, and Ed held the flashlight with his lips to let his hands free. They started to climb down.

  It wasn’t a short climb because they were at a considerable distance from the hills bellow, and with the strong wind almost knocking them down, every movement had to be done carefully and slowly. They spent about thirty minutes going down. And when they finally reached the ground again they found a wider area, where there was a profusion of spiky hills, small and big ones, intercut by deep cracks of many sizes as well. Along with the bridge, the people they were following had crossed. It all was bathed in a deep dark blue, that made the grooves seem pitch lines of nothingness. And the shining fake stars dimly lit a few spots on the floor.

  When they arrived closer to the bridge, they realized it was all made of intertwined ropes. It swayed just slightly because the wind was weaker down there.

  “We should turn our flashlight off, so we can cross it unnoticed,” Ed suggested already turning it off and keeping it inside his coat.

  Zian used the binoculars he was carrying like a necklace to check the surroundings. “There’s nobody in sight anymore.”

  They started crossing it, with Ed walking ahead. They could barely see what was below or beside them. It was like walking on a floating path into the nothingness.

  They had covered more than half of the bridge when Ed’s foot found just air ahead. He suddenly sat on the bridge, almost falling. That shook the whole structure, and Zian strengthened his grip on the ropes that sprung up from the bridge sideways, but he could not catch the binoculars that swayed out of his neck and fell. He asked irritated and panicked at the same time because they were swinging too much:

  “What’s wrong?”

  “There’s a hole in the way. A blank space.” Ed’s right foot was still hanging in the air, an
d he was crouched, holding on to the bridge floor not to fall into the overture.

  “A hole? Let me see it.” Zian crawled to Ed’s side, slowly, while the bridge swaying diminished. But he couldn’t see much still. “Great.” He mumbled.

  From distant above they heard a whistle similar to the sound of the one Zian had used to calm down the dragon, but with a different melody. They stopped moving. Ed looked toward that sound direction but couldn’t see anything. “It’s a dragon whistle. Somebody else is trying to soothe the dragon.” Zian affirmed.

  “Use the binoculars,” Ed suggested.

  “I dropped it. And I didn’t hear it touching the ground, by the way.” Zian said irritatedly. “But there’s definitely more rope after this hole. Otherwise, this structure would have already fallen apart. We just have to see how long this gap is.” He said carefully craning his head and passing his hand over the hole.

  The sower dragon growled even louder.

  “Sower Dragons don’t soothe themselves with any song. It’s not enough to have a dragon whistle. You have to know the right melodies. And whoever is annoying him, clearly don’t´. They will take some time to get to us.” He stretched his arm a bit more and lost his balance.

  Zian fell into the hole in front of them, pulling Ed by his adrift foot on the way.

  22

  Interim: Ice volcanos and strong hearts

  “What is that flag down there?” Timothy asked Tevis, pointing at the silhouette of a flag swaying in the distance ahead of them. They were observing the night landscape through the glass wall in the back of the command room, sitting on the floor, while Nense was fixing the hinges again. They were still anchored waiting for Ed and Zian to return. Therefore, Elin took the opportunity to take a nap on the third floor.

  “It’s too dark for you to see, but that’s Iliona City flag, which is purple with a silvery silhouette of mountains over the timer’s crooked gear in its centre. Iliona City has many mountainous areas, and the Grooves Valley is the biggest one. The flag marks the points where the cosmians back to, after patrolling their corresponding portion of the valley. There’s one of them at each of the four watchpoints scattered across it.” Tevis explained it all at once.

  “There, in the control panel, there’s a miniature of Iliona City flag,” Nense said pointing in that direction, with her eyes still on the broken hinges.

  Timothy looked back in that direction, and it wasn’t difficult to see the small flag pasted on the back of the pilot chair. “Why the timers’ gear is on it?” He asked back at Tevis.

  “Because the timers practically founded this city. They practically own it.” He added, not so happy. “That’s why on the flag the gear sustains the mountains.”

  “So you, ilions, also have flags. I guess if it weren't for the fake stars we wouldn’t be so different after all.” Timothy said looking at the sky. “For that, and for the fact, you can live almost two centuries and can become timers too.” He smiled. “Is there a limit to the amount of fake stars? I mean, they’re always that much?”

  “The humans keep wishing, so the starts keep appearing. There’s no limit to it. Moreover, it’s the only thing that actually nourishes us, so it’s not as they hang in the sky for long. Then, there’s a good balance between the amount that appears and the bulks we harvest.” Nense heard his question and answered him as well. “Our atmosphere doesn’t allow us to see regular stars like you do in Nagranto. The only ones we can put our eyes on are the fake stars and the sun, so we consider them as the only ones we have.” She added.

  “It’s said back in the past when the human world was passing through great wars, the number of them decreased considerably. Although, despite those major ones, there are places in your world that have always been in war, in the past or not. Small and bigger conflicts sprout in there all the time, causing the suffering of many. Nonetheless, you still wishing and hoping. So, we never run out of food.” Tevis said.

  “Hoping,” Timothy thought to himself, bringing to his memory’s surface something Ed had answered him.

  “Why Ed doesn’t like humans?” He asked, suddenly.

  “I guess he doesn’t like anyone in general. He’s like…” Tevis searched for the words. “Like a volcano of ice. What falls in there, freezes in there. He doesn’t put things out, he doesn’t care. He just goes on doing what he needs to do to remain cold.” He said looking at the stars in front of them.

  “Winda told me to keep away from him.”

  “And she’s right. Somehow, we were happier before meeting him. I was, at least.” Tevis sounded so deep in thought that Timothy thought better to say nothing more. Then he stood up, and added, “Well, I think I’m tired enough to get some sleep now, even with these whistles outside.” He said heading upstairs, not wanting to elongate that conversation.

  “He doesn’t like talking about Ed,” Nense said to Timothy when she noticed his eyes following Tevis. She put her tools aside and went to the seat next to him near the glass wall. “He suffered a lot because of him. I mean, Ed received orders to, but still, he could have said no.” She said looking at the empty stairs.

  “Orders to do what?”

  “Timers have to prove their abilities to earn such title. And one of these abilities is to change the memories of others. So they have to test it on someone. They do it among themselves, though. It’s not allowed to practice it on outsiders. Nonetheless, they asked Ed to change the memories of Tevis’ parents. That was too much for an apprentice. They were humans like you, and Tevis was their adoptive son. Clearly, it wasn’t just a test. But Ed never told us why he did it. The thing is they don’t remember Tevis anymore. They still living their human lives, they still remembering it all but the fact Tevis is their son.” She finished her phrase with a sad tone. Then she looked at Timothy:

  “By that time, Winda worked with Zian and Tevis as a nil keeper. Nevertheless, after this, she decided she didn’t want to have anything related to the Administration anymore. That’s when she moved to Nagranto.”

  “That’s…. unbelievable,” Timothy whispered with disapproving eyes in response. “And nobody did anything about it? I mean, what he did was serious.”

  “We all know that. But it was Administration serious. And they were the ones who gave him the order. So, to them, there was nothing wrong about it.”

  “Muriel said the singing in Nagranto would be Ed’s first big one. But, if he altered Tevis’ parent's memories…” Timothy spoke, remembering how Ed had been upset because of his dismissal from the chant.

  “The singing in Nagranto would be his first official one, made with other timers. What he did with Tevis’ parents was a test. Sometimes, I think even he doubted he would get it. But he did, and I’m just making suppositions.” Nense explained.

  He sighed and looked at the dark landscape ahead of them.

  “And Tevis lived with them? In the human world?”

  “Yes. Tevis alternated between here and there, but he spent most of his time in there with them. I guess that’s why the Administration did that because they were humans who knew about us, after all.”

  “I don’t even know how he gets to talk to Ed still,” Timothy commented.

  “I guess not even Tevis knows that. This was about three years ago, it’s still too recent. But they just backed to see each other again because of the work they were doing in Nagranto.”

  “I don’t know what I would do if my parents forgot about me. And you live longer than us, it must be even harder.” He said thinking about his sleeping parents.

  “And what time has to do with that? Isn’t it the same lost?”

  “Well, but he’s going to miss them for more than once century, Nense.”

  “Don’t be mistaken, Timothy. What’s the difference between living one century or just half of it?”

  “Well, I guess you could see more things, have more experiences, feel more things.”

  “And can you tell for sure that the things you’ll see, the experiences you
’ll have and the things you’ll feel in one hundred years are as good as those you’ll live in fifty?”

  “I guess not.” He said, after thinking for a while.

  “Of course not. We don’t know. But one thing I can tell you for sure, it’s not about the number of years you live, but how you live them. It’s the quality that matter, not the quantity. So it doesn’t matter if you have one day or one year to feel sad about something, the feeling is the same. What changes is how you’ll choose to live it if mourning for an entire year, or crying for one full day and moving on then.

  Tevis once told me, the humans have a saying that time heals everything. But in fact, the amount of time alone doesn’t change how you see something. It’s what you learn with time that makes you move on. Some people learn fast. Others take longer, or just refuse to learn and remain suffering over the same thing for many and many years. This latter option is definitely not Tevis’ case.” She said with a friendly smile.

  “He passed to visit his parents and to talk with them, ‘till they became friends. It might not be the same of when they lived together, but it was the way he found to move on, I guess.”

  “Do you think Ed regret that? I mean, I can’t imagine him feeling regretted about it.”

  “No one can. And that’s why I think he regrets it very much.” Nense said standing up and backing to her work with the hinges.

  “Don’t you want to try and get some rest? You seem pretty tired yet.”

  Timothy was tired indeed. All those hours in Nagranto waiting for Ed to open a nil left him almost exhausted.

  “I’ll take a nap then.” He said, slowly heading upstairs. And he was about to disappear from Nense’s view when she called him, making him stop where he was:

  “Timothy.” She said, talking to him while testing the trapdoor. “Tevis and Winda are right about Ed. It’s better to keep some distance.”

  “Hmm.” He nodded. “It’s ok, I’m pretty convinced of that now. Besides, when all this ends, we will not have reasons to meet each other again. I mean, very likely he won’t even be my neighbor anymore.”