The Eye of Elektron: A Clean Urban Fantasy (The Sumrectian Series Book 1)

by Leigh G. Wynn

  That seemed to fuel Vance’s fury. He snatched Ansel’s wrist with lightning speed, and Dawn thought for certain he was about to strike, but Vance only held on, contempt spilling from his eyes.

  Meanwhile, Henry rushed to her side, his expression marred with panic. “What are you trying to do?!”

  “Henry, what’s done is done. They are going to kill me. You’ll get the appointment, and you’ll keep living. You have to keep living, understand?” she urged with insistent eyes.

  “Why did you draw that symbol?” Henry asked right before a powerful force separated him from Dawn and stole his ability to speak.

  Vance released his grip on Ansel, one stiff finger at a time.

  “How dare you interfere!” he said.

  “We don’t want her dead before we have made a decision, do we?” Ansel’s eyes flashed a chilling blue, but he remained unshaken and unreadable.

  “Then choose!” Vance shook a trembling finger at the tall Sumrect before him. “Remember your place, Ansel. Remember what we have agreed upon.”

  Ansel glanced back at a terrified and confused Moira, whose previous elation had evaporated. “Why don’t you go see the other present I brought you in the stable?”

  “Come with me,” Regina said, taking Moira by her hand. She dragged the inquisitive child out of the room as Ansel turned his attention back to his brother.

  “I have no desire, Vance, to do that which terrifies you.” He bowed his head. “You should know better than anyone how my interests have shifted.”

  Nostrils flared, Vance scrutinized him for a long time before he said in a more controlled tone, “I thought so. You are not one to forget so easily.”

  With a brandishing of his arms, Vance brought Dawn and Henry to kneel before him. Henry thrashed against some invisible force that muted and bound him. Dawn, however, was calm as she took his hand. The symbol from the humans’ last uprising against Vance reopened an unhealable wound, thus sealing her fate. And Henry’s. No one caught in entanglement with the resistance efforts could live.

  “You decide, Ansel… Who lives, who dies…”

  Ansel gazed at Henry in his futile struggle and Dawn in her stubborn defiance.

  “Then there is no use in keeping you, is there?” he said to Dawn.

  The choice was made.

  She puffed out her chest and straightened her spine. If these were to be her last words, she must make them count. “One day, you’ll pay for what you have done,” she said. “I might be the first to bring back the symbol, but I won’t be the last.”

  Tears flowed down Henry’s cheeks as he shook his head violently.

  The doors to the library flew open. Two menacing Sumrect guards clad in brown leather stormed in. They went for Dawn and grabbed her by the arms.

  “Execute her. Outside,” Vance said, unblinking.

  Henry punched a guard in the stomach with his elbow, but the Sumrect hardly flinched before he knocked Henry out cold.

  “No!” Dawn screamed, sandwiched between two guards. Her chance of escaping was slim to none, but she had to try. It was better to die while trying to escape her oppressors than waiting to perish at their hands. No, she could not condone the twisted world in which she lived. She glared at Vance and Ansel, overwhelmed by a burning hatred for all they stood for. They deceived and trapped thousands of innocent lives, but one day, justice will be served.

  Act. Now. Dawn wrenched herself free from the Sumrect to her right and stomped on the foot of the one to her left. She swung her clenched fist at the guard still holding on to her, but the other Sumrect seized it.

  They were too strong.

  “A feisty one,” one guard muttered as he hit her on the head.

  The last thing Dawn heard was Ansel’s quiet instruction. “Shoot her by the forest.”

  Then all was gone.

  Chapter 2

  I AM DEAD.

  Beep.

  What was that?

  Beep.

  There it goes again.

  Beep.

  Somewhere close by, a steady beeping punctuated the silence every three seconds. Dawn knew because she counted.

  B-flat. A tad high.

  The thought struck her as a bit odd. Look at that. Consciousness does extend beyond the physical body.

  Then she remembered Henry and the symbol and Vance sentencing her to death and the Sumrect guards in brown and—

  Her eyes sprang open to a blinking red light amidst a collection of buttons on a control panel. Stiffly, she pried her face away from the buttons and felt the rectangular-shaped indentations on her cheeks. Someone had placed her inside a tiny cockpit encircled by a band of glass. She shifted forward in the black leather seat to look outside. A layer of clouds obstructed the view below, but the sky was still blue.

  On the control panel, she saw only Sumrectian words she could not understand, yet there was no mistaking a bright 18:35 and the number 10,000. It’s evening. I’m alive and cruising at a very high altitude.

  Under the red flashing light, a circular button was taped over by a scribbled note that read: PRESS ME. She did just that.

  At once, an energetic female voice filled the cockpit. “Hello, Dawn. If you are listening to me, then you must be awake, alive and terribly confused as to why you are inside the Vidra360—”

  The what? She searched for the source of the voice without success.

  The mysterious voice clarified, “Designed for one passenger, the Vidra360 is the smallest autopilot airborne transportation vehicle that utilizes Earth’s magnetic field instead of fuel. You do not need to steer the pod. Just sit tight and wait until you arrive at your destination.”

  “Where’s Henry?” she asked.

  However, as she suspected, the voice was only a recording. It continued without answering her question. “To keep a long story short, Vance sentenced you to execution by the forest, but our Pathfinders saved you and brought you on board the Vidra360. Unless we failed—in which case you would never hear this message anyway—you are now safely en route to Chesterfield, Ansel Cassadian’s residence in Phyon. In case you are wondering, Phyon is located on the east coast of the continent we call Australia in our home reality.”

  “No!” She leaped from her seat. Over the years, Vance sent workers who violated Crimson rules to Chesterfield as punishment, and usually, that meant imprisonment for life.

  In the background, the female voice went on. Dawn realized she had not been paying attention.

  “Henry is safe but under the Sumrects’ strict surveillance.”

  Dawn grew alert. How does she know? Who is this person?

  “Because you invoked the Eye of Elektron symbol to challenge Vance, I want to welcome you into our family of Pathfinders!”

  Pathfinders? She had no idea a secret society of Pathfinders existed at the Estate. Vance’s iron fist rule quashed any hope the humans had of returning home. In the one year she worked at Crimson, she witnessed nothing but obedience and submission.

  “Ever since we became trapped in this alternate realm called Fors, Pathfinders have been working secretly and incessantly to locate a way back home. But Vance’s progressively oppressive rule prompted an expansion of our mission to include protecting those who share our vision of a better future, one in which humans are not subjected to Sumrectian tyranny. For safety reasons, I cannot yet reveal to you the identities of our Pathfinders who planned your escape, but you can rest assured that you are in safe hands. Unless, of course, the Vidra360 malfunctions, and you plummet to certain death in the New Pacific Ocean.”

  How comforting. She scowled. Somehow, drowning in the ocean did not sound half as awful as being trapped at Chesterfield with Vance’s lunatic brother.

  “Before you become too comfortable, open the drawer beneath the instrument panel to find our welcome gift.”

  The recording paused, allowing Dawn time to feel under the instrument panel until her fingers found on a dent in the metal. When she pushed on the dent, a drawer swung slug
gishly downward like an accordion bellow. Something rolled inside.

  “Done that? Good. Used in the last uprising, this Eye of Elektron belonged to your mother. Elektron, or amber in Greek, is the material used to construct the core of each glass sphere. The Eye is yours now. Hold on to it as a reminder of the dream we all share and the work that still needs doing.”

  Slightly bigger than a marble, the familiar glass orb harkened back harrowing memories from the night her life changed forever. She was eight. Henry was five. They were on the back porch watching the auroras, waiting for their parents to return from their trip to Earth, when the Sumrects stormed the house and confiscated their only connection to home. To this day, the green auroras still haunted her dreams, and the Eye’s final message still burned in her memory:

  They have destroyed the Source. The Eye no longer transports. Take care of Henry until we find a way back. We love you.

  That was eleven years ago.

  She reached into the drawer for the orb. As her fingers touched the glass, the amber core emitted a beautiful yellow light. She squeezed it in her hand until the light shone brighter. Is it supposed to glow? How is that possible?

  But the recording offered no explanation.

  “When you land at Chesterfield, present the Eye to the groundskeeper, Delia. She will be expecting your arrival.”

  In front of Dawn, the hologram of an old, wrinkled woman appeared. A meaty nose dominated her features, and she wore her gray hair in a low bun. When she smiled, her kind eyes pressed into a thin line.

  “Sit back and enjoy the ride. The trip will last about thirty hours. There are human-edible snacks in the cabinets behind you. Oh, I’m Gail, by the way. Gail Thornton.”

  The red light stopped blinking. Delia’s head lingered for five more seconds before it vanished from sight. All fell silent inside the Vidra360. That is, except for the million questions clamoring in Dawn’s head.

  Did Henry know she had been rescued? What fate awaited her at Chesterfield? Will she even make it to Chesterfield alive? Hours later, alone with nothing but a glowing orb, Dawn drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

  ✽✽✽

  She woke to a gun pointed at her head.

  “Who are you, and what are you doing at Chesterfield House?” a teenage boy shouted, wielding a shotgun in his hands. The top front half of the Vidra360 disappeared, exposing her to warm, humid air. All around her, trees and flowers bloomed. Instead of snow, lush grass covered the ground. It must be summer here, Dawn realized.

  Behind the boy with the raised gun stood a stunning Edwardian mansion, half-covered in ivy. The setting sun painted a fiery orange backdrop for the magnificent yet understated structure, and for a moment, the sight almost made Dawn forget her immediate quandary.

  “Hey! Did you hear me?” the boy snapped. “What are you doing here?”

  “My name is Dawn Rene. Gail Thornton sent me here from Crimson Estate. I’m looking for a woman named Delia.” She remained seated in the cockpit, feeling quite stuffy now in her winter clothes.

  “Crimson?” The boy wrinkled his nose. “Did Vance send you? And how do you know Delia?”

  In response, Dawn brought out the glowing Eye of Elektron. “Do you recognize this?”

  The boy’s hazel eyes widened upon seeing the orb, but he kept his gun pointed at her.

  “Wh-Where did you get that?”

  Before she could respond, a plump, elderly woman wobbled out of the Edwardian mansion, yelling at the top of her lungs as she stormed down a stone-paved path toward the Vidra360.

  “Put that gun down right now and quit harassing our poor guest!”

  Shocked, the boy steered the gun to the ground and shuffled his feet on the grass. “Sorry, Delia! I didn’t know you were expecting her.”

  “Is that how I taught you to welcome people to Chesterfield? No wonder we have such a terrible reputation!” Delia scolded the boy when she walked up next to him. Then, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear, she turned to Dawn with a broad, enthusiastic smile. “Dawn Rene, welcome to Chesterfield House! I’m Delia, the groundskeeper, and this is Kai, my little helper.”

  “Nice to meet you both,” said Dawn, taken back that Delia knew her full name with no introduction.

  “Come! Vance must have scared you out of your wits!” Delia gestured for Dawn to follow, but when her eyes traveled to the illuminated orb in Dawn’s hand, she froze in her movements.

  “I thought those things have been dead for ages,” Kai whispered.

  “Well, well, well! Won’t you look at that…” Delia muttered to herself, clearly flustered. “The Eye of Elektron responds to you… but how is that possible?” She studied Dawn until she squirmed with discomfort. “Isn’t that special?”

  Cheeks flushed, Dawn glanced down at the glass sphere. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean.”

  “Well, ever since the Source was destroyed—” Kai began, but Delia stopped him with a nudge.

  “Don’t you worry about it, dear! I’m sure Ansel will tell you everything in time. But first, let’s get you inside and out of those dreary winter clothes.”

  She leaned into Dawn’s ear, adding in a low voice, “It’s best that you don’t let anybody else see you with the Eye…”

  “Why?”

  “No one, Dawn, no one has managed to reawaken the Eye of Elektron. I haven’t seen those gadgets respond to anybody’s touch—not even Ansel’s—since that fateful night,” Delia said, but she offered no further clarification.

  Sensing the seriousness in Delia’s tone, Dawn promptly slid the Eye back into her burlap pants.

  “Sorry to have scared you, but you can’t be too careful these days,” Kai apologized as he helped her out of the Vidra360.

  “That’s okay. I’m getting used to people trying to kill me.”

  “He’s not very scary now, is he?” Delia ruffled Kai’s hair.

  Something about Kai and Delia reminded her of home, and Dawn could not help but trust them. Together, they walked up the stony path leading to Chesterfield House.

  “How did you know I was coming?” Dawn said when the trio arrived at the front door.

  “Ansel notified me of your arrival last night, dear.”

  She flinched at the name. “He sentenced me to death.”

  Delia tilted her head sideways, eyebrows raised. “Since when did my Ansel start killing people? Did he threaten you? You tell me if he did. Humph!”

  “He told the Sumrects to shoot me by the forest—”

  “The forest? Oh, my…” Delia patted her gently on the shoulder. “Ansel saved you.”

  “They sure do some brilliant brainwashing there at the Crimson,” Kai said. “What else have you heard about him?”

  Dawn frowned while she recalled. “That he’s a cold-hearted murderer with terrible powers the likes of which the world has never seen before… That he purposefully trapped us in this realm for his own benefit and gain—”

  “Lies! All lies!” Kai shook his head emphatically.

  Beside him, Delia sighed. “At least that dimwit Vance got one thing right. There hasn’t been a Sumrect as powerful as Ansel Cassadian for tens of thousands of years. But a murderer? Never!”

  “It’s time to wake you from your indoctrination,” Kai said as he led them through the doorway.

  Chesterfield House was an architectural wonder unlike anything Dawn had ever seen. A legless round marble table hovered in midair over an intricate mosaic flooring. On the walls hung ocean watercolor paintings framed by tiny, braided streams much like the necklace Moira received for her birthday.

  “Guests are always taken by the grand entrance. Ansel made all of it, down to the very last detail.” Kai gave Dawn a sideways glance. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

  Beautiful is an understatement. Too mesmerized for words, Dawn examined each watercolor with awe. Floating marble steps flanked the entrance hall and formed a double staircase leading up to… There was none! They stood under a dark, b
oundless sky strewn with incandescent stone pieces made to resemble stars. She found it hard to believe that a Sumrect created this breathtaking space which housed so many exquisite works of art. Artistic ability and aesthetic taste were not the Sumrects’ forte.

  “Amber,” Delia said. “The stars are made from glowing amber similar to the one in your pocket.”

  “The ceiling gives visitors the illusion that they are always outside on a cloudless summer night,” Kai added.

  Spellbound by the splendor, Dawn asked, “How did he make everything? I mean, the stairs, the paintings, the ceiling… are all these normal Sumrect endeavors?”

  Delia grinned, her kind eyes sparkling under the amber-strewn ceiling. “Normal? Not one bit! Dedication? Inspiration? Madness? Perhaps all of the above. With Ansel, one can never predict what he’s capable of.” She guided Dawn to the left floating staircase. “Follow me, dear, there’s something you must see.”

  ✽✽✽

  On the other side of the world, near what would be Quebec in the Earthly realm, Ansel watched Moira and Regina play in the snow through the guest room window at Crimson Estate, his fingers clasped behind his back, his expression grim. The Vidra360 must have landed by now.

  Behind him, a full-faced young man paced an infinity loop, his wavy long hair secured into a ponytail.

  “Vance is planning an attack. He recently discovered the light bearer lives in Phyon… the daughter of a Brighton,” the young man said.

  Ansel heaved a sigh. It was only a matter of time before the secret he safeguarded the past eleven years would unravel.

  “I will leave for Phyon as soon as we are finished here.” He knew Vance was not one to dawdle.

  “Also,” the young man continued with his report, “Vance suspects Gail’s involvement with the Pathfinders.”

  “Then bring her to Chesterfield, where she will be safe. I can no longer meet with her. Vance monitors me at all times.”

  “She is very much aware… That is why she left me a note to give to you. A new gateway, perhaps. A new path.”