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

by Leigh G. Wynn

  Had he always been this handsome? For a second, Dawn forgot where she was. What a silly thought! She cleared her throat and returned to work.

  She discovered Sumrects did not need nearly as much sleep as humans. Lorenzo’s team worked day and night to restore the town, which, thanks to good weather, took only a few days. By the fourth day, when most of the work had been finished, they finally returned home to catch up on some rest. Dawn, too, slid into bed, hoping to get a good night of sleep.

  Except she could not.

  Her mind churned with the conversation she had with Ansel earlier and her mother’s last words. She tossed and turned until well past midnight, listening to the rustling of leaves outside. Soon after she finally drifted into an uneasy, restless sleep, she was awoken by a whisper in her ear.

  “Dawn, wake up!”

  Startled, she sat up in a flash, which resulted in a head on collision with the intruder.

  “Kai! You almost scared me to death!” she said angrily while she nursed her throbbing head.

  Kai groaned as he cupped his nose. “Ouch! Is your head made of rock or something?”

  She rolled her eyes. “What on earth are you doing here in the middle of the night?” Outside, the sky was still dark, though it carried a lighter hue.

  “Correction. It’s actually four in the morning—”

  “Never mind the exact time! Why are you up?”

  Kai grabbed her by the shoulders, his expression serious. “Dawn, I need your help.”

  “What? Right now?”

  “Yes. Look, I need you to convince Ansel to overthrow Vance.”

  Dawn blinked twice, trying to comprehend his sudden request. “What are you talking about? How? And why me? Can’t this discussion wait until the morning?”

  “Shh! Not so loud!” he glanced back at the door. “I don’t want you to wake up Delia. There is something I need to show you. Meet you at the front door in five. This is serious.”

  “Wait!”

  But he already backed away, holding a finger to his lips.

  A few minutes later, Dawn tiptoed down the floating marble staircase, wondering if she was crazy to trust Kai in whatever he was asking of her. His face lit up when she approached.

  “Come on!” he mouthed.

  The two exited through the front entrance and shut the door quietly behind them. They went around to the back garden, which extended well beyond sight. The gently sloped grounds, the moss-covered grottos and the stone bridge reaching across a still pond suggested English influence. Kai led her across the bridge to an aged rotunda almost completely hidden by trees.

  “In here.”

  At the center of the rotunda, directly underneath an oculus, a cylindrical white marble structure rose three feet from the floor. The circular marble top caved into a tiny basin. It’s the symbol of the Eye. She looked up at the oculus and saw a similar conception: a circle with a dot in the middle—the symbol used by Pathfinders during the uprising against Vance years ago.

  “Kai!” She pointed to the oculus while the epiphany struck. “The Eye of new light! Look at how the light is spilling down through the opening! Maybe the spell is referring to that.”

  Kai rubbed his chin in contemplation. “Very possible…”

  “What’s the basin used for?”

  “Not sure,” he said with a shrug, “but this is one of the most hidden places at Chesterfield. First, you should know, I’m showing you all of this because if anyone can convince Ansel to oust his brother, it would be you. I’ve seen the way he behaves around you.”

  “What do you mean?” She took an involuntary step back.

  “Oh, come on, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.” Kai crossed his arms, looking amused.

  “Noticed what?”

  “He’s awfully intrigued by you! I’ve never seen him act so animated. When you are not around, it’s always, ‘have you seen Dawn?’ or ‘what’s Dawn up to?’”

  Stunned, she said stiffly, “He’s only worried Vance’s out to get me.”

  “Hah, I think he’s interested in more than just protecting you.”

  “But I’m not intriguing at all.”

  “Yes, yes… I don’t get it either,” Kai muttered. “However, I know Ansel much better than you do, so you should believe me when I say he’s taken by you.”

  Ansel’s words from earlier in the day echoed in Dawn’s mind, and she was thankful Kai could not see her blush in the early morning light. She swiftly diverted the topic. “And how do you suppose he overthrows Vance? I’m sure he has his own reasons for not taking action.”

  “By carrying out the Etherian spell, of course! If Vance is trying all he can to complete it, why doesn’t Ansel stop him? I say, he has a better shot, anyway.”

  “It’s no use. He doesn’t believe in the spell’s effectiveness.”

  “Well, he should. I certainly do, and I’m not even a Sumrect.”

  “Kai, what exactly is an Etherian?”

  He stared at her with incredulity. “I can’t believe, after a year of working at Crimson Estate, you still don’t know what an Etherian is. They really keep you guys under a rock!”

  “Come on, Kai. Just tell me.”

  He exhaled a long sigh. “Etherians are bodiless, soulless beings who are stuck wandering between this realm, you know, material existence, and the afterlife. Kind of like ghosts. Us humans can’t perceive them unless we enter their domain through time travel or dreams. I’m not too clear on the details, but from what I gathered, they are not beings you want to mess with because Etherians operate differently from us and even from Sumrects. To be honest, I don’t understand why or how Ansel got himself involved with an Etherian spell. Unauthorized interaction between an Etherian and a Sumrect is considered a severe breach of Panatomius law… Strictly forbidden!”

  Wide-eyed and mouth-opened, Dawn struggled to process this information. Kai sure knew a lot more about the Sumrects than she did. Time travel? Ghosts? Beings in a different realm of existence?

  “I can’t believe this is all news to you. But anyway, that’s not what we are here for.” He opened his hand to reveal the amber he had been holding.

  “Where did you get that?” She examined the stone.

  “From among the hundreds of glowing amber pieces in the ceiling above the entrance.”

  “You mean, you took one down?”

  “Technically, no, I didn’t take one down. The stone came to me because I called. After all, I was part of it.”

  She stared at him with blank eyes. What’s IT?

  “Each amber piece you saw in the ceiling contains a portal to the past—Ansel’s past, to be exact. They act like markers in time. It’s a Sumrect thing, apparently, to store history in stones. Their long lifespans make it difficult to keep track of what has happened in the past, and because time works differently on Panatomius, they create portals to make sense of the linearity of time in our realities. Ansel got slightly creative with where he kept his portals.”

  Skeptical, Dawn said, “Don’t you think it’s a bit… disrespectful to be going through Ansel’s… personal history?” She struggled to find the right word.

  “Ha, I wish I could! Unfortunately, for privacy and safety reasons, the portal will not open unless the visitor has been granted permission by the maker. This one was about me, so Ansel granted me full access to it.”

  “You mean through these portals, we can travel back in time?”

  “Yeah! Cool, right? The Sumrects have some neat tricks.” Kai tapped the amber in his hand three times while he said something unintelligible under his breath, and the stone began to melt into the surroundings until the air in front of them became fuzzy like the reflection of a lake on a breezy day.

  “The portal is open,” he said. “Now, hold on to my hand…” He raced to Dawn’s side, grabbed her hand and dragged her into the warped reality which grew bigger from one instant to the next.

  How did he know all of this? Did Ansel tell him, or did he figure i
t out on his own? Somehow, Dawn felt uneasy about entering someone else’s past, whatever that even meant.

  Much to her alarm, untamed fire and smoke replaced the rotunda and its surrounding trees like a burning photograph, but the smell and heat were not as vivid. The fire isn’t real, she realized. We are no longer in the present.

  Enveloped by thick black smoke, a figure crouched in the corner of a newly materialized room. The fire had blocked the doorway. From the city view outside the window, Dawn could tell they were standing inside a burning building.

  Screams erupted from behind, followed by gunshots. She pivoted toward the sound. Kai, however, remained still.

  This is his past, too. He already knows the progression of events.

  The crouched figure cried out in a distant voice, “Mom!” The voice belonged to a child.

  A wooden beam came crashing down on where Dawn and present-day Kai stood. It went through their bodies and landed with a dull thud. The boy screamed. At the end of the blazing hallway, another dark figure appeared and sprinted to the source of the scream. The entire building shook and creaked as bits of the hallway ceiling crumbled, falling near, yet never directly on, the fast-approaching figure. Dawn was suddenly reminded of how the mirror shards fell around her in a neat semicircle after Vance’s wrath sent her flying into the wall of the octagonal room at Crimson Estate.

  When the figure finally emerged from the fire and entered the room, she did a double take. There was no mistaking the wavy brown hair, thin bowed lips and black attire.

  “Kai!” Ansel yelled in a full voice when he spotted the terrified child huddled in the corner. Impervious to the fire, he raced to the child. Dawn watched numbly as he squatted next to a young Kai and exchanged inaudible words with him.

  This must be the night Kai lost his parents, she thought.

  Gradually, the burning building faded away, and she was back in the rotunda, staring at the raised altar.

  She rested a comforting hand on Kai’s shoulder. Words failed her. For a while, they stood in silence, listening to the whispering breeze and the soothing, peaceful rustling of leaves.

  Kai spoke at last, “See? The night he saved my life… Ansel was already on his way to complete the Etherian spell. I was the lone survivor of that fire.”

  “What do you mean?” Dawn did not see the connection.

  “Remember the phrase which comes after ‘And catches the Eye of New Light—’”

  “‘In Fire finds life!’” she exclaimed. The reference was clear as day.

  Ansel found life within the fire. Kai’s life.

  ✽✽✽

  A hologram of Dawn’s head spun above the rectangular obsidian table. At one end, Vance sat in a black leather chair facing four other Sumrect soldiers, each sporting a collarbone tattoo of a six-legged beast, which symbolized their loyalty to the Atma. Their neatly parted hair and uniform, rigid posture made them seem almost robotic. Only Quinn’s shiny head stood out among them jarringly.

  “Her name is Dawn. A former worker from Crimson who is now at Chesterfield House, under Ansel’s strict supervision. All of you combined are no match for him, and the house will render your powers useless. Still…” Vance surveyed the table, making eye contact with each attentive Sumrect. “I have not selected you for no reason. The moment she steps out of Chesterfield—which will happen, I assure you—the playground is yours.”

  The Sumrects exchanged looks. Quinn made a sucking sound with his teeth. “Dead or alive?”

  “I want her alive and kicking. And I want her soon. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir!” they thundered in unison.

  At that instant, the massive doors to the meeting room blew open, and in ran an agitated Sumrect guard. Panting heavily, he stopped when he saw the other soldiers glower at his intrusion. Vance leaned forward in his seat, arching his eyebrows.

  Flustered with fear, the guard tried to collect himself and speak coherently enough for Vance to understand. “Great… big explosion! Break in… Couldn’t see. Couldn’t breathe!”

  A few snickers erupted around the table.

  Vance drummed his fingers on the obsidian table, and the guard was at once reduced to a pitiful whimper. This is why you are not sitting at the table, Vance thought mockingly.

  “What good are you if you can’t even give a comprehensible report?”

  “G-Gail…” The guard took a deep breath. “She’s gone! Escaped!”

  Chapter 9

  “So, are you going to help?” Kai asked while crossing the garden with Dawn. “Get him to carry out the spell, or at least, stop Vance from completing it?”

  “I doubt I can,” she replied. She had little confidence Ansel would be swayed easily, if at all. “We don’t even know the entire spell.”

  “But Ansel does. If you just ask—” He cut off abruptly. In the distance, Ansel’s dark form entered the front gate. He appeared to be carrying something under his long black coat.

  “I wonder where he has been,” Kai whispered.

  “Isn’t it a little warm for a coat like that?” Dawn frowned.

  Kai seized her hand and dragged her to hide behind a stone grotto by the rotunda. Once hidden from view, she peeked through the lush plantings and vines that had grown over the small cave.

  As Ansel hurried up the stone path leading to the front entrance, he glanced at the grotto and for a split second, Dawn was almost certain they made eye contact. However, Ansel promptly averted his gaze and continued on his way.

  He saw us! But it’s not like we are doing anything wrong! she thought with indignation, her heart pounding in her rib cage.

  “Wow… how strange,” Kai said.

  “Indeed. How strange,” she agreed, her eyes following the coated Sumrect into the house.

  “Not Ansel! I meant this!”

  He pried apart the vines to reveal an Eye of Elektron symbol etched in stone right above where Dawn had rested her head. However, a square circumscribed the circle in this engraving.

  “Any idea why it’s different from the one used in the rebellion?” she asked Kai, whose cheeks puffed out like they were about to burst. “What? Is my morning breath that bad?”

  He exhaled loudly through his mouth. “Could be worse,” he said. “Listen, I have seen this version of the symbol only once before… I can’t believe I had forgotten about it till now!” He slapped his head in excitement.

  “Where have you seen it?”

  “At the Brightons’, of course!”

  Dawn’s jaw dropped. “You mean Ovra’s family?”

  “Yes! I saw it when I went to move them to a safer location.”

  “The Brightons must have been part of the resistance. It’s only natural—but probably unwise—they would have the symbol displayed somewhere in their house.”

  “Natural perhaps… had it showed up anywhere else but in a painting!”

  “What?”

  “Remember the girl in those paintings we saw? In Ansel’s locked-up study? The Brightons have one of her hanging in the living room with this in the background.” Kai jammed his finger into the etching.

  “Are you sure they are the same person?”

  “Definitely! She even had the same freckles across her nose,” he answered with confidence. “Dawn, I know this sounds crazy, but I’m going to find out who she is and her connection to Ansel and the Eye.”

  “And how are you going to do that?”

  “Tomorrow, we’ll pay the Brightons’ old residence a visit and see what other secrets they may have hidden in there.”

  The idea was tempting.

  A part of Dawn yearned to know more about the Etherian spell, the Eye of Elektron and the mysterious girl in the paintings, but another part of her felt guilty for sneaking around behind Ansel’s back, searching for answers he was not ready to share.

  “We? Sorry Kai, I’m not interested.”

  “But the Brightons are long gone! Their house is empty now!” he protested.

  Dawn dusted o
ff the dirt on her summer dress, her mind made up. “I will consider what you asked me today and try to get some answers from Ansel,” she said, “but don’t count me in on your detective role play. Let’s go inside in case Ansel comes out and starts asking questions.”

  “Such a prude…” Muttering under his breath, Kai followed her to the front door, looking thoroughly crestfallen.

  ✽✽✽

  Back in her room, Dawn’s head swam with images of the Eye. She remembered reading about a similar symbol back in her home reality, but the details had already evaded her memory. How are the Brightons connected to the Eye? Who is that girl in the paintings? She drew the Eye of Elektron from her dress pocket and watched it glow in her hands.

  That was when the bullet struck. A painful sting in the back of her neck.

  Two splats of silver gel sprang from the bullet, dragging with them thin, clear chords, which snaked upwards until they found her ears and encased them. She reached behind her neck to remove the bullet, but it had already worked its way into her skin.

  Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

  The sudden silence in her ears amplified the pulsations of her own heart. I have been struck with a Nert, she realized.

  “Good morning, Dawn!” A familiar voice blared in her head. Softer, she thought, and the volume lowered to the desired level.

  “I hope this message finds you well!”

  Dawn failed to pinpoint the speaker right away, but she had the uneasy feeling that something was wrong.

  “Dawn! Bringer of new light! Our little human friend.”

  Quinn. The name flashed into her mind.

  “You are in a unique position to help the Atma. For one reason or another, the Eye has chosen to respond to you and you alone. As a human with this special ability, you can make the Atma more powerful than ever before,” Quinn said.