Iliona and the resumption of ties Read online

  As the dragons, the watchtowers of the Grooves Valley are not like regular ones either. They are flying boats. As the valley is a very windy place, they are moved by air. They’re made of Iliona’s glass, which is not heavy. At night, when the boat’s glass reflects the fake stars from the sky above it, it seems like a loose part of the sky itself. That’s why the ilions call them Cosmians, which in ilion language means floating universe.

  *

  Tevis seemed to have an orange in the place of his left pointing finger because it was very swollen. However, even with his trembling limbs due to the cold wind and the pain in his hand, he managed to drag himself to a near groove and hide in there. Therefore, the sower dragon would not see him when it woke up.

  He remained in there, hidden and shaking. And when he was almost falling asleep, he saw a spot of white light, which he first thought it was a nil. He lifted his head out of the hiding. Then, as the light approached him, he noticed the silver fluorescent stripes of the guard keeper’s uniform.

  “Tevis?” Nense’s steady voice called him when the white light hit his face. “Oh my, what are you doing in here?” She added when she was close enough to have sure it was him. His wet solid black hair was plastered to his forehead, and his lips were trembling and purple.

  He put his good pointing finger in front of his mouth, as to indicate her to stop talking. Otherwise, she would wake up the dragon sleeping near them. He pointed at the creature with a movement of his chin. Nense looked around, and her flashlight met the sleepy face of the dragon.

  “It’s ok,” She said turning to Tevis again. “They are not hostile.”

  “This one is.” He said bitterly, trying to get out of the groove he was in. Nense helped pulling him by his arm.

  “Ouch!” He screamed when she unintentionally pressed his left hand to raise him better. And she promptly let go of her grip. “My finger is broken.” He said, apologetically.

  “What happened to you?” She asked after pointing her flashlight to his broken finger.

  “I’ll tell you everything, Nense.” He said, finally getting out of the groove and leaning on her shoulder to stand better. “Just don’t ask me to do it now, because I’m too cold for explanations.” He added.

  “Come.” She said, helping him to walk, because his wet pants were sticking to his legs, and making him move slowly. “My cosmian is nearby.” She was wearing the typical thick black uniform with silver fluorescent stripes of the Grooves Valley guard keepers, along with thick gloves and scarf, both white. The scarf gave him a real sensation of safety when Nense put it around his neck.

  “Thanks, Nense.” He whispered when they were further from where she had found him.

  “You’re welcome, Tevis.”

  Behind them, the sower dragon moved a bit and breathed strongly, making another whiff sound. He opened his eyes for a few seconds and saw the two of them getting further. But they were not of his concern, so he closed his eyes again.

  *

  Nense’s cosmian had three floors. On the first one, there was the control room, in wich, there were a helm and a digital panel that controlled the cosmian route and movements. On the second floor, there was a small kitchen along with two armchairs. And on the third floor, there were two bunk beds and a bathroom along with four lockers, one for each guard keeper that took turns in that cosmian. Due to the harsh environmental conditions outside, each cosmian had at least two people in its crew. And one of them had to have a much understanding of medical matters. Since the Grooves Valley was the last frontier of Iliona City, and medical help could take some time to arrive.

  Nense’s companion then, was Elin, a timer skilled in medical healings. Timers with this ability, instead of altering a person’s mind, modified the memory of the cells of the injured place. This way, these cells would back to work normally, as if they didn’t remember the damage impressed upon them. Although the person did not need to be sleeping, like in mind altering, this technique took a longer time to bear effect. It also had many limitations, not being able to heal great damages.

  However, it was enough to treat Tevis’ finger, which was already immobilized.

  “There you go.” Elin finished it. This process did not necessarily have to be done with a song. Just knowing and saying how it should go, it would work.

  “Thanks, Elin.” He said, clearly relieved. He didn’t feel any pain because Elin had anesthetized his finger first. Her long hair caught in a braid was not as dark as Nense’s and her glowing brown eyes had pupils shaped as gears.

  “You’re welcome. Now, as much as you keep it still, faster the process will happen.” She said collecting the materials she had used and going up to the third floor to store them.

  After having a hot shower, Tevis sat in one of the second-floor chairs and Nense gave him a thick blanket along with a mug of hot tea, made of matmit leaves. Which effect was way mildest than its fruits. Then, breathing more relieved he said:

  “It’s so good to be under dry blankets again.”

  She also gave him some dry uniforms, so he could use them ‘till his clothes dried up.

  Nense sat in an armchair next to him. On the walls, soft yellow lamps inside white glass balls lit the place. Throwing a warm glow on their faces, and contrasting with the slicing cold weather outside.

  “Long time no see, hum, Nense?” Tevis said, tucking the blanket around his neck and holding his mug with his healthy hand.

  “I say the same. I guess the last time I saw you, you were trying to become a nil keeper. You were lucky we were around. We saw that sower dragon and decided to follow it because they usually don’t come here. We found it strange. Still, I can’t believe it attacked you, by the way, they usually are not aggressive. Anyway, Then we saw some flashlights, so I went down to check.”

  “Blue flashlights?”

  “Yah, do you know them?”

  “No, but we saw them too.”

  “We?”

  “I wasn’t alone by the time the dragon appeared. Zian, Winda, Ed, Muriel, all of them were with me. But after I was taken away, flying, there wasn’t much they could do. So I guess they just got into the nil Ed opened for them.”

  “I called Zian earlier when Elin was taking care of your finger. He’s at his home with the others. They are fine, but Zian was too tired to explain me everything, I could tell by his voice. Then, he suggested you could tell me what’s going on.” She straightened herself in the chair as if getting ready to hear a long story. “What all of you were doing in here, in the first place?”

  He felt also relieved to hear the others were fine as well. “Now that I’m not shaking with cold, I’ll tell you everything that happened.” He took a deep breath and started:

  “We were all gathered at Winda’s, in Nagranto, which was supposed to be deleted by the end of the day. But for some reason I still don’t know, the singing started earlier, so we had to get away from there. And we had a human with us too, Muriel’s neighbor, a boy called Timothy.”

  He put his empty mug on the floor near him and continued his narration to Nense’s attentive ears.

  15

  Silhouettes

  They appeared in Zian’s house that time, and landing on their feet, instead of piled on top of one another. And each of them sat in some nearby chair since Zian enjoyed collecting them. So not only his living room but his entire two-story house was full of them.

  It was almost one a.m. in Iliona City, and Zian’s house was all in the dark but for a blue light coming from the only lamppost in the street, getting in through the round windowpane. This light revealed the silhouettes of the room’s furniture, which was only chairs.

  As all of them were wet and tired, they just sat in the first chair they found not even bothering to turn on the lights.

  “Zian, I’ve never been so happy your house is full of soft chairs,” Winda said, with her eyes closed resting her body in a papasan chair.

  Even Timothy found his way in a swivel chair. “What now?” H
e asked toward the silhouettes of the others.

  “Now we rest,” Ed answered him, lying on a padded bench of two places.

  “I still can’t believe Tevis is not with us,” Zian commented, also resting his back in a downy chair that was big enough to fit him and Muriel, who suddenly started looking for something in her pocket.

  The lake had half ruined her cell phone, so the screen no more lit, and the voice on the other side was failing too.

  “Hello?” She said answering it, surprised as if not believing it was still working. “What do you mean missing?” She straightened herself in the chair. “I see, I’ll tell him. We had to run as soon as we get here because no one was supposed to come during the singing…but we‘re fine now. We’re at Zian’s.” She waited while the other person talked on the other side, between the wheezing of her broken phone. “Yah, we’ll be alright. Goodbye.” After hanging out, she announced to the others:

  “It was Joanna.” She breathed out loudly, “Timothy, Bob did not show up in her house. Then, after the singing, she went to his house in Nagranto. But it was empty, so she headed to your house, and to her surprise, your parents were in there, sleeping.”

  “And what do we do now?” He asked alarmed.

  “His phone is out of range. Joanna can’t communicate with him. All we can do is wait for him to contact us now.”

  “But Bob knows how to take care of himself. He wouldn’t be caught in a hard situation that easily. I bet he’s fine.” Winda added, still with her eyes closed, trying to support Timothy.

  “But what about my parents? Will they forget things?” He suddenly got watered eyes, but there wasn’t light enough for the others to notice.

  “They will just forget what the song told them to. So they will not remember about Iliona or anything related to it. The rest will be the same. Right, Ed?” Zian said trying to comfort him as well.

  But Ed was pretty much asleep, barely listening to Zian, so Timothy called him again:

  “Ed!”

  “Yes, that’s right. The rest will be the same.” Ed answered him with a sleepy voice.

  “Ok, then,” Timothy said a bit more relieved. And when he finished saying it, they heard the ringing from a small silhouette in the far corner of the room, Zian’s telephone. He stood up to get it.

  “Are you sleeping already?” Winda asked toward Ed’s silhouette, while Zian was busy on the phone.

  “Yes. I’ll have a lot to do when I wake up, so I would appreciate if you could just stop asking me things.” He said with a low voice, of whom is almost sleeping.

  “The timers are working hard, aren’t they? I mean, they put groups even in the Grooves Valley.” Winda said, thoughtful, remembering the blue lights and the unknown voice of some moments ago.

  “Hmm, they tend to overact,” Muriel also replied thoughtfully.

  “It was Nense. She found Tevis, Elin is taking care of his finger now, but he’s okay.” Zian announced, returning to the chair in which Muriel was. There was an evident relief in his voice. “She asked for explanations, sure, but I told her I was too tired right now to give them all. So I suggested her to ask Tevis later. She understood.”

  “Good,” Timothy and Muriel said almost together.

  “And how did she know you would be here?” Winda asked.

  “She said I didn’t answer my mobile, so she just tried the telephone. I can actually rest now I know Tevis is fine.” He said lying his back in the chair.

  “You’re not even going to say anything about us resting with wet clothes in your padded chairs?” Muriel teased him, also lying next to him.

  “No, I won’t. Tonight you can rest in my chairs, but this time is an exception, though.”

  “Can they follow us here?” Timothy asked, half relaxed, half worried.

  “Of course they can. They just have to focus this place in their minds. But I think they have better things to do tonight than to chase us.” Winda said relaxed.

  “Why do I feel so tired?” He said yawning, more to himself than to the others.

  But Muriel heard it and said:

  “Opening nils is all about the timer’s state of energy. The nil is linked to the timer since the moment when it’s opened ‘till the one it’s closed, so it consumes the timer’s power all along. When the timer doesn’t have too much energy to offer, though, the nil sucks it more, to remain open, and how it does not know how many people are crossing, it understands everything that passes through it as one. Hence, the nil sucks a bit of the energy of each one who crosses it. Because Ed was already too tired in the Grooves Valley, the nil that brought us here drained more than usual of our energy as well. They call it the inertia of the nil: once is open, it wants to remain open, and it acts accordingly, absorbing all the energy it needs to it.” Muriel said while staring at Zian’s dark ceiling.

  “Whoa, you’ve learned a lot about them,” Winda commented.

  “Well, when you’re a timer’s work partner you end up learning some stuff.” She said.

  Timothy kept imagining that was why Ed was sleeping already since he had opened three nils in a row.

  “Just try to get some rest. Besides, Bob knows how to find us. I bet he’ll make contact soon.” Muriel spoke, guessing Timothy’s worry about his uncle.

  “Hmm.” He nodded in the dark and reclined his chair to lay better on it. “He has a twond Joanna gave him; he must have found a nil that ended in somewhere with a bad phone signal.” He added, more to himself again than to the others. Who silently agreed with him.

  And all the silhouettes in Zian’s living room rested that night, briefly hidden from the awaiting issues around them.

  16

  Pride

  The Administration building was a tall cylinder among the other constructions near Iliona’s City downtown. It was all made of silver and glass with eighty-two floors. And Because Iliona’s sand was dark, almost black, its glass had a typical dark tone, resembling smoked glass. The building was all made of it, from the ceiling to the floor, from the walls to the elevators. In a way, there was hardly someone unseen inside its rooms. The ground floor at the entrance was a large area with just a revolving door and three elevators that would only open after digitals checking on the round panel on the side of each of them. Therefore, it was often an empty and silent area, contrasting with the street outside.

  Ed just passed through the revolving doors at the entrance, noticing the thick glass walls muffling the sound from the street outside as soon as he got in. He walked straight to one of the elevators and put his right hand over the round digital panel by its side, which instantly became green. The elevator’s door opened, he entered it and pressed the button corresponding to the floor to which he was going to and waited.

  Fifth floor.

  Inside the building, there were many rooms along with the yellow lights from the round wall chandeliers.

  Tenth floor.

  However, these yellow lights weren’t warm ones. They didn’t resemble sunflowers, but they were of a lemonish yellow instead. Which Ed thought it fitted quite well with the mood of the people he had come to see.

  Twenty-first floor.

  As the elevator was moving up, Ed looked down to the other floors, through its dark translucency, watching ilions coming and going from rooms, answering phones, reading. So calmly and carefree. So different from the rush he had felt in the last hours, and the worry that sent him to Nagranto two months ago. He thought they didn’t seem to know what was happening. “And maybe they don’t,” he thought to himself.

  Thirty-fourth floor.

  There were some group divisions among the timers and despite sharing a building, some news remained in a particular group only. The timers created the Administration as it was known. And it increasingly became more than just a reunion of timers; it formed a government.

  Forty-sixth floor.

  In the beginning, only timers were members of the Administration. With the passing time, though, other ilions could also join in, b
ut they usually did not have significant representation in government matters. That was a big issue in Iliona City.

  Forty-third floor.

  The different groups of timers could be noticed by the color of their cloaks. There were five bigger groups. The one formed by those teachers and students from the Timers School and college, whose cloak was a dark blue one;

  Fifty-ninth floor.

  The timers more interested in the combat arts dressed amber cloaks;

  The sixtieth-third floor.

  The white cloaks covered the back of the ones who enjoyed healing techniques, such as Elin;

  The sixtieth-ninth floor.

  The ones who enjoyed it all and wanted to learn a bit of each group before choosing wore purple cloaks;

  Seventy-fifth floor.

  And the timers who simply didn’t agree with these separations wore black cloaks, and they usually followed independent studies. But all the cloaks had a vivid blue stripe in their sheath, to symbolize that no matter the choice, belonging to any group would imply studying and preparation.

  Eightieth-second, the last floor. The elevator stopped.

  Ed came out of it, walking across the hallway in front of him with steady and calm steps, with a serious expression on his face. On the last floor, there was only a corridor with an octagonal room at its end. Ed was wearing a black suit, dark shoes, and red sunglasses through which lens one could see his dark pupils shaped like gears. And a short dark blue cloak that ended in his elbows stuck in his chest by a silver pin that was a crooked gear within a broken circle, the timer’s symbol. His pale hair was caught in a ponytail on the top of his head. There was nobody in his sight and despite being too early in the morning, the dim lights from the wall chandeliers along the path, with the smoked glass walls blocking part of the natural light from outside, turned that floor darker than the other ones.