On the other side of the city, far away from the neighborhood where Heath and Violetta live. Five robots stand at a gravesite for an old man. He had raised them and taught them about life to the best of his abilities. They had looked into the core programming long ago. They had ignored it for so long.
Now they had no other direction to go to. They knew they needed to find the hand and book with the circular symbol.
Humans were such weird creatures. They decided to go and see an auror. Auror's were said to read the future among the humans. Perhaps they could also give the robots direction.
They met with the auror shortly after that.
"I can't read the future of robots. Whatever book you are trying to find, I can't help you with. Perhaps if you were human I could read your life lines. But…" the fake auror looked at them still feeling he was daydreaming that robots had come to ask him for a reading. There hadn't been a real auror in years. If he had been a real auror, he would have understood that these were no mere robots. The most auror like thing he could do was read palms, and he wasn't even good at that. He just made up stuff half the time. And robots could tell when a human was lying. "At any rate, you better get going."
He kicked them out of his shop.
"Greg," said one of the robots to the robot leader, "What do you think he means."
The robot leader named Greg looked at his underling. "I think he means that we have to go now, and we must try to blend in with the humans. If we blend in, we will locate the hand and the book."
"I saw a costume shop on our way here," volunteered another robot.
"Good job Luke," the robot leader Greg was proud of them for surveying their surroundings. "Let's go dress like humans."
…
…
Violetta was worried. Heath was supposed to call her since yesterday, and she couldn't get him on his communicator. What if he got hurt somewhere. What if he was in an accident that hadn't gotten onto the news yet? Worse, what if he got found out? What would happen to Heath if he had been caught by his father?
She had no idea what he would do to Heath if he ever caught him. From what she had gleaned over the years, the guy was a total madman. He was also responsible for the current rise in drug problems throughout Amrica city.
She decided to skip school and go to her father's. Throughout the years she noticed a pattern of her mother's. When she would get frustrated with something Amistad did, or didn't do she would move out for a short period of time.
So now she called the one house her father's, and the other house her mother's. It didn't matter if her parents were living together or not. They even lived together more often than they lived apart. Once her mother calmed down she would come back home to her father's house.
Right now however Laura had moved out again. Amistad had completely given up on the Archeological part of his career, and decided to solely focus on engineering. It had already been five months since her mother had moved out. She must have been really angry this time, because this was the longest her mother had lived separately.
Worrying about Heath as she was, there was no way she could concentrate. She had to know if her father had heard anything. When she arrived her father wasn't home. Neither was Araminty. The twin robots that her father usually had accompanying him everywhere were also not to be seen. Violetta looked all over the house, and the last room she looked in was her father's study. The house was empty. She turned to leave the study when she heard a thud behind her.
She turned to look, and there as inconspicuous as always was the book. Her father's secret book. There was the familiar circular writing on the cover. Violetta couldn't read it, but she felt as though she had seen the writing recently somewhere.Her father had always told her that one day, she would know how to read it. But he hoped that day would not come very quickly.
The book seemed to disagree with her father, as it always sought her out. She openly studied the cover of the book. This was not something she had done since she was a small child. Everytiem she had found the book, she had delivered it to her father right away without opening it. It had been years since the book had come to her. She wondered if she could read it now that she was older.
She opened the pages to find more circular writing. There were pictures of things she had never seen before and plants that she had no clue what they could be. The writing was not something she could understand at all. She still couldn't read it. She picked one of the pages that didn't have as much on it as the others. She took out a paper from her fathers desk drawer and drew out what she could see. She knew there was so much more to it than what she could see. She wondered if she could crack the mystery of it before her father found out what she had done.
Violetta locked her father's book up in the library safe. She attached a note to it saying that it was on his desk when she got there, and to remember not to leave it out. She decided to call her father later on to see if he knew where Heath was.
She also had more books at her mother's house that could help her to possibly decipher what she copied from the book. Her mother was having a party when she got there. She decided not to ask her mother about Heath until the morning.
Violetta made her way to Laura's study and pulled out a great deal of books on historical languages. She tried to use some common linguistics to decipher the page as well. Nothing seemed to match what she had right in front of her. She poured all her attention into the paper before her. She was partly only doing it because she needed a distraction from her worry.
She had a feeling she would be able to read it on her 20-year. She could almost bet on it. There was probably some royal adult ceremony her dad would put her through, and then she would be able to read it.
She wasn't desperate to know what was on it. She treated it more like a really difficult puzzle. But so far, book after book, nothing could shed any light on its mystery.
Violetta hadn't realized it, but she was looking at her communication ring every little while. The excerpt she drew from the book was a good distraction on the surface. Subconsciously, her worry couldn't be put off.
She shook her head and focused again on the excerpt before her. Her eyes grew dim and she slowly rested her head on the desk. Because Violetta stayed up so late, she woke up late too. She didn't remember going to bed, but she woke up in her room. Her first reaction after realizing where she was, was to look for the paper she had been trying to study.
She looked on her desk, and among her things in a panic.It wasn't there. She hoped her mother hadn't gone to her office yet. If she hadn't then Violetta still had a chance to retrieve it before her mother saw it.
Violetta hurriedly left her room to go to her mothers office downstairs. She could see into the doorway of her mothers office. Her mother was standing excitedly at her desk talking on the communicator. Violetta stopped dumbstruck on the stairs as she heard her mother.
"Yes!" Laura said excitedly, "I think one of my guests last night might have left it for me to find. Come over quickly and help me look at it. Amistad this could be a big one for our family. You have to come right after you finish breakfast. ...Yes you can bring the robots. I don't care. ...Mhmm. See you then darling!"
Cr*p! She was so stupid! How could she have left it out like that! She had been so worried over Heath that she did something exceedingly stupid. What if her mother tried to publish a thesis on it! Then they would all get caught by that evil guy!