The night makes its way, though I barely manage to apprehend the time in Ina's friend's home. He is living underground just like any other terra and the comfortable mattress he had for us couldn't let me sleep. I can't escape the thought of the possibility that spirits may haunt me again. No natural light from the moon and the huge calm that breathes in from the scenery I had on my room will pacify me anymore. Only luminous lamps that cast shadows on walls and the snores from my tired mother who is sleeping beside me. Nothing else more. All are concrete.
I know I won't close my eyes. Not yet. So, I place my sheets on Ina thoroughly and walks out of the room, silently. I had only glanced on Ina's friend's home parts but I am still amused in every turn. A lot of unknown figures and symbols were sculptured on walls. It is an ordinary home but has a lot of secret doors. The room that exhibits various and several books was a real example. I made it to the living room where Pablo is seating on a couch, beside his fireplace, reading a book.
"What are you reading?" I ask as I sit across him.
"Tell me, Era. Do you know yourself?" He flashes the cover of the book to me then continues reading.
'Do you know yourself' is the title of the book.
"I actually have no idea," I reply.
"Not knowing yourself means you are incapable of controlling your inner core. In simple words, you are manipulable." He spits out.
"Then I guess, your advice to erase my memories really resulted well."
"It is a good thing."
"To insult me after you cut my chances to get to know myself?"
"Yes." He furiously closes his book, and looks at me. "Being seen as weak and malleable is a good thing, Era."
"People saying that to you knows you are a bomb, awaiting of the time to stop to explode. You are a massive destruction and I knew that."
"You know?" I explicit doubt.
"I see your eyes..." He stops and drops the book on the firepit. Instantly, the book on fire transforms into magnificently sparkling kind of ashes and sprinkle through the fire.
"From the moment you stare at the entrance of my store up to here." He says.
"What do you mean?"
He didn't answer my query and gaze at the fire as if it implicates an image that made his eyebrows meet instead.
"The maidens are on move now. We need to hurry. Let's go." He immediately stands up and walks to his kitchen. He stops and stands on the kitchen table then kicks and removes the carpet under it. There, a hidden access to another base ground shows.
"How many secret doors do you have?" I ask as he makes his way through. "And what is up with the maidens?"
"They are coming towards you." He replies that only grows further my ignorance.
"Me?" I only say. "Why me?"
"Because I am of much to believe to certain fate and destiny. I was wrong to believe that they wouldn't find out your power."
"You called seeing spirits and making destructions as power?"
"Don't you, Era?" He looks up to me. "Just because your power is distinguished and different from the other, you can not belong? It is their fault to set a diversion, Era, not yours."
"We hid your power for a very long time for your safety. Now, it's time."
He holds and pulls me inside a room that much of a grip of darkness than any places I've been before. Scribbles of unknown inscriptions, weird and eerie unfamiliar sculptures and antiques are on every corner of the walls. What steals my attention is the set of crystals, all in distinguished hue, lie on a concrete table in front of a human-size chair that has a sheet to cover.
"Lenard's scoured the greatest treasure of this realm. Treasures that keep the certainty of one's gift. Symbols of our creation, Aire." He heads straight to the table where gems are resting.
"Aero." He holds one cream-colored crystal by left hand.
"Pyro." He has in possession a desire-colored one on his other palm.
"A spark will perceive if you touch your designated gift." He picks up one more gem, of shade reflects of a clear sky.
"A glow commences once one core wakes up." He suddenly grabs one last crystal on the table, of which the hue contains and smells of a forest and it quickly glimmers overpowering the other stones on his hands.
"I'm a Terra. Surely." He smilingly says and puts all the gems back down to the table.
"Your turn, Era." He says to me but I am numb to move.
All my life I have been wondering why would I need to belong. I had rebelled already inside and questioned principles of Aire. If one would glow, does it matter? We are stuck for years already. If there is a need to change everything and reset, why now? When it is too late. When it is always too late.
"They are looking for me, why is that?" I ask while looking at the stones.
"Why would I need to know?" I stare at him. "Why am I being hunted? Why me, Pablo?"
"For years maidens control the minds of every generation in Aire. They intend to train all individuals that passed adolescence to young adult, an age of forming and deforming one's gift, mind, and soul. Their intention is to find protectors of the world. That divinity's a step to become a keeper. But it is not." He comes to the covered chair on his left and reveals what sits on it. A crown.
"This is not just a crown …" He carefully places the crown onto the table. "…and this room, the walls… they are the witness and speaker of truth" He stops for a moment and looks me in the eye.
"For years my ancestors captured what really occurred during their time and intend to pass the truth to the next generation. They did but were mocked and soon it costed their life."
Slowly and meticulously, on top of the four crown's arches, he attaches each stone. Then in a second, after the last hitch, the gems glow and their rays shine directly and combine to an unnoticed stone in the middle, on top of the crown. I barely observed the stone resting on the center of the crown when I first saw it but if its state would be like what I am seeing, it would catch my attention initially. As the four crystals gleam toward the mean stone, it continuously flickers from dark to light and inversely. Then, the sculptures around hop and making gestures soon after burying their selves to the ground where they were standing. Then the walls become alive.
The inscriptions whisper in and of itself before it fades into thin smoke and later on, into shadows. The images seem to portray a story. It starts with a person who is wearing a crown that looks like a king standing before his people who is praising and honour him. But just a second after his people bowed to him. The person, a woman, in particular, stab straight his heart then recites incantations all by herself that even my senses were filled with. The king kneels in front of her and as his blood is soaking the floor the people begin to fall, eventually went unconscious. The woman stands in front and embraces her utmost superiority above all else. The crown breaks and vanishes as the king closed his eyes. Two persons walk to him and release phrases and words that made the king's body be gone.
Those phrases... Those words... I refused to believe and hear them on my mind. They were used and meant for succeeding protectors. I know cause it was in the Manifesto, Professor Ton told us once and I intend to not forget as a day will come for Dia. I will never forget the phrase that will make me lose my best friend. Soon, the woman puts a robe around her body and a veil on her head. Putting hands together on her chest, she recites prayers that are familiar to me and I am stunned not to notice foremost her voice. The most pacific and graceful voice I have ever heard on my entire life, the most unforgettable tone. As it was the same person who voiced out and led Tris' ceremony days ago... Maiden Ora.
"A long time ago, Aire were a world of unification," Pablo suddenly speaks while all is gone and I remain to understand. "Boundaries of quarters do not exist. There were no potentials and non-potentials. There were no discrimination and injustice, any refusal of knowledge at the very least. Curious of the unknowns were not forbidden. King Temura may not set a perfect realm on his time but he is not a murderer. He is way better, compassionate, and kind than the keepers now. If he didn't fall in affection with or swayed to come into a heartstring with a young lass... A woman from his lineage's enemy. A woman who he set as a queen not knowing she would drag him to his death. Now, that woman bounded quarters, by elements, and set diversification. She reversed the thinking of the people about protectors. " He explains.
"Every generation in each element there were four persons who were gifted with advanced skills and magicks. They were aspired to protect the world until they perish and disappear. Not on the initiation but in here. Maiden Ora established a statue that calls for young ones to be trained in the academy. A call to find the next keepers of Aire. To be set in divinity. But no, it was set to protect her power, herself. Just like what she did to King Temura, she killed young ones of four eras now, the next one will be her fifth. That includes your dearest, Dia."
I look at him as he spoke of Dia.
"But killing is just the second brutality she is manifesting. She stole their power, acquiring their gifts before they knew it. She did it with King Temura's senses."
"She is a murderer, Era." Pablo takes the four crystals from the crown and walks to me. "You saw it yourself."
He stops and looks hesitant to say the next word, though I knew what will it be, or should I say, who.
"With Tris." He offers in the air the crystals and it never changed my doubt to touch any of it.
"Era, I nee—"
Rush footsteps above stop Pablo from talking.
"They are here." He whispers and grabs both of my hands for me to take the stones.
"Who?" I ask him, while carefully, resting the stones on my petite hands.
"Why is there no glow?" Pablo asks, all eyes at the crystals on my palms while the dashing steps become louder and give tension to my ears.
All I think…is Ina.
"Pablo, strangers are making their way!" I toss all the crystals back on the table and runs to where we entered. But it was completely shut and turned into solid ground.
I run back to Pablo who is still staring at the stones.
"Pablo!! Ina's in there!" I scream to no avail. He still stares at the stones.
"C'mon! Shut it!" I grab his sleeves to wake him up of what's happening but stop to notice all stones on the table, glowing.
"I was right." He suddenly speaks.
"What?"
The crystals gradually tear into pieces to transform into a somewhat their natural form. The clear blue coloured stone turns into a magnificent image of a falls with sprinkles of snow and water. The desire-coloured stone turns into flames that resemble the mark on Pyro's napes. The forest green coloured crystal reflects a realm of a pacific woodland hiding on a certain mountain. Lastly, the cream-coloured crystal that transforms into something emptiness and making its presence through a random release of steam and puff.
"He's here!" A harsh voice from above yells that give prickles on my back.
"Pablo." I barely whisper.
"They cannot sense you." He grabs me and pushes me hard catching the crown he throws at me. "Pablo sent you."
My back hits harsh to something concrete, a brick wall.
In no second, I was trapped by the walls made by Pablo himself as he pushed me. I knock the barriers hard and scream his name to find myself in anger with tears.
"I will accompany your mother." I hear him not with my sense of hearing. He speaks straight to my mind. "Whoever asks you of the crystals, tell no word."
"Cure yourself with your power, Era." He hesitantly stops and continues, "I'm sorry."
I heard Pablo's last sniff before I fall due to the movement of my trap. It's getting through its way furiously and crazily that I get no more time to balance myself and stand again. It stops and gently crushes before me, leaving me into a somewhat dead end. Silent. Dark. The only thing that escapes my mouth is my desperate grasp of breath. I am still crouching before the crown as seen by my blurry eyes when I hear a rough and rustling sound. The dead-end is not a dead-end.
"Who are you?" A thick voice of a woman fills my ears.
I refuse to turn to my back and see their impression of my state. My face is completely wet by tears I'd never had before. It soaked my dirty dress. I feel abandoned and weak when I was the one who get to escape and left. All I think was Ina. My mother.
"Whoever crosses the border dies along with their silent cause." The woman says again.
"Speak or forever you will be remembered by the dirt of the ground."
'I will accompany your mother.' I cast Pablo's words over my sanity, repeatedly.
"Speak!"
I wipe all the remains and traces of my fresh sobs and grabs the crown.
"She has the crown!" A husky voice loudly says. "She has the crown!"
I hear unrecognizable whispers and gossips behind. They are a group.
"Lady, speak." A soft voice speaks.
I have no idea as to my capability of standing but I found aid from the rough sides and stand, embracing the crown as I own it with my left hand.
I release my first sigh and say, "Pablo sent me."
"Louder and about-face." The steady voice of a woman again.
I release my hold of the wall that support me and slowly steps, to shift my view of darkness of the trail.
They gasp to see me holding the crown. Oddly, they declared no doubt of the genuineness of it. They knew it is real. But my eyes got stuck to the man I have known for years now...
"Era?"
...Professor Ton.