Pages | Chapter 5 | Sphinx

[marsgemwrites]

While questions are answered, even more are created. Like a question hydra; answer one, two more grow in its place!

BONUS CONTENT

 Chapter 5. Sphinx

"Cheers!" The trio clinked their glasses together brightly. It was seven in the evening and they'd been working on the pages for the past three hours and were finally done. After Erin had reunited with the boys she showed them the two new pages, when they saw them they decided they had to go back to Vechs' to try and decode them.

Vechs had bought a  bottle of wine for them to have with dinner, but instead he opened it to celebrate decoding the pages.

Chad held the paper with the decoded version of the first page in his hand and read it aloud, "The Moonstone Compass is a high tech combination of magic and science," Erin had had to explain what science was to Chad and Vechs, it'd been a slow task, "using mechanisms collected from the planet earth, located in the Milky Way galaxy, we were able to create this compass.

"It's primary function is portal detection. The compass is much more efficient at portal detection than using a moonstone on its own," Chad paused, "Then we have the notations by the drawing; The letters glow to show which direction the compass holder must go. And moonstone to power the compass. Then the other side is just a translation for lillups."

"So this necklace is like a portal compass," Erin said, "Which means I could use this to find a way home!"

Vechs grinned, "Yep," he reached for the piece of paper they'd written the contents of the pages marked one and two on. It seemed that the numbers of their first page had been burned off, these two were more intact. Vechs cleared his throat and begun to speak, "On page one it says; Sphinx's, I assume that's short for their name, primary goal is further Professor Greenwood's research on cross universe travel. Then it lists five names; Professor Joseph Greenwood, Liana Ray, Etho, Jason Guude and Meria Luran. I've never heard of any of these people."

Chad's brow furrowed, "I have. Greenwood was this big deal caster a little over a hundred years ago. I remember my mum would talk about his questionable morals, saying he wasn't doing his country any good. Back then I lived in Shayston," he turned to Erin to give her a little context, "felins originate from there."

"If he had these questionable morals how come I haven't heard of him? That's the kind of thing you'd be taught in school, right?" Vechs asked.

Chad shook his head, "Not this guy, he apparently gave a lot of people a lot of money to never mention him in general history books. I think he was doing some kind of illegal research."

"What, like travelling to another universe?" Erin suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds illegal enough." Chad said in agreement.

"Well, he clearly succeeded in his work." Vechs said, gesturing to Erin, indicating that she was proof.

"Yeah, but all I ever heard about was his research, everything was theoretical. It was never publicised exactly what he was doing, I guess he had a lot of money to bribe people into being silent," Chad picked up the paper Vechs had read from, "These other people were associated with Greenwood. Although Etho's very existence was never confirmed."

"I guess he does, or at least did exist." Erin said thoughtfully, "Do you know what happened to them?"

"Yeah, well, sort of," Chad said, "Greenwood went MIA like eighty years ago, Ray was confirmed dead several years after that. Etho was so elusive I have no idea, then Guude and Luran haven't been announced dead so they could still be alive."

Vechs made a humming noise before speaking, "This was decades ago. Were they casters or something?"

"No. Luran was a brak and I believe Guude was a drerkek, both of which generally live decades longer than humans. It is very possible that they're alive."

Erin leaned back against the sofa, which she was sat in front of, and sipped her wine. It was all a lot to take in. She was thankful that Chad had been alive when this was happening otherwise they would have been stumped.

"What about page two?" Vechs said, breaking the short silence.

Chad scanned that paper, "It seems it's just more information about their research, nothing super interesting," he reached for the third page and looked at it. This one had a weird diagram on one side and utterly irrelevant writing on the other side about how people on earth had different names for everything, something the trio had already worked out.

"What do you think this is?" Chad said putting the page down diagram side up.

"Looks like a blueprint of some kind." Erin said, squinting at the pages, "Or part of one at least."

"What's a blueprint?" Vechs asked.

"Uhm, it's like a diagram of something someone is going to build. They're used for buildings and other crap."

"Right, I see what you mean then. These numbers could be measurements." Vechs mused.

"That's possible," Erin nodded. She looked down at the page and ran her finger along the edge where the spine would have been, "It looks like it abruptly ends here. That means that we need page fourteen to complete this blueprint."

Vechs hummed quietly, "I think you might be right," He turned to Chad, "Anymore information on The Order of The Sphinx?"

Chad frowned thoughtfully, "No, I don't think so. Like I said, Greenwood was very private."

Erin sipped her wine then looked over the pages they'd collected. From what they'd worked out it seemed that The Order of The Sphinx had documented all of their research and if Erin wanted to get home she would have to get the most important pages of the journal.

Vechs stood up and announced he was going to make dinner. As well as the wine he'd bought soup and a loaf of bread. Erin watched him walk off then her gaze fell on Chad, there was a weird look in his eye, one she knew all too well, "Chad," Erin said quietly. The felin turned to look at her, seemingly trying to compose himself a little.

"What's up?" He asked, his voice soft and gentle.

"If you don't want anyone to know, you should be careful with your expressions." Erin said.

Chad audibly swallowed, "Am I that obvious?"

Erin shrugged, "I think Vechs is too preoccupied to notice your pining looks-"

"Hey! I don't pine!" Erin raised her eyebrows at him, "Much.." Chad added quietly.

"Like I was saying, I don't expect Vechs has noticed, but still, be careful. Or you could be less subtle and go for it."

Chad shook his head so vigorously Erin worried it'd come flying off, "No, no I couldn't." Chad moved closer to Erin.

"Why not?"

"Well," Chad licked his lips nervously, "Vechs was seeing this guy for about three years, they split up roughly three and a half months ago. Vechs was hit hard by it. You appearing has given him a good distraction from everything."

"Are you allowed to tell me what happened? Or is it best to let Vechs tell me in his own time?"

Chad shrugged, "I guess it's not really my place to tell you what happened. Vechs will probably talk about it eventually, he's still pretty fragile."

Erin nodded, she was happy to respect Vechs' privacy, they'd only just met after all. She decided to change the topic, "How'd the two of meet anyway?"

Chad grinned, "That's a funny story actually," he reached to grab his half emptied wineglass, "Vechs is from Athose and I'm from Shayston, as we've mentioned. They're neighbouring countries. We both happened to be camping at this same site right on the border. Vechs was with his now ex and me with my friends. Vechs managed to burn down his tent while cooking his and his other half's dinner."

"How do you even manage that?!" Erin laughed.

"I don't know! But Vechs managed. I saw this and went to ask if the two of them would like to come and sleep in our tent, they gratefully accepted and we hung out for the rest of our vacation. Afterwards stayed in touch then later we both happened to be moving here to Skol Prida."

"That's pretty cool. How long have you been living here?"

"Nearly a year, it's nice. I still go back to Shayston to visit my family of course, but yeah, it's a nice place. Great beaches."

"We should go to the beach at some point," Erin suggested, "I'm probably going to be stuck here for a while, might as well make the most of it."

"Hey, Sunreth's pretty great."

"Yeah," Erin smiled. Being on this planet was bittersweet in a way. Everything was so stunningly beautiful, the air was the cleanest she'd ever breathed. As far as she'd seen there was equality. There was magic and adventure around every corner, plus, she'd never felt like she belonged back on earth. Like a misfit.

Here she felt like she fit in.

Comments

[scara]

"Luran was a brak"

Hmmmm....is this perhaps the same brak we met in the market?

Also, yay for Chex ship : 3

"She'd never felt like she belonged back on earth. Like a misfit. Here she felt like she fit in."

Willing to bet that Erin turns out to be a descendant of either Greenwood or another member of The Order of the Sphinx.

[marsgemwrites]

Yes, Chex ship *attempts to nod convincingly* Yep, Chex, mhm.

[scara]

It's not going to happen is it? You're going to tease it and then not have it happen......damn you Mars! XD

[(Anonymous)]

Oooo, lots of interesting information. I sense more underlying foreshadowing. I'm enjoying this a lot. (::) (::) (::)
-Observing Anon

[marsgemwrites]

Ah yes, foreshadowing is great ;D And thank you!

[ruddiestbubbles]

Hmmm... I feel something dark brooding (I think that's the right word lol) in the background. Nothing good can come of this. Nothing at all. Why do I feel like Chad is gonna die? I swear if you kill him ...

[marsgemwrites]

Chad would have to die several times for him to be dead :3 *evil laughter can be heard as I walk away*

[ruddiestbubbles]

You evil, evil little gem...