The Prophesy: Book 2 - The Right Hand of Destiny

 

What appeared as Bata shone a diffuse light in the vault was beautiful and yet revealed an appalling story. Apparently, a group of Egyptians had managed to force their way into the vault before the Atlanteans closed it, and a battle had raged for a short time around the crystal, which, fortunately, had been saved from any damage. However, skeletons littered the floor, small Egyptian ones, and much taller, Atlantean ones. Green streaks revealed where blades of bronze had lain to rest before degrading, while reddish-black rust streak marked blood or rusted steel swords typical of Atlantean makes. Bones, dried and extremely friable, were piled in a haphazard manner, telling them that no effort had been made to insure the proper burial of their deceased owners. Broken skulls, cut long bones, and sword residues stuck in rib cages told of the violence of the battle that had pitted the two people.

"Well, that puts the difficulties of building this vault in perspective. What do we do?"

"We need to drop another three feet to reach the floor of the vault first. I suggest removing about fifteen yards of rock back on a steeper slope. We were pretty close to our goal, Thorsten."

"What about the skeletons?"

"We need to move some out of the way, and try to identify the person. Maybe we can find out who is laying in there from our people?"

"Dad, I understand your wish. After all, we knew all these people in our previous incarnation as Atlantean. However, we must not forget the Crystal's displacement is more important than that emotional goal. And the heat here is troubling. Something is up, down below, and I do not want to be here when it shows up."

"Harp's right. Let's finish the opening, and ready it for the displacement of the Crystal. Once this is done, we can spend a day or two to identify Atlanteans and move them back to the Crypt under Eloise. After all, they deserve to come with us."

The removal of the vitrified wall took the rest of the day. The next day saw the preparation of a short six-point-six percent grade slope to finish the passage.

"Let's take a break for the day. Tomorrow is the mortuary identification and extraction process. Harp, Sitar, do a summary estimate of the number of Atlanteans found here."

"Yes dad. Harp, take to the left, and I'll take to the right. Count skulls. I am not sure we will be able to differentiate all bones, and, honestly, I think it's time we forgive the natives. After all, we were on their land, and, notwithstanding the tragic events that occurred here, we eventually benefited from a form of imposed hospitality. Forgiveness is an apanage of greatness."

"Son, you impress me. I was afraid that seeing this would revive your hatred. Instead, you show me you truly deserve your title of Prince of Atlantis," replied Harold, hugging Sitar.

"I never hated them, no more than I hate the orcs or, now, the crocodile priests. They were only doing what they thought was right. All three were manipulated by the Elohim, and suffered greatly from their disgusting interference in their internal affairs and directly or indirectly in their genetics."

"Anyway, dad, hate is a costly endeavour that benefits no one. I'm not going to give a hug to a crocodile priest or an orc, but I think I am going to be a little less inclined to butcher everyone I see," added Harp.

"While you guys were doing some talking, I did the count for you. I found twenty-five skulls. Five wore some form of gold amulet, which looks like a miniature three-toothed fork. The others wore bracelets and collars of short bones."

"That was a symbol of power in Atlantis, Thorsten, the Trident. These guys were part of the Royal Guards of Atlantis. That's to be expected, given the importance of the Crystal. There should be a gold and platinum plate with each of them, their nametag, which also included their rank, blood type, and unit. Did you see that?"

"I did, Harold. I did not touch anything. I suggest Paschal draws the scene, and we number each bone and artefact as we remove each. Later, we may be able to match bone to owner from their position."

"OK," replied Sitar. "As for the others, they are the natives. I now remember they valued parts of their vanquished enemy as fetishes, and these small bones are the finger bones of those they had killed in battle. You should also find similar bracelets made of teeth around the ankles. The rings around the arms were considered force rings to amplify the power and accuracy of their bearer. In a way, it was a primitive magic, which was not properly focussed. I would not be surprised if the analysis of these rings revealed that they contained a significant proportion of native mithril in its mineral form."

Paschal quickly divided the floor of the room into a tight grid, and set up a Cartesian coordinate system. Materializing a scroll, he reproduced the grid on it. The process of tagging each bone and encasing it in a protective casing began. Each tooth, each bone, each piece of metal, or even rust flake was carefully preserved in a plaster cast, which carried inside and out a tag indicating position and layer. Magic was used profusely to supply everything and separate dust from artefact. It took a week to do the entire process, and then the boxes were carried out by legionnaires to the base of the well. Magic was used to lift them individually to the storage vault under the Sphinx and then, again, legionnaires carried the boxes outside and strapped them on the side of dragons. There were fifty oblong boxes, vaguely reminiscent of coffins, and twenty-five dragon adults were mobilised to bring them non-stop back to Eloise.

The next step was a lot more dangerous, as it involved transporting the Crystal itself out of its birth. The first step was removing the four interfaces that fed magic from the Pyramid above them to the Crystal. Paschal and Harp handled the process very carefully. Any short and the entire complex would be sent in orbit! It took them a full day to remove all four contacts.

The next day, Paschal and Williams built a wheeled carriage that could be hand-pulled by men. A powerful set of brakes were set on all four wheels that could be activated by using a rope to either release or tighten the brake shoes so the pad would release or rub the wooden wheels. A set of stoppers was also added to immobilise the carriage and prevent it from backing down the rather steep grade.

"Why bother with all that work, guys?"

"My Lord, remember we cannot trust magic. If it gives out or weakens at the wrong moment, all our efforts will have been for nothing," replied Williams.

The next day was spent in setting the Crystal into the carriage, tying it to the wooden structure, and padding it so it would not swing during the displacement. The critical part was insuring the means to maintain a rigorous vertical position to the Crystal. A series of levers were installed whose angle could be adjusted on a continuous basis. They lifted the support frame to adjust it. To insure perfect vertical positioning, steel I beams, tied to the support frame, were fitted with a basin of coloured water. As long as the surface of the water was aligned with a marker in the basin, the levers were compensating the slope properly.

Things finally set, the slow, painstakingly slow progress up the ramp to the base of the well began. This time, the management fell under the capable command of Dunbar and Williams. Legionnaires moved down to the bottom of the ramp and began pulling and pushing the carriage.

Meanwhile Annabelle had taken a trip to the storage room found at one end of the Tunnel where the tables of mithril had been found. Carefully, she had packed the contents of the room, and then used her two dragon wings to move the still mysterious contents to the almost empty vaults under Eloise. She would leave the transfer of the stuff to a tessaract to Harp. Once the room had been cleared, the tables of mithril were loaded on a wing of dragons and sent to the Sphinx to be used there.

At the base of the well, Thorsten and Harold had increased the depth by four feet. Then they had opened the well a bit wider three inches below where the well's floor used to be, all along two sides of the well for six inches. Well aware that the magic field was not stable enough to realise what he needed, Harold invited Thorsten to accompany him some distance away to a more appropriate and usable field. Once they had found a proper source of magic, Harold explained what he needed.

"See, that Crystal weights several hundred tons. We have to move it up the well, some considerable distance. The magic field there is too unstable for us to trust it, so, as you know, we are expecting the delivery of the mithril tables that have been collecting magic from Annabelle. However, these tables may be too fragile to carry the weight of the crystal, so we will have to reinforce them somehow. So we are going to materialise steel I beams, that will be resting on the side platform of lava we dug out earlier. I think that forty I-beams, separated by a foot from each other, and placed along the narrowest axis of the well, will be able to support the crystal without breaking. Now, as to why we came here, in this particular area, is because the place seems relatively clean of any field anomaly, and we need stable magic field to materialise these beams without creating faults or cracks in them."

"Why was I asked to accompany you, Harold?"

"Thorsten, you have an uncanny eye for defects, Harp tells me. I will create, you will inspect."

The production of the I-beams went well; it took eight days, and a few reconstructions to produce the forty beams. Harold used magic profusely in all the steps of production. The first step was the creation of the I-beam moulds into which the molten steel would be run for casting. He found a beach of olivine sand and another of clay, which he then mixed and shaped into the necessary forms to let dry in the sun. Thorsten supplied the raw material and ported it to the selected location of the smithy. The next step was finding the proper material to melt the iron ore, and produce a furnace hot enough to extract iron from the ore, a rich deposit of which was located near their selected workplace. Again, magic was used to make the necessary components, from refractory bricks to line the inside of the oven to the ceramic outer shell of the oven itself. Coal was found in an exposed vein that had been mined by the ancients using picks and shovels, and would supply the proper amount of carbon to convert soft iron to steel. Harold's experience as an ironsmith was precious, as he knew the exact requirements. He simply increased the size of his basic oven to contain enough raw materials to produce a forty-foot I-beam, and the residual slag. His biggest problem was pumping enough air to both heat the metal contents to melting, and feeding the melt oxygen to burn sulphur and excess carbon. Harold decided to use his sons' technique: focalised tornadoes! The result was a system whereby the raw metal was layered with coal, essentially almost pure carbon, mixed with some sulphur. It was reduced to a fine powder to help in the combustion. As the coal burned, it would reduce the iron oxide, producing iron and degassing carbon dioxide³⁰³⁰ ("FeO<sub>2<\/sub> + C = Fe + CO<sub>2 <\/sub>(simplified path, bypassing Carbon reduction to CO)"). By the same process, the sulphur would degas and produce sulphur dioxide³¹³¹ ("FeO<sub>2<\/sub> + S = Fe + SO<sub>2<\/sub> (simplified path, bypassing Sulphur reduction to SO)"). The bottom of the oven would collect slag, composed of heavier metals and residues. Once the mixture stabilized and the degassing process stopped, the slag was drained into basins, and the steel alloy was run into the sand moulds.

Thorsten used his hammer to make the beams resonate on all faces, verifying that there was no major fractures or sulphide bubbles. The first I-beam had to be redone three times, until the proper mix of carbon and iron mineral was found to produce the steel grade Harold and Thorsten had agreed was necessary for their needs. The first one produced contained too much sulphur; the second had not enough carbon and was too ductile. The third try, while not perfect, was within tolerance. Shrinking was minimal, it was not too pliable, and it had no major signs of fracturing during cooling. Since the beams were not to be used more than to support the tables, no effort was put into finishing their surface once the sand casts were removed, giving them a fine-grained surface. Dragons collected the beams and carried them, two beams at a time, to the foot of the Sphinx, not because of their weight, which amounted to eight thousand eight hundred and fifteen pounds apiece, but because they were cumbersome. By the time the last I-beams reached the Sphinx and was ready to be moved down into place, the Crystal had reached the top of the ascending hallway, and the tables were waiting at the base camp for the last leg of their trip.

As Harold and Thorsten returned to the base camp with the last beam, Harp cornered his dad.

"Dad, how did you do the beams?"

"I smelted them, that's how. What do you expect, Harp?"

"Was the magic field unstable, weak or otherwise deficient?"

"Oh no, it was quite stable and regular."

"Then why didn't you materialise the beams to your specifications rather than spend all these days doing smelters' work?"

"And it's now you tell me? Anyway, Harp, it felt good to put to practice my training. I felt at home for the first time in years! You seem to forget I am an ironsmith at heart!"

"I know dad, I was teasing. But I always keep in mind that time is of the essence, and any day lost is a day less to finish our work."

"One of these days, Harp! One of these days!"

Once the last I-beam was in place, the tables were moved down and the underside of tabletops was carefully positioned to rest on the steel beams. Then the carriage and the Crystal were pushed in place, to much groaning and moaning, as the pulling mechanism had to be removed due to lack of space. In its place, a set of strong ropes were tied at the base of the rolling berth, to allow for pulling it off the well once it would reach the vault's floor. Another set of ropes, tied to eyebolts screwed into the far end of vault wall, were run down the far side the well, passed through pulleys under the carriage, and straight back up along the other side, again passed through pulleys, and tied to rotating drums with pawls as braking mechanism and cranks to rotate the drums.

The first thing undertaken was testing the resistance of the safety measures. The test was simple: lift the carriage an inch and see if anything was going to break. The ropes stretched, but held, the pulleys groaned but also worked perfectly. As it was still very early in the morning, the process of moving the Crystal and the carriage up the well was begun immediately. It was a case of all hands on deck. All princes combined their magic, while the legionnaires held the cables taut by rotating the drums as the carriage and the Crystal rose. By sext, it was halfway up. The legionnaires rotated and a new set moved in to take over. Harp and Thorsten began focussing the magic contained in the table to help the royals in their effort. By vespers, the carriage was at the well's lips, and another set of legionnaires pulled the suspended carriage forward so the four wheels came to rest on the floor of the vault.

"Let's get back to base camp. Another hard day awaits us tomorrow."

"Dad, I'll be pulling the mithril tables back up tomorrow. They are pure mithril, and their magic load is barely dented by today's work," replied Harp. "Anyway, we won't be going back down the well after that."

"And who knows, maybe we will need the magic to finish off the work, tomorrow," added Paschal. "Let's put the stoppers behind the wheels. It would be a disaster if it rolled back and fell in the hole because of an unnoticed slope."

***

The next morning, the drums were unwound and the ropes untied from the eyebolts. The pulling mechanism that had been used to pull the carriage up the lower passage to the base of the well was reconnected, and the slow process to bring the Crystal to the surface began. Although the distance was shorter, the problem turned out to be a lot more complex. The initial path had not been designed to bring the Crystal out, and it twisted back and forth on itself a number of times, plus being slightly steeper. As each level marking a change in direction was reached, it was necessary to turn the carriage to align it with the next rise. This was not easy. The only solution found by the royals was to widen the landing so they would allow the carriage's rotation. They tapped more and more on the magic stored in the table that were brought up behind them to lift the carriage and rotate it by hand. The combined mass of the Crystal and the carriage was considerable, and it took the combined effort of ten legionnaire each pushing on opposing ends for the rotation to be effected, as the princes were too busy lifting the system a few inches and focussing magic drained from the mithril tables.

Finally, five days after that last stage began, around nones, the last turn was negotiated and the last rise came into view. A general sigh of relief was heard. The next three hours were spent bringing the crystal out. Vespers was on them but the royals decided to move the Crystal and tables back to their base camp immediately. At twenty-five miles per hour, it would take them until dawn to get it safely there, but it would be safer than letting it get contaminated by radiation more than necessary. Thorsten and Harp took the first two hours of transport, draining more energy from the mithril tables. Then it was Williams and Dunbar that took over for another two hours as Thorsten Harp stayed in place to act as magic relay to furnish them with energy from the tables. Then Enron and Paschal took over, while it was now Williams and Dunbar that acted as additional relays for the magic. Another two hours and fifty miles were covered before Harold and Sitar took over from Enron and Paschal for the next leg. While they were busy doing that, legionnaires had tied the tables on dragonlings, who took off and flew at a leisurely fifty miles per hour to catch up with them. By the time Harold and Sitar were ready to be relieved, Harp and Thorsten were waiting for them at the next waypoint. The dragonlings had over-flown the first and second waypoint by the time Harp and Thorsten exchanged the load with Sitar and Harold, and were well on their way to catching up with the waypoint occupied by Enron and Paschal. When Williams and Dunbar again took the Crystal, the dragons were in front of them, hovering near the next waypoint, thus removing the need for load relays. Enron and Sitar took over again from Williams and Dunbar, to be replaced for the last relay by Sitar and Harold. By then the mithril tables were in base camp, and the sun's first rays reflected on their bright surface, behaving like a lighthouse in the predawn light.

"Ok, boys, we rest for the next twenty-four hours. Legionnaires, take a day off. You will be escorting us back to the Kingdom in wings starting tomorrow."

"Yes Legate! Men! Break up and rest!" answered the Centurion in charge.

***

The transfer of the Crystal was planned carefully. Harold decided to do it in steps, rather than a continuous flight.

"The reason is simple, boys. Remember how tired you were when you carried the others non-stop? You had to sleep days on end to recover. Now we have a carriage, why not use it to let the Crystal rest on the ground every eight hours? Furthermore we now have an air force, and it is very unlikely we could be taken by surprise. Let's be reasonable. Paschal, plan where we have to go and where we must stop."

"Fine dad. Given we cannot travel at more than twenty-five miles per hour, and dad insists it's no more than eight hours per flight, that gives grasshopper hops of two hundred miles at a go. We are at 26° 00' 10" N 33° 32' 43" E. Now, we cannot cross over Atlanticus. By the same token all major oceans except the Arctic are too wide. The Arctic, being covered with ice, is passable. The Antarctic, on the other hand, given the current weather patterns, is buffeted by gale-force winds that would make crossing over it risky and the ice shelf too unstable for us to rest on. Add to this the fact that even in winter, the currents around Antarctica are too strong for the ice shelf to reach any northern continent, and we are barred from using that road." Taking a sip of fruit juice, Paschal continued his analysis. "We cannot safely travel near the coasts of Alaska, Japan, Russia, China, and Europe for a common reason: extremely high radiation. If we look at our current location, our options are very limited: the Mediterranean coast of the Middle East is so radioactive you could roast meat in midair and get radioactive blue steaks. Our only option is to cross the Red Sea, and then try to find a passage across the Arabian Peninsula. I doubt they have spent that much energy blowing up nukes over sand dunes. Our initial heading would be 66° 40' 48". Once we get across the Red Sea, we stop at 27° 0' 0" N 36° 31' 44" E for the night, then change our heading to, let me see 19° 32' 24" for five days. That would put us right between the Black and Caspian seas, in the middle of what was once Armenia, at 40° 32' 31" N 43° 59' 38" E. Then we change our heading to 0° and head straight north to the Pole, for a distance of three thousand four hundred and thirty miles, which puts that leg at seventeen days, more eighteen. The last leg of the trip will then bring us from the Pole to the Elvin kingdom, at the entrance of Thebes' new location in Lava Flows. That is a distance of three thousand three hundred and twenty two miles along the 76° 41' 48" W meridian, for an added seventeen days. The whole trip from our current position should take forty-one days, if all goes well."

"Ah, the pleasure of having a Master Cartographer with us. He plans everything and we only follow!"

"Bite me, dad!"

The road map set, exploratory teams left with dragons to mark potential landing sites along the way to the Pole and to the Elvin kingdom. The next morning, last-minute adjustments were made to take into account radioactive pockets, and make sure the landings occurred within defendable positions, should the need arise.

"Should we send the tables directly to Eloise?" asked Sitar.

"I would prefer they stayed with us," replied Harp. Even if they have lost some of their magic during the extraction of the Crystal, we have enough left in them for their magic to be of use should we cross a low magic or zero magic field area."

"OK. Boys, bedtime is early today, tomorrow is the crossing of the Red Sea, and we all know how unstable the magic field is around this place."

***

The crossing of the Red Sea, albeit less spectacular than Moses', nonetheless was impressive. Imagine seventy adult dragons and seventy-five dragonlings flying in wings, framing what would be seen as a sixty-foot high diamond shining with all its fire in the sun. A few megalodons were seen hunting along the deep trench that marked the deepest part of the red sea, but none tried to assault the flight, which had levelled off at one thousand feet for this leg. A group of orcs, numbering a few hundred, were spotted after crossing the Red Sea and immediately, the dragons dispatched them. Few members of the horde survived to tell their misadventure with the flying snakes. No trace of the dead orcs were ever found, except in dragon dung, in the form of severely corroded metal bits that had been their lances, swords or armour.

The crossing of the Arabian Peninsula went well, minus the need to fly very high above another sandstorm. The spectacle of the walking dunes of sand was awe-inspiring, if worrisome. Another column of orcs was spotted trying to outrun the advancing storm, but little good it did them. The sand skinned them alive and removed the meat off their bones, leaving bleached bones behind.

"These idiots! They should dig in a dune and set tents to outlive the storm!" exclaimed Sitar.

"That works if you know how to set a sand-floater snorkel, Sitar. I doubt they do," replied Paschal.

A sand-floater snorkel is a long tube that lets air enter a tent, while the other end is pulled above the advancing sand by airfoils. As the foils lift the exposed end, the mouth is kept downwind, thus preventing sand from entering the tube and clogging it. The stronger the storm blows, the more the snorkel rises above ground and the greater the pressure differential between the tent and the outside. A snorkel may be up to five hundred feet long, thus letting a tent and its occupants survive to a considerable depth. Occupants can estimate the thickness of the sand they need to swim out of from markers on the snorkel that indicate how much of it has been pulled out by the storm. Most of the time, the thickness of sand is less than five feet, but sometimes, when the storm abates, a camper finds himself under a dune and must use breathing tubes to escape. These are tubes that can be screwed to the snorkel, and are equipped at the other end with breathers. Each breathing tube is a lot narrower than the snorkel and is rolled tightly around a drum that will be brought out as the person digs his way out from under the sand. The best escape route is to follow the snorkel to the surface since it is generally vertical, right above the tent.

The next leg of the trip, negotiating a passage through Armenia, proved a lot more arduous than Paschal had anticipated. First there was a high chain of mountains to cross, which linked the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and blocked their path. Second, it seemed the area had been hit by war to a considerable degree, and long swaths of the area were still under the grips of the Atom God. This required constant changes of headings, following the markers left by the scouting teams, and added five days to the trip just by itself.

The travel due north began and followed approximately the path Paschal had planned until they reached the coast of the Arctic Ocean. There, markers indicated the need to change path and head east to do some island hopping, as the ice cover seemed to be too unstable to hold the weight of the Crystal safely. Furthermore, a careful survey of the ice cover revealed hot spots that indicated the presence of lairs of the Atom God. Apparently, the war had raged below the waves as well as above, and ships carrying nuclear weapons had been sunk along the coast or in the middle of the Ocean, creating hot spots where the ice was thinner, and more radioactive. Rather than move to the North Pole, the markers had the royals hop first east to a long island, Novaya Zemlya, travel to its northern tip, than hop back north and westward to follow a series of small islands: first the Franz Josef Land Archipelago, next to the Svalbard Archipelago, then the longest hop of all, to Greenland which required a flight of three hundred and ten miles. The rest of the trip was a piece of cake since it never required flying over wide bodies of water and most of it was done over what was once Canadian wilderness, now covered by a mile-thick layer of ice. The last difficult part was negotiating the numerous pockets of radioactive lands that pockmarked the old Canada American border and created vast Forbidden forests and the Northern Mountains of the Elvin Kingdom. Finally, after sixty-six days, the royals delivered the fifth Crystal to the doors of Thebes, ready for installation by the care of Harp, Paschal, and Thorsten.

***

Fifteen days later, the fifth Crystal of Atlantis was installed and tested. The princes began searching for the place to assemble the sixth room in the basement of Thebes, but however systematic their search it led to nothing.

"Maybe we are going at this the wrong way?" suggested Thorsten.

"What do you mean?" asked Enron, frustrated.

"Could it be the space needed is not yet moved into place? We all know that the construction we have been exploring is a composite of pieces, built all over the place. What if if the piece has not yet been added to Thebes?"

"That could be, Thorsten, but how could we prove it?"

"Harp, we have a map of what we got already. I think Paschal drew it as we explored the innards of the composite city. Maybe we need to look at the map and see where the missing pieces are."

"Paschal, how precise is your map of the city?"

"The map is good to the nearest foot. It includes each layer, from the deepest basement to the tallest tower. I also have a map of the location of every stasis chamber and their relative location, and their connection. Let's have a look."

The boys moved to Paschal's workshop in Eloise. It was the old ballroom of the Eloise's ducal castle. Huge tables occupied its voluminous space. There were row after row of cabinets designed to hold rolled maps, and suspending racks that would let maps of all sizes be held vertically. There were shelves of inks, pens, and drawing tools of all sorts, as well as huge rolls of parchments, and canvases. At the side were mortars, and boxes of different pigments, from organic to mineral. Oils of different types could be seen, stored in glass bottles. Paintings in varying degree of completeness were on rests at the far end of the room.

One huge map couldn't be missed. It was a Mercator equatorial projection of the Earth with its current configuration. On it were green and red pins, far more red than green. Beside it was an equally huge map of the Elvin Kingdom, with strange twisting lines all over its surface.

"What's that one?" asked Timor, curious.

"That, my friend, is a topographic map. Each line marks a difference of one hundred feet from one layer to the next. The closer the lines are, the steeper the terrain. When you have a cliff, the lines merge into a continuous smear."

"And what are the green and red pins on that huge map?" wondered Sitar.

"Green pins indicate a square mile we have explored to collect samples for either the Ark or the Eden project. The red pins are regions we yet have to explore. If you look carefully, you will notice an occasional yellow. It indicates we have begun that square mile but not completed it."

"Well, I never knew that this planet had so much space! And what are the white ones?"

"These are glaciers. Notice that the northern lands are almost all covered with white pins. We will have to explore the icecaps, but I do not expect much to be found, except were there are sheltered valleys."

"I have added another pair of tessaracts to our collection, bringing their numbers to twenty-five. The seed bins have been moved to tessaract number twenty-four and the sperm and egg bins have been moved to number twenty-five. I had to add cryogenic capacity to the tessaracts to maintain the microclimate the Ancients had built in their vaults. I designed the tessaracts so they will be able to hold fifty times their current contents."

"Have we found any other doomsday vaults?"

"Not yet, Enron, but the exploration of Siberia and Antarctica is far from complete. And we have not really explored the Canadian north. Elsmere Island, due to its structure, seems to be a probable location."

"Who is handling these searches for the moment?"

"I have asked the Pegasus to do these searches. The presence of the Pegasuses has multiplied by at least a thousand our number of exploratory teams. They are following a systematic search pattern set up by Williams and Dunbar. Have you talked to Dunbar and Williams about reporting the results of the search, Paschal?"

"No, Harp. I just learned of these developments. I will ask for a telepathic report shortly."

"The dragons and dragonlings have been tasked to explore around the kingdom, both to find new life forms and to ensure our protection. They will report to you, Sitar."

"Ok, Harp."

"What are the kings doing?" enquired Sitar.

"Dad's sitting on the Royal Bench, rendering justice. With all the time we spent in Africa, the Courts have grown overloaded, and Harold is cleaning up the garbage. Quite a few are enrolled into the army with a kick in the butt; but the number of petty squabbles is astronomical. Dad said if he heard the word fence one more time he would nationalize all the lands. And, knowing Harold's temper, he will do it. The last time I saw him I thought we had imported a volcano! Thorsten, your previous lord Exchequer tried to claim Harold did not have jurisdiction on disputes affecting the Elves and the Dwarves. He chose the wrong day, the wrong time, and, more importantly, the wrong tone to state his point. I hope you do not plan on reinstating him in his functions?"

"No, why?"

"He lost his head. Dad used Thor's Hammer to make his point. It made a very satisfying noise when the Hammer pushed his brain out of his ears."

"I see. It's a good riddance. Too bad I did not have the time to make him lose it with the gold Ark story!"

"I am sure there are enough with latent gold fever for your fun."

"Enron, have you talked about the coffer we found in the vault under the Sphinx to your dad yet?"

"Sorry, Harp, I haven't had much time to talk to dad with all my own sitting on the Royal Bench to render justice. I am sure Thorsten has been busy too, between spending time with us exploring the caves of Thebes and cleaning up the last known control room with you and Paschal."

"Yes, and I understand Harold's mood all the better. I never knew there could be so much bickering for futile problems that could be solved if people just were reasonable. I have resorted to a solution that is somewhat similar to Harold's."

"What do you mean?" enquired Enron, curious because a flood of trivial cases faced him too.

"I simply published a decree stating that the loser of a cause would also lose his head. The number of petty causes brought to my attention has dropped considerably, after I effectively applied the decree on a few stubborn stiff necks. My Axe flew and cut five heads before the number of cases dropped to almost nothing! Dad was laughing so much from behind the Throne I was worried the windows would break. Now, the number of cases has been down to a trickle, usually criminal offences, and civil cases has been almost nil."

"Well, I've been overtaken by a neophyte in running justice. I never would have thought of that one!" exclaimed Enron. "Let me make a similar decree. I have had enough of fights over the shade of a tree stopping the growth of grass cases! And you, Timor, do you have the same issues?"

"No, I am only heir, not regent. And we are so few!"

"Anyway, back to our issue and why we are here, Paschal. What can you tell us from the drawings you have done so far of the ever-expanding Thebes?" asked Harp.

"Well, I wish I had a three-dimensional projection of the city, because I feel we are missing an essential part of the whole concept. When I think I drew the plans for it, I just can't get why I can't get a grip on it. Anyway, the thing is, a pattern, again hexagonal, seems to emerge. We are missing huge pieces of the puzzle, which tells me we either need to build them, or to find them. I think I have found where Kantar will fit, but I feel it's not yet the time to do it. I have asked our people to explore the Elvin kingdom to locate anything Atlantean, and so far, quite a few pieces have been found, hidden from view by either the Ancients or by us. Strangely, I found out that the College of Magic and Fe also have their place, even if I am sure I never knew of them before. Do not worry, Enron, your home is the next piece. I did a quick hop to the Palace of Nature, and your homestead is next in the puzzle. The next one is some piece found in Wyvern, which is huge, and seems to be necessary for the wellbeing of the dragons. We'll be going to get these two components shortly."

"What could be essential for dragons?"

"Nests, Enron. The current nest of the Gold King and Queen was already a bit crowded. I think this place will suit them perfectly. Magic will supply the heat required for the maturation of their eggs, and they will have legroom."

"That construction must be huge!"

"Oh, it's not that big. But given the presence of tessaract drawings all over the place, clearly, we planned that place to contain the tessaracts you have built already, Harp. If my interpretation of the drawings accompanying each tessaract is correct, we will have thirty-two of them at the end. The biggest is the one reserved for the dragons so they can nest, grow, fly, and learn how to hunt. We seemed to have planned things very carefully: each tessaract has a unique position and placement in that cave."

"A cave?" asked, interested, Thorsten.

"Yes, Thorsten, a cave. Apparently we hollowed out a mountain and made it so it would resist just about anything nature could throw at it. It seems our foretellers knew exactly what would happen and what our needs would be."

"How do you expect to move a mountain?" wondered Timor.

"First, it's not a massive mountain, it's hollowed out. Its mass is about equal to Kantar's. Second, I found out the issue of displacement has been addressed. Two elements indicate this is the case. Below the mountain is a great mass of orichalque, about the same quantity found under Kantar, and the whole mountain itself is separate from the continental base by an artificial fracture zone. I say artificial because it is smooth, not ragged, like it would be the case with a natural fracture. Another indication this fracture has been worked is the presence of anchors, which hold the entire mountain in place. When we move the mountain, we need to plan so the anchors grip under the lava that covers Lava Flows. We have been doing that with every piece of property we have moved anyway."

"That's all nice, Paschal, but when do you plan to move these parts to help complete the Thebes puzzle?"

"I have no idea. I am waiting for a complete survey of any Atlantean site we find around the world. Simply, assembling this puzzle in the right order is too vital for us to jump forward any further. It could compromise the entire process of assembly."

"We still haven't figured out where the sixth room of stasis pods is to be assembled," Sitar commented.

"Actually, if we look carefully at the location of the five we have, I would like to call your attention to an aspect of Thebes. Notice that Thebes' core is hexagonal, but that there is a missing point, right there, at the northern tip. This anomaly has been bugging me for a while, and I've been trying to find the missing pie piece. I suspect if we find that chunk, it will have a room tailored just right to install both the control room and the stasis pods."

"What about the stasis pods you have set up in Eloise, like the one that should be ready to release Greywolf any day now?"

"Did you notice there were few pods when we moved the stuff from under the Sphinx? I counted thirty-six pods. That's a negligible quantity compared to the pods contained in a single room. I would not be surprised if the pods Paschal made for the hospital are the complement of the lot required to fill a room."

"Harp's right. I was wondering the same thing. Let's get to the hospital and see if Greywolf is ready for release," decided Enron. "Things will come in time, it's useless to hit our head with a hammer."

***

The entire royals, including king Harold, Samson, and Diamondcutter, made it in procession to see to the release of Greywolf. Everyone stood in a circle around the still active pod, whose lights now shone a steady green. The reanimation process had been going on for a few days already, and the Royal Healer, Francesca, had been on needles ever since she had noticed the change in the pod's behaviour. She had followed the instructions Paschal had given her all these months back, but she was surprised the reactivation process had been so slow.

"Why is it taking that much time? Usually, when I press the reactivation cycle, it's over within minutes, if not, within a few hours."

"The longer a person stays under, the harder it is to bring it back out. For Greywolf, given the extensive damage, it has taken a lot of time. By the way, Francesca, how many have you managed to release from stasis so far?"

"We have brought out about half of those in pods, somewhere around three thousand. We started, as you suggested, with those who had been in the pods the longest. They healed quickly, but their recovery has been the slowest. The more recent a placement in a pod, the faster it goes coming out."

As they were talking, the first cover of Greywolf's pod opened, revealing the wolf's body bathed in a translucent liquid. The pumps vacated the liquid, and electrodes stimulated the breathing reflex by forcing the contraction of thoracic muscles. Each contraction pushed liquid out of the lungs, and oxygen gradually replaced it. Once the lungs were empty, the stimulation was stopped, and the sensors waited to see if respiration took over by itself. It took four powerful electric charges to get it going on its own. After five minutes of self-sustained breathing, the electrodes disconnected from Greywolf's body, a powerful airflow dried him; the pure oxygen got replaced by the same process with normal air, and the inner cover slowly rotated, revealing a fully regrown and rather youngish looking wolf.

A few groans came out of the pod as Greywolf stretched his legs, and suddenly his head rose above the edge of the container.

«So, Sire Greywolf, how is my duke doing, today?»

«Cramped!»

«I will port you to a rest bed, Greywolf. There, Francesca will see to it that your cramps are taken care of. Given how long you have been immobilized, cramps are normal,» Harold proposed.

«Thank you my lord. I doubt I will be of use with a missing leg.»

«What missing leg, Greywolf? You are as good as new. Look at your legs.»

Greywolf did indeed look and just couldn't believe his own eyes. His hair even looked blacker, a deep slate gray, lustrous, and thick. Scars that had marred his body and told of a long, hard life had vanished as well.

«But I sort of remember that big orc cutting my left hind leg?»

«Paschal's pods are good at guiding tissue regeneration, Greywolf. Unless you are dead, the pod will get you back on your feet.»

«Thank you, Prince Paschal.»

«It's nothing, my friend. For now, I am sure Francesca wants you to rest. Since you have not eaten anything for all that time, you will have a liquid diet. It will last a week or so. Expect a lot of visitors once the news spreads that you are out of coma.»

Just about everyone that had known Greywolf before his long stay in the fish tank, as Francesca had so unceremoniously renamed the stasis pods. Dogs, wolves, coyotes, horses, zebras, donkeys, elves, and even the king of the Trolls paid him a visit. Bjorn remembered Greywolf's efforts at trying to find food for his family all those years back.

***

Later that week, the royals were having supper, watching the grey sky raining even more dark rain.

"I wonder what is the volcano that blew up it's top this time? Given how light the ash is, it must be relatively far," commented Sitar.

"According to the patrols, it's a volcano in Alaska. It puked violently and threw up its glacier cap," replied Paschal. "I have been reading on volcanism, and it seems there is a lot more activity going on than when the Ancients were around."

"Enron, have you talked to your dad yet?" asked Harp.

"No, but since we have some time, I guess the time is now or never."

"What is it you need to talk to me about, Enron? If it is returning the crown to me, forget it!"

"No, that is not the case, albeit I am considering putting it on your nightstand and running away!"

"Maybe I should do it, dad!"

"Thorsten, don't you dare get influenced by Enron! I feel so well without the responsibilities! Samson, your son is having a bad influence on my son!"

"You wish! Thorsten has his own mind, believe me!" replied Enron.

"Anyway, Enron, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"I need to talk to you about two things. First I have begun puberty!"

"That's impossible, Enron! It should not begin for another seventy-five years!"

"Look for yourself, dad!" replied Enron, dropping his trousers and showing a few reddish pubic hair at the base of his penis. "If my biology lessons are correct, this is the first indication of puberty!"

Samson could not deny what his eyes were telling him. His son was already engaged in puberty!

"Well, some explanation needs to be found for this! You are the earliest of our kind to reach puberty, Enron!"

"He isn't the only one!"

"What do you mean, Paschal?"

"Look for yourself!" replied Paschal, also dropping his pants. Dark hairs were visible at the base of his penis, a slightly thicker patch than Enron's.

"Oh shit! If all the boys reach puberty at the same time, we are in for a rough ride, Samson."

"What do you mean, Harold?"

"Hormonal changes make them very moody. I can only imagine how this combined with magic will end up creating havoc!"

"Is that what's happening to me?" piped up Thorsten.

"Oh no! Not you too! God help us!" exclaimed Diamondcutter.

"Well dad, since everyone has shown his growth, I do not see why I should be shy. Have a look!" Thorsten dropped his kilt to the floor and he showed he was the hairiest of all three boys.

"Wow, Thorsten, you have a lot of hair!" exclaimed Enron.

"Well, I didn't do anything to get it. Believe me it's a pain in the butt!"

"You got hair in your butt too?"

"No, it's only a way of talking, Enron. But I figure hairiness is dependent on our genetics. Elves seem to be a lot less hairy than humans, and dwarves are a lot hairier than humans."

"Thorsten, you have grown a lot too somewhere else!" exclaimed Diamondcutter.

"Where?"

"You have had a growth spurt, boy. You have almost reached my height! Continue like that, and you will be a giant amongst the dwarves. Is it not strange that important changes occur right under our eyes, and we do not even see them?"

"I thought you meant where it mattered!"

"There too, son, there too!"

After a good laugh from everyone, Samson brought the discussion back on track.

"Enron, you mentioned that you had two points. What is the second one?"

"There, dad we need to go to the tessaract where we stored the stuff we recovered from under the Sphinx. We found something that might be especially for you, dad."

"What is it? And why do you say it's especially for me?"

"It's a long box of teak, and it has a keyhole that has the shape of a small dolphin, the one you wear around your neck!"

"That is interesting, Enron. Do you know what it might contain?"

"We figured it was better not to use magic to do so given the instability of the magic field around the Pyramids and the Sphinx."

"OK, son. We'll go see that box tomorrow. Will it be difficult to find?"

"Not really, it is stored in a storage compartment at the far end of the tessaract, on the lowest level," replied Paschal. "I created an index of the contents of the tessaract when we moved the stuff from the vault, and if the legionnaires have followed my instructions, everything is organized in such a way we can find any piece stored in it in the blink of an eye. Oh yes, while we are on the subject of tessaracts, I found a cave where they will need to be stored at some point." Paschal then spent a few minutes explaining his discovery of what he had named the Tessaract Cave.

"Have you added the other tessaracts yet, Harp?"

"No, dad, I am adding them as we need them. We still are eight short. I think the last ones are also going to be the biggest."

"Why do you think that?"

"We have the biggest ecosystem yet to save: the sea; and then the dragons will need a lot of space to be at ease."

"Not to mention the Pegasuses, the Trolls, the Centaurs, and the Unicorns, just to name a few," added Enron.

"Talking about the dragons, what are we to expect when they reach puberty?" asked Samson.

"Dick hair!" exclaimed Sitar, provoking another bout of hilarity.

"Bottomless pits!" added Harp, looking mischievously at Samson.

"We should know shortly, the first hatchling, the gold dragonling, is nearing puberty, again way ahead of schedule. Something is definitely pushing things into high gear," added Enron. "Ian is spending most of his days out with Silver Moon and the dragonling. These three have become like the fingers of a hand."

"That comment brings back the issue of the Right Hand of Destiny. We have not made any inroads in solving that rebus," Annabelle that had been silent, reminded them.

"That reminds me we noticed some strange behaviour of the ice over the lake in Solon. With all that has happened we have not been back there for quite a while!" replied Harold.

"I think we need the dragonling to reach puberty for that problem to be resolved. Whatever the events that have been interfering with our plans, everything seems to be choreographed like a fine ballet," commented Harp.

"Anyway, let's head to bed. Tomorrow will be another momentous day."

"How will I be able to tell when I've reached puberty?" asked Timor, whose body was already hairy from head to foot.

"Don't worry, Timor. When you start spray-painting the shower, you will have reached it!" replied Harp, trying to be informative!

"Timor, Harp is dismissing it way too easily, I'll take the time to explain things to you, little brother!" explained Paschal, looking at the huge Troll, who towered over him at three times his own height!

***

The next morning, Timor was blushing profusely, as he walked around the Palace. For the first time in his life, he realised he was way bigger than the others, and second, that he was nude.

"Come on, Timor! No one is bothered by your nudity! We wear clothes because we feel cold if we do not. Look at Ian! He sure doesn't wear any!" Paschal exclaimed, wondering if his explanations about sex had not gone too far for the Troll prince. "Yes, you are big down there, but you are big everywhere! What you have fits you perfectly for your age! Yes you have erections all the time, so what? We all do, even Ian! Do not worry, the day the weather improves and things finally get warmer, I'll be the first to get out of these clothes! They feel nice, I am grateful for the Fairies to supply them, but my brothers and I much prefer nudity to any silky stuff, however precious and priceless it may be. Anyway, let's get breakfast. We have to port to Thebes and then walk to the storage tessaract that contains the box for Samson."

"But there are girls!"

"It's a bit late for you to notice them, Timor! They have seen all your bits in all their glory, and none has commented, have they? And you have seen them nude too, if you care to remember! We all spend a lot of time in the ducal baths down below the Palace, and there is no gender separation!"

It was well past tierce before the royal party ported to Thebes. Annabelle, Harold, and Samson were given a quick-guided tour by the princes, who had been working on it while the kings and queen were busy managing the Elvin Kingdom.

"That is impressive, boys. And you say it's incomplete?" asked Samson.

"Yes, dad. Paschal has drawn a map and it shows where there are missing parts yet to be brought into place. There are numerous missing elements, both big and small. You should visit his workshop! It's a sight to behold!"

"I will, son, I will! Now, Harp, where is that mysterious box?"

"Follow me! I picked up Tessaract number twenty-five, the last one built by Harp, for the storage of the components we recovered. It is only partially filled."

Everyone followed Paschal to the entrance. Its cavernous space awed the royals that had not yet visited a tessaract.

"And you say there are twenty-five of these?"

"Yes, Samson. This one is the smallest. Quite a few are bigger. The content is stored temporarily here. I may well expand it to fill additional needs," replied Harp. "I have done this repeatedly with the others, as the need arose. I plan to limit the number of tessaracts to thirty-two, if only because there are only thirty-two emplacements in the Tessaract Cave Paschal mentioned yesterday. Paschal? Get us to where that box is."

The royals followed Paschal that guided them through a maze worthy of the great Daedalus, finally stopping in front of a roll-on roll-off drawer. They could not help but notice the huge amount of these drawers as they walked through the cavernous space, lighted by Bata and Mitsuko.

"There it is Samson. Let me pull the drawer open."

The container opened at the slightest pull, and a beautiful teak box appeared, shining in the diffuse light. Harold lifted the box out and placed it on the floor. Its Atlantean origins could not be missed as it carried the royal crest of Horus, a soaring eagle.

"Do you see that lock, dad? I think your dolphin fits right in."

"You are right. It seems it does. Let me insert it into place."

Samson placed his ivory dolphin into place and pressed gently. A click was heard and the lid of the coffer popped open silently. The king gently lifted the rather heavy top slowly. It revealed a velvet under-lid that was apparently hiding the true contents of the strongbox. It too was removed. Its weight, very light, surprised Samson, but a quick scan by Harp revealed the velvet covered balsa wood.

Figure 22: Samson's Trident

 

After removing the under-lid, the content of the box finally appeared. Inlaid at the surface of the lower part of the box was a magnificent trident made of mithril laced with orichalque.

"Wow! That is unexpected!" exclaimed Paschal. "The workmanship that this trident shows is remarkable. Since it seems to be destined to you, Samson, how about you take it out of the box to let us admire this piece of art in all its glory?"

Samson religiously extended his right hand and grabbed the handle by the middle. As he lifted it out of the box, the trident began to glow and shimmer, like the surface of a calm ocean under the moonlight. Samson was shaking violently as his magical core and the magical core of the trident resonated with each other.

"Are you doing ok dad?" asked a worried Enron.

"Don't worry, if he isn't I'll dunk him in Lake Eloise!" exclaimed Harp.