Elemental Empires

{Chapter 15}

An owl hooted loudly in the distance, the branches above Mia rustled and a tornado of dead leaves descended slowly on Mia's face, tickling her gently

"Stop," Mia giggled softly and opened one eye partially. It was night still and everything around her was silent and beautiful. The leaves rustled ever so softly and the wind sang. Mia started humming softly as she looked up to the obsidian infinity above. The stars shimmered softly lacing into intricate constellations like threads of gossamer mapped on a velvet sky.

Mia felt at peace as she watched the moon smiling down at her. A dainty crescent veiling everything in a cloak of silver. A silver light hanging in a sea of black. So luminous.

Mia leaned up on her elbows.

Luminous in a vast, black sea...

That's it! That's what she was humming!

Mia scrambled to a sitting position and strained her memory to recall the poem in her dream.

Luminous in a vast, black sea.
Answers to your questions.
Set it free..

"They aren't mere dreams! They are clues!," Mia whispered excitedly."Okay what does it say? Luminous in a vast, black sea..", Mia pondered upon that sentence, repeating it.

"Luminous that is the moon maybe if I stand in it's rays!? I will find a portal! Yes!," Mia pumped her fist,"Okay okay, moonbeams where are you?," she tried to calm her shaking hands and racing heartbeat and looked around her for a silvery ray of light.

"There!," she almost shouted before cupping her hands to her mouth." There it is," she whispered and ran towards a slanted ray of silvery light bathing a corner of the street. She went and stood underneath it.

The shining rays bathed Mia as she stood motionlessly. Minutes went by.

Nothing happened.

"Maybe, maybe I have to chant the rhyme," Mia said to herself and began chanting it like a mantra.

"Luminous in a vast, black sea. Answers to your questions. Set it free," she began chanting under her breath but soon her voice rose several octaves until she was nearly shouting the words on the empty street.

She felt like something was going to happen and it made her both excited and scared when suddenly a window opened somewhere and a steel can was thrown in her direction, it bounced off her head and landed at her feet.

"What the..?," Mia looked from where the can was hurled at her, rubbing her head.

"Heyo!? You freakin insane?! Go home you moron or I'm dialin' the cops!," a gruff voice echoed from somewhere.

"Ye..yeah! Sorry. I'm going!," Mia called back as several other windows opened and voices of why-you-screamin-Howard echoed all around.

Mia gathered her things and sprinted away from Howard's house as fast as she could. When she finally stopped, she found herself on yet another street.

"This is freaking useless," Mia grumbled as she slouched on the pavement, wiping the sweat of her brow." Nothing is happening!."

She grew tired of thinking and cuddling Ivory, fingering her charm bracelet absentmindedly, she felt something pointed. She looked at her bracelet and noticed the crescent charm.

"That's clever, my parents put in the crescent to- wait!," Mia stood up suddenly as Ivory yelped in surprise

"Answers to your questions, set it free! That's it! I have to break off this charm!,"
Mia exclaimed and set to work, brutally hammering and trying to pull the charm off but it was melded with the bracelet, it was a part of it and wouldn't come off until it was melted.

"Damn!," Mia cried out, pulling her hair, she balled up her hands into fists and was about to punch the nearest lamppost but controlled herself in time.

"I'm already a hopeless runaway, I don't want to become more useless by breaking my fingers now," she thought aloud and shoved her hands into the pockets of her cardigan when suddenly she felt something there.

My pockets were empty..

Mia took out the object and stared at it. It took her a few seconds to recognize the card the woman had given her. She held the card underneath the light and was angry to see that printed neatly on the card was yet another poem and on the back was another crescent.

No! I'm sick of all these crescent's and rhymes! Why can't they just tell me the answer instead of dropping stupid clues!

She squinted to read the type which read:

Etched upon incandescence
Syllables glowing iridescent

Join two to make one whole
The sky splits, lo and behold...

The words ended there. "Now what new headache is this?," Mia grumbled as she skimmed over the lines, rereading it.

"Let's solve this word by word. Etched upon incandescence,hmm.." Mia stroked Ivory's fur as she thought about the riddle.

"Etched: it means written probably, Mu- I mean Crystal used to use this word,"Mia laughed out loud,"It'll be etched on your grave that you were a hated girl," Mia did a spot-on impersonation of Crystal.

"What must they be doing right now? I kinda miss them now, after all I grew up with them," Mia thought sadly, it was hard to let go for her." And Aunt Ruby? Would she be drinking again?," Mia's mind strayed from the riddle and she zoned out as she thought about the lives of others.

It was only when Ivory licked the card in her hand that she was brought back to her senses.

"Yes, alright. Etched upon incandescence. Means written upon something shiny. Shiny, shiny..hmm," Mia racked her brains and bit her nails when her charm bracelet jangled.

"Etched upon Incandescence," Mia smiled and stared at the crescent charm." Next?," she peeked at the card again,"syllables glowing iridescent..syllables means words. Glowing words?," Mia furrowed her brows.

"Which means written upon something shiny -the crescent- are words that are glowing! I've got it!,"Mia squinted at the crescent and sure enough, she saw tiny, foreign letters engraved in gold on the shimmering surface of the charm.
She slipped off the bracelet and brought it close to her eyes to try and read the words.

"Siphanes rosin pompayan myrle,"  Mia whispered and at that exact moment there was a soft click and the charm came off the bracelet.

"Oh god! It worked!," Mia rejoiced,"Answers to your questions, set it free!". Mia clutched the charm in her palm and did a little jiggle in the middle of the road.

"Okay, what's next? Join two to make one whole, the sky splits, lo and behold...," Mia read the last two lines again.

"I can't make anything of this," she said and sat down again," join what to make whole? Is there something that's separated? Two parts that will make a whole?," Mia focused and concentrated but wasn't able to make anything out of the riddle.

"Damn, just when I was getting somewhere," she held up the crescent charm and the card side by side,"Can't you be anymore diff- wait a minute..," Mia flipped the card over to see the crescent and if she looked close enough she could see a thin, line on the other side of the crescent.

"Join two...," Mia took the charm and placed it above the line and the outline of the moon was completed.

"Wow!," Mia exclaimed as the charm fixed itself and it started to glow brightly, illuminating Mia's face." Amazing," Mia breathed as the silver light increased until the whole street looked like it was set on fire and suddenly the sky split apart and Mia screamed loudly.

A/N: You don't have to be Sherlock to guess what happens next :D but don't be too sure, not all is what it seems in this book :)