Akashic - Cradle of Evolution

Chapter Sixty-four

*** Sorry for the delay ***

*** I was trying to get the ending right ***

The group of four gathered in Bryan's room after the emotional storm passed over. Bryan introduced Jimmy and John as they settled around the table and recalled to Jimmy the moments before they fell into the sea. "What happened to you after that?" Bryan needed to satisfy his curiosity.

"Thanks to your life jacket," Jimmy nodded at Bryan with gratitude, "My friends found me adrift and got me to a hospital in Greece."

His friends? That must be his plan to get me off the BlueGuardian when we came under attack. Bryan deduced but kept the idea to the boundary of his mind to avoid souring his mentee's newfound relationship. He nodded in a simple acknowledgement.

"Mr King believes the attack was a ruse to get to the Professor's Gift," Audrey said. "We are working to uncover the identity of the one pulling strings behind the scene."

"What's a Gift?" It was the first time Jimmy heard of the word.

"I better update you on everything."

Half an hour passed while Bryan filled Jimmy in on the events since his absence. "I'm sorry for breaking the compass without your permission," he ended with a heartfelt apology. If not for the life and death situation, Bryan would never have sacrificed the token of remembrance. Until moments ago, giving up the compass had weighed down on him like a mountain. But Jimmy's safe return had swept it away with a wind of joy.

"It's fine, Professor. It is for the person who resonates with it anyway. We are just the keepers." Jimmy candidly revealed. "So what my Order knew about the Moral Compass and Resonator isn't complete."

Bryan had been dying to ask. The unknowns stirred his archaeologist instinct, "Resonator? And why do you call it Moral Compass?"

"Resonator is just a different name given by my Order for chosen people like yourself and Dr Palazzo. As for the Moral Compass..." Jimmy paused a second to think before continuing, "There is a legend in my Order."

Jimmy's mention of a legend stirred everyone's interest. Bryan and John leaned forward in anticipation, keeping their ears peeled as Jimmy gave an account of the Order's history to the best of his knowledge. He mentioned the first Resonator, the discovery of the Gift's nature, and how the compass' name was a link to the phrase 'Moral shows the way'. In particular, Jimmy recalled how his Order ascertained the truth behind the artefact being handed down to their first leader by the Cradle's original inhabitant through a cave carving in their possession.

Cave carving? Like bees drawn to honey, the words tugged at the archaeologist's instinct in Bryan, "Can I take a look at the carving?"

"Sure." Jimmy pulled up a captured photo on his phone and presented it to Bryan.

The image depicted a kneeling human and a group of three behind him prostrating to a towering being with short straight lines pointing outward of his body. The being's hands reached out to the outstretched arms of the kneeling human, seemingly handing an item to him.

"Interesting. The being's size in the carving does match the size of passageways and even those cremating platforms. I think perhaps three to four metres tall?" Bryan wondered out loud. Do those short lines indicate the being is glowing? If so, could it be him? Bryan contemplated as he returned Jimmy's phone.

"Why did no one from the Order ever try to locate the site before this?" John asked.

"Through the ages, only the Elders and a selected few are trusted with knowledge of the compass. These people, including me, took an oath not to use it until the chosen one appears."