I felt like my eyes must be as large as ping-pong balls and that my hearing had gone crazy. Because I swore Mr. Andrewson just said that this machine was given to the Academy by some man claiming to be from the future.
"Don't look at me like that." Mr. Andrewson laughed, and I quickly schooled my expression into one of indifference. "The man said his came to witness the opening of the Academy and that he had a gift to the Academy."
Eyeing the machine again, I weighted the truth of the story in my head. On one hand, there was what Viktor said, that no past or present technology could have created such a device. On the other hand – time traveling seemed all too far-fetched.
"He unveiled the machine to them out of thin air, and explained that it would have the power to protect the Academy." Mr. Andrewson continued, "He called it the Time Guardian."
Stealing a glance at Saralisa Spenser, who must had been present during the opening of the Academy, she looked every bit as unconcerned about everything as the day she picked me up to come to the Academy. So much for seeing some reactions from her.
"He said only the bloodline from the 12 houses, including 10 from the Originals could power the machine. And that the machine would automatically recognised anyone of their direct descendent and grant them access." My mind flashed back to the nonsense the Time Guardian spilled out, my dad being from Akram's line 13 and my mum from Victoria's line 4. How would they know? Surely the genetic sequences would be too diluted to tell. Unless they have all our details and stored it in in the future...
"The man refused to give any more information about the future or himself, saying that any information he revealed would have serious repercussion and could potentially disturb the time-space continuum. Finally, he revealed that his name is Steven, a member of the 12th clan whose crest is on the machine before disappearing into a glittering silver mist. His last words were a warning that one day the Academy will face a great peril, and the secret weapon, or more precisely function, in the Time Guardian alone would ensure that the Academy would remain intact."
It suddenly occurred to me that I should offer Mr. Andrewson and Saralisa some water so I poured some from my bottle into two cups for them. Giving me a thankful look, Mr. Andrewson finished the water in one gulp.
"The Originals were hesitant to accept this gift at first." Mr. Andrewson smiled as he recounted this part of the story. "But Katerina convinced them that it's for the benefit of the Academy to keep it.
After some extensive testing, they realized that none of them were able to use it directly, though they were able to have a conversation with the artificial intelligence inside. It was finally decided that the Time Guardian is safe and they placed it in the hidden closet over there. For centuries, it became a formality device that each headmaster passed onto the next, each one of them testing their access level on the machine before they take over the role.
We never had a reason to activate the machine, and although several intrigued headmasters had talked to the artificial intelligence known as Glenda extensively, they never had any success in getting any useful information. But when I first put my blood in the Time Guardian, I got something other than the standard procedure. Glenda, would you kindly recount the conversation?" Mr. Andrewson called out and the Time Guardian actually glowed and pulsated as though it was listening in the entire time.
"Of course, Peter." The voice, Glenda, responded. "I was instructed to activate Code Amber and ask you to set the Freeze Zone perimeter on the 1st August, 2410."
"I couldn't get a full answer about what the Freeze Zone is, or what it does." Mr. Andrewson continued, "But I set the zone to cover the entire school. I did wonder if it was excessive, but I didn't know what to do."
"Wait a second," I held my hands up, turning towards Glenda. "What does Code Blue mean?"
"Your access level is not high enough." Glenda responded and I explained to Mr. Andrewson and Saralisa about what Glenda said when I put my er, blood in. Mr. Andrewson had a sparkle in his eyes when he realized that I was also a direct descendent of Victoria Balikova. But honestly, with three hundred years separating us, we were hardly related to Victoria, let alone each other.
"Wow, de Silver family." Mr. Andrewson leaned back on his chair and exhaled. "We obviously recognised the sigil, but we were never able to confirm why it was on the Time Guardian. There had always been speculations, but it could easily be some future event that caused the addition."
"Glenda, what is Code Blue?" Mr. Andrewson tried and I gave Saralisa a surreptitious glance. Even though Mr. Andrewson explained that the Originals didn't have a high enough clearance level, I had a sneaking suspicious that everything might have changed now.
"Sorry Peter. Neither you nor Abigail have clearance right now." Glenda replied, the blue lights in the Time Guardian pulsating with her words into a softer glow.
"When will I have a high enough clearance?" I asked; Mr. Andrewson and Saralisa Spenser threw me a startled look.
"On your 21st birthday or when Code Green is initiated." Glenda answered. My mind was whirling and I tried to think in the prospective of a time traveler from the future. Surely they would know all about us from their history, unless things didn't go well for us in their future. I gently massaged my head – all these thoughts of present and future was giving me a headache.
"What is Code Blue." Saralisa suddenly asked; just as Mr. Andrewson was about to open his mouth, Glenda spoke.
"Code blue is to be initiated on first contact with the DNA of Abigail Lyndsey de Silver Beckett prior to the age of 21." Glenda replied, "If she had already passed the age, then Code Green would be directly initiated."
"Zara..." Mr. Andrewson trailed off, obviously at a loss as to why Glenda would respond to Saralisa and not us. Saralisa gave him a, in my eyes, very mysterious smile, but ignored his questioning call.
"Code blue is the preparation stage for the Silver Age." Glenda replied. "And that's all I am allowed to tell you, Saralisa."
"Saralisa?" Mr. Andrewson was beginning to look like he had seen a ghost, and it was almost entertaining to see him lose his cool like this. "You are Saralisa Spenser?"
Saralisa looked neither faze nor ashamed at being discovered. She offered Mr. Andrewson a small smile and glance at me. "I think young Abbey had figured it out." She answered, "You must have seen our portrait hanging on Katerina's castle."
"I did." I said, remembering that spectacular artwork. I think everyone who had seen it would agree that it was probably the single most important piece of art in the recent history. "What was he like?"
"He was a great friend, and a visionary." Saralisa knew that I was talking about Akram, and a gentle expression spread across her face, one that I didn't realized she was capable of feeling. "He was like a brother to me."
Meanwhile, Mr. Andrewson had recomposed himself from discovering that he was working with an Original for a good few years without noticing. But really, how would he expect to recognise her seeing as the sigil and the name of each Originals was the only thing we ever knew about them.
"The Silver Age." Mr. Andrewson said, giving me a meaningful look. "That's rather ambiguous, don't you think?"
Slightly embarrassed by that, I rubbed my nose and glanced at Glenda, wondering who in the future name that phase. Despite the breakthrough, there were still a million questions running around in my mind, one that would probably result in even more questions than answers if I tried to ask Glenda.
"Why was everyone in a coma when we come in?" I asked, hoping that Mr. Andrewson would at least be able to answer some of my questions.
"I wish I know the answer to that myself." Mr. Andrewson replied, glancing at the Time Guardian hopefully. When Glenda didn't respond, he sighed and turned back to me. "To the best of my knowledge, the Time Guardian allowed the time within the Freeze Zone that I set up to stop."
"To what?" As if the whole man from the future thing wasn't doing my head in, now I am being told that this machine stops stop altogether, which is absolutely insane. "That's impossible."
"Nothing is impossible." Mr. Andrewson said, glancing at the Time Guardian again. "Sometimes the facts are all laid out in front of us, and the fact that I activated the Freeze Mode over a year ago to protect the school and feeling like it was only yesterday is perhaps prove enough itself."
A number of explanation swirl through my brain but nothing was screaming louder than time freeze to me. Given the name of the machine and the mode – it didn't seem too far out of the realm of possibility.
"There isn't time to explain everything." Mr. Andrewson stood up from his chair, looking at me and Saralisa with a determination. "We only have five hours left before we are on our own. We need to gather everyone and get ready."
"Natalie and Fred went to check on everyone in the Great Hall." I told Mr. Andrewson, standing up too, and tapping on my personal device to send out a call to Natalie. "Let me contact them and see how things are going."
"Gail?" Natalie's voice echoed through from the personal device and I could hear a lot of background hisses and chatters, no doubt everyone was awake and confuse. "I was just about to call you, you better hurry over here – I don't think we can hold the questions back and we don't know anything."
"I am coming over with Mr. Andrewson." I answered and ended the call. Mr. Andrewson was already going through the door and Saralisa was getting up slowly from her chair. Giving me a warm smile that was very uncharacteristic of her usual behaviour, she put her hand on my forearm.
"I never realized you were Akram's... descendant." Saralisa said, her tone sounded more wary, more genuine, and more burdened. "Despite what you might think, there is a lot that I don't know about, both in the past and in the present. The others had always made a habit of shielding me from the rougher parts of the conflict and allow me to live a normal life. I would never think of trying to talk to Glenda again if you hadn't suggested it. Thank you."
I returned her smile and wondered just how much Katerina and the others had omitted from Saralisa. Even though it was never stated, she was the youngest member of the Originals judging from the portrait and with her powers; it's not hard to imagine why they would want her to be away from the center of all the politics and dangers.
Striding out of the office, Diego immediately whirled around in his conversation with Mr. Andrewson and gave me a tight-lipped smile. Mr. Andrewson didn't seem to notice Diego's unease and started making his way towards the Great Hall at a quick pace, talking rapidly to Diego and explaining to him what he wanted the boy to do. Mr. Oscar had already disappeared with Vulture, which was unfortunate for the latter because Saralisa could easily heal him.
"Mr. Oscar took him back to his office." Diego quickly informed me, knowing that I was looking for Vulture. Mr. Andrewson, meanwhile, had already marched into the Great Hall as though his power wasn't telepathy but super speed.
Hurrying in after him, I was hit by the level of noise in the Great Hall. Fred and Natalie were nowhere to be seen among the sea of screaming teenagers and the handful of teachers, we saw were literally being swamped by them. I was hoping to catch a few familiar faces, but to no avail.
"Diego!" a girl turned around and saw Diego, Saralisa and me standing in front of the door and launched herself at Diego and started firing a ton of questions and being generally very, er, screamy. Saralisa and I both took a step back and I immediately dashed towards Mr. Andrewson, who was climbing up the stage at the far end.
"Please, everyone, be quiet." Mr. Andrewson's voice boomed through the sound system and the noise died down. I was starting to get a headache from all the noise and was thankful for the brief reprieve. I was finally able to spot Natalie and Fred from the height of the stage and they were at the far back of the Great Hall. Opposite them were Elise and Megan. My heart beat wildly and I breathed a silent sigh of relieve, at least some of my friends made it back from the test safely.
"What's going on Mr. Andrewson?" One of the older boys, whom I recognised as the head boy Bradley Morgan asked. I had only seen him a few times before, as he was due to graduate and was staying only because his girlfriend was still in the Academy. "You told us to all come here, and the next thing we know we woke up from the floor feeling like we have been drugged."
The crowd had quickly fallen silent and all eyes were focused on Mr. Andrewson. I stood some way behind him, not certain if I should go back down or stand next to him for support. Despite the weight of all the attention focused on him, Mr. Andrewson remained calm as he addressed the questioning students.
"First, I must apologize for not explaining the situation to you better." Mr. Andrewson began, "Because I wasn't even sure what would happen when I activate the Academy's last line of defense. We had only managed to rescue a small portion of the students who went out to the Classification test and we had received reports of suspicious activities as well as threats around the Academy. All contacts with the outside world were lost, and I had no choice but to do what I thought was best for the Academy."
"We are not blaming you, Mr. Andrewson." One of the students shouted from the back. "We just want to know what happened."
Glancing back briefly at me, I tried not to turn scarlet as the masses of students did the same. "I wish I can give everyone a proper explanation, but we do not have the time nor the luxury or understanding to. I activated a machine, left here by the Originals as a gift that had protected and froze the biological activities inside the premise of the Academy for the past half year, waiting for help to arrive."
"Half a year?" mutters broke out and I could hear several people having mild panic attacks at the thought of six months of their life being ripped away, just like that. I would not want to be in their position either.
"What do you mean we don't have time? Isn't the reason why we are all awake is that help had arrived?" Bradley cut straight to the point and asked, his eyes narrowing at me as though he was trying to place where he had seen me before. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't remember who I was. I didn't exactly remember him until ten minutes ago either.
Wishing I would have made an exit earlier, I plastered on a smile as Mr. Andrewson turned around and gestured for me to come forward. I did so hesitantly, and tried to control the crawling feelings I had as everyone focused their glance on me.
"This is Abgail Beckett, she was one of the students who went missing during the test." Mr. Andrewson announced. "She came here just in time to bring me the news from the outside world – and unfortunately for us, we have to defend ourselves as the barrier that had protected us for the last six months would run out in five hours."
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Hey everyone! I was so afraid that I won't make it to update this on time, phewwww - I would really hate to break this schedule off and I am determine to keep it going!
I have been dead tired these past 3 days. I just started my new job and my boss wants me to do a million things. My eyes are somehow swollen and I have to commute in sardine-like condition for 1 hours 30 minutes and change train 4 times (thankfully I haven't missed one yet!). And I have my driving theory test tomorrow which I was too lazy to study for. Yikes.
Anyway - back to the real subject here - Saralisa Spencer! She is a central character in the Dark Ages too, and a very different girl. I am glad that she finally got some 'word'time, because there is so much to her back story. I hope everyone is reasonably satisfy with my explanation - sorry it's kind of a filler chapter, I intend to up the action next week.
On a second note - I am starting a super special campaign with some fellow amazing Sci-fi writer that I can't wait to share with you all! You can tell the name from my recent reading list.
Please vote and comment - it would mean a lot seeing as I am typing this with my eyes closed and sacrificing my study and sleep time. x