"I'll be back for dinner, Dad!" I exclaimed, grabbing my bag and heading towards the door.
"Where are you going?" my father asked, walking out of the kitchen, drying his hands on a towel.
"The library," I replied, turning to face him. I pulled an innocent expression onto my face and cocked my head to the side slightly.
"For what?" he asked.
"To do some research. I need to figure out where I want to travel abroad next year. I want to pick the right place," I replied.
It wasn't a complete lie; I was going to the library. I just decided to leave out which library I was going to. And with whom.
Gerrard had called me earlier that week and told me that we would be able to meet at Elijah's manor later on in the week. He said that most of the members that permanently resided in the house were leaving on an expedition for a few days and that we would have the whole manor to ourselves, excluding the numerous servants and maids that maintained the place. We were going to scour the library to find books with maps of the ancient worlds and compare them to the maps we had found in Mikael's cabin home.
"Oh, ok. Well, don't take too long. You have to help me make dinner," he said.
"I won't. Just a few hours," I replied. With a fleeting smile, I bid him good-bye and walked out the door.
I checked my surroundings before ducking into the back alley of the apartment complex. There was a man wearing raggedy clothes sitting against the wall. His eyes were closed and I assumed he was asleep. Glancing at the man apprehensively, I formed the picture of the manor in my mind and then transported before the homeless man woke up.
A few seconds later, I appeared in front of the familiar, dark manor. I walked up the driveway briskly and opened the gates with my key. I entered and then walked up the long, circular walkway to the door. I entered inside the manor, my hair blowing back as the cool air inside the house hit my face.
I found Gerrard in the drawing room, standing by the window. His back was to me and he was looking outside, his silohette a mere shadow from the dim sunlight that poured in from outside. His hands were clasped behind his back and his brows were furrowed together. He seemed to be thinking deeply about something. When I cleared my throat to announced my presence, he turned around, not caught off-guard at all.
"Finally," he said, walking towards me.
"I'm three minutes early!" I exclaimed. He smirked at me and then nodded his head at me to lead the way to the library.
"So how'd you get away from your father?" he asked me as we walked in step.
"I told him I was going to the library," I replied flatly. He snorted.
"Such a goodie-two-shoes," he said.
"It's not a complete lie!" I defended.
"That's true," he said. "You know, if you weren't a witch, with your cleverness, you could have become a lawyer," he commented. I rolled my eyes at him. "Maybe you still can. After you finish your studies at the University," he suggested.
"If I'm still alive by then," I said darkly.
"You will be," he said, his mocking tone turning serious.
"We'll see," I said. He grabbed my arm and stopped me.
"Stop thinking like that. We're going to figure this out," he said to me, his blue-grey eyes storming.
"I'm thinking realistically, Gerr. Right now, we have nothing. And who knows when tragedy will strike?" I replied. He glared at me and I stared back at him stonily.
"Let's go," he grunted after a few minutes. I walked a bit behind him the rest of the way to the library. He pushed open the heavy decorated wooden doors to reveal an enormous library that could have given the one in Trey's house a run for its money.
"Wow, this place is spectacular," I breathed, looking around in awe.
"This library has an incredible collection of books from all over the world during all different time periods," Gerrard told me. "You probably don't know this, but this manor has been around for a very long time, ever since Medieval times. And since then, the owners of this manor have collected books upon books, manuscripts upon manuscripts, scriptures upon scriptures, and added them all to this collection. There is such an extensive amount of magical knowledge written in all of these books that it would take several lifetimes to read it all," he explained.
"Well, we have a year. You think we can do it?" I asked, glancing at him.
"Of course," he said, smirking at me. I smirked back and then followed him to the table he had put all of the maps on. Next to the table was a pile of books stacked up to the height of the table.
"What are these?" I asked, picking up the book on top. It read, The Ancient Persian Empire: A Magical History.
"I figured while you were busy studying for your finals, I would start doing some research," he said, shuffling through the maps and holding one out to me. "Turn to page 207," he said, nodding at the book in my hands. I did as he told me and flipped to the page. On it was a map stretching over two pages that looked exactly like the one Mikael had drawn on the fading parchment-like paper.
"They're the same," I said, tracing my finger along the border of the map on the paper and comparing it to the one in the book.
"Exactly. Remember when I said it was Europe in the time of the Persian Empire? I was right. And I found that the others are the same," he told me, pulling out another book and handing it to me. He had marked a page in this book and I flipped to it. It was a map of Ancient Egypt. I pulled over one of the maps to compare it and they were the same!
"Ok, so you found out that the maps are of different ancient civilizations from the beginning of time," I said.
"Yes," he replied, nodding.
"Well, at least that's something. But why did he recreate maps of the ancient world?" I asked.
"Well, I think the answer to that is in the drawings that he has on the maps. I mean look, there are little drawings that he has scattered on each of these. I noticed that they're the same drawings: a flame, a water droplet, a leaf, particles, and a stone. I think those represent the different elements," he told me.
I furrowed my brow and bent down to examine the maps closely. He was right; there were little drawings on the maps. It wasn't always one drawing, though. If there was a drawing of a flame, it would be several different flames clustered around one spot. These clusters appeared on all of the maps, all in different locations.
"I'm guessing that the drawings of the elements are of the elemental nations. Were there such things?" I asked.
"Do you not pay attention in History?" Gerrard asked me incredulously. I frowned.
"I've been a little preoccupied, thank you very much," I scoffed.
"Well, we know how you did on your History final, then," Gerrard said. I hit his arm and he smirked.
"Yes, there were elemental nations. Just like how there were different ancient civilizations and empires, there were also smaller nations created by the Magia within these. So, for example, within the extensive ancient Egyptian empire, there were smaller communities of practicing witches and wizards. They were usually careful about staying under the radar, but often times, you'll hear stories about how the ancient people performed odd rituals that Magia Non don't understand. These stories are in fact true. They describe the magic of the ancient Magia," Gerrard explained.
"So it looks like Mikael mapped out all of the nations," I said. Gerrard nodded.
"What's interesting, though, is that that's never been done before," Gerrard informed me. I raised my eyebrows.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, the Magia don't really know a lot about the ancient world of magic. I mean, it's not like we can openly search the now-populated lands where we suspect our ancestors to have lived. And those ancient peoples didn't leave behind too many traces of their existence. So no one's ever taken the time to figure out where each of the nations were at different periods of times. Some magical historians have speculated and some have even found concrete evidence. But I don't think there's been anything as extensive as these maps that Mikael has drawn out," he explained.
"How do we know these are accurate, then?" I asked. He shrugged.
"That's for you to decide," he said to me. "Do you trust him?" he asked.
I bit my lip and looked down at the intricately drawn maps that were splayed out on the table. Did I trust him? Did I trust the man who claimed to be my father's teacher? The man who said he had tried to help my own mother? The man whose brother my mother killed?
Did I trust Mikael Gemeni?
"I do," I said, looking up at Gerrard. "I do trust him," I said. Gerrard looked at me for a long moment, reading my expression with his stormy blue-grey eyes.
"Then I do, too," he said with a curt nod. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
"So what do we do?" I asked.
"I think we should figure out where these places are that he marked," he said. I looked at the extensive maps, my heart dropping slightly.
"These are so detailed, though," I said.
"And there's a lot we'll have to figure out," Gerrard added. "Because it's one thing figuring out the location. It's another matter entirely finding out whether anything still exists in place of these cities," he pointed out.
"That's true. We could transport to those places, but we wouldn't have a clue what to look for," I said.
"We can't transport," he said. I blinked and realized why.
"Because we don't know the exact locations," I said.
"Or have any sort of picture of it in our minds," he added. "It's going to be guesswork. All of it," he said.
"What if we can find the latitude and longitude?" I asked. "If these maps are as detailed as they look, they must be drawn to some sort of scale. Maybe if we find a map that uses the same dimensions, we can calculate the exact location on earth where the cities are," I said.
"If they still exist," he added.
"What's the worst that can happen? We transport and find a normal town?" I asked.
"We transport and then attract the wrong sort of attention," Gerrard replied.
"We can do this. I know we can," I said.
"I'm not saying that we can't, Caley. I'm just saying that we're going to have to be really smart and careful about this," he said.
"I know," I said, running a hand through my curly blonde hair. "So where do we start?" I asked.
"I think we should start with what you suggested. Find a map that uses the same dimensions and scale. At least then we'll have a rough estimate of where we'll need to go. And from there, we'll see what comes next," Gerrard said.
With that temporary goal in mind, Gerrard and I set all of the maps flat on the ground. We decided to be old-fashioned and use simple rulers, calculators, and pencils to create the lines of latitude and longitude. We replicated the maps--so as not to destroy the originals--and set to work drawing our calculations in. We compared the borders of the continents to figure out approxiamate lines and then drew them in. Then we compared and adjusted each other's maps to make them all identical.
There were seven maps in total: Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Persia, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and then what looked to be Medieval Europe and modern-day Europe. We completed the present-day map first, since we had the most information about it. Using that map, we figured in the lines for the remaining six. It was a few hours before we sat back and admired our work, our hands cramped and our eyes tired.
"Blood hell. I never want to see another map again in my life," Gerrard said, sitting back against the wall of the library next to me.
"Well, too bad. These seven maps are going to be our best friends for the next year," I said.
"I won't complain as long as I get to burn them after this is all over," he said.
"I'll help you burn them when we're done," I said. He glanced at me, a small smirk on his lips. I grinned back and leaned my head on his shoulder. He rested his head on mine, circling his arm around my waist.
"I don't know why, but I keep thinking what if this is all a waste? What if I'm getting this all wrong?" I said aloud after a few long moments of silence.
"Well, we'll never know unless we try, will we? We have to start somewhere and I think this is as good a place to start as any. At least we've got concrete information in front of us. We're not starting completely from scratch," Gerrard said.
"What if Mikael can't help me?" I asked.
"I have a feeling that with the amount of knowledge that that man has, he'll be able to give you some information," Gerrard assured me. I sighed and looked at the maps. I reached over and pulled the modern day one towards us.
"Did you notice how he circled the nations that were on the edge of land masses? The ones that were closer to the water?" I said, pointing to the nations that were marked with water droplets. Gerrard shifted so he could look at the map.
"Yeah, I did notice that. Do you think those are the cities he's targeting to visit?" he asked. I shrugged.
"Look, there's so many along the northern part of Africa," I said, running my finger along the border that divided the land from the water.
"There's a lot in Italy and Greece, too," he added, pointing to those countries.
"But then there are these odd ones up here," I said, pointing to the ones that were towards the very top of the map, somewhere in Siberia, Russia. "It's all ice and desert up there, right?" I asked. Gerrard nodded.
"But if you think about it, it would be the perfect location to hide a nation of magic users. No one goes to Siberia, unless their prisoners or crazy. And no one comes back from Siberia. It definitely makes sense that there would be a nation there," he said.
"I guess you're right. It's probably the same logic for why there's a fire nation in the Sahara Desert," I said.
"There are fire nations in all of the deserts," he said, pointing at the different locations of the nations.
"There aren't very many earth nations," I said.
"I'm guessing those would be more South America. Like Brazil and the Amazon," Gerrard speculated.
"That's true. There's lot of plants there. But there's water, too. How come none of these are overlapping?" I asked.
"Probably because they're really small now. Maybe back in the day they had battles amongst each other for land and resources. But now, I'm sure most of their land has been taken over by non-magic folk," he replied. I tapped my chin, thinking.
"I think I'm going to tell my father that I want to study in Italy. I feel like the nations that are of our concern are in Europe, or the surrounding area. I can pretend I'm studying in Italy, but instead, I'll travel around," I said.
"I'm sure we can find a way to get you your assignments so you can still complete them so it won't be suspicious if your father decides to check your academic progress," he said. I nodded.
"So, Italy, then?" I asked.
"Italy. Specifically, Sicily," he said.
"Why Sicily?" I asked.
"It's surrounded by water," he replied.
"So?" I asked.
"It'll be easier to get to places," he replied.
"We can transport," I said.
"And if we can't?" he asked. I frowned, seeing his point.
"All right; Sicily," I agreed.
"I think we should take a trip to Brazil, too," he said, pointing at the map.
"That's not one of the circled places, though," I said.
"Maybe it'll be good for us to learn about the other nations, too. It looks like the only nations circled are ones that had the raindrop flags or the flame flags. I think it would be good for us to go to at least one nation each for the remaining elements," he replied.
"You think we should do that over the summer?" I asked.
"You tell me. Will you have enough time?" he asked. I bit my lip.
My initial plan was to reserve my summer break to spend as much time as possible with Trey and work out a specific plan with Gerrard as to what places we would actually go to. But now that Gerrard was mentioning going to the others nations to explore them, I was starting to think that I wasn't going to have enough time during the year to visit all of them. Maybe I would have to spend some of my summer travelling.
"I wanted to spend my summer with Trey and my friends..." I said. Gerrard sighed, running a hand over his face.
"What did I say about getting too attached?" he asked me.
"I love him!" I exclaimed.
"I'm talking about your friends," he answered.
"They'll understand when the time comes," I said.
"Are you sure about that?" he asked.
"Yes," I answered, trying to sound defiant. But I couldn't help the small feeling of dread that was beginning to creep up at the back of my neck. What if Abbey and Lance didn't forgive me after they knew what I was doing? And worse, what if Trey didn't forgive me?
I guess Gerrard realized that I was beginning to worry. He sighed and shook his head.
"Ok, we'll deal with all of that when the time comes. So do you want to go to some of these places over the summer or not?" he asked.
"It'll be really hot in Brazil in the summer," I said. Gerrard gave me a look. "What?" I asked.
"Don't be such a pansy," he said, rolling his eyes at me.
"But it will be!" I exclaimed.
"It's Brazil! It's always hot there!" he replied. I pouted and crossed my arms over my chest.
"Fine. We'll go to Brazil over the summer," I said.
"Ok, if we do go, it won't be for just one day, you realize that, don't you?" he asked.
"How long?" I asked.
"There's no telling," he replied.
"How would I explain that to my father?" I asked.
"Will your father be home all the time?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," I replied.
"Well find out. If he's ever away for a week or so, cancel any plans you have with your friends because that's when we'll go," he said. I nodded and then sighed, leaning back against the wall.
"I can't believe we're actually doing this," I said.
"Finding answers, you mean?" he asked. I nodded. He shrugged. "Well, I think it's about time," he said. I looked down at the maps that I was holding and nodded my head.
It was about time.
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A/N: Hello, dearies. So, just as I promised, as soon as my midterms were over, I decided to post. I might disappear off the map again, so I'm just warning you to not expect another update for a while.
Or maybe you'll get lucky and I'll find time to post again soon. I guess you'll just have to keep checking back to find out!
Thank you to everyone that has been voting! 33 on the last chapter! That might be a record so far!
Please keep it up! And leave me some comments. What do you think Caley and Gerrard will find on their adventures? I can give you a hint...we're going to meet some royalty soon! =)
You know the drill. Comment. Vote.
XOXO