Disclaimer: I still own nothing
Chapter 3
If there was a force that could overwhelm the hatred Sophia had about being taken from her parents, it was sheer boredom. The rhythm of Aegolius canyon was dull, boring, repetitive, and never changed in the least. Days slipped into weeks, weeks into months, and no one seemed to notice that life was being wasted. Her schedule looked something like this:
6:30) Breakfist
6:45) Report to station
6:45-12:00) Work, work, and work some more
1:00) Lunch ends
1:00-5:30) Work again
5:30-6:00) Break
6:00-9:30) Work some more
9:30) Get to bed and sleep
There was little else to it. There was something weird about the flecks, but they didn't seem to hurt her or Athena and Tatiana, who were working on either side of her. She was pretty sure Hana and the others weren't affected either, but the flecks seem kinda strange, and Flame (spirit of fire) always grunted and growled and whined whenever she took a handful and put it into the next bag. It was as if they were somehow hurting him. Now Sophia hid her memorial tablet in her room in order to keep Flame from being confused or perhaps damaged by the flecks, and she insisted that Athena do the same with Rairaicocoon, the spirit of lightning that was her guardian spirit. And Tatiana always left her spirit, Zephyr: spirit of wind, in the room anyway. Their job was simple. They had to empty piles of small, golden flecks into bags, and then dump those bags down the shaft. They didn't know where the shaft lead.
"If these guys don't kill us, I think sheer boredom might finish me off instead." Athena muttered.
Tatiana let out a quiet murmur before taking Athena's bag and shoving it down the shaft. There was a click, and the sign flashed several times.
"What does that mean?" Sophia asked, nudging Tatiana.
"It means we've processed over three thousand bags in a few days." Tatiana replied.
"Oh bless my soul, you girls are hard workers!" Madame Plonk exclaimed. "You've earned yourself a thirty-minuet visit to the library! Have fun!"
"Man that woman is creepy." Sophia exclaimed as soon as they were out of earshot. Athena shouldered their library bag.
"Yeah. While everyone else are jerks, she and the other overseers are acting all nice and everything. I don't like it. But I am surprised they have a library." She growled. "Where is it anyway?"
"Three floors up. Close to the open sky." Tatiana replied softly. Sophia looked at her friend the unspoken words traveled between them. If I only had enough mana, we could fly out and away from this canyon… Athena caught on to their expressions and smiled softly. Not one of her sadistic smiles either. Just a regular smile.
"Yeah. That would be awesome, wouldn't it? After six month of Aegolius, I'd love to get out of here." Her voice was unusually gentle, and that's when Sophia realized that Athena must be just as homesick as she was. She put up a tough front, but she felt the same as the rest of them-almost physically ill from missing her family. "It's weird, the things I miss most. My pet dog, Muffins. My bed, and my brother's music practice. Mum's roasted chicken, which is practically lethal, and my dad practicing for a fencing competition…"
"Yeah, you're mom's about as good at cooking roasted chicken as my mom is at performing at recitals." Sophia quipped. "I swallowed it because I didn't want to be rude, but after living off bread, water and occasional hot dogs I'd give one of my limbs for a great steaming bowl of it right now." Athena managed to smile again.
"Up there." Tatiana's expression had suddenly changed. She took them inside.
"Tatiana? What's wrong?" Sophia asked, alarmed.
"Nothing's wrong." Tatiana's eyes were gleaming. "In fact, I think I've just found the keys."
"Keys for what?" Tatiana wildly signaled for her friends to stay quiet and ran up the stairs. Bewildered, Athena and Sophia split up and looked for books to read.
/Thirty minuets later
Tatiana practically flew down the stairs, her book bag heavy with books. "Tell Hana to get the rest of your friends back to our room right now." She ran out the door.
Athena stared after her, and then at Sophia. "Something's up. We've been here a long time and Tatiana's never acted like this. I wonder what kind of books she found."
Sophia shrugged and ran back to the station to get her cousin.
/Back at Sophia and Tatiana's dorm
Sophia finished tending to the fire in the small fireplace and sat in the circle on the crusty shag carpet. Hana, Athena, Minty, Deep Blue, and Drake were sitting in a circle.
"Where's Tatiana?" Minty asked, looking around.
"Beats me. I think they took her to the North Tower." Sophia replied.
"Tower detention?" Deep Blue rolled his eyes. "Didn't Madame Plonk say you were allowed to go to the library?"
"She did. I don't know why they're keeping her up there." Athena opened the book bag. Several books fell onto the floor: Skench's Journal, Aegolius inside map, Aegolius outside map, patrol times, and tome of the Patch.
"Why in the world would people in Aegolius have books like the Tome of the Patch?" Deep Blue asked.
"Look! She left an explanation note." In a hushed voice, Hana read:
"Sophia, Hana, guys, this is serious. Aegolius is more than just a work camp and a prison. This place is run by a nut job. You know Skench? He wants to reform. The grown-ups here who keep us in line are people who are either purist freaks or racists who hate shaman. It's dangerous here. Read Skench's diary. We have to get out of this place!"
"What on earth?" Minty pulled Skench's diary onto her lap. "I'll read this. Um, okay…Dear Diary, no matter where I go, there are fools in charge. Back in my home country, there were fools everywhere. The common people were okay, but I hated more than anything else their foolish leader. He would start war over the smallest accident and waste money on the most ridicules things! It was obvious to me he was as useless as the sun was bright. But…no one except myself could see how unqualified he was. They just blindly followed his lead, never once questioning him. My home was falling into ruin and no one held him accountable! How could they let such an incompetent fool stay in power? Even now I still can't comprehend it. I began studying shamanic readings and learned of the existence of shaman. I bribed the boarder guards of Tokyo and China to allow me to deport child shaman. Soon, I'll be able to take over the government and set things straight…"
Deep Blue's mouth dropped open. "You've got to be kidding me! They're letting this freak of nature abduct young shaman? And for THAT reason?"
"What about the flecks?" Drake quipped. "Why does he need them?"
"She has an answer to that too." Hana's voice was tight. Sophia peered over his shoulder and looked at the book he was holding.
"Flecks have a curios effect on the guardian spirits of young shaman. Since they don't have a ceiling yet, they can still change. Flecks, however, seem to morph the spirit into something dark, something evil…"
"Everything makes sense now." Sophia squeaked. "All the jobs, the endless work, the ban of asking questions…he's going to use us to change his country!"
"We have to get out of here." Athena said. Her voice was dead cold. "Tonight."
"Right now?"
"Yes. Right now." Athena took out Rairaicocoon's memorial tablet. She ran her hands over the maps of Aegolius. "And I know just how we're going to do it."
"How? There's, like, two billion guards out there!" Deep Blue asked.
"Yeah, how Athena?" Minty echoed, taking out her tablet and her brother's, which contained two Koropokkur spirits. "We don't have weapons."
"We don't need them." Athena closed Sophia's small fingers around Tatiana's memorial tablet. "We're going to fly out of here."
/Inner ring, Aegolius canyon
"Why did I get the worst job?" Sophia whimpered as she inched along the inside of the well-like passage leading to the place Tatiana was being kept; a secret room inside the library. She took another step and nearly lost her footing. The stone she had been standing on fell down, down, down and clattered on the far-away floor. Thoroughly spooked, Sophia kept a death grip on the stairs and finally pulled herself into the library.
"Sophia?" Tatiana stared.
Sophia thrust her tablet into her hands, eyes dark and serious. "Come on. We're leaving this place. Right now."
