Chapter 9
As they neared the time of reckoning the atmosphere in the Sanctuary got progressively tenser. Henry and Tesla had declared they were to be undisturbed in the lab as they built whatever it was they were building. Druitt had disappeared from the bustle of activity although Magnus knew him to be on the roof, meditating, of all things.
Bigfoot came into Magnus' study where Will and Magnus were making urgent calls for obscure materials Tesla insisted he needed. He had come from the lab where he had been unceremoniously thrown out by Tesla, after requesting a resistant material from which to make a message.
"We have enough titanium for only 22 letters. What should the message say?" asked Bigfoot.
"Titanium, wow. That should resist anything. I was thinking, we shouldn't write it in English, maybe try and code it a bit," suggested Will. "You never know who else will read it."
"Latin," said Magnus. "We'll write it in Latin."
"Will Ashley understand Latin?" asked Will, none too certain of Ashley's academic prowess.
"Despite her preference for more active subjects, she did a very good job of appearing to be listening during her Latin classes," said Magnus. "We can only hope some of it sunk in." She scribbled down a note for Bigfoot.
"Here, this makes 21 letters. I've kept it relatively simple. Ashley should know what this means." Bigfoot grunted and went to fix the message to the wall of the lab.
Ashley was beyond caring what fears she would face in the lab. In the darkness of the night she lit a torch, not interested in whoever's wrath it would incur. To hell with vampires. Let them come.
The final piece of the puzzle awaited her as she made her way to the heart of the Sanctuary.
She stood there looking around the room. She was certain her dreams had been real. There was no longer any vampire source blood left in her system. Something had forced whatever the Cabal had done to her out of her body.
Something stronger.
Something worse.
Ashley sat despondently on a massive metal arc, one end of which was embedded in the wall. A pigeon strutted around the floor, pecking at the bodies which still lay there. It was the other one of the pair she had caught earlier than day. Probably wondering where its mate was.
Ashley looked up as the pigeon flew out of the chamber up into the sky. As it flew upward, the draught from its wings disturbed the leaves of the climbing vines. For a second, on the wall something silver glinted through the screen of plants.
Curious, she climbed up the thick stems of the vines and began ripping the leaves off the wall. The silver became clear; there was writing on the wall. Eventually the words were all cleared from obstruction. It lay along the wall separating the lower level of the lab and the upper level. It was a message. For her.
The feeling from this realization was indescribable. The metallic letters glittered at her like fireflies, from the reflecting firelight. A smile engulfed her face and stayed there. She felt as though the sun had come out in the middle of the night and shone down just for her.
It read. 'AM In situ tempus fugit HM'
Latin. Of course it would be in freaking Latin. Trust her mother to make everything more complicated than it had to be. Fingers crossed, she could remember what her mother had tried to drum into her head when she was a child.
'AM must stand for Ashley Magnus and HM had to mean Helen Magnus,' she thought.
'Tempus fugit meant time flies. That was a pretty famous phrase.'
'In situ. What was that? I gotta ask Mom for more Latin lessons when I get back.'
Get back? That thought hadn't crossed her mind for a long time.
Will had searched the Sanctuary for Magnus high and low. The last place he chose to look should probably have been the first. He found Magnus on the roof of the tower, gazing over the city.
"Found you at last. Tesla's having problems. He's getting cranky, something's wrong. He wants to start running preliminary systems checks on the equipment. It will interfere with security operations."
Magnus said nothing, not even listening.
"Magnus?" asked Will, stepping closer.
"What if she's not there, Will?" asked Magnus, not expecting a reply. Will looked surprised.
"What if she is?" he countered.
"What if she'd dead? Been dead all along and this is for nothing."
Will stepped up next to her. He was way out of his depth with the physics and teleporting conversations that had filled the Sanctuary over the past few days. He was way out of his depth most of the time in this strange new world. But this, this was something he could handle.
"What if she's trapped in the future? Alone. Scared," he said playing on her natural fears. "There's only one way to find out," he continued. "We've come so close to almost finding out. Do you want to give up now?"
"If we go through with this and we come up with nothing. There will be no hope left," said Magnus. The tone of her voice told him her thoughts were far away in a despairingly dark, lonely place.
"Everything you ever wanted could be waiting for you, just around the corner. If you don't try you'll never know and she will be lost forever."
He paused, "Although, Henry said something to me earlier. He asked for my help welding something."
Magnus looked at him. Will had tickled her curiosity.
"Don't worry he was the one welding, not me. Anyway, I wasn't holding it right or something and told me so. I said, 'Sorry, I am trying you know' and he said, 'Try? There is no try. Do or do not.' I thought it's a pretty cool saying. We are going to do this."
Magnus smiled at Will obliviousness. Henry had made her watch the Star Wars movies more than once, the original trilogy of course. The new one was forbidden within the Sanctuary walls.
"Magnus. We have to go back to work. They are all waiting for us. Ashley is waiting for us."
"You don't know that."
"No, but we're all busting a gut down there and we're none of us going to stop until we find out. One way or another. Please, come and talk to Tesla before he does something stupid and upsets Druitt. They listen to you."
She sighed, it was true, they did listen to her. They all did. God knows why.
