The Hunt for Sviederbach

Disclaimer: I do not own Shake it Up

A/N:

Chapter 7 (A Frightening Invention)

When Aveline entered Ander's apartment a week later, she was surprised to see Martin talking with two older men that she didn't recognize. They hardly looked over at her, so she did slip by unnoticed. One man was an elder with a stern face, full white hair, and a black walking stick in his hand. The second man was middle aged, had shaggy brown hair, a soul patch on his slack-jawed chin, and piercing blue eyes. All in all, they created a very unsettling feeling within her gut.

As she walked past them, she spotted Mala leaning on the arm of the couch. Her arms were folded over her chest, and she was attempting to listen to the men speak. The week had been uneventful, and this was her first time seeing Ander since her last visit. She'd spoken many times over the phone, and several times he said Mala and Martin were either bickering with one another. Every attempt at trying to talk to Mala failed, the girl just wouldn't talk to her. Either that, or Martin didn't want that.

She figured out who he was, however, Martin Lamont. His ancestor was Rodger Klemens, Moritz Klemen's son. The same ancestor of Stefan Lamont, who assassinated Eighth Term Ruler, Astor Heinrike. He hadn't done anything yet, but she asked Ander to keep a close eye on him just in case. Ander so graciously said Art was already doing that, but mostly for other issues regarding Mala. She had to confirm whether the connection was true, so she did so with a very recent, though controversial invention. This was this same invention that she had with her to show Ander. He may already know of it, since many of the wealthier people in the world knew of it.

"Who are those guys?" Aveline asked, entering Ander's room. He shut the door and sat on the edge of his bed. He exhaled and slowly rubbed his forehead.

"Martin's dad and grandfather. They're hard people to talk to."

"Oh." She set her blue backpack on the ground and reached inside. "Anyway, this is what I wanted to show you…" Ander tilted his head as she carefully pulled out a five-pound black disk with a red center. "You recognize it?"

"I think so." He took the disk, handling it carefully. "One of those soul-disks, isn't it?" Aveline nodded and watched him examine the object. She'd never used it before this week, in which case she was terrified. The invention was created nearly three years ago, was highly expensive, to the point that only the extremely wealthy had them. She didn't understand the mechanics of how it was made, but she understood that you could use it about two or three times in a given week before it needed to recharge for an entire week. Using it more than once on the same day would result in it breaking, needing to be sent in for repairs. The reason it was controversial was because some people considered it to be a type of witchcraft, or 'playing god'.

How the invention worked, or what it was, was a device used to call back the spirit of the dead. Whoever's spirit you called upon would remain for about an hour before they were to be called back. How the inventor of this device created it, he didn't know, but the man said he'd received his 'instructions' during a near-death experience. Amazingly, it worked. In order to summon a spirit, one had to prick their finger and put a drop of their blood in the hole within the center of the disk. This had to be done each time, as the blood was what made the spirit materialize outside the disk in what was a flesh-like form. Once injected, the person had to turn over the disk, where a flat keypad was, and type the name of the ancestor they wished to speak to.

"I didn't know you had one of these things," Ander muttered. "When it came out, Mom and Dad got one of them in order to talk to Uncle Alrick, but they never actually used it. They're not sure how they'd feel bringing Alrick back just to see him go away again."

"Yeah, I can understand that… It was a very scary feeling when it came time for them to go away. The spirit would simply vanish away, and by some sort of spirit law that she didn't understand, the ghost would never actually answer whether or not the many questions of afterlife were true or false. They refused to answer whether heaven or hell existed, if the Buddhists were right or if the Christians were. "It's kind of creepy. Mom and Dad were given it as a gift, but even they haven't used it. I only just used it to ask one of my ancestors if Martin Lamont was truly descended from Moritz Klemens."

"And the spirit said he was, right?"

"Pretty much…" She was still rattled by it, nor did she really want to use it again. Although, the thought of talking with Lothar himself was very appealing!

Wednesday evening, Aveline sat cross-legged at the foot of her bed, staring down at the Soul-disk in front of her. Her heart was racing as she gently rubbed her index finger. It terrified her to see if this would actually work or if it was nothing but a scam. She'd heard stories, but just wasn't sure. Why couldn't she just go visit the Sviederbach Museum instead? Rather, she opted out and decided to use this strange device.

She'd called upon her ancestor, Sara Klemens, daughter of Moritz, and brother to Rodger. Currently, the only thing that was happening, was the little LED light beside the blood hole was flashing. "M-Maybe I should just go to the library instead. Aunt Salida would know more about the Lamont family."

She hopped off the bed, shaking her head. She didn't want to believe the invention would work, and she didn't want to feel like summoning an ancestor was witchcraft. So rather than activate the machine, which she already did, she preferred to call her aunt. Now, Aunt Salida was up there in her years, surprisingly still alive. Then again, seventy-eight wasn't a bad age at all. Brunhild passed years ago, however.

Aveline didn't even make it to the door before she heard someone clearing their throat. Her eyes widened and her heart screeched to a dead stop. Trembling with anxiety, she slowly turned to see a body materializing in front of her from the head down! "Oh my god…no don't faint, don't faint…" A lump formed in her throat as she pressed herself back to the wall. She was astonished, but frightened at the same time, Sara Klemens, Fifth Term Ruler, was standing directly in front of her!

The woman was about her height, had a similar heart shaped face and milky smooth, skin. She had bright blue eyes, a playful smirk, and feathery brown hair with streaks of grey. Her eyes had crow's feet beside them. She wore a very long and wide green dress with a lace trim that hugged the floor. She was standing very straight with broadened shoulders. There was a faint white aura surrounding her body as well. Aveline shuddered and carefully stepped forward, feeling her ancestor's intense gaze burning into her.

"My dear, do your mother and father know what you have just done?" Sara asked. The woman's eyes bugged out for a split second and her hand smacked over her lips. "Oh my, that's a change. I'm used to talking with my mind in the afterlife…I swear, ever since that man invented these disks, it's been chaos!"

"S-Sara?" She knew from history that Sara had lived to be sixty-five, as was the proper life expectancy rate of those years. Sara raised an eyebrow and shook a finger at her.

"Now, now, you should refer to me as 'Grandma'…I think." Unsure, the ghost lowered her arms and leaned back onto the bed. She gasped in shock when she didn't fall through! "Well this could be potentially harmful if you brought back the wrong person…an hour to live again, the things you get to do." She cleared her throat and scratched her hair. "Anyway all that materializing shook me up a bit, can you remind me the year?"

"I-It's 2030. I'm Princess Aveline, my father is Gunther Hessenheffer, the Fourteenth Term ruler of Sviederbach." Sara smacked her forehead and groaned loudly.

"That's quite a change from the 1700s. I'm amazed I still recall everything I do, most spirits resurrected from that thing don't recall the events they learned after death."

"Really?"

"No dear, if someone brought back George Washington, he'd probably not be able to answer questions about Abraham Lincoln very well. It's more of a 'luck of the draw' thing really." Aveline chuckled nervously closed her eyes, trying to settle herself down. "Take a deep breath. You used the disk, you knew what you were getting out of it."

"Not really, I didn't think it would really work. I wonder what would happen if we walked to the kitchen…"

"People might find I look remarkably similar to a portrait of Queen Sara from the late 1700s. Now, what did you want to ask me?" Now that she actually had her there, it seemed a million questions were running rampant through her head. She had to focus on the important ones though. "Just bear in mind there are certain answers we're not allowed to answer, such as…is there a Heaven or a Hell?"

"I understand that." She didn't really care to ask about that, anyway. "I wanted to know if the name Martin Lamont sounds familiar to you. Does he really have ties to your father? King Moritz?" Sara raised an eyebrow and stared at Aveline as though she'd just grown another body part. "What? It's an innocent question…"

"You decided to summon your ancestor when you could have just as easily looked it up?"

"I know, I just wanted to see if the disk would work…" Sara exhaled and slowly rose to her feet. Her eyes remained shut and her body firm.

"Then yes. It is true, Martin Lamont is descended from the man that assassinated Astor Heinrike. That man was descended from my greedy brother, Rodger. Also, before you ask, yes Rodger was a very greedy man. He lived longer than I did, sure, but he was also younger than I was. He wouldn't have known how to rule the country properly…"

"Your father isn't the only bad king we've had here in Sviederbach." Sara frowned and slowly peered over to her. "My grandfather, King Hans Brustrum was a very bad man."

"Yes, I know…we were all lined up for his judgment when he passed. I am proud that your father stepped up. How is the current state of the country? Good?"

"It's great!" Her heart jumped with her voice, she was very happy to inform her ancestor of the current shape of things. Of course, there was the small feeling of dread at the news that Martin was indeed related to Rodger and Moritz, but fortunately he didn't seem to be doing anything other than being a ill boyfriend. "Hey Granny Sara, are you hungry by any chance?"

"Well…I haven't eaten in two hundred and twenty years, why start now? Besides, I don't believe the occupants of the castle would feel too kindly to a ghost appearing and vanishing in front of them."

"Good point…I uh, I don't know if I'm going to use this disk again. I wouldn't mind meeting Lothar, if he has any advice at all for me."

"When you become Queen, you could look into it then. I'm sure he'd have some tips. Any of us would…Anyway, I must be getting back, I know it's a bit early, but I personally don't believe in the use of this machine. By the way, your ancestors and I do wish to leave a message for you."

"What's that, Grandmother?"

"Keep an eye out on your family, and when the time comes to be vigilant, then do so. There will be an attempt on your family, I don't know when or what…" Her heart snapped into panic and she started to ask more questions, but before she could, Sara was already willing herself to fade away. "Goodbye, Aveline. Before I go, are you married yet?" She narrowed her eyes and quickly turned away, ignoring the previous statement.

"Goodbye, Grandmother!"

"It was freaky," Aveline muttered. She pushed the disk back into her pack and zipped it up. "I don't suppose you'd want to use it?"

Ander shook his head and folded his arms over. "Not entirely. Sure I'd be tempted to talk to Uncle Alrick, but I don't think the dead is something I really want to mess with."

"Yeah, I agree…" She would put it up on a shelf when she got home, but god it was tempting to use. Even now, she had an adrenaline rush just thinking of talking to another ancestor. "Hmm…I wonder if anyone we know has this thing?"

` "Art has one, I saw him talking about it to Mala yesterday. He keeps it in a private place and has only used it once to ask an ancestor of his some questions about his heritage."

"Oh cool!"

"Yeah, but I'm still against those things regardless." It was not hard to see why someone would be against them. Even she still had mixed feelings, and preferred to stick her nose into history books.

"I agree, this is just one invention I'd rather not spend too much time handling…"

Yes this invention will be used in the future, so it is indeed necessary. I believe it will definitely be useful in, perhaps, Mala's and Martin's storyline. Anyway, tell me your thoughts on it, and so forth.