Sookie's POV:
I looked at the young man on the ground. He seemed oblivious to us standing behind him. He kept on mumbling. Whatever he was saying was incoherent. I looked into his mind briefly and all his thoughts were jumbled as well.
"You haven't told me what this is yet," I said to Octavius James.
"We found this over 40 years ago. This area used to be a mine before I built my home on it," the Swedish king responded instead of James. "These have been standing here for over ten thousand years. At least that's how old we think they are, according to the carbon tests."
He walked up to one and touched it, moving his hand slowly over the smooth surface. "We have no idea of what it is made from. The material is not from this earth. There are no writings on any of them, no pictographs, absolutely nothing. Our researchers have scoured the earth trying to find out its origins. It is not human. But however, we did find an ancient tale from the Faerie folklore."
I had learned more about faeries with Claude since that was my heritage. There were thousands of stories based on faery beliefs. I had only scratched the surface during my studies.
"There was once a young faery who live many, many years ago who possessed an extremely rare talent that has only been possessed once. He was able to control time. He was able to travel forward and backward through time. He was able to correct mistakes that he or other faeries had made. He was able to amass great wealth for his tribe, the Earth faeries. This talent was valuable in Faery. All the tribes wanted to benefit from his gift. They wanted power, they wanted wealth, it was not long before the young faery's life was in danger. He no longer wanted to possess it because it was greatly dividing the land. He somehow found a way to extract his gift from his body, but it came at a price. The faery lords banished him from their world and he had no choice but to come to this one. The tale implies that he transferred the gift to something since he was not able to destroy it."
"You think these things come from Faery?" I asked the king. I have never been to Faery, so I had no idea.
"There are many different minerals and ores from different worlds. This matches a mineral found on a dead body of a Faery that was killed by us twenty years ago."
I looked intensely at each structure for a few minutes. "What exactly do you think these things will do?" I had an inclination of what he was going to say, but I was hoping I was wrong.
"These possess a great power. These have the power to help someone travel through time," Octavius James answered.
He walked up to young man on the ground and kneeled down in front of him and touched his shoulder. "This young man was born in Scotland. He was abandoned by his mother after he was born. He spent many years in foster homes before I found him. His guardians commented in his file that he spent many hours alone in his room writing formulas and texts that they couldn't understand. By the time he was seven years old, he spoke over 80 languages. He was self-taught. I enrolled him into Oxford when he was ten years old. He wanted to study physics, chemistry, astronomy, every science known. He had earned two PhDs by the time he turned 16. Allow me to introduce to you my adopted son, Issac James."
He didn't look up at his adoptive father or to me. Instead he continued to mumble softly to himself. It was like he was caught up in his own world. I wasn't sure what to make of him. He still didn't seem aware that we were here.
"Has he always been like this?" I asked.
"No. I felt hopeless and lost after so many of our kind had been killed by the virus. I was one of the few lucky ones who didn't contract it. Our people, our race means everything to me. I felt compelled to somehow find a way to reverse all that has happened. A couple years ago, the great king of Sweden here told me of what his people had found. When he told me the possibilities of what it could be, I came here to help decipher it. I brought the most brilliant mind that I knew, my son Isaac. I had no doubt that he would find a way to crack open these monoliths and find the gift that has been lost for too long."
I look at Isaac intently as well. I tried to read his mind again but all that came back was jumbled phrases and pictures that still didn't make sense to me. It was as if his mind didn't know how to process what it was exposed to.
"Let me get this straight. You both think that these things are some kind of time travel device. Some kind of….. time portal. And you think that this boy figured out how to use it?" I said as I rubbed my forehead trying to comprehend my current situation. Pre-revelation, I would have thought this whole thing was nuts. But I had seen many things since that I could not explain. Hell, I couldn't explain my own powers to myself most days.
"May I?" I said as I leaned down. I wanted to touch him to see if I was able to read him a little bit clearer with physical contact.
Octavius nodded and I decided to touch his cheek. He was cold to the touch. I could feel from him that he was famished and thirsty. His physical body was tired and drained. Though I wasn't able to read him, I did understand that he needed rest. His mind was moving so quickly that it needed time to sort through all the information it had. I didn't sense anything related to time travel in his mind.
"What makes you so sure he has figured it out?" I asked both men.
Octavius tossed a token into my hand. I examined it and wasn't sure of its significance. To me it looked like a gaming token. There was a year on it though. It said 1977.
"This token came from a casino here in Sweden. The building was demolished back in the 1980s. The business ceased to exist soon after," Octavius replied. "Isaac had it in his pocket when we found him three nights ago. He was alone down here for period of time. He was found in this state, mumbling to himself. We have tried everything to get through to him."
I put my hand back on his cold cheek. "He needs to sleep and rest. His mind needs time. Once he has had an adequate amount of sleep and food, it may be easier for me to get something out of him."
"We have tried that. He refuses to eat nor rest. We've tried to bring him to the surface but he fights us. It's like his body is drawn to this spot," Octavius replied.
"Can I try something?" I asked.
"By all means," he said.
I put my hands on both cheeks this time. I sent him warmth and comfort. I told him that it was okay to sleep. After a few minutes he stopped mumbling and began to close his eyes. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep. Octavius picked him up and started to make his way back to the elevator. The king and I followed.
"We will take you back to your hotel room Sookie, so that you may rest," Alexander said. "I can sense that you are exhausted as well.
"I am and thank you. Let me know when he has awakened and I will come back and see what I can do," I said.
Later on, the kings guards dropped me off at my hotel room. I undressed and washed off my makeup. I laid on the bed and pulled the covers over me. I grabbed my phone and facetimed Eric. He answered after one ring.
"My lover," he said.
I smiled at him. "Hi! I miss you so much."
"I miss you too," Eric said. "Have they been treating you well?"
"Yes," I said. I filled him in on what had happened so far. Eric took a moment to think about what I had told him.
"So they think that they will be able to travel through time. That's probably how James won his seat on the Vampire Council. I was wondering how he got it. I can name several vampires who are worthier to sit at the head of the council. Do you think you will be able to read the human's mind?"
I thought for a moment. "I'm pretty sure I can. My telepathy has strengthened tenfold as my powers have grown. I'm hoping that I will be able to find something tomorrow and be able to give them enough information that they need and then I can come home tomorrow if everything works out."
"Just take your time Lover. Even a gracious king like Alexander Karlsson gets impatient. If they think you are not doing a great job, then they may show their disapproval in you."
"Yes I will try to be as thorough as I can," I said to him. I knew all about vampires. If they weren't happy with your work, then you would be punished.
We said our goodnights and I fell asleep after our call.
The next morning, I decided to exercise. I took a jog around the city and it was refreshing. A few people approached me and spoke to me in Swedish. I guess with my natural blonde hair and blue eyes, I looked like a local. I showered in my room and changed into a pair of jeans and a striped sweater. I went down to the hotel restaurant and had a light breakfast.
I decided to call Claude. I wanted to know more about this supposed faery who had the ability to time travel.
I clicked on his name and he answered after a few rings.
"Well if it isn't Sookie Stackhouse. How you doin cousin?" he said.
"Oh just the usual. In vampire trouble," I said.
"Yeah I heard about that. It's all that anyone can talk about. Sookie, the vampire queen Slayer! Bet a lot of money that people are dying to get your story. Hollywood should make a movie about you and Eric."
I scoffed. "People wouldn't be interested in my story or watching a movie about me."
"Oh my dear Sookie, always still thinking so lowly about yourself," he replied. "So what can I do for you?"
I told Claude about the faery tale and asked him if he had heard of it.
"I remember grandfather mentioning something about it. It was after one of the faery wars. He said only if Prince Jermaine was still here. He would've changed everything."
"Prince Jermaine?" I asked.
"He was a prince in Faery long time ago. This was before my time or even before our great- great - great grandfather's time. He was able to create portals that transferred him into the past and even into the future. They say he only travelled into the past a few times and once into the future. It was after his future visit that he decided to get rid of his time travelling gift. He was banished from Faery and all of us were forbidden from ever talking about him again."
He stopped talking and looked closely into the screen. "Why do you want to know about him?"
"No reason. I was just thinking about Marius and how much I missed him. I wish I could bring him back. Going into the past and protecting him from the virus is an idea," I lied. I didn't want Claude to know that vampires had gotten their hands on a potential faery-made time travel portal.
"That's true. You could do that if you were able to go back in time. But they say that Jermaine destroyed it and other Faeries spent thousands of years trying to recreate what he had."
We spoke for a little while longer before we hung up.
I stayed in my room until I received a message that my transportation would be arriving to take me back to the palace. Isaac James was slowly stirring from his sleep. They were going to feed him and put him in a secure room.
The evening was near and the sun was about to go down. When I arrived at the palace the guards led me to the security area.
Octavius James and the Swedish King were already there. Isaac was sitting on a beige ottoman staring at the wall. He looked a lot better than the night before but he still seemed like he was in a trance-like state.
"Sookie, I hope that you had a good nights' sleep and a lovely afternoon," the King said politely as he greeted me.
"I did and thank you," I responded.
"Shall we get on with it?" Octavius quipped. He seemed impatient today and almost rude.
I gave him a hard stare and sat on the chair opposite of Isaac.
Isaac? I said to him in my mind. He looked right at me after I spoke. I tried to probe his mind again but everything was still jumbled.
I got up and move my chair closer to him. I sat down again and held both his hands this time.
Isaac, let me in. I want to help you. He seemed to respond to me.
It's too much! He cried out to me from his mind.
I need you to show me what happened. Focus on that, I told him.
Suddenly thousands of images flashed through my mind and all of a sudden it came to a standstill. I was standing beside him in the underground cave. I guess this was the flashback of what had occurred. He was excited. "I finally figured out how to get the thing to work!" he said in his mind. He started running towards it and I had to run in his vision as well. We reached the monoliths and he stopped for a moment. He looked through his notebook. I only saw scientific formulas. I was no genius so there was no way I was going to try and memorize that! Besides, the vamps probably already tried to analyze it before I showed up. He put his notebook on the ground and walked up to the furthest one. In an interesting move, he looked right at me in his vision.
"This is how it works." , he said to me in his vision.
I started panting as he showed me the way. I gasped out for air as my eyes opened. I let Isaac's hands go and he fell back into his couch and fell asleep.
I stood up from my chair and tried to catch my breath.
"What did you see?" Octavius James said sternly.
"There's no way you can use it. None of you will be able to use it!" I responded hastily. Crap, what did I get myself into?