Samsaara : Devadoot

Catch Me If You Can

The rays of the sun filtered through her eyelids and woke her up. Paviraa squinted, trying hard to fight back against the sunlight penetrating into red hot annoyance in her eyes. Eventually, she ended up covering her face with her blanket. A morning person she wasn't, but it would be difficult for her to fall asleep again.

Once she woke up, she hurried past all her chores and activities reluctantly. Thirty minutes since she stepped out of her bed, she was ready and raring to go. Paviraa walked into an Ethereal gate straight into Lord Ishrafil's quarters. They had been summoned with urgency. When she entered she found Mary seated at the table as usual rearranging the objects on the table the way she sees fit. Omar was there and he seemed fit as a fiddle. She was the last one to arrive. The previous night's sleep troubles caused her to oversleep.

Lord Ishrafil said, "Ah Miss Noor, you have picked up some tardiness from your friend Mr. Kel."

"Apologies my Lord, I overslept," Paviraa answered.

"It's alright, let's get to the task at hand," he said, "I have called you here to let you know that the artefact that you had retrieved. It has been stolen."

"Stolen? You mean that glass ring?" Omar asked.

"Yes, it went missing yesterday. Miss Fremd took it to her quarters for research. It went missing a few days later," Lord Ishrafil said.

"But why would someone try to steal it? Is it important in any way?" Paviraa enquired.

Mary answered, "I had been researching on it since the past 4 days, well 4 and a half. Actually it was 4days and 8hrs, so 4 days and a third of a day. So 4.3333 days. (Lord Ishrafil cleared his throat, to stop her tick.) Then I noticed it had gone. Before it was stolen, I was checking its composition and characteristics. What I understood was, it was not one type of stone. It was made up of millions of crystals of different kinds of stones and minerals."

"That's so cool, right? Or is it bad? It sounds cool. OK, I'm out of depth here so I'll shut up," Omar said.

Mary answered, "It is good, no it's bad, maybe? I don't know. But what I understood was that the way the crystals were arranged, they were forming a complex self powered circuit. Every time there was even the slightest touch or pressure. It self-generated power due to piezoelectric effect and sent out a signal. Possibly a message, well, I think it is a message, maybe it was, or not, I'm not sure."

"We still have not figured out what that message is. It is encrypted well enough though. Without having it in our possession, further research is impossible," Lord Ishrafil said.

"How did it go missing? Or rather, where was it last seen?" Paviraa asked, trying to understand more of the situation.

Lord Ishrafil looked at Mary and nodded.

She then turned towards them and said, "I had taken it to my room. Except Lord Ishrafil, no one knew that I had it with me, nor did I tell anyone that I had it in my possession. The only person who had come into my room during that time was Rishaan."