Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 9 - First Lessons - I

  Alden watched apprehensively as Rika dug through her bag. He was excited, sure, but he still felt a deep nested fear of the unknown dangers that could be lying in wait. Rika didn't seem to have any clue where this power came from. If he understood his physics, there was some blatant violation of the laws of nature already going on, conservation of energy or some such.

  So where is the energy coming from?

  "How does this work?" he asked nervously.

  "Hang on a sec," Rika mumbled, as she fiddled through the various rows of pouches. "Got it."

  From the depths of her bag she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. Not parchment—like the mysterious Scrap he'd seen at the meeting—but plain white paper, as ordinary as could be. It was as if it had just slid out from a printer, though the lower third of it was torn away.

  "I thought—"

  Rika shook her head. "I'm going to try to say this as nicely as I can, but asking for the actual Scrap is insanely personal. I mean, you saw how intense the council meeting got. Only one other person in the world's ever seen mine. I just don't know you well enough, okay?" Rika looked apologetic, but her voice was firm. Alden nodded, a touch disappointed. "So I'm just going to give you the basics. The only complete page anyone ever found. Rachel left me a copy. It got torn up but yeah."

  Alden raised his eyebrows. "You can just... copy them?" It seemed so mundane.

  "Well, not exactly," Rika shrugged. "Throw it in a normal copy machine, scan it onto a computer, whatever, it becomes worthless. Can't read a word of it. I think they used carbon paper to make real copies. Something like that. You'd have to ask Alpha, wherever he is. He gave them to Rachel." She passed it over to Alden.

  His eyes slid across the words. He couldn't bring himself to properly focus on any of them. In the gaps he could see flecks and scratches, though he couldn't tell if they were imperfections from the copy or part of the original sheet. The letters, from what he could see of the edges, were normal Roman letters, but he couldn't make out the language they might be in. Not that Alden knew any other languages. He looked back up at Rika, confused.

  "Just try to read it aloud," Rika prompted, watching him like a hawk. She was perched on the chair, her legs pulled up in front. Her blue eyes glittered in excitement. For a moment he could have sworn he saw a brief flicker of electricity run through her hair, causing the blue streak to snap out straight, then relax—like a snake uncoiling for a strike.

  He hesitated. Did he trust this occasionally violent and hostile young woman who was a pariah in the town he'd come to search? Who made bold claims about magic and destiny, who offered him an impossible gift with no real answers or apparent consequences? Was he about to make a horrible mistake he could never recover from?

  "What's wrong?" Rika asked.

  He shook his head. It was time to commit. This had to be the beginning of the answers he needed. If nothing else, he thought with a twinge of excitement, it's still magic.

  Alden looked at the beginning of the paragraph and tried to read it aloud. "Abrec tes minn-" He stopped, his head light. He felt nauseous. He glanced up at Rika, afraid he'd said something wrong.

  "Don't worry, no one manages to finish the first sentence on their first try." Rika tried to give him a comforting smile, but it just came off as impatient. "You're doing fine."

  He looked down and began again. "Abrec tes minneard desve selnir tuala tan..." As he spoke, he suddenly felt the meaning come to him. He couldn't express it clearly, but he understood the emotion and the utter truth behind the words, as if they were opening a gate that had been locked away in his mind for eons untold.