So I'm guessing no one solved the riddle, because there were no comments on the last chapter, which is okay. That means it's hard. :]
Kay. Let's go.
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CHAPTER 18
An hour later, they were still in the blue-lit room, waiting for Matt to solve the riddle. Wonder what time it is, Marcy thought. It’s been ages since I ate…and I never finished that sandwich that Ellah gave me! I never even took a bite. Her stomach grumbled. I guess I dropped it when…when Matt showed up. Curse him, the…what was that word that Shellie used? Chaale. Curse that chaale.
Everyone sat on the floor. Their legs had gotten tired of standing long ago. Some wizards fiddled with various items taken out of their clothes. A few had notebooks out and were pensively writing things down. They’re probably trying to solve the riddle. Will had a ukulele and was playing it, though Marcy couldn’t hear the sound. She ached for something to break the silence. Yin Soke had a puzzle that he was trying to figure out. Each piece was a wooden part of a large knot, but all of the pieces were connected with a piece of rope. It looked very hard. On the other side of the room, Mell had taken a seat beside Leloni. Both of them seemed so small and innocent, even though Leloni looked older. Marcy cursed Matt again.
As he had requested, there was nearly complete silence, only broken with the occasional cough. Matt was staring at the riddle now, looking at it with his head cocked. “Found in seen…circle information drawing…ugh!” Slamming his hands against the wall, he clenched his teeth. “Why is this so hard?”
Marcy rolled her eyes. He had done similar things during the last half hour and it was getting annoying. She decided to give the riddle a go herself. The answer seems like it would be simple. ‘Found in seen but not in never.’ Okay, so what do you find in seen? You see things, and that’s how you find them. So you can’t take it literally. ‘Found in seen’…maybe it means the actual word seen. You find the letters s, e, and n in the word seen. What if the word never is meant to be taken that way, too? Her heart beat faster. I need to write this down.
Digging through her messenger bag, she tried to find a pencil or some sort of writing utensil, but it was no use. Then she got an idea. She poked Alex, who had sat down beside her and appeared to be taking a nap. He opened his eyes with a start. Marcy pantomimed writing on her hand, and he nodded. After rooting through his own bag, he handed her a pencil and leather covered notebook. She motioned her thanks and gestured for him to look, which he did, sitting uncomfortably close. Awkwardly, she scooted over a little and began to write.
She flipped to a blank page drew a diagram of what she had come up with, circling the letters in “seen.” She then did the same for the word “never,” directly under “seen.” Alex’s eyes opened wide and he took the pencil. He crossed out each letter in “seen” that appeared in “never.” They were left with the letter s. Excitedly, Marcy looked at Alex. “I think we might be onto something!” she wrote.
“Me too!” he wrote in reply. “Let’s do the same thing with the next line.”
They wrote the word “enter” above the word “exit.” This time they were left with two letters, e and t. Marcy wrote question marks beside each letter. “Which one is it?” she whispered.
“Be quiet!” Matt yelled, his voice echoing off the walls. “I’m trying to think here!”
“Sorry,” Marcy muttered. “My bad.”
Alex rolled his eyes and wrote, “I’m not sure. Let’s move on for now.” He wrote “circle imformation drawing” in large letters under what they had already written. Laughing a little under her breath, she pointed out his typo and he quickly fixed it, blushing.
Both of them sat back. What could ‘circle information drawing possibly mean? Marcy wondered. Circles…information, what kind of information? Drawing? Drawing circles is fun. Why not. She absentmindedly doodled circles all over the page. Some were big, some were small bubbles, some were placed inside of the big circles. Alex raised his eyebrows. She shrugged. He motioned for her to give him the pencil. She handed it over, interested to see what he would draw.
Alex drew a perfect circle. I couldn’t have done better than that even if I used a compass! she thought, impressed. He drew another beside it, but over judged and their edges overlapped. Stifling a chuckle, he drew a curve under the two circles and made it a smiley face.
Marcy was watching him the whole time but never noticed him trying to fix his mistake. As soon as he had finished the second circle, something inside of her clicked. Overlapping circles…information in both of them…a drawing! I know what it’s talking about! It’s a Venn diagram! A Venn diagram! It’s so simple! I can’t believe it, math is back at it again!
In her excitement, she took the pencil from Alex’s hand and began to write. He looked minorly offended until he read what she wrote. “The answer to the last part of the riddle is a Venn diagram!”
Wrinkling his forehead, he made a confused face. She sighed, frustrated. I forgot, Alex probably didn’t take math. How can I explain this? “It’s a way to…” Marcy paused. This is hard. “It’s a way to present information. You have two groups of things”--here she labeled each of Alex’s circles ‘dogs’ and ‘cats’--“and each circle has some specifics in it for each thing.” She filled in the ‘cats’ circle with ‘moody, likes to loaf around, adorable.’ After chewing on her pencil for a moment, she filled in the ‘dogs’ circle with ‘playful, likes to eat, likes to run around.’
“And where both of the circles overlap is where you put things these have in common,” she wrote. Nodding, Alex took the pencil and filled in the middle space with ‘has fur, is a pet, cute when little.’
“EXACTLY” she scribbled in all caps. “So we have an s…and then either a ‘t’ or an ‘e,’ and then either Venn or diagram.” The pencil lead was now half gone, but she kept writing and hoping it wouldn’t break. She jotted down “s…t…diagram?” and shook her head. Crossing it out, she wrote “s…t…Venn?”
“Probably not Steven,” Alex noted.
She tried again. “S…e…Venn.”
Nearly bursting with excitement, he wrote “SEVEN!” at the very bottom of the page.
“That’s the answer!” Marcy accidentally blurted, very loudly. Gasping, she covered her mouth, but everyone was already looking at her.
“The answer? You have the answer?” Aarsa exclaimed.
“Uh, yeah, I think so,” she said, uncomfortable.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Matt exploded. He marched over to their spot and snatched the notebook.
“Hey! That’s mine!” Alex protested. They all got to their feet while Matt peered at the scribbles.
“Seven…” He tapped his chin. “That’s the only possible answer. All other combinations don’t work out. Of course, there’s that extra ‘n,’ but the creators probably realized that we wouldn’t bother with it because we’d already found the answer. It all adds up, too--if you subtract one from seven, you get six, which in many instances represents evil and imperfection. Often associated with the devil,” he grinned. “Wonderful! I was getting a little tired of this room anyway.”
“Aren’t you going to thank us for figuring it out?” Marcy challenged him, hands on her hips. “If it wasn’t for me and Alex, we’d be stuck in here for ages waiting for you to do it!”
“Nonsense!” Her father turned around and walked to the middle of the room. “I would have solved it eventually. You just sped up the process a little bit!” Oozing confidence, he raised his voice and shouted, “The answer is SEVEN!”
A large portion of the wall opposite slid backward and to the side, revealing a dark chamber.
Matt rubbed his hands together. “And on we go.” He tromped forward. Marcy scowled. Great. Another room.
“You’ll find this one very interesting,” Matt’s voice echoed from the darkness.
“Very interesting, my foot,” muttered Alex. “Come on guys, may as well follow him. It’s not like we have a choice anyway.” He walked into the other room. Marcy as the blackness swallowed up his silver Unologian suit. She blinked and swallowed nervously. I’ve got a bad feeling about this one.
“Pst! Marcy! Over here!” She turned around, surprised. Leloni, with Mell still beside her, was beckoning for her to come closer. Torn, Marcy looked at the looming darkness, then back at Leloni. She decided the darkness could wait.
“Look,” Leloni whispered as Marcy drew nearer. “We can’t just let Zalic get to the Well of Souhaiters unhindered! We have to fight!” Mell nodded her head violently in agreement. “I won’t let him get away with this.” Her melodic voice shook. “I’m sorry this is the case, but your father is not a good man. Who knows what he could do with a well that will give you what you truly want?”
“I know.” Marcy glanced at the doorway, where one after another person was stepping into the dark. “I know. But we can’t stop him either. He…he killed my grandmother, right before I joined the group. And I don’t even know where my mom is, or even if she’s alive. If I try to stop him, he’ll kill me too.” She felt a tear slipping slowly down her cheek and blinked quickly.
“Yoo hoo! Girls!” Matt said from somewhere in the opposite room. “Come join the party! Also, better not try and run for it, I booby trapped the way we came in. If you even step out the door, you’ll be impaled by a fast and sudden thrust of very, very compressed air. Quite messy.”
“See what I mean?” Marcy pleaded. “We have to follow him.” She turned around resolutely and marched through the door, not waiting to see if the two women were following. I don’t know what to do! Leloni is right, we can’t just stand by, but we can’t do anything! Oh, if only Ellah were here! She felt another pang of sadness.
As she stepped through the doorway, Marcy felt a sudden chill. Woah. It’s cold. And…and very dark. Where am I? What’s going on? She waved her hands in front of her face but couldn’t see a thing. Am I blind? What’s happening? “Uh, uh,” she stuttered. “Is…is anyone in here?”
No one answered.
Marcy started to panic. “Is anyone in here?” she repeated. Still no answer. “Guys, please, where are you?” She began to get desperate. “Help! Help! Where is everyone!” she yelled.
Then she heard a voice, which sounded very far away. She couldn’t decipher much of what it was saying, but she heard the sweet strains of a song. Instantly, she was caught in the melody. It was so enticing, she forgot she couldn’t see an inch in front of her face. With her eyes closed dreamily, she walked toward the song.
Gradually, it got louder. Strangely, though she couldn’t understand the language, Marcy knew the words. The voice sang of times from long ago, times only a few could remember. It sang of the sea, the deep sea, green and beautiful. It sang of love and friendship. It sang of places and creatures she’d never heard of. Vaguely, she knew it was the most magnificent and heavenly song she had ever listened to and would ever hear again.
All she wanted to do was keep walking toward the voice and never stop.
Suddenly her hands touched something. Shaking her out of her trance, the song stopped. “Marcy, is that you?” a delicate voice asked.
“Wh--What? Where am I?” Marcy shuddered. Her head cleared and she blinked several times. “I--there was a song, and I--”
“I know dear, that was me.” She could tell it was Leloni’s voice. “Here’s some cotton for you, stuff it in your ears.” A wad of something soft was pressed into her hand and she was gently pushed to the side. “Stand over here. There’s another one in here, I’ve got to sing again.”
Marcy bumped into something hard. “Ouch,” said Alex. “Your forehead hit my nose.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled. He’s really tall. She was glad that it was dark, because no one could see her turn red from head to toe.
Something grabbed her hand and she jolted and almost screamed. “It’s okay, it’s just me,” Alex reassured her. “I’m holding onto Aarsa’s hand. We just need to stay together. If we don’t hold hands, we’ll go toward Leloni like a magnet. Go ahead and put the stuff in you ears, we’ve all got it.”
Self consciously, Marcy crammed the cotton into her ears and grabbed Alex’s hand. It was hot and sweaty. So was hers. She looked to the side even though it was dark and blushed hard.
Leloni sang the song again, but this time it was very muffled and didn’t make Marcy feel the same way as when her ears were unplugged. This time, she couldn’t make out the words either. I think they’re in a weird language, she realized. If I can’t understand it now, how could I understand it a few minutes ago?
The song ended and Marcy heard the drone of voices. Someone stepped on her toe. “Sorry,” said a voice.
“It’s fine,” she answered. “Hold my hand.”
They stood there, repeating the process until Marcy was sure that everyone had gathered. Someone started yelling and she barely made out the words “take out the cotton.” Gratefully letting go of Alex’s hand, she grabbed the wad of fluff and pulled it out of her ears. “Ew,” she said. “Nasty.”
“I feel the same way about you,” Alex stated.
“Shut up,” she teased, and waved her hand in his vague direction. It collided with his face and he yelped.
“You scared me!”
“Sorry,” she said, concerned. “I didn’t mean to hit your face. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He sounded bashful and happy. Marcy shook her head. Boys are weird. But he’s different. I like him. She blushed even harder.
“Okay, I hope you’ve all unplugged your ears.” Matt’s voice echoed through the darkness. Sighing, she rolled her eyes. I’d forgotten he was here. That was nice. He continued. “Thanks to our siren friend Leloni, all of us are here, which is what needs to happen. The room should be getting light soon.”
They stood in silence and waited. Sure enough, slowly, lights appeared all around them. Squinting, Marcy shaded her face. “Ouch.” She looked down and was startled to see grass beneath her feet. “What in the--no way!”
Fascinated, she looked up. The group stood, blinking, in a meadow. Above them was blue sky and one bright yellow sun. There was faint murmuring all around.
“Why…we were just underground!” a tall man with a large ginger beard and a head full of curls spoke up. “How are we…outside?”
“The wonders of magic, my friend,” Matt said, clapping his hands. He jumped on the tips of his feet. “Oh, we’re so close! Imagine, the creators of the Well had unlimited access to all the power in the world. Who cares if they put a whole meadow, even a whole world underground!” Smiling widely, he suddenly sat down cross-legged. “It’s been a long day. Anyone want some food?”
---------Sooooo what do you think? Is there a budding romance between our dear Marcy and the sarcastic Alex? How does one fit an entire space underground, complete with its own sun and sky? What about the other members of the party? Find out next chapter!!
Feedback still appreciated!! :D
~~Zoë Wingfeather
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