Chapter 5

"When the leaders of the remaining factions saw the success of Gran at unifying the warring tribes, they boiled in jealousy, and conspired together to kill her."-- The Story of Gran Ch. 23, Lines 1-3.

The night for Lissa was interminable. The bed was hard, barely more than a board with a sheet on it. There was bell that rang every few hours, to call the monks to prayer. If she had been fully asleep it probably wouldn't have bothered her. But the worst part of all was that there was no one to share the bed with.

She spent the night running through the procedures for running the resonator. That actually helped make her sleepy. In the wee hours, Lissa finally slept. When Dahra came in and woke her, she didn't feel rested, by any stretch of imagination. But she thought she could make it through the day.

The sky was just starting to pale when Dahra portaled both Lissa and herself to the top of the hill. The portaler wanting to get there as early as possible, while Lissa was still fresh. Lissa was not wearing her usual braided ponytail, but instead wore it long, with it just brushing the ground. Dahra had never seen her wear it that way before, but realized that it would be uncomfortable to wear a ponytail under the resonator.

They walked about a third of the way down from the summit, toward the beach before they broke out the gear. Dahra pulled the resonator out of the duffel bag and examined the helmet-like instrument.

"You know, I don't really understand how this thing works."

"It is usually called a telekinetic amplifier," said Lissa. "That isn't quite accurate. It is really more of a telekinetic refiner. This helmet takes my mover abilities and refines it so it moves matter at a molecular level. The sensor pad then senses the types of molecules affected, and prints out a picture on the monitor on the back of the helmet. There is even a micro-printer on the back, for print outs.

"This is the newest, and most sophisticated resonator of its kind. The early ones could only be used by master-level movers, and the equipment took ten people to carry. The images this model produces are also a lot clearer than the earlier models."

"Great," said Dahra, having received more information than she needed. "Are you ready to go?"

"Just about," the young mover said, as she adjusted one of the control knobs on the side of the helmet. "You want to scan at a depth of ten yards?"

"That sounds about right." Dahra took the sensor pad and wedged it under a rock.

"Make sure it is really well anchored," warned Lissa. "If the sensor pad moves, we'll have to start again."

"Right."

"This should take about an hour," said Lissa, as she put on the helmet. "I've really done this only once before, so it may take a little longer. Be patient."

"No problem."

"And I'll be in a trance, so don't try to talk to me. It'll break the trance, and we'll have to start over."

"Right."

Lissa put a cushion on a large rock and sat on it, getting as comfortable as possible. "Well, here goes nothing."

Lissa pressed a button on the helmet's side. The resonator made no sound and gave no sign that it was working, except for a tiny blue LED light that came on, in the front of the helmet.

Lissa, however, showed definite signs that it was working. The instant the young mover hit the button, she froze in position. she stared out into space, never blinking. Soon her eyes started to water, and tears streamed down her face. Her hand that had pressed the button stayed on the side of the helmet for about five minutes, until she slowly lowered it to her side.

Dahra was alarmed by this, but didn't want to interfere with the resonator's operation, so she just sat and watched.

After about twenty minutes, Dahra, having gotten tired of watching Lissa stare off into space, quietly got up and walked away from her, heading toward the coastline. As she walked, she kept careful track of time, and returned back just as an hour had elapsed.

A few minutes after her return, the resonator let out a loud beep, the blue light went out. Lissa came out of her trance, and rubbed her eyes and temples.

Lissa groaned as she removed the helmet. "Ooohh! I'd forgotten the really monster headaches these things give you!" as she gently massaged her temples. "And I also forgot to close my eyes." She proceeded to administer similar rubbing to her eyelids.

"How did it go?"

"Okay, as far as I can tell," groaned the still-aching Lissa. "We won't know for sure until I see the output. The resonator should give us the results in just a few minutes."

The next few minutes were tense ones, watching the resonator for results. After what seemed an eternity, the tension was broken as a picture appeared on the helmet's small screen. The picture showed the outline of many large rocks pressed together. Standing out in the middle of the rubble was a large rectangular area, more than ten yards wide by thirty yards long. Inside the rectangle, the area was blank.

They both stood there a minute in stunned silence.

"Wow! You were right," said Lissa. "There really is something down there. It looks big enough to be a building."

"I... I thought we might find some books, or a piece of ancient technology," Dahra stammered. "I never thought we would find a building. Who in their right mind would build a building inside a hill?"

"Maybe they weren't in their right mind. Maybe it was built by an eccentric. We have them now; no doubt they had them then."

"You may be right. So what is this thing made of anyway?"

"I can't tell," said Lissa as she fiddled with the picture's resolution. "The resonator just takes pictures. We need to hook it up to a computer to really analyze the results."

"Would one of the geology college's field computers work?"