GIDEALIS ENIGMA. Chapter 1 The Girl In The Water

I’m used to running in complete darkness. If I stumble at some point, I always stumble on somebody’s mystery. My name is Domiarn Gidealis, and as of tonight I am eleven years old.

I’ll tell you more about me, as soon as I find out what the commotion downstairs is all about. There is a carriage by the door of my father’s house with a crest on it. The crest has two flags and a sword, suggesting it is Per Taonur’s carriage.

He is the governor of Deikeren Province, and his arrival to my Dad’s place is unusual, particularly at this hour. It’s getting dark, and the street is deserted. A servant, whose face is unfamiliar to me, opens the door, and my father and I get in.

My father, Mevild Gidealis, is Taonur’s adviser and closest friend. As much as it is possible to be friends between a master and a servant. Mevild helps Taonur run our city of the same name as the province, and cover up budget discrepancies, when money gets stolen.

Inside of the carriage is Taonur himself. He is worried, tired, and concerned. But not about yet another embezzlement that needs to be concealed in case the inspectors from the capital might show up… He is upset about something else.

It is not the first time I’m being asked (or, rather, ordered) to help find something or someone, for I have an ability to see what others cannot. But it is the first time I’m going to take a case personally. Possibly, because I’m growing up.

I never disliked the old governor, because I saw his internal weaknesses, that made him do the bad things he did. But today I’ll have to decide if I can continue to stay impartial about the things that will reveal themselves under the waning moon.

The carriage takes off like we’re being chased by the above mentioned inspectors, about to discover a hole in the city budget.

“Did anyone see you?” Per whispers in a creepy voice.

“No, mister Taonur. Can you tell me what’s going on?” Mevild also answers in a whisper, as if there is someone to hear us.

“My daughter is gone. I know it’s crazy… But your son was able to help us find things before… So I thought… I’m worried sick, Mevild. I do not know if she was kidnapped, or ran away.”

I sympathize with the old man. He is genuinely concerned. But that’s not the whole story. The whole story is that her disappearance is somehow connected to something that happened between them really long ago.

“Sir, those were only metal objects that my son has an ability to feel… Rings and such… But a girl?”

“Shut up, Gidealis, shut up…” Taonur moans, rubbing his unshaven face with both hands. “Demi… Do you want me to take you to my house, so you could smell her path? Do you want to smell things to get her scent?”

“It does not work that way, mister Taonur” – I answer inaudibly, because that girl, his daughter, is right in front of me.

Her tearful face bears an expression of an eternally unconsolable soul, who is no longer in the body.

“She is dead.” I say matter-of-factly.

Taonur grabs his chest, and screams so loud that the coachman stops the horses right in the middle of Dortmaar Neor, the main street of Deikeren City.

The moon looks through half-drawn curtains on the windows of this well-made expensive carriage. The poor father’s face is even more pale in the ghostly light.

Wait, no. How can this be? I see her running down a road this morning. She is crying now, somewhere, confused and bewildered, but she is alive. I literally get pictures of the two faces. One is dead, and one is alive, but they look the same.

“Order to ride through the northern gate of the town, then take a left.” I say finally.

Let’s see if I can figure this out without calling Immaul.

Yeah, forgot to mention my main buddy. Only he is not human. He is an arkchil. There is no way I would be able to understand my dreams and visions without him.

If the girl did not come home, is someone holding her against her will? If yes, then where?

The ride is bumpy, because we’re going so fast. The feeling of immense tension is upon all of us. Taonur’s daughter ran down this road. She fell many times. I see a bloody knee and a dirty face, and yet she continued to run ahead. Why? Was she running away from someone?

Was that someone her own father? And now he wants us to believe that someone else took her? He is somehow involved in it, but I can’t just yet see – how. We swiftly pass by the clearing in the forest, lit up by the bright moonlight.

It would have been a fantastic view to admire all the shadows and flower stems intertwined between themselves in a mystic dance… If it was not for my mission, and a trail of this girl’s energy hanging in the air in long, torn misty strands.

“Stop here, please” I say. And by the time Taonur yells for the coachman to stop, and the horses actually come to a halt, we pass the clearing, and have to walk back.

The meadow feels like it is startled by the appearance of two men and a child, wading through the grass. I lead the way, following the girl’s energy. Her name is Akahida. Now I see that no one took her to this place against her will. There is only one fresh energy trail. But what made her run away from home, and into the woods? Where is she hiding? How is it possible, that the woods at night are less scary than life at home?

Taonur is certainly not going to tell me anything. He uses me as a hound to hunt down his daughter. Literally – the dog, that does not ask any questions. Here he is – following me with a concerned look on his face, with my father subserviently close behind.

The forest is dark and scary, so Akahida is either very courageous and defiant, or completely insane. Something makes me consider the second possibility.

We come to another clearing with a lake in the middle of it. It’s not a big lake, but it feels bottomless as I send an ultrasound wave into it. The wave does not come back. Weird. I have a biological organ lodged in the frontal part of my brain, a generator of high-pitched waves, that create an image in my head.

I can see with both my human eyes and that device, just on two different screens. How did I figure out about that extra organ? Immaul told me. He revealed a lot of things to me. One in particular – that I was not all human.

I come closer and see the trail of the girls’ energy. She was here. She sat by the water and cried. Then she got up and ran again into the darkness of the forest. I follow the “smell” and Taonur with Mevild speed up to catch up with me. Taonur slips on the muddy bank, swears, and nearly falls into the water.

The noise echoes in the woods that emanate unseen dangers. And then I see the tall grasses on the other side of the lake moving slightly. Whoever is hiding there was startled by our loud arrival. I race around the lake to the grasses, not knowing what I’ll find there.

The men try to run after me as fast as they can, but they can’t see where the moon does not light up the ground. I’m used to running in the darkness, moonlight or not. It is exhilarating. It brings the memories of other places, worlds with and without any natural light, strange places I was created to explore.

Immaul says these are not my personal memories. They are the “the files” of my ancestors I have access to. One way or the other, I always hunt down what I was sent to catch. Only this time I’m going to let it get to me. I’m going to open my heart to what I see, not just follow the orders and walk away.

Akahida, Taonur’s daughter is sitting in the grass by the edge of the lake. She is looking at her reflection in the water with love and longing.

“Ina, Ina” – She repeats again and again, choking back tears.

I stand behind her, shocked, because of the vision of the girl just like her, that I had in the carriage. She is here, too, leaning over, patting Akahida’s head, running her hand along dark, long hair – again and again.

Her hand goes right through, but the ghostly girl does not quit, trying to console the real one. She turns to me, and her lips start moving. Then I can hear her speak in my head:

“Please take her home. She needs rest.”

“Who are you?” I say, hoping that Taonur does not find me too soon. I need to talk to her.

“I’m Akahida’s twin sister. Please help me persuade her to go home. The woods are not safe.”