Chapter 4 The Lady in Tellurium (DG 4)


A figurine of a woman with long hair attracts my attention. It is made of wax, soft to the touch. It caught a lot of dirt and dust making it look dull and grey. The woman holds something in her hands, but I do not know what it is.

“Domiarn, let’s go. It is getting to be impolite!” Dot nudges me towards the door, rain or not. He is very shy like that.

“Wait”.

The figurine transmits a faint signal. It is not made of wax, which is only on the outside. Inside there is an alloy, unfamiliar to me.

“What do you want? This ugly thing?” Dot rolls his eyes and wants to take the figurine to look at it closer.

“Do not touch it. Its radioactive. Do you have any money? Can you buy it for me?”

“My boy, it is a stupid doll!”

“It contains tellurium, rarely found on Earth. And something else. It sends out images I can’t decode. Dot, please!” I beg.

“You are insane! Oh, allright!” My teacher can never say no to me. He asks, how much for the “doll”. The owner gives a crazy price.

Dotristiar howls like a beaten dog, and pulls out three golden coins. That’s fine, I’ll pay him later.

Finally the figurine of a most beautiful woman I have ever seen is mine. As soon as it is in my hands, wax all cold and sticky, I black out. And probably collapse.

I’m inside of something, that is flying towards the ground really fast. I can see clouds rushing by, and the earth is ever so closer. It is patchy with dark and green. There are people around me, they look strange. Flying down feels eerie, scary, inevitable.

“Prepare for the emergency landing.” I hear.

And then we crash. I’m thrown out of the front window pretty far. But surprisingly, I can get up and walk back through a lot of growth, and a couple of fallen trees. That thing, that I was inside of, is huge. Walking towards it, I stop by a small pool of water on the ground.

I’m not surprised to see a reflection of a tall man with long blonde hair, dressed in a one piece suit.

“Ari, come on, we need to get in touch with the base!”

They call for me. I am Ari. I need to get back to that big thing. It’s a spaceship. Inside is someone I love. She is dead. But she was dead before we crashed. I need to see her. Eva. Tears well in my eyes at the memory of her. Eva. I must find Eva.

I wake up at home. The face of Letaluan is over me. He grins slyly and happily.

“Regained your consciousness at last? You little scoundrel. I know what you did! This Tirran scum got you drunk. Where have you been drinking? I already told your father! He is very, very unhappy with both of you losers!”

If all his spite would’ve turned into water, we would’ve drowned.

Mevild’s favorite servant marches out of the room with a victorious look.

Dotristiar runs to me as soon as he leaves.

“What happened?” I can barely speak.

“You fell. I had to carry you home. This… This idiot saw me bringing you into the house. He started screaming about drinking and whoring, and… Oh, my God, what are they going to do to us?!’

“Calm down. Where is the figurine?” Suddenly I feel a wave of shock over the thought that it could be lost.

“ It’s here.” Dot hands me the representation of the beautiful lady. “I cleaned it off the wax while waiting for you to wake up… What does ‘whoring” mean, Demi? Your father thinks we were drinking and doing that. It’s the end! This is it, he’ll kill us!”

“ Get a hold of yourself. You should not have touched that thing. It has a very unstable isotope in it. But… She sure is impressive.”

I take the figurine, and now, without the layers of wax, she is ever more amazing. Her face is calm and full of dignity, the dress is strange, very tight, and the device in her hands is hard to describe.

“ Looks like my mother, does not she?” I say.

“You poor child, you see her everywhere, don’t you?” Dot comforts me, and sighs.

No, I’m serious. She does look like my mother. Almost the same face, if at all possible!

The alloy that the figurine is made of, contains tellurium-128. It keeps on transmitting the message which repeats itself. I can eventually catch it all, but for the disassembled images, that are not connected to the message. Possibly, it is what the metal “saw” during its lifetime. Just like the copper door handle that is still on my table. The absorbed information is stored in the metal forever. All I need is to find a way of accessing it that will not knock me out in the middle of the street.

There is a sound of footsteps on the stairs.

“ They are coming… Demi, they are coming!! I’m dead! You’re dead!!!”

Surely if Mevild won’t kill us, tellurium-128 will finish the job. I need to hide it. At least for now.

I dash to the other side of the room, and throw the figurine under the bed.

Letaluan and my father walk in. The first one has a wide, happy grin on his face. The second one has a long, smooth branch in his hands.

“He’s going to whip you. He’s going to whip us!” Dot whispers, about to pass out with fear.

“ Get behind me.” I order him, and approach Mevild.

“Dotristia-a-ar!” Says my Dad in a creepy voice. “Did you get my son drunk at “The Gulp Of Sweet Luck” down the street? What was your purpose? What did you do to him after he passed out??!!”

The silence that follows is thick like a woolen blanket. It envelops us all. I can hear a little moth beating against the window somewhere behind my back.

“ So the inspection is coming from the capital to look through your budget records, correct?” I say calmly, trying to concentrate on the conversation, and not the images, that come from the figurine, and seep into me, like water into the hungry, greedy ground.

“How dare you, you stupid waste of life, I will write you out of my will, and I will give everything to noble Letaluan, who serves me with devotion!” Father growls.

Mevild Gidealis sure can be scary when he wants too. Scary, offensive, and not to the point.

“ And the inspectors are going to want to know what happened to all the money you and Taonur stole in the last year…”

Dad’s face changes dramatically.

“Get out! Both of you!” He screams at Dot and Letaluan. The latter leaves with discontent, upset that he is going to miss the show.

“My teacher stays, thank you very much. So, how are you going to handle your embezzlement? Do you want to show me the papers to help you guys bridge the gap on paper, or would you rather go to prison? It is your choice, father.”

“Arggh! I’ll be back!” – Mevild says angrily, and leaves my room, slapping the palm of his hand with the branch, that did not come handy.

I turn around and find Dot on my bed, shaking and sweating profusely.

“You need to learn not to get emotionally involved with sadists like my father. They will twist you and force you to do things you did not want to do!” I give him my hand, and help get up.

Enough of this. There is something in this house that I need. It used to belong to my mother, but Mevild hid it. What is it, and where did he hide it?

“ Why did I end up with a master like that?” My teacher moans.

“Because people around you reflect what you are deep down within. You are a mean tyrant. But that part of your personality never came through. However it needs to be dealt with. So the Higher Power shows you to yourself, hoping you’ll recognize your inner dirt, and start cleaning.”

What happened to this Ari next? And who is Eva? I can’t seem to be able to see more of that. Images that fill my head are unrelated to the story of the crashed spaceship. What am I looking for in the house? If it’s my Mother’s stuff, then where can it be?