Capítulo 35: CHAPTER 35 - DGU BRAIN MOUNTAIN

Around the study hall of David Gold University, the usual crowd were tending to their studies. Some strode along the bookshelves, picking up tomes of their liking. Others bent over their papers at the many oaken tables clustered together in the middle of the hall itself. Here and there, students were distracted by various happenings on their laptops, abandoning their papers for the time being. Near the right-hand side, Silvana Newcomb grazed over the titles of volumes pertaining to Euclidian Husbandry. Near her were her friends Jefferson India Lane and Vibonee Roe, who spoke about what a tiresome old hack their law professor was. Fields Felicity kneeled to tie her shoes, but it was a feint to hide from a boy who just walked into the hall. By the café Algebra Crepe-Batter and Flammable Plants discussed their plans for the weekend, and traded calculus secrets. Far off in the corner of the south-east end two medical students flirted, Lilly Waterfall-Climber and Noah Invoice. Long ago, her grandfather had climbed a waterfall as if it were a ladder and became a lantern. Still others were scattered about, tending to their own various tasks. But what they didn't realize, was the north-west end of the study hall, where an unexpected visitor was tending to a more urgent investigation. Unnoticed by the locals, the empress Echo slid her fingers around the smooth insides of a student's cranial chamber, lifted the organ of the mind, the brain itself, and threw it over her shoulder at the mounting pile of brains behind her. It landed on the top but slowly rolled down to the bottom, as the gelatinous hill undulated with its slow rolling descent. "Looks like this one's empty also" Echo said to herself. The university students were completely unaware, as she had emit a spell of concealment into the light of echoes, so that they would not notice her or any of her doings but go about their normal routine. Echo walked to another of the oak tables, lifted off the top of the scalp of another student and felt her hands over the brain, taking in its memories and knowledge, but finding nothing, then walked away as the covering restored itself. "This is impossible" the investigator protested as she made a lap around the study hall, "There are but glimpses of them and mundane conversation. It's as though no one knows who they are or where they came from". Although the patroness had searched for years for the remotest rumor of the past of her parents, the enlightened ones Melina Dreamer and Linden Dream, the search had come to naught. Even though time acted differently around the university that housed the chamber in portion Valco, there was not one trace of their history. There were some that seemed to go about their studies as if the phenomenon had never occurred, and different times blended into one around here. Even at the coffee shop, there was no-one of significant note, but mere faces in the crowd that may have been there yesterday or the day before. Not wanting to stay in a room where no answers had been found, Echo strode out of the room, and walked through the corridors to the principal's office. As she opened the door, Put-Another-Quarter-In-The-Machine Anderson was sitting at his desk, going over the semester's budget proposal. Even with her appearance concealed to a humble melody, the patron's features were almost immediately distinguishable. Anderson: "Grand Empress! What gives me the honor of your visit today?". Echo: "It's good to see you Anderson, you don't have to be formal with me today". Anderson: "I see, is there something about the university that doesn't suit your ideals?". Echo: "The university is doing admirable, its welfare from its patrons is everlasting". Anderson scratched his beard, not knowing what the empress intended to discuss, and why she was being so un-straightforward, as the opposite was the prime feature of her personality, "What brings you to our neck of the woods then?" Echo: "I'm just having a difficult time lately. I've been trying to investigate the origins of my parents, the enlightened ones, who attended this very university before the phenomenon, but it's almost as if they had no past at all, and their history is like a ghost that never existed. My parents may have done everything to erase their past after their return, and they won't admit to anything although I've asked and asked". Anderson: "Parents can be like that empress". Echo: "More than you realize, Anderson. And I don't really understand my relationship with my father. To make things worse, there isn't a shred of record about their studies or how they received their grant to build the chamber in the first place. I really don't know what's going on". Anderson: "My recollection of my life before the event does have me signing the grant for the chamber, but it was a routine meeting to say the least ''. Echo: "Do you remember anything else about them or the chamber itself?". Anderson: "It was a normal time; the two researchers Linden Dream and Melina Dreamer did not stand out as anything other than ordinary. That is all I can remember''. Echo: "Think again, Anderson, there has to be something. They are the enlightened ones after all". Anderson: "The world had only a whisper of magic back then, empress". Echo: "I have been looking through the university for clues all day. It's emotionally exhausting. I've extracted every student's brain and searched through their memories but couldn't find anything. There are piles of brains in most of the rooms. Don't worry, I will put all of them back, and no one will be hurt or remember anything in the least. To make things worse the universe is going to change for about the five hundredth time, but we've been through so many of those calamities that it's starting to get boring. And the Alliance is at war with us to stop it, and the patrons will probably be forced to fight their Reflectants, and I can't blame them. I just wish I knew what was actually going on". Anderson: "So, you're not a wiseguy. Good to know". Echo: "Very funny … if you knew the things that Falzar told me the other day. Did you know that there are five alien races that we didn't even know about? There is even an alien race that is made of brown sugar. I don't say this regularly, but brown sugar is making a comeback. And did you know about the white picket fences in the park outside the university? There are creatures sleeping just underground that leave the fingers of their hands above ground to absorb sunlight. These things have been listening to us argue since the American Revolution, and they have ten fence posts for fingers. There's one named Glug, and another named Blibber". Anderson: "It sounds like you need a drink" he said, and turned around to his cabinet, and took out a glass whisky bottle. Echo: "No thank you, not in the mood". Anderson: "Ah … not a drinker. There's your problem". Echo: "I'm just under a lot of stress and pressure. Why can't we all just see reality as it really is?". Anderson: "Then it wouldn't be a mystery, I presume". Echo: "You know what … I think I will have a glass, but just this one time" she said, and he poured her a glass of whisky, which was downed slowly. Anderson: "Feel better?". Echo: "Taste goods … is it okay if I inspect your brain, don't worry about it at all, I'll be very gentle and put it back afterwards and you won't feel a thing and I'll erase your memory". Anderson: "Go right ahead, although you don't really have to do that last part, I trust your judgement". Echo: "Anderson, either you or the whisky have really helped me out today. Thank you". The dream-girl snapped her fingers to push him into insensitivity, and gently took off the top of his head. At first, she pushed her fingers into the substance itself, as if it was a bowl of oatmeal. After wiggling her fingers about for some time, she kneaded the brain-stuff until it was very small and threw it into her mouth. Echo sat back down on the chair and blew bubbles with the brain like chewing gum, letting the memories slowly sink into her consciousness. "What a disappointment" she sighed, and spat out the little piece of chewing gum, throwing it back into the hollow skull-case of the principal, where it expanded again into the proper organ. As she closed the door behind her the man's head regenerated and he went back to work. Echo continued down the corridor back to the study hall, when her vision was abruptly halted. "Did I forget that one?" she thought as she saw Reclusive Watercolors, or Lusi as she was known in a furry blue sweater. Time began to slow as the girl opened a greeting card. Echo peered at the student, and as she did time almost ceased until it lumbered along like thick magma at the bottom of a volcano. Lusi smiled at first as she opened the greeting card, but then started to giggle. The patron watched as her fingers curled slowly around the side in amusement. Echo returned time to normal and revealed herself to the girl. Astonished, she ran off down the corridor, leaving the card laying open on the side table. Picking it up the investigator read the inside, "It must be quiet in there" and below was the signature "-Dramatic". "Thank you, Mr. Dramatic. I am being very dramatic, or rather Mrs. Dramatic" Echo thought to herself, and threw the card back on the table, cursed the futility of the hunt and made her way back to the dream-castle of Valco where the patrons were discussing tactics. It was after all, a certainty that her stress had manifested the card as a message to herself.