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  The sudden commotion at the far right corner of the room raised my curiosity. I saw a few angels with a look of amazement on their faces. Apparently, a few angels accidentally created a creature when they tried to summon the Rood, the red energy. At least this was what I overheard from them saying to a few who asked for an explanation. The beast was around the size of an average head. It had a pair of wings, fangs, and horns. But what was causing the excitement was the ability of the beast to breathe fire out of its mouth.

  “Did we make a creature?” one of the angels said, looking as though his mind was about to explode from pure joy and excitement.

  “I don’t think so. It’s not alive or breathing. It’s just pure fire.”

  “But look,” the angel said to his friends.

  I looked anyway even when it was not directed at me and saw the beast increase in size. It grew and grew until it lost its form and became one giant ball of burning plasma.

  “Can anyone please extinguish it before it spreads into the whole area,” an angel said to no one in particular.

  I saw a few who volunteered to try. But when no one was able to contain it, they started panicking.

  I stared at the burning ball of fire and a similar kind of image flashed in my mind. What was that?

  “A star,” I suddenly blurted out. They created a star.

  Out of nowhere, I started seeing the littlest components of what made up a star. I saw the elements inside the fireball and how these elements were rearranging, splitting and then recombining only to be destroyed again and then be rebuilt. It was a constant motion of fusion and fission.

  Mentally, I summoned the Sylfur energy and cast it into the star. The energy instantly stopped the breaking of the particles inside the star and started the creation of heavier element. It continued until the fire was extinguished and what remained was a ball of diamonds.

  The angels who witnessed it applauded and they all turned to me. They smiled and I smiled back. And when they started walking toward me, my heartbeat quickened.

  “That was very creative,” an angel with yellow rays said.

  “What’s your name?” another angel asked.

  “I’m Orieumber,” I answered.

  They each introduced themselves, but the similarity in the sounding of their names made it hard for me to remember each of their names. One was called Siti, another was Titi?

  “You turned the star into a diamond,” the angel Siti said. “How did you do it?”

  “I just mixed it with Sylfur to trigger a reaction. I wasn’t really confident that it would work, but it did. But what you did making a dragon into a star was the most impressive.”

  Their faces reddened in embarrassment.

  “Nah, it was a mistake. We didn’t follow directions.”

  “Oh, but at least you can try again right?”

  “Yes, of course. That’s all we do here. Try and try until we get it right. That was our one thousand and seventh attempt to summon the Rood.”

  My own experience with summoning the Rood could confirm that, indeed, it was true. The Rood was stubborn and unpredictable. I couldn’t summon it by itself. So what I did was to summon the Naranza, orange energy that the Rood could be found attached to, and transformed it into the Rood and the Gel. So two energies by just simply summoning one.

  With my task in the Experiment Area done, I went back to the red section. Grinlock was still reading the same book.

  “You’re done already?” Grinlock asked.

  “Yes, and it was fun.”

  “I wish I can read this book as easily as you can. I have been reading the same line over and over and yet the next line still does not make sense.”

  “I can help you read it,” I offered.

  She smiled. “That would be cheating.”

  And so I left her and went back to Venir who I found out flew to Salsu. He must have done it when I was in the Experiment Area.

  “I’ve accumulated Tui since you’ve left me,” Venir said proudly.

  Tui was the amount of navi acquired after reading two thousand books. That was what Salsu was all about. Measurements. It was boring to me, but Venir seemed to be good at it.

  I leaned my back against the wall. “That’s great, but can you hurry up to the next sphere? I think I’m ready to proceed to the next House?”

  His gaze was sharp on me. “Please don’t sacrifice your own advancement for me. You can go ahead to the next house.”

  “I don’t care about the navi. I care about the quest. Anyway, I will have to find that book that can teach me how to summon a Focus Room. It has to be in Rebu.”

  He took a deep breath. “Then go, wait for me there. I think I’ll be done here in Salsu soon.”

  My eyes glowed in excitement. “That quick?”

  “The books here are easy to read,” he replied grinning.

  I flew back to the fourth sphere with a new determination to read every single book even when it took me an eternity to do that.

  Time did not exist in Ether. There was no night and day. No hours. No minutes. No seconds. Angels measured the length of day by the number of books read or activities finished within that length. But as much as I wanted to, by the time I reached my one-thousandth book, I stopped counting. So I had no idea how long I had been in Rebu.

  I placed the book I just finished reading back on the shelf and took a long and frustrated sigh. I was yet to find that damn Focus Room book.

  “Maybe I can help?”

  I swiveled around and there was Venir floating across from me with a big stupid grin plastered on his face. In my excitement, I flew toward him and kissed his lips.

  Oh, crap.

  I was aiming for his forehead. But this one felt nice though. He looked confused a little bit and then just laughed it off.

  “So you haven’t found it yet?”

  I shook my head. He gazed up the length of the walls.

  “Why don’t we read the books you haven’t read yet?”

  “Great idea.”

  To ensure no book was left unread, I included the help of Grinlock. She pointed to me all the books she had read so not to include in our list of unread books. She also helped by reading the books on our list. And so we began searching for that one book.

  I read ten books, they read one. We assigned a wall. Mine was fourth and fifth walls. Grinlock was reading the books in the second wall while Venir was covering the first wall. We then convened from time to time to talk whether we found it. We all ended shaking our heads. We resumed our search. I finished all of the books in my walls and went to the third wall to read the books that Grinlock said she had not read yet. When I finished them all, I went to the first wall and read the books Venir was yet to read. I also completed them. Now frustrated, I went to the second wall. Grinlock finished almost all the books in that wall except for five more.

  I gulped.

  This was it. One of these five books had to be the book to summon the Focus Room. And so one by one with bated breath and nervous excitement, I read them.

  One down.

  Two down.

  Three down.

  Fourth down.

  I gazed up at the top corner of the wall. That would be the last book that none of us had read yet.

  I hovered toward it, reached out with my shaking hand. I closed my eyes and then opened it. The title on the cover said The Dimensions.

  The book discussed how Ether had many dimensions and that these dimensions were like the different layers of Ether that could only be seen by an archangel-level navi, or by the creators themselves. There were no directions as to how to get there. They existed—the book seemed to emphasize. When I finished reading it, I turned to them who were all staring at me with hopefulness in their eyes.

  “This is not it,” I said with a defeated voice.

  “So how could they go to the hidden rooms if they didn’t know how to summon them?” Grinlock said. Her voice was soft and cracking a little bit.

  “Maybe t
he books are not here?” Venir said.

  I glanced in his direction. He tried to look positive about it like trying to brush away the glumness that befell us.

  “And if it’s not in the next house, then maybe in the next, and then the next,” he said, his voice gained its strength at its every word. “Maybe this is it. This is part of learning, of growing up. Maybe the darkness is part of the Academy. It’s a riddle like you said, the Great Riddle that one has to solve. We will never know unless we finish every single house in the academy.”

  Positivism won us over. Grinlock resumed her reading and Venir to his. And I? I waited. I hovered beside Venir, or behind him. Or on the other side. We went to the garden sometimes to take a break and then went back in for him to finish his book.

  Grinlock said her farewell as she proceeded to the next house. Although I had had enough navi to qualify for the next house, I remained by Venir’s side. The only good thing about it was that this time, he did not complain.

  I saw Tarain arrive at Rebu.

  “The Salsu books were terrible, terrible,” she said and I laughed because I understood what she meant by that.

  Sometimes I would go to the garden alone and play with the water fountain or play with Sylfur. I would summon the Rood and then create a star and then send the Sylfur to destroy it. This was one thing I learned about the silver energy. It was good at destroying the energy bonds.

  Then I would come back to check on Venir.

  I saw him progress from one wall to another. Slowly and patiently. I hung around, hovering nearby, sometimes closer while I told him a story, talked to him. I saw him sleep a few times and thought that he must have seen me too.

  I saw a few angels enter the House and others leave. But I remained by Venir’s side. Then the time came when my patience was rewarded. Imagine my reaction when he closed that one book he read, put it back on the shelves and turned to me with his winning smile and said:

  “I’m ready when you’re ready.”

  CHAPTER 11

  With my wings wider, my flying to the next house was more enjoyable and exhilarating. Venir still showed difficulty in hovering when he tried doing it my way. I could barely contain my amusement as I watched him stagger mid-air like he was bouncing from one invisible step to another. Looking frustrated, he stopped from trying and started flying the way he normally did—that is, by propelling himself up to the next level in one quick and giant leap.

  The second house of the Celestial Knowledge resembled the first one. The whole structure was made up of pearly white marble with a ceiling that looked like a sky. It was divided into four spheres going from the ground to the highest part of the building. Mashsphere was the ground floor with green-plated books; several miles from the ground was the Minsphere with yellowed-plated books; then on top of it was the Salsusphere with blue-plated books, and then lastly the highest layer was the Rebusphere with red-plated books.

  Just like the first house, the angels needed to fly higher to read the higher books. But I was wiser this time. I intended not to skip a book unless it was one of those considered mystery books. I was also planning to wait for Venir so that we could fly together to the next sphere.

  The second house turned out to be full of practical information. We learned to manipulate the air around us to send messages. This kind of communication was called air-stream. I would go to the garden while he stayed inside the library, and then we would send messages through the air back and forth. We had a blast trying out this new knowledge.

  ‘Let’s go over to the Metropolis,’ I said through the air-stream.

  Other than the possibility of learning about summoning the Focus Room or the darkness, the second house also had the back door to the Metropolis.

  ‘So you want us to locate it?’ Venir’s voice was carried by the air-stream to the garden.

  ‘I’m sure it’s in the garden,’ I answered.

  ‘But what if it requires rare or valuable knowledge found only in the higher spheres as entrance payment?’ he answered back.

  ‘You’re right,’ I answered. My voice reflected my disappointment. It did not take long before Venir’s voice once again floated through the air.

  ‘Come inside. I have an idea.’

  As soon as I was within hearing distance, he started telling me about his plan. And I was listening to him while hovering in the air cross-legged.

  His plan was very simple. He would sort out all the books for both of us from hard to easy. If he could not read it, he would give it to me. He would read all the easy books, and we would both start with the same wall. This way we would make sure we would not skip the important books.

  After several readings, we finished the first wall and moved on to the second. Halfway through it and, while I was reading a book called Memor, Venir randomly said that he was going to the garden. Alone.

  I put the book back on the shelves to follow him.

  “You don’t take a break when you’re in the middle of reading a book,” he said. His voice had a mild tone of reprimand to it.

  Although he was right about that, I didn’t appreciate him telling me what to do.

  “Watch me take a break then and have a grand time about it,” I replied with a huge fake smile on my face.

  “Well, can I at least have some alone time with myself?” He answered with an equally huge fake smile on his face.

  His words were actually hurtful. They made me pause a little bit and evaluate our friendship. Was he bored of me? Didn’t he like my companionship? Was he looking for a new friend?

  Still nursing the sting in my heart, I shifted my attention back to my book. And also because I wanted to hide the little tears that started to well up in my eyes.

  “I’ll be back,” he said. His voice was soft this time. He took a few steps toward me, leaned over and kissed my cheek.

  The kiss felt nice and lessened the sting of his words. When he left, I tried to focus on the book in my hand and not on the lingering warmth left by his kiss on my cheek.

  The book I was reading turned out to be interesting. Memor was a kind of energy that could record information, events, experiences, or memories. You could attach it to an object; and wherever that object was, it would record everything it sensed. This reminded me of what Grinlock told me about the air and water reporting back to the Communication Garden. This would mean that the energy Memor was everywhere. So how do I summon one? I touched the screen of my book and it turned to the next page. By that time when Venir had returned looking worn out.

  “Here,” he said. On his open palms were red and green berries. They were my favorite.

  I took several of them and ate them.

  “It’s good that you’re here,” I said. “Memor is an energy that can remember everything. You need to help me summon one.”

  His eyebrows shot up. “How?”

  “I don’t know much about measurement, and I remember you liking this subject so much. So tell me. What are these? Es Naranza, imin Blo, and min Gel?”

  “What are they supposed to be?” he asked.

  “They are the elements needed to create a Memor,” I answered.

  “So Memor is not natural energy?”

  I wondered it myself. “The book says it is. But it does not show how to summon it by itself.” I tapped the screen of the book to flip to the next pages. Then I went back to the page where the directions were written. “These are the only directions given on how to make one by mixing these three energies.”

  “All right, es means three, so that means three Naranza, imin is seven, so seven Blo, and then min is two, so two Gel,” he explained.

  I was having a very difficult time refraining myself from running to him and kissing him, preferably on the lips. So I tightened my grip on the book and fluttered my wings instead.

  He smiled. “So go. Make yourself a Memor.”

  “No, Ven. We’re going to do it together.”

  After we learned how to make a Memor, Venir increased the number o
f times he strolled in the garden for his personal ‘me’ time. I was starting to suspect, he was meeting someone there, which made my stomach churn just by thinking about it. But that was his request, so I was trying very hard to honor it.

  When we flew to the next sphere, we used the same strategy. He would sort out the books from the easiest to the hardest. He got the easy ones. I got the hardest. Wall after wall, we progressed faster. We actually made a good team. Then we proceeded to the third sphere, the Salsu—my hated area. However, the measurement lessons in the second house were less boring than the first house. It discussed how different kinds of energies could create another energy. It was hard for me to remember ingredients simply because I had not mastered measurement terms in the first house.