“We keep it home for the time being. No one knows the contents of it, not even the thief, and no one had asked about it so far. We tear out the chronometer capsule, fill the empty hole with bricks, and re-install it in our attic with the Tenebriton and all.”

His mother nodded in agreement.

“We must keep it secret. We must keep it safe.”

“But what happens then?”

“We must plan our steps with extra caution,” said Anna. “We should come up with a protocol on what you’ll do, what I will do, and what Andre does if someone – or something – were to ever approach us about this topic,” she continued.

Andre gave his opinion next.

“Whatever this looks like, it looks important. But if it’s important, why hasn’t anyone bothered us about this so far? It’s been six years since dad passed away. So it must mean that...”

“The world doesn’t know about this at all!” exclaimed the entire family in unison.

But this prospect did not ease their anxiety and apprehension about other bigger things that were implied in the contents of the letter. His father had mentioned that there were ‘monstrous beings beyond mankind’s ordinary comprehension.’

What could be these ‘monstrous beings’? He thought to himself. Could they be the monstrous beings that dad had mentioned in brief passing when I was young? No, they were something he made up to entertain my imagination.

Then he remembered what his father mentioned immediately before that.

‘These we now call myths... relegated to memories of an antiquated time. But they’re certainly no lies.’

Elwin gulped. The beings that Elwin remembered hearing from his dad were not simple villains or childlike monsters out to nab someone’s lunch or punish children when they misbehaved. Those stories were told by other parents. The beings that his father told him were great and terrible beings of spirit that were avatars of nature, the embodiments of what people feared the most.

‘Though we conquered them a long time ago through the Elements,’ his father had once told him out at sea, ‘deep down, mankind is still afraid of the oceans, the mountains, the forests.’

The great FOUNDERS of the Elemental Arts provided their disciples and descendants the means to vanquish those avatars of nature nearly an epoch ago, and so most of them were purified or banished to realms beyond this world. But that left Elwin more questions, not fewer.

So if those primal beings of spirit were no longer here, then what else remained? What else had people to be afraid of? Why didn’t dad specify what kinds of monstrous beings were our current enemies? Are they too dangerous to know about?

These mysteries clouded Elwin’s mind, and provided much opportunity for thought beyond his ordinary considerations of everyday life. But this wasn’t the only thing he should be considering; there were so many factors that were currently unknown, let alone the place Elwin should begin his journey, which was written in a riddle of sorts.

“Mom, what could dad have meant by ‘where the four seasons become one?’”

Anna pondered deeply for a moment.

“Four season... four seasons... where in our Republics can you experience all four seasons?” asked Andre, doing his part to contribute to the discussion.

“That’s pretty much everywhere. Up there in the north it is quite wintry; but there are summers nonetheless. What your father said must be metaphorical instead of literal,” replied Anna.

“I guess.”

“Wait, mom!” Elwin exclaimed, “doesn’t each season correspond to a particular Element?”

Anna snapped her fingers. A small spark of flame rose above her hands. “That’s right! It does. Summer for Fire, Winter for Water, Spring for Earth, and Fall for Air.”

“So now then, rephrasing the question, instead of the seasons – where do the Four Elements come together as one? What activity or place makes use of all Four Elements?”

“Mmm,” pondered Anna, furrowing her brow like she did in her old school days. “A forge, a metal-smithy, because they have to use fire to heat metal that is earth and water and air to treat it...”

“So one of those big manufactories? But they’re everywhere!” said Elwin.

“Hmm, so I guess that can’t be specific,” replied his mother.

Everyone was locked deep in thought. No one spoke for a while.

Then Andre had a bright idea.

“What if it’s not an activity or job but like an institution?”

“How do you even know the word ‘institution’ at your age?” laughed Elwin, hugging his younger brother.

“Come on, you read the dictionary. I do too.”

“If it’s an institution,” said Anna, “then which institution makes use of all Four Elements? An institution comes in many sizes. Perhaps he meant a ministerial institution?”

“What does the Ministry of Order use?”

“The officers and enforcers there use water almost exclusively,” replied his mother.

“What about dad’s birthplace? The Republic of Utopia?”

“Air only, so that can’t be it.”

“Wait!” Elwin had a bright spark of an idea that popped up in his head.

“Does it need to be where you use the Four Elements, or can you do something else with them?”

“Like what?”

“Like – if you can’t use the Elements, you can also teach them, learn them, and stuff...”

Anna’s eyes widened in understanding. “So it could be an educational institution!”

“It could be! Also,” continued Elwin, reading the portion of the letter aloud again, “it says people from all walks of life come here and become one. This is a major clue we shouldn’t overlook.”

“Wait – but that’s pretty much the description for every school in existence, don’t you think?” said Anna, offering her critical thought.

“Oh – I mean,” Elwin continued, “I guess you’re right. But wait, my school’s only taught me really basic things about how to use my Maht. Most of the stuff I figured out myself, and by reading books at the library.”

“So if it’s a school,” continued Anna, “it must be a specialization school where everyone can get to learn the Four Elements in depth?”

“Yeah.”

“But there are many specialization schools.”

Darn it, she was right. The discussion was coming to a dead-end. If there was another clue...

Then, Andre suggested something that changed the tide of the talks.

“What did dad mean by ‘destiny is yours to steer?’”

For some strange reason, both Elwin and his mother had an intuitive spark that this specific sentence – ‘destiny is yours to steer’ – was key to unlocking the riddle posed in the letter. Perhaps it was a description of what people could do – the spirit of the school – or how people were taught at that specific institution.

But by now the night was almost over, and Elwin couldn’t think clearly.

“As important as this is,” his mother suggested, “we should all go to sleep.”

“Mom, tomorrow – I mean today, is Sunnadeya. It’s the weekend.”

“For me, ‘tomorrow’ doesn’t begin until I sleep and wake up!” said Andre.

“And it’s good that you won’t have to wake as early,” continued his mother, “but we can’t make progress when we’re all sleepy and famished. Let’s sleep for a good while and figure out the rest of the letter.”

“Okay.”

Elwin resolved to take a closer look at the diagrams over the weekend, and placed priority on solving his father’s riddle at the forefront. He carefully collected the letter and all the contents of the envelope, including the diagrams and the detailed notes, drawings, scribblings, calculations, margin sketches, and the gold medallions and put them safely back in the re-installed chronometer vault in the attic with the pieces of Tenebriton, while his mother filled the hole in the wall one floor below with inconspicuous bricks. He still felt uneasy when handling those pieces of metal. After all was done, Elwin breathed a sigh of relief, and then went to his sweet bed. He was so tired by now that he didn’t have time to fully think through the other contents of the letter except the words that echoed in his head:

“Reforge the Epitomic Forms.”