“I’ve been asleep for a very long time but an item great danger was stolen and I need to find it. It could do a lot of damage if I do not retrieve it.” It is risky to be upfront with this stranger but Noia reasons it could foster trust with her rescuer. Besides, it would probably get her information faster.

Deline just stares at Noia but something about the slight bow of her chin tells Noia that at least her sincerity is accepted. Deline pulls a flat, rectangular item from her rucksack. After pressing her thumb to the bottom of it she holds it up against several locations around them and taps the center. Each time she taps it the item makes a short, sharp sound. Against the darkest landscape it emits a flash before the click. Then Deline holds it between herself and Noia.

“Please hold still for a moment – it’s just a picture. Smile if you like.”

Noia raises her eyebrows and the item makes another sharp sound. Deline regards the surface then nods and turns it around to show Noia. The thin box is lit up from inside and shows a highly detailed, though small, likeness of Noia staring up from the ground in surprise.

“What is that?”

“A mobile phone.” Deline turns it around and taps on it quickly with the first three fingers of one hand then puts it away. She offers one last sip of water to Noia, takes one herself, then pulls out a pair of worn in boots and offers them to Noia.

“You might want these.”

Noia accepts them and looks inside.

One is empty but the other contains a pair of socks. She pulls those on before each boot, flexes her toes, then stands. She catches Deline relaxing the muscles around her eyes as if she had frowned or squinted.

“What?”

“It’s nothing. Now,” Deline swings the rucksack onto her back, buckling a strap around her waist, “would you like to come with me? I can take you someplace warm and dry, with several servings of fresh food available, and a decent bed.”

Noia pauses and considers. She cannot sense any ill will from Deline neither has she exhibited any hostility. Noia notes the distinct lack of the manipulative intent someone looking to possess the object Noia needs to safeguard. This woman was organized and efficient which came in handy for Noia’s rescue. The world has definitely changed, however, and Noia knows she will need much more information, and possibly outside help, to regain both her strength and memories before she can locate the item it was imperative to keep secret.

“I thank you and would appreciate your help.”

Deline blinks.

Noia gets the feeling the minimal reaction is the equivalent of a snort for her. “What?”

“No one speaks like that.”

“Like what?”

Deline shakes her head and gestures for Noia to follow. “You’ll see soon enough.”

The mountain scenery is changed from what Noia remembers but the contraption at the base of the trail confuses her, more so when Deline opens a section of it and loads the rucksack inside. It shape flits behind her eyes – something else from a dream. Then it roars to life and Noia takes a step back.

“What is that? Some kind of tamed skeleton beast?”

Deline raises both hands before her in what Noia recognizes as a comforting gesture. It was one she used so many times in the past. “It’s a jeep.” She continues when Noia narrows her eyes; “It’s a vehicle used for carrying people and things over great distances – much more efficient than horses.”

“Is it alive?”

Now Deline snorts. “A mechanic may tell you yes but in the capacity you are asking, no.” She walks to the other side of the jeep and opens the door for Noia.

Well, where else would she go?

After the first mile Noia sticks her head out the window. The wind rushing by pulls all her hair out behind her and she closes her eyes at the sting of it on her cheeks and forehead.

They approach a gated entrance and men in blue caps and wearing the logo of lightning the same as the one on the disintegrating rucksack Noia had found wave them on towards a rise of buildings Noia has definitely seen in a dream. She kept mostly quiet for the journey, trying to absorb as much information as she could on the fly.

Finally, Deline pulls them to a stop at the entrance to a multistory building and jumps from the jeep, tossing the keys to a waiting young man in a jacket uniform. Noia also exits at Deline’s prompting and follows her inside a vast foyer. At the left a pair of doors close, blocking the view of a group of people in a rather small room. Deline looks between the metal double doors and Noia then shakes her head and leads the way to an open and decorated stairwell to their right.

“We’ll introduce you to elevators another time.”

Several floors up and Deline pauses, waiting for Noia to catch her breath. The sweat makes streaks in the grime on Noias skin and she feels the dirt rubbing her raw. “How much further?”

Deline points two floors above them. “Just there, then a warm soak if you like.”

The room was lived from the clothes she glimpses in the draws Deline opens but this was like an inn on a grand scale – a temporary arrangement. Before she could ask questions Deline thrusts fresh clothes in her hands and pushes her to a marbled bathing room. There was a brief explanation on how to use the faucets and then she leaves Noia.

Minutes later and Noia lays back in the tub of steaming water and sighs in pleasure.

Modern advances, Noia thought in appreciation, sponging dirt trails from her arms. What you could have bargained for with such pleasures, San’azi.

San’azi…

Noia was dry and pulling on pants when the name connects to a memory. She gasps and slams her hands on the counter. “Trickster! You put me to sleep! You cast my dreams! Where are you? I demand you explain yourself to me!”

The doors burst open, the handles banging on the walls and Deline makes a turn of the room, a small l-shaped object held before her. Finding no threat she examines Noia.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I need to find San’azi.”

Deline draws her brows together and lifts them. “Who?”

“He is a trickster, well known for causing trouble. He will be able to tell me where the jar is.”

Deline’s eyes narrow. “What does he have to do with your lost item? Did he take it?”

“That is unlikely. He will be able to help me as before. I have the added fortune of his favor.”

Deline sighs and holsters the strange item to the small of her back. “I was going to let you rest up tonight before we made it to headquarters but I think we should eat on the way to ETHR.”

“What is ether?”

One corner of Deline’s mouth raises in a smile. “ETHR is where you’ll finally get some answers, Noia.”

------

Noia decides she does not like airplanes.

They are too small and confining but according to Deline it is the quickest way to travel between continents. Fourteen hours later and Noia covers a wide yawn, the taste of croissants and cranberry juice still on her tongue. She and Deline exit the back seat of a long dark vehicle with tinted windows and approach another sky-scraping building. This one has a logo on the doors: a lightning bolt across a tree set on a diamond field. It was the one from the decaying rucksack in Noia’s cavern chamber and on the uniformed men at the gates to the preserve where Deline found her. The abbreviation ETHR was printed just under it on the main doors.

Here they pass the entrance to a stairwell and Noia steps gingerly onto what Deline nominates an escalator. The moving steps carry them above the lobby after which Deline leads her into an elevator. Noia snatches the railing when the metal and glass box shoots upwards.

The doors open to a hallway that extends to either side with no apparent doors but long glass walls reflecting light from the ends of the hallway. The sections of panes she can see through guard the contents of their rooms with curtains and paintings. Directly before the women two burley men stand at either side of frosted double doors and after a look from Deline, open the way for them into a pastel reception area with no chairs. A man behind the desk glances up and nods to Deline.

“He needs one more moment. If you could take the guest to Mr. Almira’s office?”

Deline sniffs but leads Noia past the curved stone desk and down the right fork of the hallway beyond. Frosted glass walls shield their view to the left with colorful patterns but to the right clear glass presents a city in glittering grey.

Deline clears her throat and beckons Noia into the corner room at the end of the hallway. It is large enough to seat a score of people and long violet curtains hang at the sides of the ceiling to floor glass windows. There is one desk with a large, curved screen and neatly organized items across the shelving – much of it does not make sense to Noia. The scent of fresh flowers welcomes them in and Noia finds both a fresh vase on a small table near a door as well as small, planted flora growing around them.

What steals Noia’s attention, however, is the sparkling blue of the ocean beyond the glass by the desk. Early afternoon light dances across the water unhindered by cloud cover and winks at her from thousands of building windows. They are so high up that she could imagine if she took a running leap from the building she might coast down a breeze and into the body of water…

She pulls herself from the view, if reluctantly, and looks around the room. There is piano music playing quietly from somewhere. There is a corner sofa and a coffee table with a steaming teapot and several cups. Noia does a lap of the room, touching the edges of canvas paintings. Many of them are landscapes: a forest, cliffs by the sea, a view from high over the clouds, the rainforest.

Finally, she turns back to Deline who stands by the door, her hands clasped before her, feet shoulder width apart. “Who are we waiting for?”

“My employer.”