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I glanced over my shoulder to see Logan diligently writing on the map.
Turning back to the ground, I peered closer. The symbol was exactly like I had dreamt of it. Four of the shapes at the cardinal points matched the runestones: air to the north, earth to the south, fire to the east, and water to the west. In between each symbol on the circle were the markings I could never decipher, except maybe the last. Valor. The three unknown shapes were the key to everything.
Logan stood up and started folding the map.
I scraped my boot over the markings until nothing remained and turned around. “Ready to go?”
“Yeah. All set. You feel good enough to go ten miles today?” he said.
“For sure. Lead the way.”
Logan tossed a protein bar at my face as he passed me. “You should eat breakfast.”
Ripping open the foil with my teeth, I hurried to follow.
“Thanks,” I said between bites of blueberry.
Four hours later, and all of my canteens empty, we made it to a muddy stream. The water rushed between boulders with dark tan sediment.
I decided the water needed to be filtered twice before putting Logan’s iodine tablets into the canteens to kill the bacteria. To get out all of the sediment, I could use my shirt as a first layer of filter. Then I could fill all but one canteen and filter the others by pouring from the main.
This was going to take some time.
Logan turned back to me as we started descending the boulders that led to the rushing water. “I need to take samples on those opposing creek beds.”
“Okay. Hand me your canteens, and I can start filtering it.” I said. I yelped when icy water splashed over the edge of my boot. “Shit, that’s cold.”
“Yeah, at least you get to stay on this side.” He handed me his three bottles. “All right, I’m going to cross over at the steady part down there. It might take me thirty minutes to collect and label them. Are you good here?”
I nodded, bending down to let the fresh water run over my hands.
Logan starting climbing further north.
I uncapped the first bottle. Turning to face the stream, I paused, inspecting the tan brown water.
I couldn’t pull my mind from the markings in the dirt. I’d drawn the symbol in my sleep. I’d seen it a thousand times on Gray Eyes’ chest, and I’d scribbled it on pages of books and notepads while awake. But doing it in my sleep was a first. It felt important, the link to Gray Eyes, to the light. My subconscious knew it. The symbol was foreign and yet familiar to me.
It was everything. And nothing, if I couldn’t figure out what it meant.
If I could just explain why the four elements would converge in a circle. Four elements, linked together in a never-ending loop. Four symbols interlaced between them.
I sucked in a deep breath and plunged my hand into the frigid water.
It felt like something was missing from the middle of the circle.
I set the full canteen on the ground and grabbed another by the neck.
I drew it because it’s important. My mind was screaming at me, forcing me toward the marking, even in my sleep. My fingertips acted without my will, following the demands of something inside me, the thing weilding the light.
The symbol was as significant as the creatures. It was why I began searching every archive at the University and reached out to every contact my professors had. The symbols held the story. It held the truth to all of this.
No. This was the path that led to years of endless searching and a doctorate degree that I started because I was haunted. I was cursed by my dreams. But then three years, hundreds of texts, and four half-learned ancient languages later, all I had to show for it was more riddles. Maybe the symbol was an obscure relation to other cultural influences. It could be why the elemental symbols were Norse, but the others weren’t seen in their language, or on the runestones.
“I wish all of this would just stop,” I cried, dropping my head.
The roar of the water silenced.
I cautiously tilted my head up.
