The Search for the Eoz Potion

13. Queen Gemmaline

She wore a dress that was made of clouds and her hair poured like waves from underneath a crystal crown. The features of her face were undefined but beautiful. She was form without shape. She was presence without location. She was a mist. As she walked into Tellis's prison cell, she brought peace in her breath. When Tellis saw her standing above her, she wept with joy.

On the giant screen outside the towers, no one could see the woman, but as she smiled at Tellis a light came off her lips that filled the room. The few people awake outside saw the screen turn white, but they just thought it was a technological glitch. The light overtook the room until Tellis could not see anything but the shining white. When it faded, she was alone again, still tethered to the pole in the center of the room, still bruised and bloodied from the soldiers' attacks, but no longer weak, no longer tired. To anyone watching outside, however, everything looked exactly the same as it had before.

The SG slept in shifts. That morning, Hailey woke up while all the others in her group continued to sleep on the ground around her. The griffins continued to patrol around the towers and the Human Robot Army was still standing guard. She wondered if those soldiers ever slept. The Garden residents who had gathered to watch the standoff were also still there and had grown in numbers. The Capital City police officers continued to do crowd control. Nothing seemed to have changed during the night. Hailey noticed a small group of Searchers' Guides lead by Josef, already up and singing songs. She went to one of the food tents and found a bowling ball sized grapefruit. She looked for a spot on the ground not too far from where Claire was sleeping and sat down to watch the sun come up while she ate. As she was finishing her breakfast, Zack came and sat down next to her.

"Nice bed head," Hailey cracked.

"Huh?" he responded, barely awake.

"Bed head" she said sarcastically, nodding toward the puff of hair atop his head as Claire began to stir.

"What time is it?" said Claire. Before Hailey could answer, she went back to sleep.

Hailey looked out at the singing Searchers' Guides and sighed to herself. She was trying hard to stay committed to their plan, trying hard to believe that these people could actually help them find the potion, but it was becoming harder and harder.

"So what's the next step?" Hailey asked.

"What do you mean?"

"After Tellis breaks free, what's the plan for finding the potion?"

"I don't know," Zack said, hanging his head, still waking up slowly. "Before she was arrested, Tellis always told us that the Prince's selfishness would have likely caused him to hide it somewhere close to him where he could watch over it."

"You guys don't seem to know much," she said with a laugh. "I'm not trying to be mean, but come on."

"I know it's frustrating," Zack said. "It took me a while to figure it all out too. We have people out in the Garden, and in the City," he continued quietly. "Spys, you could say. So we have an idea of where the potion might be."

"But do you even have anything figured out? I mean, how does this potion even work? I don't even know that."

Hailey asked the questions, not in a confrontational way, but blunted the directness of the inquiry with a smile, a laugh, and eyes that sparkled all the while. To his credit, Zack was not at all put off by the conversation. He truly did understand her frustration. It was not long ago that he was in her position, new to the Garden, confused. And so, he met her smile with one of his own.

"Here's what Josef has told me," he began, "I don't understand it completely, but when people come here searching for it, even if they don't find it, supposedly something happens. It's like it's the search itself that saves people."