The Clues You Left

Chapter Six - Elowen

Elowen stared at the note in her hand for what was probably the millionth time. Nuri had left her something hidden in the dorm room, but where? She had made it frustrating to find, nearly impossible actually. Nuri had been amazing at hiding things from everyone, even father. Before leaving for Dorian, Elowen had been cleaning out her room to get it ready for her younger sister to move in. She had found items that Nuri had left behind, unsent love letters, angsty poems, anything a 13 year old girl wouldn't have wanted her parents to see. Even after ten years of living in Nuris old bedroom, she was still finding things well hidden.

It was through these artifacts that Elowen gained a sense of sisterhood with Nuri, even if she never really got to know her in person. The trinkets she hid that felt important at the time, one of the last things Elowen had found was hidden behind the front bed board. A tiny notebook, barely the size of Elowens entire hand, had been shoved into a hole just big enough to put it in and pull it out from. Elowen bit her lip, a growing habit from the past few months as the memory crossed her mind. One of the last things Elowen found was hidden in the wall. Nuri's hiding places had become more refined over the years and Elowen thought the peak of secret hiding was carving a space into a wall. But there was no way that Nuri could have carved anything into the concrete and brick wall of the dorm room.

But the building was old, probably the oldest on campus and that could mean the mortar had weak spots that with enough determination could be scratched away. And if there was one thing that Elowen was sure that Nuri had, was determination. As the day passed on, Elowen met more people and tried her best to memorize the lay of the land. Thankful that the academy at least had the decency to let new students have two days to learn the campus. When lights out eventually came, Elowen climbed into bed with the idea still gnawing at her. Nuri talked about how she took up the corner bunk so she could get some more privacy in the room, even if it was just a little. So Elowen proposed a trade between one of her roommates, promising to help her with studying.

Late at night, with only her limited night vision to guide her, Elowen tried to wiggle the bricks along the walls. Just about to give up the endeavor, she gave the brick behind her pillow one last hard wiggle and felt it move just a little. Hope sprang into her heart while anxiety clawed up her throat. Slowly to minimize noise, she tugged the brick out of place. Behind it was a dust covered piece of cloth and a leather bound journal. It looked worn, the pages were thick with ink. What was stamped onto the leather made her a lump in her throat appear. 'From Dad to my peppercorn' it read. Elowen opened it, angling it so the moonlight helped illuminate it. The first page made her heart sink, it looked like Nuri's handwriting with a frantic and fear filled tone with it. Much like how Elowens got more curve to them when she got angry, Nuri's became rougher with fear.

Inside was little bits of wisdom Nuri gathered during her years in the academy. Sketches of people with notes about them littered the early pages, Esther gracing the first page with a note reading to not anger her. Another of a younger short haired woman with 'liar' written under it in bold. Her chest tightened as the pages became more understandable, more than just quick notes. The pages turned into letters addressed to Elowen, but Elowen turned back to the first page to look at what Nuri had written as notes. The ink that looked the least faded was two different lines, one told her about a painting in the southern hallway but the other made her blood run cold. In the capitalized and underlined font read 'FIND ME', Elowen closed the journal. She looked at the bit of cloth that came with the journal and Elowen pondered the use, eventually settling on the idea that was used by Nuri to try to muffle the sound of her sliding the brick.

Elowen repeated the process, sliding the journal back into place with a brick following after. She laid in bed with her heart thumping against her chest, her fingers tapping inaudibly against the sheets as thoughts ran through her mind. Nuri must've known that she would get into Dorian, must've left every piece of advice and clues she could scattered around campus for her to find. Elowen smiled, even if it was weak at her sister even from the past, trying to protect her. What terrified Elowen was that Nuri knew she was going to disappear, that she prepared what felt like a to-do list to try and find her. It felt like watching a lamb go off to the slaughter.

Elowen knows Nuri graduated, her family received the letters to notify them of the achievement, but where Nuri had gone was a whole different ball game. Her sister had gone through the soldier course, confirmed by Delphi earlier that day. Of course it would mean that Nuri was located at a military place, but Doria's army was meant to be inactive, with all but two barracks closed down and those places used as a bootcamp. The old places were torn down due to old age and wood rot, there were even pictures of it in the newspapers hung on the wall at home. Dad had been so happy when they had been torn down, "Proof, Elowen, that it's finally over."

Her father wasn't much for optimism so when she saw her father beam like that, hope in his eyes, she believed it. She still does, the war is over. There hasn't been tension between the nations in years, nothing to be afraid of. But if Nuri had been in that course, hand picked for it due to her test scores, Doria knew something or was planning something that the lower class didn't know about. Something that the upper class was preparing for. And that idea, it made her blood run cold like ice.

Closing her eyes, she turned over to try and sleep. She needed to sleep, tomorrow her thoughts would continue to plague her. Tomorrow, she needed to finish learning the campus and hardest of all, she would need to finish reading the journal. She needed to know what Nuri had left for her and what she needed to do.