Truths in a Rift (The Traveling Rifts Trilogy: Book Two)

The Journal of Siahn Phenax

"My dearest Aris," Hacker read. "I so hope that you are reading this right now."

Aris crossed her arms over her chest, listening with a confused expression on her face. Hacker read with a steady voice, no trace of the cowardly man he always acted like.

"You don't know me but I know you. My name is Siahn Phenax. I'm your mother."

"Oh my gosh," Aris whispered, covering her mouth.

"If you're reading this after years of when I actually wrote it, I can't imagine what Krälyin looks like. I have no doubt our destruction is coming soon, and I have no power to stop it. My only hope is to save the rest of Aldenuur from the addiction that took us. I hid as many serums as I could in this room. Maybe you'll find a good use for them, but, please... if you can't handle the power don't use them. It's too dangerous.

"What I'm writing now is just an opening letter to what is underneath. It explains everything that happened to us and this city. I wrote it just as a private journal, but now that I know everything that will happen, I can't help but think of it as a letter to you. There were many entries in between the ones here, but I only included the ones I deemed important here. Please don't skip any part of it. It's too..." Hacker stopped and looked up. "That's it. It suddenly stops. And the scattered paper..."

"It's as if something stopped her from writing on," Taleryn said.

Tilan glanced to Aris. "You can't possibly think that this woman is your mother."

Aris looked to her. "What's that supposed to mean? Of course I do!"

"There's no proof-"

"I'm adopted. I don't remember anything of my past. My Keeper Book had the park's address in it. It wanted me to find this rift! What other reason than to find my real mother?"

"Perhaps we can just continue reading?" Taleryn said, glancing between the two.

"Please," Aris said.

She nodded at Hacker. He looked at the other parchments and arranged them in the correct order. But he didn't continue. Instead, the man said, "These were written before the... the Destruction. It-it uses the Aldenuur dates. Uh, uh... time." He looked to Taleryn for help. Seeming to understand, the woodland elf looked to Aris.

"Before Aldenuur landed on Earth," he said, "we had a different way of keeping track of time. Our planet was farther away from the sun, so our days, months, and years were longer."

"Okay." Aris nodded in understanding. She waited impatiently for him to continue.

"Our years were three hundred and eighty days," he explained. "Our days were equivalent to thirty of your Earth hours."

"What does this have to do with what... Siahn wrote?" Aris asked, pointing towards the parchment in Hacker's hands.

"Th-there are dates. At the beginning of e-every parchment," Hacker stammered. "I-I-I thought you'd like to know-"

"I want to know what happened here. You can explain to me the Aldenuur calendar later. Please... just read."

Hacker nodded and began to read the first parchment.

"6, 234, Triyn 1, Heliod 3, Akra,

"My stomach grows larger with every passing hrate." Hacker stopped and hesitated for a long time. Aris thought she would burst. Finally, he said, "A hrate i-i-is a day. I... sorry. I'll c-continue."