Ben Blazze and Heimdall's Orb

Chapter 5: The Attic

Ben was about to go through big surprises. His heart and lungs reacted furiously to that "coincidence," prophesying what was to come.

Try to put yourself in his shoes: your missing father – declared legally dead before you were born – leaves you a strange pendant. Your mother dies, and you are left alone in the world with a cruel stepfather, living in misery. Then, your grandmother, who until a few days before you did not even know existed, gets your guardianship in court. She takes you to live in a mansion 1,800km from the place where you were born. There, on the floor of your father's old bedroom, you find an enigmatic design with a secret inscription and a hole – where the pendant seems to fit perfectly.

Ben's subconscious processed all of this in less than a second. Wild thoughts ran through his head. The attack on the camp that victimized his father was never clarified. Arthur Blazze headed a scientific research expedition that had no conflict with any local group. There were no significant assets in the camp. The bad guys came in shooting to kill, but only the men – no women were attacked.

Ben knew something was wrong with this story. He felt he was close to some answer now and had to fight to keep from inventing absurd hypotheses. There was no point in speculating at that moment. He had only to do the obvious thing: fit the pendant into the hole. So, Ben took it off his neck and slid it into the small orifice.

What happened next was so amazing it stunned the boy for a few seconds. The instant the pendant filled the gap, a bright lilac light appeared in the outline of the design, and Ben gradually lost his sense of weight. He began to float toward the ceiling!

"What?!?," he shouted as he emerged from the daze.

Ben waved his arms and legs, but it made no difference. His body kept rising stubbornly as a balloon escaping from a careless child.

He glanced up just in time to see the light fixture sliding into the liner, opening a passage to what appeared to be a secret room. What the hell, he thought, but he didn't have time to guess. Ben floated through the passage, and the luminaire-hatch closed again. The energy that had caused him to glide gradually ceased as it started, landing him gently on his feet.

He found himself in an attic, but not the usual type – except for the low ceiling. It was not dark or dusty. There were no cobwebs over old chests and piles of boxes. No, that attic was pristine clean and well lit – though there was no light source in sight, nor windows or openings. In one corner was a desk with a few objects on it and, against the walls, several bookshelves. Of course, since there aren't enough books down there, Ben would have thought if he wasn't in shock.

Ben's head was like a beehive. The questions buzzed furiously from side to side, impossible to follow.

What is this place?

What was that magic that made me fly?

Did all this belong to my father?

Do the people in the house know about this place?

He took a deep breath and went to one of the shelves. He scanned the spines of the books — all written in letters Ben didn't know. He pulled one of the books out and opened it, but the contents were also incomprehensible.

He turned his attention to the table, where he saw a picture frame. He returned the book to the shelf and went there. In the picture was his grandmother, still young, next to a man. He was the same age as her, and Ben imagined it was his grandfather. Between them, a little boy who could easily pass for Ben. My dad, he assumed. The three of them were smiling – Maria de Paula restrained, keeping her sober air.