Ben Blazze and Heimdall's Orb

Chapter 8: The Mystery

Sweetflower hovered over Ben's bed. From up above, she stopped flapping her wings and- puff! She fell, sinking into a soft pillow.

"Ha-ha-ha! Your bed is great! Com' on!!"

Ben smiled. "Make yourself comfortable, okay?" he said, squinting at her.

He then sprinted from the door and threw himself on the bed. His impact tossed the little fairy up in the air. "Hey!" the Caeli protested as she went up but then burst out laughing as she sank back into the pillow. "Again!"

"Forget it, funny girl," Ben replied, quickly sitting down to face her. "First, explain to me: if my father is alive, why hasn't he come back yet?"

"For starters, because while petrified," Sweetflower began, "the person becomes unconscious and cannot reverse the process alone. Also, because it can only be done in Atlantis, meaning someone would have to find and take your father there."

"So my dad is somewhere out there unable to do anything to come back?!" said Ben, almost shouting. "We need to find him! My grandma will do anything to find him if she knows that..."

"Shhhhhhhhh," Sweetflower said, gesturing for him to shut up. "Pay close attention, Ben," she said frowning. "No human can know about Alien matters. NO.ONE." Doceflor's paused, serious tone left no room for doubt.

"I-I'm sorry," Ben stuttered, flushing.

"Your grandmother knows nothing about it," the Caeli continued, "even though she married an alien and gave birth to another. Involving a human — ANY human — in Alien affairs is utterly prohibited. The Council is strict about this. That's their first and most important rule, and the consequences of breaking it are serious. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I got it. Rest assured, I won't say anything," Ben answered gravely and then paused. "But I need to look for my father, Sweetflower! I need it more than anything else..."

"Ben, I understand your anxiety," Sweetflower said patiently, interrupting him, "but you're not thinking straight, and there are things you don't know yet."

"How so?"

"The human police searched the camp's grounds after the attack, right?"

"Yes, but..."

"Did they find any weird black statue of your father there?"

"N-no!"

"What do you work out from that?"

Ben reflected on that for a second. "The guys who attacked the camp took him," he replied.

"Exactly, but that's not the whole of it. When a DUPER triggers the defense mechanism, it also activates a tracking signal so that the Council officers can rescue the person."

"So... why wasn't he rescued?"

"That's the mystery. The Council told me that your father's signal disappeared a few minutes after being activated. They did in-person searches at the last location signaled, but found nothing."

"What happened to the signal?"

"There are two hypotheses: DUPER failure — which would be the first case ever — and..." she stopped mid-sentence and looked down.

"What? You can tell me, Sweetflower," Ben said, knowing he would not like it.

Sweetflower looked up to face him — eyes dull, lips tight.

"The other hypothesis is that The Enemy has figured out a way to block the tracking sign."

"The enemy?" Ben's face left no doubt as to what he was thinking: how could the devilish guy in the story he had just heard have anything to do with his father's disappearance?

He hung his head — the euphoria of minutes before turned now into overwhelming dismay. The so-called Enemy has been hiding for centuries. Millennia! What hope could a preteen have, when an entire extraterrestrial civilization failed?

When he finally spoke, his voice was but a murmur:

"Why would Noam take him?"

"What does Acharn want most in this world?", she asked.

"The world itself, as I understand it."

"Yes, and to achieve that, he needs to find the Tamnar Taura."

"But what does this have to do with my dad?" Ben asked.

"There are some people on Council missions trying to find those objects. Your father was one of them."

"My father?! What was he looking for?"

"He was following a lead on the Crystallum," she replied, "which is also known as Heimdall's Orb."