The Orichalcum Mechanism

We were given two lists this week on Chuck Wendig's Flash Fiction challenge... and asked to make a title from the two lists.  I chose these two words because they jumped out and smacked me in the face!  Enjoy!

Anna held the book to her chest as she ran down the dark London street.  It didn’t look like anyone was after her, but over the last few weeks – since being sent this damned book – she’s had people after her.  This was the third city she had landed in and the third city she was running around in to try and lose them.  And the one thing she knew was that she had to get her butt to the Watcher’s Council to hand the book over.

Pausing on the corner of the street, she looked left and right, then up at the building across from her, chanted a phrase in Latin in her head and closed her eyes.  For a split second the world switched off – went quiet – and then came back on.  When she opened her eyes, she was in the foyer of the building she had been looking at… but she had used her last stores of energies to get inside.  As she looked over her shoulder to see if they had followed her, she staggered a little, fell to one knee and looked up to see a few blurry people rushing toward her to catch her as her world turned dark.

She woke in an office on a lounge with a blanket over her.  Every muscle hurt and her feet tingled then hurt then tingled again.  Sitting up slowly, she found the book on the table next to her.  Picking it up, she held it close to her again.

“Hello Anna.” A man she hadn’t noticed sat not far from her by the window.  He had looked over at her when she picked up the book, “Where did you get that book?”

“It was sent to me by my father.” She said looking at its worn leather cover, “And since I’ve gotten it, I haven’t had time to study it.”

He leaned forward in the chair, “Do you know what it is?”

“No.”

“Then, how did you teleport inside here?”

“I’m not sure.” She shook her head, “But it wiped me out.”

He nodded, “Indeed it did.  But you now have time to study your book… would you like something to eat?”

It took Anna only a few days to learn she wasn’t exactly what she thought she was.  Her father sent her the book because he had died and she had to take over as representative in the family business.  She had been shielded from it for a long time, until now; until she received the book.  Reading the text, she realised she was part of much bigger thing than she thought, but could she believe in such things?

She looked up from the last few pages as she was let in on the secret to fulfilling her quest to the family business… to acquiring full knowing of everything she needed to know.  To know what?  She wasn’t sure.

“So?” the man asked as he walked into the room and waited, “What has the book told you?”

“Not much.” She lied.

He folded one arm across his stomach while the fingers of the other hand absently stroked his chin, ‘Don’t lie to me, Anna.’ A voice entered her head as he glared at her from the door.

Rising, she closed the book and left the room, “Get out of my head!”

As the door slammed, he winced, “Dammit.”

She found the room she had been given and locked herself inside it.  Opening the book to one page she had marked with a post-it note, she re-read the part she couldn’t believe:

‘… and just how am I going to tell you at the right time, my dear Anna, exactly what you are and where you really come from?... However, all I can do now is hope you’re ready for what is coming for you – what you’re about to endure and about to be confronted with…’

She sighed, what the hell was he talking about?  Dammit, she was human… wasn’t she?  Well, if she was, exactly how did she teleport herself inside a building from across a busy London street?  It was late.  She was tired.  Anna went to bed.

A loud noise woke her.  But the place was in absolute darkness.  She was at the ready as she grabbed the book, pulled on her shoes and jacket and opened the window of her room.  Shoving the book into the pocket inside her jacket, and strapping it in, Anna climbed up onto the window sill, swung her leg around and began to climb up the side of the building.  As she moved, taking deep breaths, she felt as though she had done this a hundred times before and knew where to put her feet and hands.

Then, she slipped a little as she came to the top ledge of the building.  A sinking feeling her gut gripped her, but before she plunged to her death, a massive clawed talon reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her up effortlessly onto the roof.

“Anna Montgomery I presume?” he thunderous voice whispered.

Her eyes took in his massively muscular form from the huge feet to the hooked winged tips towering over her, “Um… yes.  So long you don’t kill me… I am.”

He smiled, “I am not allowed to harm you or allow harm to come to you.”

“Shit.” She whispered, “So, what do we do now?”

His kind eyes looked down at her, “You have your father’s diary?” she nodded, “Good, you know what you are then.”

“No.”

“He didn’t say?”

“No.”

“It is written in Ancient Law from thousands of years ago that you were and have always been Annabellia the Great Queen and Master of the Gargoyles… we are made from Orichalcum and you are the only one who can tell us what to do in any country all over the globe.”

“I read about that… it’s mainly used in Ancient Rome for coins.”

“And they made gargoyles like me from it too… and they made you as well; to start with.” He muttered, “Then, you became part human and part angelic, you were immortal to some impossible to others… a name was given to you.”

“What name?”

The massive creature looked down at her, “The Orichalcum Mechanism.  You come but once in a lifetime; and in each lifetime you look exactly like you are now, with all the power and knowledge imbedded in your mind… until now, where you must learn it from your father’s journal.” He snorted, “However, we must search for the right journal to inform you better.” Suddenly he turned to the roof door, “They arrive, hurry, climb on!  Your life is in danger seeing as you don’t know your full power, I shall have to protect you further until you know who you fully are!”

Anna and this huge creature she barely knew flew off the building and across the London skyline with people watching on after them.  It was with sudden knowledge she knew his name… Kelwin – the very first of his kind.  She was indeed the Orichalcum Mechanism; as her mind suddenly threw open doors she thought weren’t there and poured out knowledge she thought was just weird stuff her Dad told her about.  She was everything he had insisted she was.