13. WHAT

I like magic! Early next morning I was dreaming. That is I believed I was dreaming. As on the previous days, some early morning birds were chirping so I am not sure. When I turned around in bed, the small box was there once again. Nothing rattled inside. I opened the box. There were some sheets of paper. I wanted to read chapter 13.

13. WHAT

Chapter 13? The pages were blank. I turned the sheets upside down. There was nothing. Absolute nothing. Did it have something to do with the number of the chapter, 13?

I tried to think, really concentrate. Closing my eyes, words appeared under my eyelids. Strange. Very strange. When opening my eyes, words popped up on the page in front of me:

You are the maker of this writing. You are in the Nile Valley long time ago. Before there were any pyramids. You do not believe in magic, but you can understand why people think different from you.

Even for you the world is a magic place. As you walk, butterflies of different colours are fluttering around you. Is nobody around? What is that mirage in the far distance? It is coming closer and closer.

The time traveller. Who else?

-      -    Then we meet again, he said.

-      -    I know you, I said, - but who am I?

-     -     You are Amonhotep in this time. Remember that name. We are time travellers. Do you see the sloping ridge up there?

He pointed to the west.

-      -    Follow me.

I was reading. Line for line I was reading.

At the same time I went uphill behind the time traveller.

-     -     Where do we go, I asked.

-    -      Back in time, before anyone could remember or forget there was a quarry up there. I will show you. There was a special mineral that only existed here in our entire galaxy. Look!

His index finger pointed.

-    -      It seems to me it is only glass.

The thin layer was covered by meter thick sandstone above.

-    -      This is the most valued mineral that exists, but you have to be a time traveller to recognize its existence. I will chip off a crystal for you. Here you are.

I held a transparent piece in the form of a cylindrical lens.

-    -      Looks like a piece of rock crystal to me?

-   -       This is the philosopher’s stone or lapis philosophorum.

-  -        OK?

-  -      I will show you.

The time traveller held the lens up to collect the rays of the sun. A line of sunlight was visible on a brick of sandstone. Then he took a short sword from its scabbard and touched the line. He did not need to press the point of the sword at all. The metal made a clean cut in the stone as if the cut was polished. The sandstone seemed to be soft like butter.

-  -        You are Amonhotep. Remember your name, and remember this place. You will construct the pyramids in Egypt. From this mineral layer you can cut and form crystals and lenses of different shapes. As for now and the centuries to come you will use them to excavate and form the rocks to build pyramids and other structures. They will also help you move the heavy stones around.

-  -       This is magic, I said.

-  -        It is not, the time traveller answered. – I guess you have heard about the myth of ancient Atlantis?

-  -       Yes?

-  -        Many myths have their origin in something that happened. At least that is what some people believe. There are many theories concerning the lost Atlantis. All of them look back in time. Some of them place Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Africa, Doggerland to the east of what is England, or Thera/Santorini south of Crete. The truth is that Atlantis is somewhere in the far future. As a time traveller, I have been there, and so have you.

-  -        I cannot remember.

-  -        Good for you. You will know later. For the time being, your task is to help the Egyptians building their sacred monuments.

Clouds were falling from the sky. A thick fog covered the land. I saw a dagger on the ground in front of me.

End of chapter 13. To be continued in chapter 14.