Harmonic Quest: Melodies of Unity

Chapter 11: The Chords of Truth

"Cipher, seal the building and activate quiet mode," Jolene commands the artificial assistant."Quiet mode activated."

Suddenly, it felt as though the building had sunk slightly, causing the teenagers to stumble at the abrupt movement. The lights dimmed, and the building fell into silence."Every day, I learn more and more about this place," Finn remarks, prompting a scoff from Sofia. They lock eyes, and the air crackles with tension and unspoken words.They continue staring at each other, Finn into her big brown eyes, and Sofia into his slender dark ones. Ned clears his throat, winking at the two, and they realize everyone is staring at them."Ah, young love," Ned sighs dreamily, gazing into the distance. "Anyways, back to business," Jolene interrupts, pulling a blackboard from an undisclosed location and flipping it.On the blackboard, hundreds of colored threads connect pictures, receipts, dates, names, and faces, with one word in the center: The Harmonic Quest. The teenagers gasp in shock and sigh in wonder."Allow us to give you a crash course on what's going on," Ned begins. "When you first got transported to the place where you met us, the Celestial Islands, how exactly did that happen? Can anyone tell me?"Amaras' hand shoots up, prompting Liam's muttered remark, "Does it look like we're in class?""What exactly is a crash course, then, Mr. O'Malley?" Amara challenges, causing a triumphant giggle."Yes, Ms. Thompson," Ned acknowledges. "I believe we were all playing instruments, and suddenly there was a shimmery thing in the air, speaking in cryptic terms." She looks around, and her peers nod, indicating they all shared the same experience."I don't think any of us understood it, though," Amara adds. Everyone else nods, except for Amara, who wears a troubled expression, as if hiding something she doesn't even know.This doesn't go unnoticed by Jolene, but before she can address it, Ned continues, "Correct, Ms. Thompson. What you've identified is indeed the prophecy I mentioned a few minutes ago." He points to a piece of paper on the board with the prophecy."This links back to what we heard at the council party," Rumi says, realization washing over her."Correct, Ms. Sharma," Ned acknowledges. "But none of what the council members were saying that night made sense. The potion, or poison, or whatever it was taking effect? Keeping a spell on the boy? What does any of it mean?" Kwame questions."All of what you're saying is valid, Mr. Nkosi, and now I fear we've reached the difficult part of this conversation," Ned says, exchanging uneasy looks with Jolene.The teenagers wait with bated breath. What were they about to be told?"Cipher, lower the monitor and play file 0365."The monitor lowers, and a countdown, like the ones in old movies, begins to play on the screen. An advertisement starts with a city landscape before zooming into a house and a family."Okay, guys, it's Chip Time," the Dad says, and the family members press small buttons behind their ears. The scene freezes, and a narrator begins to speak about the importance of Chip Time.Jolene pauses the clip. "I'm sure you're all familiar with this particular advertisement," she says, as confused nods follow."Why show it to us? They play it every morning before the start of lessons," Finn says, puzzled."True, but that's not all the Chips do," Jolene says in a dark tone before unpausing the video, revealing a giant monitor displaying personal information of every individual in the city and small screens showing footage of every person in town."No," Sofia whispers."Yes," Jolene says. "Why else would they have your locations and tell you that you can never take them off? This isn't about your safety; it's to make sure they know your every movement, your every encounter to the exact second.""They're trying to protect us," Amara says defiantly, her head spinning."From what? From who?" Jolene challenges. Ned goes to her, attempting to calm her down, but she shrugs. "You wanted me to give them tough love, to show them the truth, so let me." She mocks sympathy, "Oh wait, you poor things, you don't even know the geography of this place."She plays the next clip, showing a map of the world. "They told you we were somewhere in Iceland, correct?" They all nod. "They lied." Jolene huffs, pointing to a space between New Zealand and Zealandia, the 8th continent."That's not possible," Amara begins. "Zealandia, the 8th continent, is almost completely submerged, and that part of New Zealand is remote and unexplored; it wasn't touched even before the Great War.""Amara has a point," Sofia nods. "The place you're pointing to is just water, not even a patch of island."Again, Jolene unpauses the video, revealing a split image of the city and a blueprint, seemingly underwater."As I take it, many of you know about the Great War that happened between all the countries many years ago. You were told that everyone else was annihilated, and that our city was the last one standing. However, that fact has been twisted. The Great War occurred because the leaders of the world refused to agree with our government about making our civilization live underwater. It was unheard of, and our government was warned that we would not survive long if we took this step. The head of our government at the time, Sir Mortimer Thornfield, disagreed and hatched a plan. Back in those times, we lived side by side with woodland creatures who had great power. He never thought much of them and had guards seize them, performing a great evil, squandering their power. Just before the creatures perished, they placed a curse that stated that six individuals would come, rebel against the council, and save Melodoria. However, if the six didn't realize their power, the whole land would fall."In the end, Thornfield got what he wanted. He killed all other countries, built his city underwater, and occasionally sent specially chosen people to the surface for resources. To prevent the prophecy from coming true, he created chips that monitored and controlled people's thoughts and feelings. Everything is set in stone, curfews, wat you consume, hell even who you marry and which kids will be given to you. "He left very little room for people to have personal choices," Jolene finishes in a somber tone.The room falls silent; everyone contemplates what they've just heard."Do you see now how wrong the council is? How much peril we're all in? Now, please, take off those chips," Ned urges.Sofia reaches behind her ear, unsure if it would work. She slowly tugs at it, and with a bit of her flesh, off it comes. She winces, tears in her eyes, as a slow trickle of blood runs down her neck. She pauses before standing up and stepping on it, over and over again."Painful, but necessary," Ned sympathizes. Sofia continues to crush the chip as everyone else follows suit. After a few minutes, it's Amara who walks to her and holds her, attempting to steady her. Sofia sinks into her arms, sobbing shakily. Her whole life was a lie.The mood is depressing; everyone is sad and lost in their own thoughts, except Amara and Finn, whose faces remain expressionless.Jolene surveys the scene before her eyes land on Amara and Finn. "Finn and Amara, when I said take off your chips, I meant both of them," she says clearly."How long have you known?" Finn asks, staring back at her. Their friends stop to look at them, confused and dumbfounded."Oh come on, after everything we've showed you," Ned says in a deadpan tone."Well?" Jolene says, her eyes now on Amara."We can't. We'll die," Amara says plainly. The other four gasp. Things just got darker."Is that what they've told you? You know they'll find you if you keep them on," Jolene retorts."You might as well kill me then. I can't tell you how I came to have it or why I have it, but I can't bear to think of what they'll do to me. Just promise you won't hurt Finn," Amara says, taking a step forward, her hand in surrender.Finn goes to stand with her. "No, Amara," he pleads. He then looks at Jolene. "Promise we won't die.""Cross my heart, you'll just close your eyes for a bit," she says dreamily."Huh?" Finn says. But before they can register what's happening, Ned is behind them, pulling the chips out of the back of their heads, leaving them collapsed on the floor."Amara," Kwame breathes, rushing to her side. Everyone else is too shocked to do anything. Liam restrains himself from yelling at the two guardians. He silently prays that she wakes up but stops midway. Why did he even care? Unless..."They'll be up in a few hours," Ned states, like it's an obvious fact. "Now, Ms. Sharma, care to enlighten us."But Rumi remains rooted to the spot, until Jolene comes to cup her face in her hands. Suddenly, the air between them lightens, and Jolene's words are slow as she says, "Come, child, you must tell us."At first, nothing happens, but then a slow smile spreads across Rumi's face as she plops down on the floor."The council does censuses secretly. At one of them, they discovered that Finn and Amara were anomalies. As it turns out, Finn's natural hair isn't blonde; it's from a rare medical condition, and Amara has a mental issue. Now, you might be thinking, well, how does that make them anomalies? Well, the council considers people with medical conditions as fragile and not fit to be in society. So they gave them a choice: either accept extra training and be part of the group that extracts resources or die. Well, you know what they picked. But the training is something else, nothing like the training at school. The chips you removed from them are 10 times stronger than the ones we have, and they can even alter memory. That's why Amara seemed uncomfortable when we were talking about how we got here; she knew what the message meant, but the chip was blocking her from remembering. And when we were all thinking about what you revealed to us, the reason why Amara and Finn were so neutral was because the chip subdues their emotions, making them unable to feel." Rumi pauses before bursting into tears."I'm really scared for them, for us all. Even though I'm sure your tech is stronger than the council's, who knows what removing those chips has done to my friends. They were becoming so numb I couldn't bear it. I'm really glad I've been able to share all this, and even though you won't say anything, I'm about to say something BIG, which is something you can NEVER repeat, okay?" She looks around, waiting for everyone to silently promise they won't. "And you know why those posters went up? Amara and Finn missed a mission to extract resources. Every time they're late to a mission, even if it's by a few minutes, they get brutally punished. Worst of all, they're not allowed to divulge the secrets of their mission, meaning it's a miracle I even know they're part of this." Rumi pauses again. "Although that didn't make sense because we've only been here two days, and their next mission was in two weeks.""Ah, but you see, time passes differently in the training portals. You guys were in there for the equivalent of two weeks in Melodoria. I presume the wanted posters went up the second your friends were late for their mission," Ned explains."What on earth is this place?" Liam says, yet again."Someday, I shall tell you. But for now, I suggest we all go clean up and recover for a bit and meet back down here at 20:00; these two will have awoken by then," Ned says.Everyone exits except Jolene and Ned. They materialize stretchers and put small circular pads on the two unconscious bodies; the pads then connect to two screens."Now," Jolene says, "let's find out who you really are." The screens turn on.

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