8. The Hard Truth

Solomon stood in the opening and grabbed Vivienne. “What did you do? What did you do!? If the water touches the book, all will be lost!”

Slupper swam to Vivienne and pried her from Solomon’s grip.

“If I hadn’t done it, Vivienne would have had to stay behind. She’s part of the team.”

“Not anymore. She has been in this cave as often as we have—never.”

He let her go. Slupper rapidly returned Vivienne to the waves. “Still! She saved our lives, she can come. Besides, you said you would wait.”

Solomon chose a new room to explore.

“A big turtle like me makes for a tasty treat to monsters. I couldn’t wait longer. We must hurry if we want to save the book. Meanwhile you can think of a way to stop the water.”

“Do you think he still recognizes you from before?” Slupper whispered.

“When that thing touched me, I changed color too. And Solomon is obsessed with that book and only that book. What if it doesn’t even exist? What will he do then?”

“Best not to think about that.”

They had arrived at the fourth room already. All where the same—and lacking a book. Whereas their whole journey was littered with artifacts, these chambers contained absolutely nothing special. The fifth room didn’t bring salvation either.

“Slupper, are you sure you found all the drawings? You’re not keeping any information from me, are you?”

“I’m certain. But you said the drawings made no sense—”

“At first I thought it was nonsense, yes. But when I looked at them differently, they described the path to the book. At least, most of it.”

“And you couldn’t have shared that information with me?”

“No. You would have told that annoying fish right away. This book must not fall into the wrong hands. If it really has the secret to world conquest, our enemies must not find it! And if it’s world cooperation, we need it to finally establish world peace.”

But who are my enemies? Slupper thought. They swam into a sixth room. Vivienne noticed Slupper was no longer keeping pace. She waited for him, but he came to a full stop and looked up.

“I did forget one drawing,” he whispered, “the one in Socipi’s house. I saw it, that night we got lost, but never dared to go back.”

“Can you still remember what it looked like?”

“No, it’s just a vague blur.”

“Slupper—pick up the speed, boy. It’s your town too that depends on this mission.”

Solomon pushed him forward, already into the seventh room. This room was a dead end and only half-lit. One of the lamps was broken, another was gone. Judging by the bent piece of steel, it had been ripped from the wall with great force. The streaming water also quickly filled this room.

Solomon hurried to the wall. “Help me look. The book must be here somewhere.”

“Wouldn’t it be smarter if we split up? Then each of us could check out a different room—”

“No, this is the right place. The original inhabitants were smart, brilliant even! The exact route to the book was hidden in the drawings. The book is here.”

“How do you know that actually?”

“Are you doubting my reading skills now?”

“No, not that, I mean—how do you know the original inhabitants were brilliant?”

Solomon shouted. “Because I saw them myself, all right?”

“You … you are one of the original inhabitants?”

“No. I … I lied.”

He looked away. His shell briefly lost its glow, but he continued searching. “My great grandfather built this city. During my youth the city still stood above water. I remember little, but I do know who the original inhabitants were.”

The water passed the scratched line on the wall—and all lamps went dark. Slupper looked back: the same had happened to all the other chambers.

“Why did you never tell me? I had the right to know that!”

“Trivial matters, trivial matters. Find the book before it’s too late.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell the truth! Vivienne was right, you can’t be trusted. Socipi was right, secrets never lead to anything good.”

The water nearly reached the ceiling. The room was cracking. The current picked up speed and the trio got swept up in a whirlpool.

“I promise! I’ll tell you! But first we escape this very strong current!”

Solomon stopped talking and moving. He looked at Slupper. His low voice shot up.

“I remember now! The inhabitants of this city had discovered the secret of magical current! Electro they called it. A way to make things automatically glow or move.”

He swam to the only lamp still hanging on the wall. “These lamps use current to give light. And the drawings … they’re not drawings.”

“They’re grooves!” Slupper exclaimed. “Lines scratched to transport that current through the town, just like the lines supporting these lamps. But that means … "

Solomon laid both front fins on the wall. He spun around with the whirlpool until he suddenly grabbed one specific spot.

“Help! Flap your fins towards this spot.”

Slupper and Vivienne approached the spot, with difficulty, and moved until they couldn’t anymore. The whirlpool was winning.

Until a group of four lights turned on and the entire wall disappeared.

Water could finally flow away on all sides. The trio drifted calmly into the next room. It was much bigger than all previous ones, and in the middle, on a pedestal, stood the sought after book.

“Okay,” Vivienne said. “That whole current story, I don’t understand any of it.”

“What we just did,” Solomon had to pause for a moment, “is generate current. In the wall was a wheel. By sending water waves towards it, it started spinning, which put current on the wall, and thereby the door opened automatically.”

Slupper looked to the group of four lights that still burned dimly, his shell changing colors.

“Magnificent! How … how can that be? How can you, without touching anything, without doing anything, make things move?”

“Hopefully that’s in the book as well, my boy. Do you understand now why I so badly want to unravel the secrets of this town? If we can learn how current works, we can send our city back to land. We can build weapons that—trivial matters, trivial matters.”

Slupper couldn’t take his eyes off the lights, even as they extinguished. Vivienne swam circles around the book, while Solomon trudged towards it, exhausted.

“Did you never wonder why we walk? You and I are one of the few sea turtles that could walk on land for months, if we wanted. That’s because we directly descend from the original inhabitants—Primal Turtles.”

“Primal Turtles?” Slupper asked. “You mean the Ancient Turtles I read about?”

Vivienne immediately stopped swimming. “You mean … even bigger than you guys?”

“Much, much bigger. The houses in the city were meant for their young children. When a turtle turned older than ten, he was simply too big to live with others. They had to grow old alone in the wilderness.”

“Why didn’t they build bigger houses?”

“You still underestimate how big they were. Besides, they didn’t need houses for safety. The entire ocean feared the Primal Turtles. Oh, you should have seen them, my boy. Undefeatable. Proud. The only ones to oppose the gods. They say the Primal Turtles got their power and technology from the gods themselves.”

The water rose to the foot of the pedestal. Solomon quickly grabbed the book.

“You admitted it,” said Vivienne exaggeratedly loud. “You have constantly lied and withheld information. You said it yourself, this book must not fall into the wrong hands. Slupper should read it.”

Solomon pushed her aside as if she were an annoying fly.

“Unless you know a magical way out, the book will be lost to the water anyway. That’s Slupper’s fault. Someone has to read it now and remember the contents. I have the best memory.”

Even as Solomon started flipping through pages, Slupper jumped at him and laid his dripping fin on the pages.

“No! She’s right. I’m sorry to have to say this, but my trust in you is seriously damaged.”

He looked directly at Vivienne. “Such nice words he knows, don’t you think? All taught by me. I’m the only reason we’re standing here with this very valuable book. And now you decide not to trust me? Go away. I’m your Companion!”

Slupper recoiled. Vivienne pushed him towards Solomon and whispered encouragingly, but he remained silent. Disappointed, she swam away. Solomon was indeed their Companion. Wise, strong, protected by hundreds of laws, and not someone with whom he wanted to pick a fight.

The companion flipped and flipped through pages. As if, within a heartbeat, he read and understood every page. Was it world conquest? Or world cooperation? Whatever it was, the world would be different from now on.

Not much later he slammed the book shut and looked up as if seeing water for the first time.

“There’s nothing! This book is completely blank!”

Uh oh. Slupper dove away as the book flew through the room. Solomon stood threateningly before him, on his hind legs. I’ve never seen him do that, he thought, less and less impressed.

“Have you been here before? Did you switch out the book?”

Slupper had to distract him with something that sounded smart. Solomon was susceptible to that. “No. I know why the pages are blank.”

“Oh yeah? How can blank pages contain the truth?”

“Those Primal Turtles were brilliant, you said. What if they pretended to have the truth? They told everyone they had the key to world conquest. Every enemy wanted to read that secret. Subsequently, they reached the city and were immediately captured—or worse. It was a trap!”

“My people were a good people! Just, righteous, resolute. They were the largest animals to ever walk this planet—surpassing even the dinosaurs! They were born leaders. I refuse to believe that The Truth contained the secret to world domination. It contains the secret to world peace. I feel it.”

“Well … what’s the difference? If those Primal Turtles had conquered the whole world …”

Vivienne understood where he was going with this. “.. then there would also be world peace.”

Solomon opened his mouth to yell a response, but nothing came. It took a while to pull himself together. “Nonsense. You have turned against me, that’s it. I will uncover the real truth and the Primal Turtles will return and be in charge again.”

“Aha! So that’s what you want!” Vivienne spun towards Solomon, in a streak of bubbles, but Slupper held her back.

“You want that too. Everyone should want that.”

“Absolutely not. We want this city to drift closer to land again, and I want to explore the world.”

“Both are solved when the Primal Turtles return. They lift the city back up and restore it to full glory. Everyone is happy and cheerful.”

Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice echoed through the chambers, and said: “But it doesn’t stop there, does it?”