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Nothing happens at first, but after a tense in to deepen and spread towards each other Eight lets the pendant drop down to his chest Dust shoots into the passage and we move back a few feet When all the lines touch and there is a perfect outline of a door, the right edge separates fros open A blast of warlow co throughand I becoht?’ I finally ask

‘That’s what ht responds, as if this were the sirasp

Ella walks towards the opening ‘I feel weird inside’

Marina says, ‘Me too’

With a sh the doorway; Crayton and Ella are quick to follow I bring up the rear As we cliht talks

‘A couple years ago, asthese very vivid drea noith Setrákus and Four I learned more about Lorien, and about the Elders Learned about our history here on Earth, hoe helped the Egyptians build the pyraht the Roy, and so on In one of the drea around on earth, and how the Loric used to do it This mountain was in nized it After the drea around That’s when I found all of this’

‘That’s a,’ says Marina

The stairs end in another rooed columns hold it up I realize we’re inside the peak of the mountain The room is empty except at its very center, where an intricate set of rocks for out from one central blue stone that’s the size of a basketball

‘Loralite,’ Crayton whispers He walks towards the center of the cave and sets Marina’s Chest down ‘That is the biggest Loralite stone I have ever seen’

‘Is the Loralite the reason you can go anywhere you want?’ Marina asks, turning to Eight

‘Well, that’s the thing,’ Eight sighs ‘I can’t go anywhere I want More like six or seven far-off places It took a lot ofplaces I didn’t ured out I can only teleport where there’s another one of these big Loralite rocks around’

‘So where can we go?’ I ask

‘Well, so far I’ve gone to Peru, to Easter Island, to Stonehenge, the Gulf of Aden near Somalia – but I really don’t recommend that one for a lot of reasons – and I’ve ended up in the desert in New Mexico’

‘New Mexico,’ I say io there we could be across the country and with John in less than a day We knoe can move around easily once we are in the US’

Crayton walks over to the wall, looking around at so you can’t control where you go? That’s not as pro as I had hoped’

‘No, but if we end up somewhere besides New Mexico – if that’s where ant to go – we just teleport again until we get there It’s not so bad,’ Eight says

‘And do you know if you can take all of us with you?’ I ask ‘If it’s anything like acy of invisibility, we may have a proble my hands’

‘I don’t know, to be honest I’ve never tried to bring anyone else,’ Eight adests

‘These drawings are a us over to the cave walls ‘Maybe there are soe walls are covered with hundreds of syh as the very tip of the doreen painting of a planet Instantly, I know it’s Lorien, and a lump catches in ure standing over ababies Rays of interrupted white lines coures Carved next to the fe style, are three columns of alien symbols ‘What the hell?’ I whisper, confused

A few feet to ular spaceship There are intricate spirals and sy constellation of stars on the blunt nose Eight walks up next to me and points to the constellation ‘Do you see? It’s the same pattern as the stones in here’

I turn around to coht Immediately, I wish Katarina were here to see all this I wonder if she even knew about it I turn to Crayton, who is exa ‘Did you know about any of this?’ I ask

‘We left Lorien in a very big hurry The planet was under attack froather as much information as we should have We knew places like this existed, but no one knew exactly where they were, or what they did Clearly, for all the inforather before we left, there were iet,’ he explains

‘Followfor us to follow his lead towards a dark corner of the rooets weirder and weirder’

He stops in front of a huge carving It is ten feet high and twenty feet long, split into different scenes Kind of like a comic book The first panel shows a spaceship with nine children standing in front of it Their faces are draith detail, and I’ht of me as a toddler rocks me back on my heels

‘Was this here when you first saw the cave?’ Crayton turns away froht

‘Yes,’ he responds ‘All of this was here, just as you see it now’