Chương 82: Chapter 81 – Look to the Future and the Past is Clear

Celestia went from room to room searching for Seraphina. She checked all the bunkrooms, the medical area, and the control room.

"Has anyone seen Seraphina?" she asked when she entered the kitchen. Alex, Ray, Sheera, and Rowan all looked at each other blankly shrugging their shoulders and nodding no. Roxie and Regina looked to one another, their faces blank.

"I know where she is." Thai said, munching on a cookie.

"She's in da place with the couches and chairs and tuff."

"Thai, don't talk with your mouth full, it's rude," Sheera said.

"You mean the lounge?" she asked Thai. Thai swallowed the remnants of the cokie, took a drink from the cup in front of her then looked at Celestia, "She's in the lounge."

"Thanks, squirt," Celestia said darting back down the hall.

"Seraphina!" Celestia called out, rushing into the room with several papers in her hand.

"I think you need to see this," she said, waving them in the air.

"I think she cracked part of the prophecy, well at least I think she has." Elena said, following close behind. Her excitement rivaling Celestia's. Seraphina got up from her seat and huffed.

"We've been down this road before, if the experts can't seem to crack it, what makes either of you think any of us can?" She asked, her voice peppered with skepticism.

"Well for starters," Elena began.

"You and Celestia neglected to share some pretty pertinent information with the class," Elena said, waving her finger imitating an old schoolteacher.

"The little tidbit about there being numerous realms and not just three?" she asked rhetorically, "That may have enabled the experts to come closer… but you know what… that doesn't matter, because I really think Celestia is on the right track."

"I don't see what there being multiple realms have to do with our attempts at deciphering the prophecy." Seraphina said, almost dismissively, "I haven't so much as glanced at that old thing in years."

"Well, the so-called experts have been under the impression that some of the phrases were metaphors and not actual depictions. So, they were trying to find symbolic meaning not a literal one." Elena said, looking at her fingernails, then looking at Seraphina, raising an eyebrow.

"I still don't understand," Seraphina said, casting a confused look at both women.

"You have to give me more than that," she said, folding her arms.

"Here, take a look at the prophecy with my decryptions and tell me what you see." Celestia said, handing Seraphina the papers. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Seraphina took the papers from Celestia and glanced at them.

"Celestia, I don't know what you expect me to see in all this chicken scratch. It's hardly legible."

"Oh, for crying out loud, Seraphina, put your damn glasses on!" Elena said, rolling her eyes. Seraphina huffed and pulled her glasses out of her pocket.

"Fine." She muttered, then picked up the papers and carefully looked at them. Her eyes began to widen.

"Well, I'll be," she said, looking over the rim of her glasses. You might be right. I mean it makes sense, it's not some far out theory like the ones the linguistic experts suggested." She shook her head wearily, "But it still doesn't mean that it's any more correct than their theory though. How do we know that Celestia's translation isn't a clever construct?"

"Hey!" Celestia cried out.

"Are you implying that I concocted a decryption to suit the narrative?" she asked, outraged.

"I'm not saying you did it on purpose," she said, shaking her head.

"I just think that it fits a little too neatly into place is all. I mean think about it guys." She said, taking a deep breath.

"How could a race of beings possibly know the details you have outlined here, especially because it was written a couple of hundred thousand years ago? Our ancestors weren't so much a thought, let alone us. Now you are saying that our destiny is mapped like this?"

"Well, I think we should present it to everyone and see what they think before we scrap it," Celestia said, a small pout on her lips as she folded her arms.

"Before we do that, let's have a candid discussion about it all first," Elena suggested, "Seraphina has a point. Don't get me wrong, your theory and decryption does seem to have merit." She said, walking to a whiteboard and erasing it. She picked up a marker and took the cap off.

"What do we know about the ancient race that not only wrote the prophecy but created the teleport device?" Elena asked, before adding, "and Seraphina before you question the legitimacy of the find, I assure you, what we found was in Situ and laid undisturbed for eons. There is no way anyone prior to us finding it, could have tampered with it or hid it there prior to our discovery." Elena looked from one to the other. Getting no response turned to the whiteboard.

"Okay, I'll start. We know they had knowledge way beyond our understanding, so they were obviously quite advanced. We know that they are unlike any species we have ever seen, well at least I have ever seen." She said, shrugging her shoulders hoping one of them would join in.

"What do you mean? Like you have ever seen?" Seraphina asked.

"You actually saw what they looked like? Elena turned to Seraphina, "Yeah, in the ruins, it was like they were frozen in time. I have pictures if you would like to see them." Seraphina turned to Celestia, "That's not a bad idea. Celestia and I have been to probably every realm there is, we may not definitively identify them, but we can at least determine which race is closest to them."

"Okay, now we are getting somewhere." Elena said, reaching for a device and touching the screen and handing it to Seraphina.

"Refresh my memory on how to use this thing again," she said, looking down at the black screen.

"Just use your finger, tap the screen to activate it then to move to the next, swipe your finger and the next photo will come up." Elena said. Celestia moved closer to Seraphina, "Give it to me before you break the stupid thing," Celestia said, becoming annoyed. Seraphina handed her the device. Celestia pulled up the first photo. She looked at it and cocked her head, then swiped to the next screen which had a close up of a young man. She didn't need to look twice, she recognized the species immediately.

"Seraphina, I'm pretty sure they are human," she said, dumbfounded.