Hint to Greatness

[Pahrak Model ZX]

Ehrye pushed open the crystalline door and strolled into the room. “Nuju, I have a delivery for you!”

 

Not taking his eye off the telescope, Nuju said, “I have told you before, Ehrye: you must learn to knock.”

 

“Well…do you want the delivery or not?”

 

Nuju sighed. The scholar turned and snatched the tablet from Ehrye’s hand, noticing that its cloth covering had been unfolded. He gripped the item tightly.

 

“You opened it.”

 

Ehrye tried to back away slightly. “Well, I was curious. If I’m going to be a scholar someday, I need to start learning as much as I can. It’s some fascinating research you and Jaa are working on! I was wondering—“

 

Nuju held up his hand to silence the messenger. Very slowly, he walked over to his desk, set down the tablet, and then tapped his fingers a few times. Before long, he leaned down to open the bottom drawer and pulled out a stack of dusty tablets. He set them on the table, turned to Ehrye, and pointed to them.

 

“Take these to Tower 19.”

 

Ehrye’s eyes widened. “19?! You’re kidding!”

 

Nuju said nothing. Remembering that the scholar never liked to repeat a request, Ehrye sullenly gathered the stone slabs into his bag and headed out the door.

 

Tower 19 was far from Nuju’s tower, all the way at the border to Onu-Metru. But it wasn’t the long trip that bothered Ehrye. This particular Knowledge Tower had been designated as storage for things the scholars no longer saw any use for, with the intention being that they could be safely preserved until someone had use for them once more. However, in Ko-Metru, things with no further use for the future were considered little more than trash, and Tower 19 had become a thing of disgust. Nothing that went through its doors was ever seen again, earning its reputation as “the graveyard of ideas.” Scholars made use of it due to encouragement from Turaga Dume, but rarely travelled there themselves, leaving it a derogatory task assigned to messengers as punishment.

 

This would be Ehrye’s tenth visit…or perhaps twelfth? He had lost count after dropping off Jaa’s disproven Spirit Star Theory. Regardless, it never became any less humiliating.

 

When Ehrye stepped through the doors, he immediately spotted the tower’s caretaker asleep on his desk. He kicked the piece of furniture, providing enough vibration to jolt the old Matoran awake.

 

“Huh?! Oh, Ehrye. Back so soon?”

 

Ehrye scowled. “I have some old prediction logs from Nuju. Where do you want me to file them?”

 

The caretaker mumbled to himself and went over some notes he had hastily chiseled down. The process took longer than Ehrye had hoped, but eventually he was directed to the far corner of the first floor, where an ancient cabinet topped with a pile of relics stood.

 

Ehrye tried the door. It was stuck. He pulled harder to no avail, and then decided to give a violent tug. All he succeeded in doing was burying himself in a rain of debris.

 

“Clean that up!” the caretaker shouted. “If it’s so difficult, then just leave the tablets there and I’ll put them away myself.”

 

Ehrye dug himself out and sat up. A dizzy feeling overcame him, alerting him to the fact that his mask had been dislodged in the avalanche. Blindly grasping for it, he cut himself on the jagged edge of some glass object.

 

Oh great.

 

When at last he found his mask, Ehrye reattached it and sighed with relief. He took a good look at what he had cut his hand on: half of a broken globe of black glass with ancient star charts printed on it.

 

Despite himself, Ehrye chuckled. This artifact was more infamous in Ko-Metru, for it was something else that became no less humiliating over time. Ages ago, an eccentric scholar had theorized that the world they inhabited was round and floated inside a shell imprinted with stars, which spun as the stars changed. Once the domes were discovered, that particular scholar had disappeared rather quickly.

 

It seemed like a good place to start. Picking up the shattered globe, Ehrye stepped towards the ladder granting access to the top of the cabinet, but something made him pause. A tiny tablet could be seen inside the remains of the globe. Fishing it out, Ehrye squinted—tiny lettering had been carved into the piece of stone. Ehrye had trained himself to read small print (through reading the many detailed tablets of scholars that he had been tasked with delivering), so he was just barely able to make out the words:

 

“In Ko-Metru, find where sky and ice are joined.”

 

Ehrye frowned. What is this supposed to be?

 

He absent-mindedly turned the stone over. On the side opposite the riddle, there was an image of a Kanoka with the code 429. A Great Disk. Gradually, the confusion gave way to surprised awe.

 

Is this…a clue to finding Ko-Metru’s Great Disk?!

 

The caretaker yawned loudly. Remembering that he was being watched, Ehrye tucked the stone into his bag and hurriedly cleaned up the mess. Once he was back on the street, he slipped into an alleyway and took another look at the small tablet.

 

Ehrye was unsure how to proceed. If this really was a clue to the Great Disk’s location, he could easily rise to the rank of scholar—maybe even higher. But was a hint such as this really so reliable? It was likely planted by that eccentric scholar, and if he could be so wrong about one thing, perhaps he was wrong about this as well.

 

He cast a glance back up at Tower 19. Cracks ran all along the crystal’s length, and there were places where entire chunks had been torn out.

 

Ehrye smiled. If it’s wrong, no one will know. I’m not going to miss my chance.

 

He ran off towards his next stop, already wondering which Knowledge Tower his office would be placed in.

Edited October 31, 2013 by Pahrak #0579

[Kaleidoscope Tekulo]

I liked this story. It's always nice to read about Metru Nui arcs and this one is no exception.

 

I like the explanation of tower 19 and being someone who came up with theories for the Bionicle story over the years growing up, I can sympathyze with the idea of "the graveyard of ideas."

 

I'm also fond of how this story ties directly to the 2004 story of how a matoran discovered something so important as a Great Disk location.

 

You did a good job portraying Ehrye's character. He was likable and easy to relate to for anyone who has ever had hopes of achieving something of significance, be it greatness or a simple job promotion.

 

Nice work. ^^