The Ancient Talisman

2,000 words





It had been a month since she remembered not having it. How could Clara lose something so magnificent and important? She looked at a map trying to retrace her trails. She took an exasperating breath and pinched he forehead. Oh, how could I possibly find it now? Clara thought. Although she was looking at a map that was more developed and altered than the last one, she was trying her best to read it. What if someone found it? It could lead to catastrophe; however that would require the finder to now how to use it. That thought made her relaxed.

Clara examined the map next to a street full of magazine kiosks. She folded up the map and walked on letting her eyes drift over the printed material as she traveled down the boulevard. Then she stopped speechless and could not believe what was on the cover of a copy of National Geographic. It looked exactly like it! She looked at the caption on the cover- Strange Gem Made of Mysterious Compound Found by Archeologist. She opened a copy and read about how someone named Dr. Balk happened to find in lying in an alley. Fortunately it was being held at the Archaeological Institute of America right where she was in New York. She looked at the address of the institute. She had to recover it fast so she signaled for a cab and five minutes later one pulled up. Clara got into the car.

“Take me to the Archaeological Institute of America and step on it!”

“What is the address?” asked the cabby.

“36-36 33rd Street Long Island.”

“You got it.”

As she was driven, she breathed heavily in impatience and nervousness. The driver saw Clara clasp her hands tightly and rock back and forth.

“You okay Miss?”

“I just need to get there for an important reason.” she replied.

“Are you scientist or something?”

Clara shook her head quickly. “There is a certain artifact I really want to see.” She ran her hands down her face. “Can’t you go any faster?!”

“Sorry miss. That could get me fired.”

“Fine then,” Clara said poignantly.

She was silent for the rest of the ride until she reached the building. “That will be fifty bucks miss.”

Fortunately Clara acquired a decent amount of money from the last point she arrived at. She pulled out the money and leapt out of the car. Next, Clara bolted past the glass rotating doors and directly went to the front desk. “Is Dr. Balk available?”

The female secretary looked up from a computer. “He is in his office and cannot be bothered.”

Clara looked to her left at an office floor map. She saw where his office was and walked past the secretary. “Miss, you need permission to go to the office floors. Stop!”

The anxious woman ignored the secretary’s order and stepped into an elevator and was lifted to the third floor. “She stepped out into a hall and scanned for a door with the number 309 written on a glass window. She barged in and there was a middle aged man with a goatee and a berate hat on. His eyes were a dark brown with a triangular face. “I beg your pardon!”

“The gem you found, where is it?!”

Dr. Balk’s face was petrified. “I’ll give you whatever you want, just don’t harm me!”

Clara rolled her eyes and put her hand to her forehead. “I’m not robbing you. That gem you found. There is something you do know about it.”

“It is something that science had never seen. There is probably a lot we do not know about it,” said Balk.

“It may sound crazy, but the gem you have is magical.”

“Those are just more curse legends that most of our artifacts are said to have. You don’t really believe in them?”

“I’ll prove it,” Clara said. “Show me the gem.”

“This should be rich.”

Clara smiled. “You have no idea.”

Both of them stepped out and there was the secretary. “I am so sorry Dr. Balk! I tried to stop her!”

“Don’t worry. This woman has something to show me.”

“All three returned to the first floor. Then Dr. Balk went to the exhibit area. He used a key to unlock a glass door that reveled Clara’s small, octagon shaped gem that had a sky-blue hue to it that was in a glass case. He opened it up and used a tissue to withdraw it. “So…you were saying?”

Clara took the stone then touched the man on the shoulder and spoke in a tongue that Dr. Balk knew to be Latin. She spoke four numbers; two-zero-one-five.

Suddenly the gem shined with such a bright blue light that they both closed their eyes. There they were, in Dr. Balk’s same office.

“What happened?” Balk said with glossy eyes.

“Welcome back to the year 2015,” Clara said smiling quit proudly.

The confused man looked at a calendar pinned to a wall. “My word!”

“Think about it. You could go to any era and stay there as long as you like.”

Balk’s eyes widened. “Where did you find such an object?”

“It is a family heirloom. I was told by my mother when I was fifteen that it had been enchanted and formed in heaven over a thousand years ago. Of course it was like a child’s tale to me. She told me how to use it but I thought it must have been a legend of some kind. Despite my disbelief, she insisted I learn to say numbers in Latin. She taught me herself. If nothing, I liked the idea of acquiring such knowledge. When I was well versed at the age of twenty, she handed me the gem and uttered something in Latin. I didn’t hear any numbers but I knew she was speaking words. My mother said that the power was now mine. I still thought it was all nonsense. It would have felt stupid trying to use it. One day I was really bored and mentally idol. So I said ‘whatever’ and spoke two-zero for 20AD, in the year that Jesus was alive. I would have loved so much to have seen him with my own eyes and observe for my self his miracles. But after I had spoken, I appeared in that time but was still in the North American continent.” Clara shook her head. “I thought I would be transported to that place as well.”

“Was it inhabited?”

“I’m not sure. I arrived at a low grassy valley full of trees and wildlife. But I did not explore so they may have been somewhere else. Needless to say, I was frightened and surprised. No words could express what I felt. I quickly spoke 2017 in Latin and I was back in my room. I thought I had hallucinated the brief experience. So I tested it again but I only wanted to go two years into the past so I would not arrive at a dangerous predicament.”

Suddenly three men in black came through the door and pulled guns out on them. “Give us the gem.”

“You don’t understand, this is an object with sentimental value. It is special. The Hope diamond was recently moved here. Take that instead.”

“We are aware of the power that it has. The object you have is called the Petrachronos. Long ago the organization you call the Illuminati discovered it in a Chinese temple. The Illuminati has a few magical talismans-including the legendary Eye of Odin that has power over ice and water. When we read of the Petrachronos in ancient texts, we hasted to find it. With its power we have been manipulating the course of time and occurrences of the world. But it was lost three years ago. We apprehended a confidant that thought we would soon do something irreparable so he gave it to his daughter and explained how to use it, but warned her of the Illuminati’s obsession to find it.”

“I wonder why my mother never told me,” said Clara.

“Indeed,” said the man in black speaking. “Hand it over.”

Clara slowly inched closer to the man. When she was a few feet away, the young woman rapidly spoke out 2017 in Latin and there they were on Dr. Balk’s office.

Both people looked at each other. “I had no idea,” said Clara with a shocked frozen face.

“Nothing will stop them for searching for it. What will you do?”

Clara plopped onto a chair in the office. She looked exhausted and weary. “If only I could go to the time and place that the gem was found and take it and keep it from the illuminati.”

“What if you could force them to tell you?” asked Dr. Balk.

“How?”

“Bring a gun and wait until the very moment they come in and demand to know where it was found.”

“Would they know?”

“They may,” suggested Dr. Balk.

“Where do we get the gun?”

“Good point. How about a knife?”

“But they have guns!”

“What if we take one of them by the throat as soon as they come in? We could hide by the door and get the first one that comes in. I keep a machete for excavating.”

Balk pulled out the knife from a large travel pack. “We’re ready for it.”

“Then let’s do it.” Clara spoke 2015 in Latin and they were back in the past looking around Dr. Balk’s office. Dr. Balk stood with his back against the wall next to the door while Clara stood in the view of the window. Three minutes later a man in black opened the door and instantly Balk took him by the neck and put his knife to his throat. “Where was the Petrachronos found in China and in what time?!”

“How could you know!?”

“That doesn’t matter! Now talk!” demanded Clara. “and tell your fellow goons to stay put!”

“Do what she says!” begged the captured man.

“Out with it now!” said Clara.

“All I know is that it was in a temple called The Obelisk of the Sun!”

Clara got in the man’s face. “What time and location?!”

“I told you it’s all I know!”

“Clara, I have knowledge when the temple was made and the location. We don’t need them anymore,” said Dr. Balk.

Clara backed away.” Alright, then let’s get out of here.” She muttered the numbers and once again they were in the year of 2017.

After much talk, contention, time and trouble they set up the soonest flight to China. Dr. Balk explained how the temple was now in ruins but that an old scroll spoke of its finished construction and location. Upon arrival they were driven by jeep and brought to the ruins of the Obelisk of the Sun.

“It’s so mysterious,” Clara said in awe.

“Indeed. It will be a treat to see it in its standing state. Now, the temple was built in the year three-hundred-and seventy-five BC. You know how to specify AD and BC right?”

“I can speak it in Latin.” With those words she spoke the correct year and in seconds they were in front of the temple. Chinese monks in yellow robes walked up and down the courtyard of the expansive wonder. They were all startled by the appearance of Clara and Dr. Balk.

“They may think we’re spirits,” said Balk.

Both went into the open entryway and saw a raised, unguarded golden platform. They ran to it and there it was! Then, cloaked men came into the entryway.

“The illuminati!” exclaimed Balk. “Get us back!”

Clara spoke the year 2017 and they were once again in the ruins.

“I’m going to hide this so none will use it,” said Clare.

“Perhaps the ocean?”

“I’ll do that. My father has a small plane.”

In a plane, a few miles over the Atlantic, she dropped it in. The timeline was now safe from those who would tamper with it.