--CHAPTER FOUR – POWERS OF DEDUCTION--
The journal. The legacy of Thaddeus Wellington, artist and designer, first discoverer of the secrets of bending, and founder of the Bending Alliance.
Steve’s father.
Steve had never known his father. He had been only a few months old when In Thaddeus had left his family and disappeared, leaving Steve to grow up with his mother Laurel and her mother, Grandma Lily. For years, he’d known nothing of him. Until the Alliance had come to him and the truth had been revealed.
Thaddeus and Laurel had begun to have visions when she conceived Steve. The visions revealed to them what he would be, and the return of bending which had been lost for so many generations it had been forgotten completely. The visions, which both Laurel and Grandma Lily suspected were brought about by the mystic Totem of the Elements, also showed them something: the coming of a terrible event which threatened all of mankind itself.
Thaddeus hadn’t abandoned his family. He had embarked on a great quest to organize the new benders from every nation and prepare them for the coming of the Avatar. He had founded the Alliance and appointed four directors to lead them. He had learned more about the lost legend and taught it to them. And for a short while, everything was great.
Then came the schism. Two of the directors disagreed with Thaddeus belief that the Avatar, whose identity he didn’t reveal, was the one to save mankind from the coming threat with the use of the Totem of the Elements. They though quite the opposite: that the Avatar himself would be the one to cause it using that same Totem, and so must be found and killed. Or so they claimed. The truth was they wanted to use their power to rule the entire planet and Thaddeus would never let them, and neither, they thought, would the Avatar. So they did the only thing they could. They killed Thaddeus Wellington and split up from the Bending Alliance with their own followers, dubbing themselves the Solution.
Laurel and Grandma Lily never knew what had happened. They kept the truth from Steve whom they both knew to be the Avatar, and to keep both him and the totem safe, had moved him to New York, patiently awaiting the day he would come of age and his Avatar spirit would emerge. Except, as it turned out, he wasn’t the Avatar as they’d expected, but the Incarnate. No bending ability, but with a connection to all the former Incarnates. He was still the one to avert the threat though, so he, Chris and Jean had gone to Grandma Lily’s home in Ohio to retrieve the totem. There, she had shown him Thaddeus’s workroom where he had drawn out and written about his visions, and given him the journal.
Steve reached for the worn, brown leather bound book and pulled it slowly to himself while Chris watched eagerly. None of them had opened it yet. Steve himself felt a little nervous. It was the only object he had ever gotten of his father. Opening it, reading it, using it… it was the only way he would get to meet him.
He let out a nervous breath. “Here we go,” he breathed.
And then he reached down and opened the journal.
“Woah,” Chris muttered excitedly.
Jean turned for a quick look.
The pages of the book were awash with color. Vivid drawings and elaborate calligraphy in both English and Chinese jumped out at them. Some pages overflowed with script. Some others had actual pictures of real places.
“What was your old man? Some kind of artist?”
Steve nodded. The walls of Thaddeus’ hidden study in Grandma Lily’s basement had been covered with the same kind of drawings and pictures. Grandma had said something about him being a professional designer. Even Jean looked slightly impressed.
Steve flipped through the book slowly, resisting the strong urge to stop and dwell on every page. There was so much information on them. Writing on Thaddeus’ visions and drawings of them, details on discoveries he’d made and writings on experiences he’d had at the start of his journey. Some of the drawings were quite outlandish, but Steve thought they were vaguely familiar. Like something he’d known a long time ago but couldn’t. Or perhaps they only looked familiar because he had seen the paintings on his father’s wall and many were similar to things he had seen on the Avatar series. In either case, he would need to study the book. Learn what his father learnt. And he would need to do it soon—It was suddenly clear to him that these were things he would need to know as the Incarnate, holder of wisdom of ages past.
Then he flipped over a page and suddenly, there it was. The symbol on the temple, along with the other symbols Steve had drawn. However, there was no much writing on this page, just a drawing of three figures in long, flowing white and silver garments. Beneath the figures was a single word: Custodian.
Steve’s breath caught.
“There’s no info here,” Chris said. He sounded disappointed. “Come on, let’s keep looking.”
But Steve was staring at the figures. He had seen that garment before.
Chris caught his look. “Steve? What is it? Do you see something?”
“No,” Steve replied. “It’s just… the garment. In one of my dreams, someone wearing those same robes gave me the totem. I think it was a memory from the very last Incarnate.”
Chris stared at him for a second, then back at the journal. “‘Custodians’,” he read. “Custodians of the totem?”
“I think they might have been the custodians of everything connected with the Incarnate, including the totem and the temple.”
“Well, whoever they are, they must be long gone by now or we wouldn’t have had the totem.”
“So how do we find their temple?”
Steve flipped the page. The whole of the next page was covered in a poster sketch of a large building with a huge door, the symbol drawn clearly above it. Steve traced the tip of his fingers over it, remembering.
“It’s the temple,” he murmured.
Chris joined him and they both stood, gazing at it in silence.
“I’ve got something,” Jean called suddenly. “That symbol. Apparently, it’s been found on a few rediscovered ancient ruins. There’s not much information, but what’s interesting is that the symbol has been found not only in China, but in India, Pakistan, Rome and Honduras.”
“Honduras?” Chris echoed. “That’s pretty far apart.”
“It was part of the Mayan empire,” Steve remembered. “They must have been everywhere.”
“Archaeologists believe it was also on the ancient Jewish temple in Jerusalem, destroyed by Titus in the year 70 AD. However,” Jean read, “no one knows what the symbol means. Most researchers thought it was a Tao symbol, but after it was found in place Taoism never touched, they began to doubt.” She peered closer at the screen. “Hold on… there are only three structures with the symbol still standing in the world. One is in India, but the other two are unrestored ruins in China. Although the structures are classified as unrestored, they are both in presentable conditions, though not almost as good as the still utilized Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala, India where the symbol was also found.” She paused and glanced up at them. “Most noteworthy is the fact that each has a door that no one has yet been able to open for various reasons ranging from alleged curses to a lack of knowledge how.”
Steve and Chris glanced excitedly at themselves. This had to be it. They were close!
Jean was working away at the screen again. “In China, the first symbol was uncovered at the tomb of the first emperor in Xi’an. The other is right above the front door of a temple in the small village of Xizhazi.” She looked up. “Xizhazi is practically beside the great wall.”
“It must be it,” Steve said. “That must be the temple from my vision.”
Chris nodded in agreement.
But Jean shook her head. “Most likely,” she allowed, “But we have to be sure. Xizhazi is five hours from Beijing by road. If we get there and we’re wrong, we won’t have a second chance.”
She was right, Steve realized. The girl was not only sharp, she was calm under pressure and not easily excitable. But her sudden willingness to help surprised him. This was the same girl who had refused to acknowledge they were a team. Now she was using the word ‘we’. Was it because of the possible connection they had made between the temple and the totem?
“So how do we confirm?” He asked her.
“Can you get a picture?” Chris suggested.
Jean was already there. She gestured at the screen and moved her seat a little so Steve could have a clearer view.
As he gazed at it, he felt his heart swell in elation. All his doubts fell away and he broke into a grin.
“That’s it,” he said. “We’ve found it.”
Watch Here for Chapter 5: Beijing
The Lost Legend series is fan fiction based off Nickelodeon's Avatar franchise.
Find more of my original works as Peter M. Ogwara on Amazon!
