Chapter 10 - What Was Written with Ice Will Only Be Seen through Ice

Outside, night was as gloomy as the darkest place in the closet. As it was cloudy, no light in the sky managed to cross the thick blanket between the stars and the moon that watched the Earth and the land of Elmbridge School of Magic. There was also fog so thick that it gave the feeling that it could support almost anything ... even a person.

Elizabeth slept peacefully in her room.

Her hawk had a pedestal made especially for it. The bird didn’t rest, but watched over the girl.

Suddenly, there was a bump in the drawer of the little nightstand near the girl's bed. The noise was strong enough to wake Miss Edwards. Scared, she sat up and looked at the protective hawk.

“What was tht?” she looked at the bird, as if waiting for an answer. As she raised her head from the pillow, the candle immediately appeared to light everything around the bed.

Thus, the girl saw her hawk looking at her calmly and quietly.

“It can't be something ... dangerous. Because you're quiet. Alexander and Mr. Knudlac told me that guardians only get agitated when a danger is near. Even more agitated if the danger is nearby. You don't seem to me anxious at all. Maybe I just imagined it ...”

She wanted to put her head back on the pillow, but just before she did it, the noise repeated itself.

The girl was no longer scared this time. She noticed the noise came from the drawer so she opened it.

Inside was ... just that diary with nothing written. A useless diary that probably everyone would throw away at one point, but for Elizabeth it was the only thing she had from her parents.

She looked a little at that diary, but nothing happened.

“I could try my magic,” smiled the girl at her pet.

She took her wand from the nightstand.

“Utebatur!”

Slowly, slowly the diary floated to her and fell into her lap.

The girl smiled happily that the spells succeeded, just as Merlin probably did when he was a child trying his first spells.

The smile disappeared when the diary cover began to light up and its lock, which had a strange little padlock and for which she didn’t find a way to open, now opened itself, as if by magic.

The cover went aside and the first empty page turned up.

The girl looked at the blank page for a few moments, until finally something began to appear on it. Some letters began to appear on the sheet, one by one, until one could read the following text:

What was written with magic ice ... will only be seen through the ice.

The girl rubbed her eyes. It seemed to her that what she read was real. As she could see the writing persisted a few moments, she began to get worried. As it popped out, that writing completely disappeared.

The girl understood that someone or something wanted her to find out what that diary was about. Her wizard mind could understand there was certainly a hidden purpose when such strange things happened and that magic would help her to reveal the secret.

Elizabeth stayed awake for several minutes, browsed the diary, but only saw the same blank pages. She turned the object on all sides, but nothing. She waited a little longer to see what other strange stuff could pop up, and then took a pen from the desk next to her bed and an inkwell.

She wrote something on one of the pages but the writing disappeared instantly. She waited a few more moments, repeated the action and waited again.

But as nothing happened, she placed the writing utensils back on the desk where she took them, nicely placed the magic diary back in the drawer, and laid her head on the pillow.

“It’s definitely a magic diary, from my mom and dad. Who are trying to tell me something,” she said, smiling at the hawk. “And the ink, as it’s not made of ice, has no effect.”

The hawk this time, unlike the other times, made a quite loud enough sound the echo was heard throughout the room ... and maybe even in the corridors.

The girl got scared, but at the same time she laughed.

“You agree with me,” the girl sat up again happily. “It’s certainly something written in that diary, given that those letters appeared. And I have to find out what it’s written. Maybe it's a message from mom and dad.”

The girl laid her head on the pillow, but couldn’t sleep. She kept thinking.

“What was written with ice will only be seen through the ice. What does it mean?”

And she kept thinking with her eyes open. The candle remained near her bed, but she moved away a little and lowered the flame, so as the light doesn’t disturb Miss Edwards.

There persisted some kind of opaque, ambient light, which didn’t leave the child in the dark, but wouldn’t disturb her sleep, in case she wanted to fall asleep.

…

It was early in the morning. Elizabeth didn’t sleep since the diary event.

The candle totally disappeared, but not because it had melted, because this didn’t happen with magic candles, but because the sun came in through the windows of the room, warming the whole bedroom in vivid light.

Even though many of the other students didn’t wake up, she got out of bed. She couldn't stay that anxious anymore. She wanted so much to see how she could find out what was written in the diary, that she prepared twice as fast as usual and walked out of her room as if she were a witch on her broom.

She went to Johnny's door and knocked.

After a few moments, Johnny's roommate finally came to open the door.

“What happened to Elizabeth? It's still early ... it's Saturday.”

“Pepplyn, I’d like to talk to Johnny.”

Pepplyn Hallow left the door open and invited her inside.

Johnny woke up when he heard the knock on the door. He was dressed in some kind of nightie and a hat on his head, as if he were a little girl.

Elizabeth when he saw him, smiled, and Johnny in the nightie, ashamed, hid.

“I'm waiting outside.”

The boy went back into the room and called Johnny:

“Elizabeth Edwards is looking for you.”

“Tell her I'm coming immediately. I'm going to change clothes. And close that door!”

The roommate wanted to tell the girl something, but she interrupted him:

“I heard him. I'm waiting for him.”

The door closed.

Within two minutes Johnny appeared dressed as he thought a boy should be seen dressed. One could see on his face and through his timid gestures that he felt not only a little ashamed of his night outfit. But as Miss Edwards didn’t comment at all, he gasped in relief.

“What happened? Why don't you sleep and come to wake us up?” the boy frowned at her, though in a slow voice, so as not to wake up the others.

“I have a problem and that's why I came to you.”

“Why don't you go to your Soimescu friend?” the boy spoke in a wicked tone.

“Johnny ...”

The kids started to leave the rooms, not because the two children were too fussy, but because that was the Saturday habit. Everyone hardly woke up during the week, but on Saturday, when they could rest longer, most of them woke up early. Because they wanted to make the most of their free time on Saturdays.

“Go to him, since in the last months as you didn’t need my help, you were only with him.”

“Mr. Knudlac called him my guide and I wanted to learn how to read ...”

“Well, what, I couldn't teach you?”

“But Mr. Knudlac said ... I ... You're my best friend.”

The girl didn't know what to say and how to apologize to Johnny.

The boy was very irritated at first, like a badger when you try to take his food, but when he heard about friendship, he became a little gentler. He even smiled a little.

“Am I your best friend?” he smiled.

“Of course you are.”

“What about Soimescu? You've been together for so long ... you’re certainly good friends.”

“Alexander and I didn't get along. In fact, he didn't get along with me. I wanted to be friends, but he didn't. He doesn’t want to be friends except those of his kind. Or if I think better of him he isn’t interested in having friends, maybe just servants. He kept telling me that I get him bored and he does everything because Mr. Knudlac asked him.”

“Yeah, he’s a snake. Like his guardian,” Johnny told her. “But let's forget it. What’s your problem, dear friend?” he smiled now.

Elizabeth looked around her. As some of the children started to leave the room for the morning exercise or to have breakfast earlier, she didn’t answer immediately. She waited until there was no one near them and asked the boy:

“Can you keep a secret?”

“I swear on my guardian.”

“I have a magic diary.”

The boy looked at her a little confused.

“Yes ... I have two. It’s 4 silver coins one, at the shop. I tore one up angrily a week ago. And I lost another once ...”

“I think my diary is more special. I couldn't open it when I wanted to.”

"I managed to open mine only using my own magic,” Johnny smiled. “Let me show you...”

The girl took the diary out of her outfit’s sleeve in her left hand. The boy quickly pulled out his wand, moved his hand following a triangular path and said:

“Patentibus!”

A little light went out of his wand and touched the diary. Under the magic, it got a little electrified and the diary cover opened. But the pages were still empty.

“It worked,” Johnny told the girl as if he could manage to bring someone back to life.

“No, it didn't work,” Elizabeth said, sadly. “I could do that without magic. Look, I did it countless times last night after it opened by itself.”

And the girl closed and opened the diary lock without any problem this time, showing the boy the blank pages.

Johnny didn't know how to help the girl, but he looked around intently for someone who could find a solution.

“Here’s Miss Harmony. Let’s ask her…”

And without waiting for a response, the boy ran to the professor as if his life depended on it.

“Miss Harmony, I have a problem ...”

“What problem, dear?”

The boy, caught unprepared, didn’t know what to answer, and stood there gaping like someone who gets to a place and doesn’t know how or why he got there.

“Elizabeth, what’s the problem?” asked the boy, confused.

The girl got close to Miss Harmony who smiled, willing to help the children ... as always.

“I have a diary in which we think something isn’t visible. And we don't know how we can see what is written there.”

Miss Harmony, who at first thought it was something much more serious, for which she was willing to offer help, sighed hearing why they needed her ... for this small thing.

Too many times children have come to her because some object wouldn’t open or a book or diary was bewitched by one of the students, or a box was closed with a magic tool by other young naughty schoolchildren for their simple amusement, so she answered them without smiling:

“My dear, unfortunately I have no time to help you with such problems. Mr. Knudlac asked me to coordinate the feeding of mystical and non-mystical animals. And then I have to go to the Magic Consulate ...”

The two children sighed, hopeless.

“But, I recommend you go to the Wisdom Pavilion,” the professor smiled again.

“How come we didn't think about it?” Johnny said reproachfully. “Let's go ... and thank you, Miss Harmony.”

The boy glanced at his watch, grabbed the girl by the hand and began to run, taking her after him.

“We still have time until Saturday Meal starts. Let's go to the Wisdom Pavilion.”

Holding their hands they climbed down three floors, in the blink of an eye they entered a corridor leading to one of the school towers and then descended several floors deep into the basement of the same tower, stopping at a door... a door leading to the "Wisdom Pavilion".

Of course they were also met by a small stone elf.

“Good day. We want to enter the Wisdom Pavilion,” said the boy.

“Of course. Not very often are students interested in this Wisdom Pavilion. So I’m glad to see that you want to talk to the old wise men in the world.”

And the door opened.

The children entered a huge room where there were various framed paintings, representations of all the personalities who ever lived, famous researchers and scientists.

"Let's see what we know about the diary," Johnny told the girl, with a faraway gaze as if he was a lost three-year-old child, with no parents, in one of the London train stations.

“’What was written with ice ... will only be seen through ice’, the diary told me.”

“What does that mean?” Johnny asked.

“Still don’t know...”

The boy thought a little, then took her again by hand and said:

“Let's talk to Aalbatrom.”

“Who’s Aalbatrom?”

“The guard of this Pavilion. The stone elf by whom we passed ...”

The children ran to the guard of the door of this Wisdom Pavilion.

“Mr. Aalbatrom, can you guide us?”

“Of course ...”, the stone elf replied with the same kindness.

“We’d like to know with whom we can talk about: What was ice ... it will be seen in the ice.”

“More exactly the text was: What was written with ice ... will only be seen through the ice,” Elizabeth corrected him.

“Umm ... let me think. It seems to be something that involves the someone’s experience who knows how to play with words. I don't know if he can answer the question, but I recommend you to talk to Immanuel Kant. The year 1784, I think it would be good. This philosopher may be able to explain a few things about it to you.”

“Thank you, Mr. Aalbatrom.”

“But ... 1784? He's dead for a long time,” the girl mumbled.

“Death is ... let's say relative. You’ll see when you enter again and you’ll meet him,” smiled Aalbatrom.

The children entered the Pavilion again, Johnny hurrying as usual, as for Elizabeth, more dragged as she got blocked because of Aalbatrom's words.

“Immanuel Kant, 1784 ... 1784,” said Johnny, letting know that he didn't know what he did or looked for.

From the pile of pictures that were there, Johnny and Elizabeth searched for a particular painting. When they finally found one with a gentleman's face and his name written at the bottom of the painting: Immanuel Kant, Johnny touched the painting and the children disappeared. They appeared in a beautifully arranged and tidy room.

At a desk, sat a gentleman wearing a white wig, tied in a ponytail with a red ribbon, dressed in a pair of trousers that were tight to the knees on the lower legs. His clothing was complemented by a white shirt and a blue vest.

Mr. Kant looked up.

“Womit kann ich Ihnen helfen?” spoke the gentleman in German.

The kids didn't understand anything. They looked at each other, then Miss Edwards spoke:

“I'm Elizabeth and he's Johnny. We’re from England and we’d like to ...”

“Oooh, England ...! I haven't had any English in my house for a long time. I can practice my English with you,” Mr. Kant told them in English, with a German accent.

Mr. Kant got up from the table and said to the two children:

“Sit down at the table, please.”

“We don't have much time, Mr. Kant. We just want you to help us with a diary where nothing is written, but one night a text appeared in it ‘What was written with ice ... will only be seen through the ice’. Maybe we shouldn’t insist so much… But it's one of the things my parents left to me.”

"Sure it's empty ... You just saw it, nothing was written in it," said Johnny, grumpy.

  “An empty diary, you say? Which must somehow be open. Why would anyone try so hard to keep it locked up if there’s nothing written in it?”

Mr. Kant thought a little and then told the children:

“What can you tell me about this apple?” he asked.

"That apple is red," Johnny said quickly, smiling as if he knew the answer to the hardest question possible.

“Exactly ...,” Mr. Kant replied, smiling. “We all see that it’s red. It’s a correct statement because it’s visible. Because we rely on sensory perception. But…”

He thought a little and continued:

“Tell me if you know how much is eight plus three.”

"Eleven," Johnny said again, just as glad as he knew the answer to another philosopher's question.

“Do you agree with this result, my dear?” Mr. Kant asked Elizabeth.

The boy, for safety, calculated the result on his fingers. And ... to his surprise, he got the same result.

“Yes ...” she finally said, still thinking of her concerns.

“You see ... this statement isn’t based on sensory perception. But that doesn't mean it's not true. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It's an algebraic calculation that Mr. Johnny also checked.”

Immanuel Kant saw the little girl very far away. He smiled.

“I see you thinking, my dear. Did anything happen?”

The girl sighed.

“I thought ... Maybe it’s something written in that diary from my parents. Even though it’s empty ... it actually looks empty to the eyes normally, but maybe something is written in it.”

“Even if we don’t perceive it by senses it doesn’t mean it’s not real. There’s definitely something written there. And there’s certainly a way to make it visible. You’ll discover something hidden by your parents, for all the others. They probably provided you with some clues to let you know what’s written in it. All you need is that ice.”

The girl stood up smiling.

“Johnny!”

The boy winced as if something had exploded in that room.

“My parents left a message for me. They certainly want me to see what is written in that magic diary. I just have to see how ...”

This time she took the boy by the hand and forced him to get up from the table where they sat.

“Let's go,” she told the boy. “Thank you, Mr. Kant!”

“With pleasure, my dear. And don't forget ... dare to know.”

“Goodbye, Mr. Kant!”

“Goodbye ... come again soon for a chat.”

The children uttered the magic of exiting and appeared again at the entrance to the Wisdom Pavilion.

“Did you unravel the mystery?” Aalbatrom asked.

“Part of it ... we just need to know how we can see something invisible.”

"Maybe Da Vinci will help you with some ideas," said the little elf.

“We'll go to him then.”

"Let's go to the meeting first," Johnny told Elizabeth. “We’ll meet this Vinci later.”

And the two hurried to their rooms to prepare for the regular Saturday breakfast meeting with Mr. Knudlac and the other professors.

…

“What have you done? Have you thought about opening the diary?”

“No ... I waited for you to go and see if Da Vinci could help us. Instead I calculated a few old recipes ... the quantities of ingredient that need to be mixed.”

“How boring is maths time ... but how boring it is to spend your Saturdays like that,” Johnny complained. “I never understood what magic has to do with maths ...”

“Mr. Knudlac said that what helps us in difficult situations in life is knowledge. This is what Mr. Kant told us, do you remember?”

“Yeah ...” Johnny said not very convinced.

“All subjects such as mathematics, chemistry, biology and others are part of the knowledge. They help us to become good wizards. To think before we act.”

“I think we should also socialize. Too much can damage your brain...,” Johnny smiled proudly, though because he had such a smart girl next to him.

“If learning ... means ruining my mind, then yes, I do it with pleasure,” smiled the girl.

“Come on, let’s look for Vinci.”

“Leonardo Da Vinci ... a great inventor. He can certainly help us.”

The two returned to the Wisdom Pavilion and after being allowed inside, searched and touched the right painting to see Leonardo Da Vinci.

The two children arrived in a workshop. Plenty of apprentices worked on various inventions.

Some of them worked on a flying suit that had arms made of light dry wood and even had feathers.

Other disciples worked on an imposing catapult, which would surely help anyone trying to besiege a fortress, destroy even the thickest walls.

The children, however, headed for an office where there was a man of about sixty, with long, grey hair and a white beard. The man was wearing old clothes dirty with various paints and oils.

“Mr. Leonardo Da Vinci?” Elizabeth asked.

“Leonardo di ser Piero Da Vinci at your disposal.”

The inventor reached out his hand without looking at the two children, thinking further about his drawings, scattered on that desk.

As he got no response, he returned. He was surprised when he saw the two children.

“Who are you? Thieves ... beggars !?” Mr. Da Vinci frowned.

Without waiting for an answer, Mr. Da Vinci called out to an apprentice:

“Luigi, who let these kids get in here ?! Take care of them!”

Luigi got close, shouting at them in Italian:

“USCITE FUORI LADRI! FUORI CON VOI!”

“Mr. Da Vinci ... we come from Mr. Tennyson.”

Luigi didn’t stop, however, from the task he was given. He grabbed Johnny by the collar and pushed him out.

Mr. Da Vinci took some sheets of paper and threw them at poor Luigi's head.

“Lascea questi bambini in pace. Sono nipote di rege, non vedi che bene sono vestiti!? TONTO! CREATURA SENZA NESSUNA RAGIONE!”

After Luigi apologized in his mother tongue, Da Vinci still reprimanded him a little in Italian:

“Cieco, buono a nulla…”

Then he asked the two children to sit at the desk and smiled gently.

“How's my good friend, Tennnyson?”

"I think he's preparing a letter for you," the girl said, smiling at Johnny.

When Da Vinci heard this, his eyes began to shine.

"He definitely gives me ideas for my arrow and flame thrower," said the inventor, while his glittering eyes were staring at a spot as if that invention were there.

Johnny woke Mr. Da Vinci deep into his thoughts, coughing slightly.

“Mr. Da Vinci, we have a question. When we heard we came to Florence, we really wanted to see to you. Lord Tennyson told us that you were the only one who could help us decipher the meaning of the words: what was written with ice ... will only be seen through the ice.”

Mr. Da Vinci began to think and talk frantically. In English ... and in Italian alternatively.

“What was written with ice ... solo attraverso il ghiaccio...”

He took a piece of coal and wrote on a wall. Then he erased still with the same piece of coal as dark as night, everything he wrote on the wall.

He took a quill pen made of peacock feather, bright green, dipped in a black substance and wrote on a piece of paper. After that ... he erased everything with the same pen.

“It seems that if I wrote something ... e ho cancellato con la stessa cosa. Nothing can be seen anymore,” remarked Mr. Da Vinci.

“What was written with pen ... it will only be seen through the pen,” Johnny thought. “Elizabeth ... maybe you should write again in that diary.”

“I tried, Johnny. I wrote in it and those words written by me disappeared in the diary pages. I also poured a whole ton of ink and it disappeared ...”

“But maybe because you didn't write with an ice pen?”

The boy thought a little, then continued:

“Look, for example I have a pen with a fire nib that burns the words on the page ... as if writing with fire. The nib is made of fire dragon scale. And I know Pepplyn, my roommate, has a nib made of rock dragon scale ... it looks like carving up in diary pages, so that nib can write. I thought ... Of course there must be ice nibs too, considering there are ice dragons.”

Elizabeth didn't know what the boy talked about, but jumped cheerfully from the chair she sat on. She saw so many magic and amazing things lately, that she knew she’d find exactly what she needed.

“Let's go look for that magic pen then.”

“I know exactly where to find it. If it’s there, we’ll find it for sure,” the boy smiled somewhat confident.

“You're a genius, Johnny!”

“Evan smarter than Vinci!”

The children joined hands, then uttering the exit magic, left Da Vinci alone ... and surprised that the two disappeared suddenly, vanished into the wind.

After only a few moments, the inventor forgot about the children and returned to his inventions.

…

Outside the entrance to the Wisdom Pavilion, Aalbatrom waited for them.

“Mr. Aalbatrom, is there a pen with ice dragon nib?”

“Of course, my dear. Rujnoiu definitely had something like this ...”

“That’s what I hoped ... let's buy one,” Johnny urged Elizabeth.

But Aalbatrom stopped them:

“Johnny, Mr. Knudlac asked me to let you know he’s waiting for you to talk to you.”

“But ...”

“He said it’s something that can no longer be postponed. Something about maths lessons that will help you in life ...”

Johnny looked at the girl and said:

“This maths will follow me like a nightmare all my life ...”

He then turned to the girl and said, upset:

“Unfortunately I can't come. But don't worry, Rujnoiu is a good elf. Even if he’s grumpy by nature at first sight, after he realizes you’re kind, he’ll give you what you need. Take 5 pennies... to buy whatever you need.”

Elizabeth didn't know what to say. She hesitated.

“Come on, get the money. You'll give it back to me sometime. Go take your pen and see what is written in that diary. It may be something important ... from your parents.”

The girl took the money, hugged Johnny as you do with a dear brother, then left for Rujnoiu's magic shop.

The boy began to run towards the tower where the professors lived to meet Professor Knudlac.