The Chronicles of Ether Drive

  Epilogue Several hours had already passed as Professor Simoon Gale waited, shivering and filled with growing anxiety, beside his jeep. He had parked on a dead-end lane in the rural townland of Glenballythomas, within County Roscommon. A freezing drizzle had begun to fall, its icy drops stinging his face, which was only partially shielded by the oversized hood of his heavy, waterproof jacket. He paced back and forth in short bursts, while a thousand thoughts—each darker than the last—raced through his mind. "Is it possible they didn't make it? Could they have missed this very last portal too?" He glanced once more toward the back seat. The warm clothes, heavy jackets, and jumpers he had packed with such meticulous care for Remi and Anemo were still there, completely untouched. "But what about the animals? Where on earth did they disappear to?" Steeling himself, he switched on his torch and stepped past the stile gate, entering the field of frozen grass. "C...

    Chapter 40: Oweynagat In the depths of the Cats' Cave, Oweynagat, time flowed differently, measured only by the heavy drops of water detaching themselves from the limestone ceiling. As soon as the water of the Mirror of Time in Cairo released them, Anemo burst to the surface of the Other Mirror in Ireland. He was breathing raggedly, gasping for air as if after a long, deep dive. His very first instinct was to check the green front carrier backpack, where Remi had remained calm and motionless. The Collar of the Two Skies, which she had worn both as a blessing and a curse ever since the evening of the summer solstice, began to pulse like the warm heart of a runaway creature, just as the obsidian mirrors of Oweynagat began to stir with unease. "Are you alright, Remi?" The white cat's eyes seemed to measure the damp cave walls with awe and disbelief. "I have a cat's eyes, Anemo, so it doesn't surprise me that I can see, but what about you? Are you alright...

   Chapter 39: Preparations In the House of the Winds in Clonee, Dublin 15, Fleur was deeply upset on the day of the winter solstice. She was watching the Professor’s preparations to leave and meet Anemo and Remi, but she was not allowed to go with him. Her parents had been absolutely strict and unyielding on the matter. "It's freezing, and the road is covered in ice!" her father had said, firmly. "The Professor has enough on his plate; you're the last thing he needs right now! Stay safely at home, and you can see Anemo tomorrow morning!" her mother had added. But, of course, her parents had no idea that going after Anemo didn't mean a quick drive to the airport, but a tense journey to Roscommon instead. So Fleur could do nothing but watch helplessly as the animals bustled around excitedly, getting ready to take over the back seat of the jeep. "Did you pack warm clothes for Anemo and Remi, Professor?" the little tufted-haired girl asked. "...

   Chapter 38: Impressions on the Retina Time sometimes expands or contracts depending on the mood of those living through it. For Anemo and Remi—who was still trapped in the body of a white Angora cat—the fifty days remaining until the winter solstice perfectly mirrored this illusion. Some days were long and exhausting, especially for Remi, who had emerged from her experience within the Ether Wall drained of all her strength, where her human spirit had drifted like a ghost, visible only to cats. Other days were far too short, never leaving enough time for all the information the two wanted to gather. They needed to learn everything they could to travel through the Mirrors of Time and reach the Cats' Cave, Oweynagat, in Ireland. Yet, one thing remained as clear as daylight in their minds: they would do whatever it took to return Remi to her true body as a strong, independent woman. "Tell us, Shehrazad," Anemo asked during one of their days of feverish preparation for the ...

  Chapter 37: By Air or By Water? "It is the first of November, Remi..." Anemo whispered. "Rest now. You have been standing by the boys inside the Ether Wall for a whole week." "A week?" Remi remained flat on Shehrazad’s thick carpet, lifting her head with great effort to look around. Shehrazad’s courtyard looked like a battlefield after an army’s retreat. It was clear that all their living anchors—both cats and humans—were completely exhausted. Tea and coffee cups, plates with leftover food, abandoned blankets, and ropes soaked in cedar resin lay scattered across the stone mosaic floor. "How? How did you manage to watch over us for so many days?" Remi asked. "Your wrist looks terrible, Anemo. Thank you for staying by my side." "We took turns untying ourselves from the anchoring bond, Remi," Anemo replied. "We all had our own needs to take care of, but we worked perfectly together as a team." "Right now, we are ...

    Chapter 36: On Damnatio Memoriae and Feline Energy "All three of them have woken up!" Shehrazad cried, tears of emotion welling in the corners of her eyes. "My children are coming home!" A shiver like a sudden breeze swept through the courtyard and through everyone gathered by the Mirror of Time. Samir was the first to sit up. Rubbing his left eye with his hand, he looked around in wonder. "Jaddati! Have we held the meeting in the courtyard this time?" He extended a hand to his brother, whilst simultaneously feeling duty-bound to check on Remi’s condition, at least with a glance. "Are we all alright?" Anemo, Dr Hazem El-Amin, Shehrazad, and all the cats seemed to be recovering from an uncomfortable numbness. Shehrazad went to each of them, weeping silently, untying the twine soaked in cedar resin. Demir simply threw himself into his grandmother’s arms. "Don't cry anymore, Jaddati! I'm back! I will never leave you again! I saw eve...

 Chapter 35: Demir’s Return "I think all three of us can go back to the future now. Shehrazad is waiting for you! You are her whole reason for living—her family brought back from the depths of history," whispered Remi. She knelt on one knee right there, inside the glowing Ether Wall, and pulled both children into a warm hug.  "You, Samir, have already guessed that I am actually your aunt in this world. I am part of the family too. Let’s go back!" "Not yet!" the boys shouted together. "Let’s have one last meeting with Mum! She’ll be so happy to see us, and... since she’s in a cat’s body right now, she can actually see us." Straight away, as if the Ether had heard their wish, the scenery changed again. They found themselves in a tiny, humble room. It was poor but clean, and it smelled of sweet honey.  Two beautiful white cats with dazzling, electric-blue eyes were sitting on a very neat-looking rug. Next to them sat Mehyt, the big black cat, and a ...

  Chapter 34: The Rescue "No!" Demir cried out, his fists clenched, clawing into the weave of the linen shirt he wore. "Ay is killing everyone because of us! We represented an inconceivable danger to this evil puppet master." The bodies of the three were shaken by convulsive, uncontrollable weeping when the setting shifted once more, and they came to rest in Queen Meritmut’s bedchamber. There, in the warm gloom of the room lit only by the flickering flame of a sesame oil lamp, Meritmut and Meritbastet knelt upon a woven reed mat. Pressed tightly between their joined palms, they desperately held a miniature figurine of the goddess Bastet, sculpted from dark bronze. The figurine—a sacred cat sitting proudly upon its hind legs—had two minuscule eyes of green malachite that gleamed mystically in the semi-darkness, catching the glint of the fire. The two women pressed their foreheads against the cold metal of the statuette, sharing the same agony and the same divine hope...

  Chapter 33. A Perfect Crime While within the Ether Wall Remi and the two boys experienced subtly coded messages, revelations, and a new vision of Amarna’s true history, in Shehrazad’s courtyard all those bound with the cedar-resin-soaked rope were waiting on tenterhooks for the trio's return. Upon their faces, one could read the anxiety and dread that, from now on, instead of a single captive within the Ether Wall, there were three. The placement of the carpet, where Remi and the children lay stretched out in the immediate vicinity of the Mirror of Time, allowed everyone to simultaneously track the images drifting across the water's glossy surface and the facial expressions of the three. "Look, they have tears in their eyes, they are crying!" Shehrazad observed at one point. "I pray to all the gods that they return safely among us!" The seven cats, though bound with rope, were placed almost strategically all around the mirror and watched, as if hypnotized,...

  Chapter 32: Assassination and Revelations Remi and the two children had already been inside the Wall of Ether for a while by the time Shehrazad finished binding them with the cedar-resin-soaked string. Yet, this foray felt completely different from all the others. They were traveling now as if teleported through various places and moments of the past they had already visited, as though the mirror were giving them a chance to look at the same events from multiple angles. The images were pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that carried a message of massive importance. They relived Remi’s very first journey into the past, back to the childhood home of the fourteen-year-old twins, Meritmut and Meritbastet. They saw the sisters' embrace and the Collars of the Two Skies around their necks, without them being turned into cats. Then, all their other visits flashed before the eyes of the three onlookers. It seemed that every single time, the collars took center stage, or Meritbastet’s shifts from o...

    Chapter 31: Time Like a Rolling Ball Remi and Samir’s sudden collapse left the onlookers on both sides of the video call momentarily frozen. But after that single second of shock, panic gripped them all, and they reacted as one. In Dublin, the eyes of the three furry creatures filled with tears that they fought hard to hold back; each of them wanted to be brave. Their voices—a strange blend of squeaks and meows—mingled with Professor Simoon Gale’s deep, heavy sigh of grief. In Cairo, Shehrazad and Anemo snapped out of their trance and rushed forward to gather the two into their arms. Their very first thoughts were identical: "The doctor! We must call Dr Hazem El-Amin!" Simoon was the first to regain his composure. In a calm yet commanding voice, he stepped in to guide his son: "Steady, my boy. Check their pulse and temperature first. Use your hands... Yes, you must call the doctor, but I strongly advise you not to take them inside the house just yet." Anemo, who...

   Chapter 30: The Mirrors of Time Shehrazad’s painful confession seemed to find its echo in the mosaic fountain—the Mirror of Time that she kept in her own inner courtyard. The fact that Remi and Samir were forbidden from traveling through the Ether Wall did not sever them entirely from the past. Kaleidoscopic images drifted across the glossy surface of the water. "Jaddati!" cried Samir, who had been lingering by the fountain. "Come and see! This mirror isn't just showing scenes from Ancient Egypt! Come quickly!" The three sitting at the black marble table rose at once. Led by Remi, they hurried to the Mirror of Time, flanking the boy between them. Upon the water’s surface, the images flashed past at a dizzying speed, yet they formed a repeating sequence, like a coded message. Gazing into the depths, the four of them realized their fountain was not alone. It pulsed in harmony with a vast network of mirrors of time scattered across the globe, which were now reco...

  Chapter 29: A Cruel Twist of Fate Although they were completely forbidden from traveling through the Ether Wall, Anemo and Remi spent most of their time at Shehrazad’s house. It was the evening of the twenty-fourth of October, and the two weeks of rest imposed by Dr Hazem weighed heavily on them. It was, in fact, another kind of mandatory quarantine, a barrier that sorely tested their minds and patience. Every evening, they would gather in the inner courtyard under Cairo’s pale amber sky, watching as the Mirror of Time slowly repaired itself, filling with water. On one such night, when the silence had almost become a tight, uncomfortable garment, Remi, who was sitting at the black marble table placed between Anemo and Shehrazad to ease the flow of conversation, plucked up her courage. Having first touched the woman’s hand with her pink cat’s tongue, she asked: "How did you lose your family, Shehrazad?" Shehrazad’s hazel-gold gaze grew suddenly misty. She seemed to be search...

  Chapter 28: Concentric Circles The return to the present, triggered by the long buzzing of the sea-turtle clock, was always exhausting for everyone taking part in the ritual at Shehrazad’s house, but especially for Remi and the twins. Samir opened his eyes at the exact same moment as the white cat, but Demir didn't. He only shifted slightly in his sleep, clenching his fists in an act of silent defiance. Seeing the movement of her long-asleep grandson, Shehrazad, who had already started untying the twine soaked in cedar resin, froze with her breath held, filled with hope. But no, Demir had not come back to life this time either. "You stubborn boy!" the woman cried out in frustration. "I don't want to lose either of you! I’ve already lost one family, and no, I am not willing to give up anything to some mystical mirror!" Samir, visibly exhausted, climbed down from his brother’s bed and hugged her tightly. "Jaddati, it will be fine. You won't lose us!...

   Chapter 27: The Queen is Dead On the evening of Sunday, the eleventh of October, Shehrazad’s house felt smaller than usual, packed with people and an anxious, heavy silence. Everyone was there for one reason: to fix the Mirror of Time and drag Demir back to life. The seven cats had returned, moving like shadows through the corners to clear away any negative energy. Dr Hazem El-Amin kept a watchful eye on the health of the twins and Remi, while Omar—their newest ally—stood quietly next to Anemo. No one spoke. They all just watched the familiar, solemn ritual of the cedar-resin twine wrapping around their wrists. "We are their anchor now," Anemo whispered into Omar's ear. "For Remi and the twins." Shehrazad set the sea-turtle clock with a steady hand. She turned to Samir and Remi, her voice soft but firm. "You have seventy minutes. Try to bring my boy back. Dr Hazem says if we fail tonight, it will be another two weeks before we can hold another session....

    Chapter 26: A Ventriloquist? Remi jumped a little at Omar’s touch. But after all, she was the author of *Women Can’t Be Tamed*—she couldn’t let her feelings get the better of her, and she certainly wasn't going to be left speechless. So, keeping her cool, she casually spoke to their temporary taxi driver, who definitely knew more about Egyptian artefacts than they did, being just a couple of ordinary writers. "Hi, Omar! I’m Anemo’s childhood friend, and right now, I’m trapped inside this gorgeous fur." Omar froze with his hand on the cat’s neck, his fingers buried deep in her white fur. For three long seconds, the only sound in the Royal Jewellery Room was the distant clicking of tourists' cameras. Then, the student-turned-driver snapped his hand back as if he’d been electric-shocked. He let out a nervous laugh, staring straight at Anemo. "No way! You've totally caught me off guard, Mr Writer!" he said, rolling his eyes as he tried to catch his breat...

   Chapter 25: Exhibit 1420 On the morning of the seventh of October, at ten o'clock, Anemo was looking out of the bedroom window, waiting for Omar and his black-and-white taxi. The young man had become his friend and personal guide, but Anemo still hadn't found the courage to reveal the white cat's true identity to him. She, the white cat, was pacing from one end of the flat to the other, as if trying to hit her daily step count before being loaded into the pet carrier. "No need to be nervous, Remi! We're visiting the museum in broad daylight this time, and we'll be just ordinary visitors. We don't even need the second collar anymore!" Anemo said, reassuring Remi as much as himself. "He's here! Right, time to board! Your Highness Al-Beyda, your grand journey is about to begin!" he joked, helping his friend and rival into the carrying bag. The morning was surprisingly fresh. There was a completely strange scent in the air for Egypt, as if...