She paused. On reflection, maybe Christopher had a point. Sending two tired seers on this task was a fool’s errand. They’d need support, at least until they’d rested and rejuvenated their powers.

“You can each take another with you,” she said. “Lookouts who can watch over you when you need to sleep. But you must decide quickly. Who will you take?”

“Natasha Armstrong,” Malcolm said without missing a beat.

“A good choice,” Mistress Obsidian replied. Natasha was one of the students who attended her gifted and talented class. She would make a fine addition to the mission. “Christopher?”

Chris floundered. “I don’t know anyone. I’ve never had a chance to make any friends here.”

“Then take someone you met from your last mission,” Mistress Obsidian told him impatiently, trying to hurry him along. “Whoever you felt helped you the most.”

“Madeleine,” Christopher said, shrugging.

Mistress Obsidian scoffed. “Madeleine? The carrot top whose mouth I zipped shut the other day? Very well. It’s your choice.”

She tapped into her seer powers, searching within herself for the surge of energy she needed to move atoms. She knew every nook and cranny of her precious school, and it was easy for her mind to latch on to the exact locations where Madeleine and Natasha were sleeping. This would be quite a rude awakening for them.

Using all her glorious talent, Mistress Obsidian grabbed hold of their atoms and moved them, tugging them all the way into her office. She rearranged them again, until the two girls materialized in front of her.

They both blinked, looking startled, their cheeks flushing red as they realized they were standing in their nightgowns in the middle of the head teacher’s office.

“Madeleine. Natasha,” Mistress Obsidian announced, “today is your lucky day. Today, you are going on a very important mission, one that will result in the annihilation of Amethyst’s once and for all. Today, you are going to Rome. Today you will kill Oliver Blue.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Gianni, the Italian seer, led the four friends through the enchanted brick wall. As they emerged through the veil and out the other side, Oliver gasped at the sight that awaited him.

He’d never seen anything quite like it. The Italian version of the School for Seers was the most extravagant-looking place he’d ever seen. Unlike Sister Judith’s school in England, which had had the vibe of a monastery, and his own school in the U.S, which at times felt like a futuristic spaceship, this one had the vibe of a royal palace. He was half expecting to see a king waltz through the huge doors, or a row of bugle players to announce their arrival.

“This way,” David said, relaying back to them what Gianni was saying.

They hurried inside the huge school. Here, the opulence only increased. There were columns of marble and statues all over the place, not to mention an intricately painted domed ceiling. It made Oliver think of all the Renaissance-era artists, like da Vinci and especially Michelangelo, who painted huge murals on the ceilings of religious buildings. He wondered whether a few had visited the school.

As they hurried along the corridors, Oliver felt a strange sense of déjà vu overcome him. He couldn’t understand it, but it felt to him as if he’d been here once before.

“You okay?” Hazel asked.

Oliver nodded. “I just have a weird feeling, that’s all. Like I’ve been here before.”

A frown appeared between Hazel’s eyebrows. “Perhaps you have. Another you, I mean. From a different timeline.”

Oliver pondered her words. It was of course possible that a different version of himself had been to this place before, but that didn’t account for the strange feeling of familiarity Oliver himself was having. Any different Oliver from a different timeline would have different memories. There was no way he’d be able to tap into those.

It was a complete mystery. And yet, with each footstep he took, he felt more and more like he’d walked this exact path before.

Oliver shook the thoughts from his head. It was impossible. He must’ve just been thinking of a history book he’d read, or a documentary he’d watched. Perhaps he was recalling a dream. Either way, he didn’t have time to waste thinking about it. He had to stay focused on Esther, on finding the Elixir to save her life.

Gianni led them up to a large lacquered door and rapped his knuckles against it. He turned his head and said something to David. David relayed the message in English to the others.

“This is the headmistress’s office.”

Oliver gulped. He couldn’t help but feel nervous every time he met another powerful and revered seer. He respected Professor Amethyst more than anyone in the universe and to meet his counterparts through history was always a humbling, nerve-wracking experience.

Gianni opened the door and led them into an office. It was enormous, more like the ballroom of a palace than a head teacher’s office. There were large paintings in gold frames all over the dark green walls, and a huge marble fireplace. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling and the smell of almonds punctuated the air.

As they moved farther inside, Oliver saw a large desk behind which sat an extremely elegant-looking woman. Though she was old, she was extremely glamorous and there was a youthful energy in her bright eyes. She had the same olive-colored skin and dark eyes as Gianni. Luscious shiny black hair hung over one shoulder in waves.

“Oliver Blue?” she asked, her voice soft and lilting, her Italian accent strong.

“Yes,” he stammered, a little overcome by her strong presence.

“Please. Take a seat.” She gestured to a row of chairs and smiled, her teeth white, her smile inviting. “All of you.”

Oliver felt bewildered by everything, but did as he was instructed. His friends sat alongside him in solidarity.

“I’m the headmistress of the Rome Seer School,” the woman announced. “Lucia Moretti. Let me first welcome you.”

“Thank you,” Oliver stammered. He felt a little flustered in the presence of such an elegantly powerful woman.

The headmistress continued. “I understand you were able to activate the ancient portal that was rumored to lead you to the Elixir. I must say I am rather surprised that it led you here.” There was a sparkle of excitement in her eye. “To think, the key to finding the Elixir has been on my doorstep all along.” She smiled at Oliver. “I am not surprised that after all these centuries, it was you of all people who managed to activate the portal, Oliver Blue.”

Oliver frowned, confused. What did that mean?

“I don’t understand,” he said. “What do you mean me ‘of all people’?”

“Why, you’re the son of Margaret Oliver and Theodore Blue!” she exclaimed. “Aren’t you?”

At the sound of his parents’ names, Oliver felt his heart begin to pound. Walter and Hazel visibly jerked in their seats. As two of Oliver’s closest friends, they knew full well how he’d been desperately searching for his parents.

“You know my parents?” Oliver asked, his voice sounding breathless from shock.

“Of course I do,” the headmistress replied. A small frown had appeared between her eyebrows. “They’re rather famous in these parts. But you know all this.”

“I don’t, actually,” Oliver said hurriedly. “My parents gave me up for adoption. I know nothing about them.” His voice was racing now, as if trying to hurry through the conversation so he could get to the conclusion quicker. “Are they here? In Rome? Do you know where I can find them?”

Lucia Moretti’s face fell. “I’m sorry. I feel I’ve spoken out of turn.”

“Not at all,” Oliver replied quickly. “Please, tell me anything you know. I have nothing to go on. Just their names and that they studied at Harvard. Oh, and a notebook of my father’s.”

The headmistress’s eyebrows rose slowly up her forehead. “A notebook?” she asked. “May I see it?”

“Of course.” Oliver took the notebook from Hazel, who had been keeping it in her satchel, and quickly handed it to her. If she knew anything about his parents, he wanted to know.

Mistress Moretti leafed through the book. “Oliver, do you know what this is?”

He shook his head.

“It is a formula,” she told him. “A formula for the Elixir.”

Oliver gasped. “What?! You mean the cure was with me all along?”

“Wait. Relax,” she said. “Do not get ahead of yourself. What I mean to say is that this is an attempt to create the formula for the Elixir. Your parents were human, Oliver. You are aware of this, aren’t you? They didn’t have seer powers. Therefore, time travel was completely unavailable to them. But they moved in seer circles. They wanted to experience what seers could. Here is proof that your father was attempting to create his own Elixir. With it, he’d be able to travel in time, throughout timelines and alternative parallel worlds. But it is incomplete. He did not succeed.”

A whole host of emotions vied inside Oliver. He couldn’t absorb all the information he’d just been given. To think his mortal parents had been trying to unlock the secrets of time travel felt odd to him. What could they possibly want to be able to travel through time for? Seers time traveled to fulfill the destiny of the universe, to protect the timelines on her command, to undo the work of rogue seers who attempted to create havoc. But humans had no need to travel through time. It was dangerous enough for a seer, but for a human? Surely it was suicide.

He didn’t know whether to be relieved that his father’s formula was incomplete or not. If Teddy Blue had succeeded in creating the Elixir then he’d be able to save Esther life. But because he had not, perhaps that in itself had saved his father’s life?

Mistress Moretti snapped the book shut. “Oliver, you know nothing happens by coincidence. The portal brought you here for a reason, because somehow this is the place the Elixir will be discovered. I believe this notebook is the first step. The second step comes from me.”

Oliver frowned with curiosity. “What do you mean?”

“I am a mathematician, Oliver,” Mistress Moretti said. “The best mind the universe has ever known. I have a mind that’s rivaled only by Einstein’s.” She drummed her fingers against the desktop and her eyes flashed with excitement. “You need my instruction. You need my knowledge. If I train you, together we will be able to complete the formula.”

“But I don’t have time,” Oliver said. “I’m not trying to find the Elixir to unlock time travel, I’m doing it because Professor Amethyst told me it is the only thing to save my friend from time travel sickness! My friend is close to death.” His voice cracked as an image of Esther appeared in his mind’s eye. Instinctively, his hand tightened around the amulet. “I don’t have time to train here.”

The headmistress paused. She tipped her head to the side and regarded Oliver for a moment. “I see.”

She seemed disappointed that Oliver hadn’t taken her up on her offer to be trained here. He had not meant to insult her. In any other time and place, he’d have snapped up the chance to train at the Rome Seer School, to learn all the mathematical genius Mistress Moretti possessed. But he just didn’t have the time.

Hazel was busy worrying her hands in her lap. She looked at Oliver with an anxious expression. “Isn’t this our only chance, though?” she asked. “The Elixir has never been created. The portal led us here because this was where we could find all the pieces of the puzzle needed to create it. Mistress Moretti’s mind is surely part of that puzzle.”

“I can see what you’re saying,” Oliver told her. “But surely Esther will die before I get the chance to learn all I need to.”

“There’s a ritual,” Mistress Moretti blurted, interrupting their conversation.

“A ritual?” Oliver asked. He didn’t like the sound of that. It sounded ominous to him. Dangerous even.

Mistress Moretti nodded slowly. “It’s… how should I say it… a complicated procedure. One I have not done before. But it may be your only hope.”

Oliver’s nerves grew even more. Her words provided him with no comfort at all.

“What will it involve?” he asked, hearing the tremble in his voice.

“It will transfer all my knowledge and abilities to you,” she explained. “It will teach you everything I know. You’ll have access to my memories, even the subconscious ones that I’ve long forgotten. Then, I believe, you’ll be able to use that knowledge to finish the formula for the Elixir. What do you say?”

The whole thing terrified Oliver. But Esther needed him. So did the school. In addition, Mistress Moretti had told him he’d be able to see her memories. She knew his parents. Perhaps her memories might also bring him closer to finding them?

“Will it hurt me?” Oliver asked.

Mistress Moretti’s lips twisted to the side in consternation. “I don’t think it will be a pleasant experience,” she told him. “I imagine that it will be quite a shock to the system.”

Oliver glanced at his friends.

Walter gave him a reassuring nod. So did Hazel, although the look in her eyes betrayed her fear. Finally, Oliver looked at David. He trusted David implicitly.

“I believe this is a good idea,” David said.

Swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, Oliver turned back to Mistress Moretti. He nodded decisively.

“Okay. I’ll do it. I’ll do the ritual.”