The Sway - Alambra's Tale

      Professor Zinthos had looked at the clock as well. "Twenty minutes, everyone!" he called out. "Make sure your code is as great as it can be." He then went back to the notebook on his desk. He always had that notebook, and Alambra had noticed that. The Lenny was highly curious as to what was written on the mysterious paper, but she had yet to work up the courage to ask.

      As the minutes whittled by, Alambra kept working on her code, but everything she came up with was as horrendous as the last. Nothing was good, and she needed great. Finally, with less than two minutes left in the class, she finally got it. Alambra quickly jotted down a key, an example of the code, and an impressive name for the cipher.

      "Pencils down, students!" Professor Zinthos announced. The old blue Eyrie then made his way around the room, looking at each student's circled code and giving each one a grade. The professor gave one student in each class an A, followed by two who got Bs, then three Cs, four Ds, and the rest had Fs. Some might say he was a harsh grader, but he just wanted to make sure the lines between good, average, and poor were not blurred.

      "C, D, F, D, F, C, F, B, F, F, F, D... Well, what do we have here?" Professor Zinthos had arrived at Alambra's desk. He whistled. "This is one fine code, Alambra. You get the A for sure." He smiled, then moved on. "F, C, D, B, F, F, F. That's everyone. You are all free to go."

      Alambra packed all her things into her stuffed backpack, which contained many things, among which were notebooks, folders, books, and a chess set. When she stood up, though, Professor Zinthos called to her. "Alambra, could I ask you to stay a few minutes?"

      Alambra shuffled over to his desk with visible pride in her steps. That was one of her most obvious qualities: pride in her work.

      "Have a seat," the professor said; and she did so. "You are obviously an accomplished cryptographer; where did you encounter these skills, might I ask?"

      "I... don't know," Alambra admitted. "I guess I've had them all my life. I'm good at puzzles and stuff, just as a whole, I suppose."

      "Well, how would you like a project to work on over the summer?" Professor Zinthos asked. "It would certainly be a challenge, but I'm sure you could solve it with enough time."

      "Sure, I would love that!" Alambra exclaimed.

      "Well then, here you go." The professor opened his notebook, tore out a sheet, and handed it to her. "Now, this won't be graded, but I would be very proud of you if you could solve it... and I'm sure you'd be proud of yourself, too," he finished with a knowing smile.

      Alambra couldn't help but smile back; and as she did, she noticed for the first time an amulet hung around the professor's neck, one with a large red jewel. Professor Zinthos noticed her gaze.

      "I see you've noticed my amulet. Yes, I made this myself, quite a few years back, after doing quite a bit of research on it. It's a very special amulet, you see; but you'll find out more about it when you complete your cipher. Now, off you go! Have a nice summer!" he exclaimed.

      "Thanks!" Alambra responded. "I'll work hard on this cipher, that's for sure." And with that, she left for home.

      For weeks, Alambra pored over the sheet the professor had given her, but she couldn't find any semblance of a pattern anywhere. She compared it to every code she had around the house, and every puzzle she could find at the library, but there was nothing, nothing she noticed that would help to decode it.

      Then, one day, she had a stroke of inspiration. She carefully made an exact copy of the paper, then cut it into pieces and put the shreds back together in any way she could. At last, they formed something new -- words! She had done it! Unfortunately, she could not make neither heads nor tails of the message. She read it once, twice, and several times more, but it didn't make any sense. It read:

     "Meet at the moon. 28 lakes. Be there."

      Alambra had solved one puzzle, but had created another. She decided to take each word by itself. "Meet at the" seemed simple enough, as did "Be there," but the rest of the message was as cryptic as could be. 'Moon' obviously couldn't be literal, as a trip to Kreludor was very costly in those days, before widespread rocket travel became available. Alambra decided to think first of the phases of the moon. Full, crescent, half, new... Wait! she thought. The library's name was the Crescent Library! Surely it would be the meeting place! One part of the puzzle solved.

      Alambra next focused on '28 lakes'. There weren't any bodies of water nearby, much less twenty-eight. Anyway, the meeting place had already been established, which diminished the number of possible meanings of the phrase. Perhaps she should think of things in a lake? Water, Kikos, boats, other Neopets, algae... Nothing seemed promising. Maybe it had to do with something one does in a lake... and then it her. It was the Month of Swimming. You swim in a lake. That must have been when the meeting would take place. And if that were true, then the 28 would be the day of the month... which was that day!

      As soon as Alambra came to this realization, she rushed to the Crescent Library with her backpack on her back and the sheet in her hands. When she entered, the librarian addressed her.

      "There is a man waiting for you, honey," she said. "His name's Zinthos, he said. He's in the Neopian Times archives."

      Alambra walked briskly (because running was not allowed in the library) to the archives, where Professor Zinthos was indeed waiting.

      "I knew you'd come, Alambra," he said. "A Neopet with your brains, how could you not?"

      "Thanks," Alambra gasped, out of breath. She had run far and quickly. "Why are we here?"

      "That's a good question. Let's leave." Professor Zinthos lifted his amulet, and a flash of light appeared. It quickly flew the two of them out of the library and above oceans, wilderness, and the Lost Desert, before swooping down to a small island. There, the Eyrie and Lenny walked to a large castle which, oddly, had not been visible from the air.

      "Alambra, this is the castle of the Sway. We are a secret organization, created to help people in need and keep peace within Neopia, no matter what the cost. We -- I would like for you to join. You would be of great help to us, and I believe you would find it most enlightening."

      Alambra thought. "Does the Sway hurt people?"

      The professor was taken aback by the question. "If necessary, we will use force to attain our goal."

      "How much force?"

      "Not too much." Zinthos was troubled by the conversation. "Please, join. You will not regret it."

      "...All right. I accept your proposal."

      "Thank you." With that, Zinthos took Alambra through the doors of the castle. Inside the fortress were several hundred Neopets, hustling and bustling around. One bowed to Zinthos and said, "Welcome, Emperor." The professor merely nodded to him and then whistled loudly. At once, all motion in the castle stopped, all ears rapt with attention. The emperor spoke.

      "Agents, I bring to you our newest recruit. Her name is Alambra, and she has been hand-picked by myself. She is an expert cryptologist, with an intelligence to rival my own. As such, I am appointing her into the council of the Sway." He turned to the purple Lenny. "Alambra," he whispered, "how would you like to be known?"

      Alambra pondered for a moment. "Call me... No, I am the Duchess."

      The emperor turned back to the crowd. "Agents, welcome to the ranks... the Duchess."

The End