The main ballroom at Falmouth University was packed. Despite its name, the ballroom served more functions than just hosting dances, but also hosted other functions, such as dinners, speeches, and even fairs where people exihibited things that they had made.
And today was one such day, as of course there was a speech being delivered. The crew had already arrived at the ballroom and were preparing to take their seats. Naturally, Pipp had other things on her mind.
"What is up, Pippsqueaks?" she asked to her phone. "We are live at Falmouth today, showing you the inside of the university ballroom. No, I'm not here for a dance- though there is that new dress I'd LOVE to try out at one of these. We're here to hear somebody speak! Totes try saying that five times fast with a mouth full of marshmallows!"
Zipp leaned over her shoulder. "Less streaming, more looking where you're going," she suggested.
Pipp glanced up and swerved to the right, narrowly avoiding hitting a table. "Thanks for the heads up," she said.
"Besides, the formal events are usually for faculty, staff, and their families," Sunny explained. "I've been to them before, mainly because either there weren't any babysitters available or my uncle couldn't get down here to keep an eye on me."
Argyle rolled his eyes. "And let me tell you know those sorts of events are incredibly boring. It's not like in the films- it's mostly just people in very uncomfortable clothes standing around talking about academic things with the odd dance interrupting those conversations."
"I second that," Goldie said. "I always looked ridiculous in a gown."
"Not to me, you didn't," Argyle said quickly.
"Aww, thanks."
"We just passed our seats," Hitch said quickly.
"Hello!" called a familiar voice. Lord Haven had already taken his seat, with the Moonbows sat next to him. Izzy was already in position, already exhibiting her trademark difficulties with sitting still.
"Hi guys!" she called. "Glad you all made it! We still got some time before we start, so we can chat!"
"I've got programs that contain useful information on this topic as well," Isaac said quickly. "I imagine Zipp will want to look at them."
Zipp leaned over and took one. "Thanks."
Sunny leaned over as Zipp skimmed through the booklet. "So, any information about this guy?"
"He's got a pretty impressive resume," Aurora mentioned. "He's a graduate of the University of Reading's archeology department, and has overseen several dig sites across Britain and Europe. Currently teaches at York, according to this."
"Detailed notes in here," Zipp finally added. "Not sure we needed a blow by blow list of all the Roman aqueducts he found, though."
"And lots of long words as well," Pipp added. "Research into antidisestablishmentarian architecture?"
"People who are opposed to people who opposed to the establishment," Hitch explained. "Artificially long word invented for a joke."
And he did research for the Do- do... Dough- Now- Dampf- She- OK, that's ridiculous," Sunny added, giving up on the word. "Was the spacebar broken that day?"
"Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft." Zipp rattled the word off flawlessly.
"What?" Hitch asked. "How do you know that?"
"We have German family, and both mom and dad speak the language. In case you're wondering what it means, it translates as 'Danube Steamship Electricity Main Plant Construction Suboffice Company.' One of the longest words in existance, incidentally."
"And that's not the most common one," Goldie added. "In my line of work I frequently have to work with foreign languages, so I'm very used to dealing with extremely long words."
"I had to learn a bit just to get about when photographing railways," Argyle added. "Trying to figure out what some of them meant was always fun, such as the food intolerance one. I got a photograph of it once."
"It wasn't this one, was it?" Pipp turned her phone screen to him.
"Nahrungsmittelunverträglichkeit? That's the one."
Just then, the lights dimmed down, indicating the speech was about to begin.
After it was over, Argyle went to the stand where Firelight was doing book signings. Firelight was a man with purple skin and brown eyes, coupled with green hair with white streaks which certainly looked like he'd been out on a dig. His attire consisted of black pants, a pair of shoes, a strange yellowy shirt, a yellow tie, and a red jacket. In short, he resembled a walking jumble sale. Having said that, Argyle was hardly the image of formality himself.
He stopped in front of the table, just as Firelight was handing off the book. "Good afternoon," he said, trying to attract Firelight's attention.
Firelight glanced up from the table and smiled when he saw Argyle. "Ah, Argyle!" he said. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?" He reached out to shake his hand. "How are things? Still chasing trains across Europe?"
"I haven't really had the time," Argyle admitted. "I have a job, a wife, and a kid these days. Sunny? Could you come over here for a moment?"
"Sure thing dad!" Sunny bounded over and stopped. "Good afternoon, Mr Firelight," she said.
Firelight smiled. "There's no need to be so formal. Enjoy the talk?"
"Yeah!" Sunny replied.
Argyle leaned in. "It was a little light on information in places. What was with all the confidential stuff?"
Firelight leaned in closer. "I cannot disclose that here. Travel to York to my office and we can talk further."
Argyle nodded. "Thanks." He then backed away and called over to his family. "Sunny? Goldie? Fancy an ice cream?"
"That's a nice thought," Goldie said, and made her way over.
"Can I have a few more minutes?" Sunny asked. "We're currently engaging in Freundsch... Freundscha... Zipp, how do you say this?"
"Freundschaftsbeziehungen," Zipp quickly corrected. "It means friendship relations. Oddly formal way of saying friendship, but there you go."
Pipp leaned over. "And the next language lesson with Professor Zipp will be on Tuesday! I'll be showcasing my new brand of shampoo on Monday. Where did you say the secret ingredient came from, Izzy?"
"A bog."
Pipp's mouth dropped open. "A bog? You said it was a spa!"
"No, I said Sbog. Special bog."
As Sunny headed away from the group, she didn't notice somebody dropping something into her bag.
A few days later, the assembled team made the journey to York. It was a rather bumpy ride with the new trains, and they were glad to get off.
"I must say," Lady Haven said, "that modern train travel continues to get more and more uncomfortable. Whatever happened to properly cushioned seats and headrests that actually work?"
"It's all a mystery," Lord Haven admitted, as the University hoved into view. It mostly consisted of very ugly concrete buildings, so figuring out which was which was a bit of a challenge.
At last, they found the archeology department, and walked down the corridor to find the right office. "Department of Railway Archeology?" Sunny said. "These guys dig up old railways for a living? This would be right up our street!"
"The degree didn't exist when we were at university," Argyle joked. "Besides, photography posts tend to pay better."
They arrived at Firelight's office, and knocked on the door.
"Enter!" said a familiar voice.
They entered a room filled with charts and old maps, not disimilar to Argyle's study. Firelight was sat at his desk, consulting files. "I hope the journey wasn't too rough?" he asked.
"Tell me about it," Pipp said. "Trying to talk with that level of noise was impossible!"
"What do you have to tell us?" Isaac asked. "It's a good thing we travelled on a day when I'm not required at work."
Firelight nodded, and motioned to shut the door. "As you probably know, much of the evidence was collected by a woman called A. K. Yearling. The only problem is nobody knows where she is. From the information she has disclosed, there is a repeated clue that comes up over and over again- 'stoke the magic that lies beneath the mountain'. It's clearly a riddle of some description, so it shouldn't be taken too literally. Something that Yearling did leave, however, is coordinates to potential locations." He swung his monitor round. "Based on the information, there are three locations to investigate. The first is the Jungfrau in Switzerland."
"That's a mountain, I guess," Hitch said.
"Isn't that the mountain on the chocolate bars?" Izzy asked.
"That's the Matterhorn."
"The second is the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. This is a rock formation made thousands of years ago and looks like lots of large stepping stones. The last one is Huascaran, in Peru, which is a very remote mountain in South America. That's all I've been able to pin down, and unfortunately I cannot spare the time or resources to go off on digs in different parts of the world based on riddles."
"That is a lot of ground to cover," Zipp said. "Perhaps we should split up to cover more ground and investigate each site seperately?"
She was joking, of course. She had no clue they would take her suggestion seriously.