Now, Anna understood why she had to learn perfect form before she was allowed to go skydiving with her father's colleagues in Chile. She was tumbling through the sky at a velocity of about a hundred miles per hour. The air was cutting like razors against her face and her hijab was strangling her while flapping around her head. The blast that had blown her off the mountain made her lose balance and she couldn't get straight in formation. Not that it mattered. Without a parachute, she was just accelerating towards her death.

She closed her eyes, and waited for the ground that would make an end to this fall. Flashes appeared in her mind. She saw herself, Trish, Jack and Professor Janssens walking through the Kutabuta Jungle, laughing, wandering, marvelling. She saw the four of them climbing the mountain, but sometimes it was just the three of them, without the professor.

The flashes didn't quite follow each other in chronological order. Or maybe they did. For Anna, it felt like they were all happening at once. The professor introducing a younger boy, a computer guy, into the team. Mr. Gallant offering an unimaginable fund for their project. A mountain lion attacking Trish, biting Anna's ankle. Professor Janssens getting hurt in a fight with another "friendly fundraising person". The mountain healing him. Jack's torch catching fire. She saw Trish and herself being captivated by professor's Janssens first lecture in their elective course of geology. Both of them already knowing that that would be their PhD subject. A friendship born.

The start of something magical.

The professor was right. They had been here before. Several times. But every time they had reached the top of the mountain was a confirmation that others could find it as well. They had returned home, memories wiped, all research material that they had used eliminated. They had tried to remove every trace of the mountain and its power from existence, to protect it from people like Mr. Gallant and all his predecessors.

But it hadn't been enough. They had still found enough research - although the internet was scarce of it - and had still found their way to the magical place that called to them. In doing so, they had led the mountain's next enemy right to it.

While tears were forcing their way through her closed eyelids, all Anna could hope for was that her friends would be able to stop him. She would not. She could only hope that she would fall unconscious before reaching the ground. She didn't want to know the very last second of her life.

She didn't fall unconscious, and the air didn't cut against her skin anymore. Her hijab hung loose beside her, not strangling her anymore, and she wasn't tumbling around. When she dared open her eyes, she saw the canopy that she had walked under only days ago. It didn't rush before her eyes like the image of a video camera falling. She saw a still shot, a photograph of the canopy and the mammoth tree she had just marvelled at from the top of the Poulapu.

She was floating in mid-air.

She had no idea how she was doing it, but the only thing she could think of was getting back to the top as fast as possible to help the mountain, and her friends.

That very thought made her go in the opposite direction that physics would ever deem possible. She was going up.

She was flying.

Anna loved to fly. Only she'd never have guessed how literally she would one day be able to do just that.

When she had reached the dry, icy coldness of mountain air again, she saw the chaos that had unleashed in the cave. The big, Queen rock was glowing a dozen shades of purple. A storm of light was roaring within the mountain. People were trying to take cover, while stubbornly still trying to mine pieces from the giant rock. Anna was floating right beside it, taking it all in.

Mr. Gallant's people were holding Jack and Trish on their knees with their arms behind their back. Professor Janssens stood at the other side, not daring to move, because they threatened to hurt them if he fought back. Anna could see how they had put up a fight already, because they were completely worn down, hair ruffled, dirt on their clothes and scrapes on their faces and arms.

Trish was the first who saw Anna. Her blue eyes opened so wide they were almost completely circular. Without looking away, she nudged her elbow against Jack, who opened his mouth completely flabbergasted when he saw her too.

"Impossible," Mr. Gallant said, staring at Anna like she was an alien.

"Guess again, jackass," professor Janssens said, making Anna, Trish and Jack gulp in a shot of air. They had never heard the professor swear anything else besides pot-vol-koffie, which was about the Dutch equivalent of dagnabbit, but even friendlier.

"Sir, she's flying," one of the men holding Jack said.

"Well, make her stop flying!" Their boss shouted over the deafening noise echoing against the mountain walls

A few men approached the edge of the cave, which was crumbling down with every shock their machines were giving against the inside walls. Anna thought herself of going forward, and landed gracefully on the ground. The men backed off, not daring to approach her.

The people holding Trish must have loosened their grip on her from surprise. She got herself free and punched them both real hard in the stomach, making them bent over. Then she also punched one of Jack's captors in the face, liberating him, and finished the last one off by putting her knee very hard in his crotch.

Anna readied herself to fight with the three people that were still standing before her, but they didn't dare touch her. She quickly walked over to the mother rock, joined by her two friends. Jack had apprehended Lenora 2.0 and was scanning the whole rock for vibrations.

"What do we do?" Anna asked.

"Protect me," Jack said, which wasn't really what she meant, but she would protect him to her last breath. Then he showed Lenora 2.0's little screen, which Anna still couldn't read.

"The rock says we have to protect it," he explained. "It answered you, Anna."

From behind them, Mr. Gallant was making his way through the rubble towards them, fury seeping out of his every movement. "I have to do everything myself!"

Only professor Janssens stood between him and the three of them. "Don't you dare touch one of them."

"The only thing I want to do with them is to throw them off this mountain so they won't get in my way anymore!"

Anna tried to ignore his threats and trusted the professor would keep him at bay. "What else does it say, Jack? How do we protect it?"

Jack scanned and typed and tried to make sense of the readings again.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Mr. Gallant pushed professor Janssens on the ground. His head bumped against the Queen rock.

"Touch me," Jack translated the rock's last vibrations.

Anna looked at her two friends, who were weighing the many possible outcomes this could cause, just like she was doing. But there was no more time to consider. Mr. Gallant stood beside them, daring them to make one more move. Professor Janssens lay down at the rock, his hand already against the giant amethyst. He nodded a last encouragement.

Anna looked back at Mr. Gallant, the only person who ever managed to make her despise him in one minute. She touched the rock, seeing a last panic in the man's eyes. Trish and Jack followed her example and an even more blinding light reverberated through the mountain, probably lighting up the jungle for miles on end.

When the light had disappeared and the rock was still glowing its peaceful purple heartbeat, an incomprehensible calm came over Anna. Trish ran over to the professor, quickly verifying that he was alright. Jack kept staring at Lenora 2.0, which was still decoding the rock's vibrations. And Mr. Gallant and his people... they were just standing around disoriented, like Anna's grandma in her first stage of dementia.

"What happened to them?" Anna asked no one in particular.

"What happens to all who find this place," Professor Janssens said, while taking Trish's hand to pull himself on his feet. "It made them forget."

Anna didn't want to think about what that must feel like.

"They cannot see me anymore," Jack said, his eyes fixed on Lenora 2.0, "they won't question your presence. They will go straight home and forget what happened here. All will be as before. Thanks to you, giving me strength once again."

"Why do we still remember?" Anna asked.

"Because you are the mountain guardians," professor Janssens explained. "You give it strength to fight off people like Gallant, but it would never hurt you in any way. It has only ever erased your memories after all three of you have given consent."

Anna understood now, and even though she should be considering this very gravely, she already knew that both the mountain and the professor were telling the truth. She could feel it, she remembered.

She told Trish and Jack about the images she had seen while falling, the memories that had fallen into place like variables in a flawless equation. That they had to go back, while the professor and the mountain erased all references and memory of the past few months, so that they could start anew, with a new set of research, so they could erase that as well. It sounded like scientific heresy, something they would be eternally punished for in the Jahannam of scientists, but she knew it was the right thing to do.

"Heck no," Trish said. "I don't want anyone messing up my mind. There is just a bit too much brilliance in there to be tampered with. Don't you see what it's doing to these men?"

"The mountain would never hurt you, Patricia," the professor said, but she still didn't seem convinced. She did cringe a little from the professor calling her by her full name, though.

"Even then, we will be dedicating our life to a study that never gets published. Ridiculed for a cause that no one will ever understand. The devil of science would curse us thrice over!"

"But we have to do it. To protect the mountain. Again and again." Anna realised the absurdity of it, but she could also see some kind of meaning in it.

The professor suddenly became very awkward. "Actually, it's been a long time since you were last here. I was starting to think you would never find your way to the mountain anymore. Which made me joyful, for it would have meant our mission had succeeded."

That's why he didn't look so overjoyed to see them. It meant their mission to erase all reference to this place, had failed again.

"But, now, hearing the lengths you went through to get here..."

He didn't finish, but Anna, Trish and Jack were smart enough to complete that thought. This was probably the last time they would find their way to the mountain. If they erased all reference they had used to get here now, then there would be no more evidence of its existence left. Only in their minds, which would perish in a few hours as well.

"So, we might never see you again?" Jack said. He'd been quiet the whole time, and judging by the small crack in his voice, Anna understood that he was mostly sad and confused, two emotions he couldn't get on with well.

While everyone was letting that thought sink in, Anna already drifted forward in the future. Maybe she would continue studying magic, knowing deep down it existed, but still never finding proof. She would continue her life, thinking professor Janssens was dead, not knowing what had ever happened. Would she give up, over time realising that it was a lost cause? Or would she forever keep focusing on that one spark of memory that might still reside in her? Would their team stay together? Would they become three mad scientists or would their friendship crumble under the weight of the unknown?

Did any of these questions even matter, if she already knew what she would do?

"Guys," she said, "we have just risked our lives to protect the mountain. I know you feel it as much as I do, that this place is worth our protection. Maybe being this mountain's guardians has always been our destiny."

Professor Janssens smiled at that. Trish and Jack did not.

Anna continued. "This mountain made me fly. Trish, it gave you strength. Jack, it healed your ankle. Maybe we started this research to see it published, but I think we already found something better." She turned to the beating heart of shining amethyst. "We found magic in its purest form."

Trish sighed. "You have long ago convinced me of magic, Anna, but never will you change my mind about destiny." She paused, then said, "But maybe the place is indeed worth the trouble."

"It is more than that," Professor Janssens said, "its power is unique to every person's DNA. Anna's desire to see the world from a distance turned into the ability to fly. Trish's love for animals made her connect with them in ways no human can, and Jack's ability to read codes made him the only one who could interpret the rock's vibrations."

He took out another machine, something Anna had always known must have existed. Why else would they have a Lenora 2.0?

"Lenora!" Jack said and immediately a smile appeared on his worrisome face. He took the simplistic, rusted MED device. Lenora 1.0.

"Without this, I would never have been able to communicate even a little with this place. It's still very limited. Yes-or-no-questions, one-word-answers. I could never make sense of the codes within the codes. Not like you, genius."

Anna perceived a shift in her two friends, realising now that they had made their decision as well.

"What about you, professor?" she asked.

"I will stay here. There is nowhere in this world I'd rather be. And nowhere could I serve this world better than from here."

"Maybe it's for the best," Trish said. "I'm not going to climb this mountain a ninth time."

They all laughed at that, even Jack, who during the whole conversation had been typing on his two Lenora's. Then he gave them both to the professor, which left Anna and Trish stunned.

"To protect the mountain," he said. "If you reverse the code, by pressing this button, the machine automatically turns the language to English. It is very time consuming, so I never do it, but this way you should be able to understand everything the surroundings want to say."

"The MED device could talk English all along?" Trish asked. "Why didn't you say so?"

He shrugged. "You never asked."

Trish rolled her eyes, but Professor Janssens could only laugh. "Thanks, my genius," he said.

The sunset over Kutabuta Jungle was a whole other kind of magic. A golden layer settled upon the trees and plants. Far away, Anna could see the reflection of a crystal lake. And when the orange turned to red, to purple and to night blue, she and her friends marvelled at the billions of stars that filled the sky like diamonds. All while the purple heartbeat shone a dim light behind them.

"You know," Trish said, "if destiny does exist, I'm glad this is mine."

"Whether Whiro, the devil or Jahannam ever finds us," Jack said, "I think they would be happy with what we're doing here."

The professor was looking at them from inside the cave. Only Anna saw him over her friends' shoulders. He smiled, and Anna smiled back, not saying anything to Trish and Jack, who were still dreamily gaping at the night sky. She closed her eyes and let the magic flow into her.

***

The next morning she brought three cups of coffee in a carton of four to their rented university office. After five years of fruitless research, the university had stopped giving them the room for free, but their stuff was still there, and they had free internet, which counted for something.

Jack was staring at his computer screen the same way as when Anna had left last night.

"Hey genius," she said, putting his chai latte on his desk. "Found anything?"

"I don't understand," he said frustrated. "How come no one has ever thought about inventing a device that could convert geological vibrations to a slightly more readable code."

Anna ruffled through his hair. "Maybe you'll be the first."

She gave the double espresso to Trish, who gulped it down in one go before Anna could take the first sip from her lemon-ginger tea. Then she sat herself in front of her friend and started going through the stash of paper in which they had identified some incomprehensible elements, which might possibly lean towards their very own research. The impossible research to find magic. Whenever she thought about it, Anna had to sigh at the irony of their work.

"Don't worry," Trish said, reading her thoughts, "we'll find it."

"Yes," Anna said, holding on to flashes of memory that were scattered in her mind like a disparity. "We have to, for the professor."