12 - Behind the Curtain//Lea

"Very Great Thing?" Lea asked. So far their discussion on magic had been filled with grand terms like wishes and strange words like Noiz that this description just didn't seem to fit.

"It's a literal translation of the Ancient Gaelic here," Paxton said, repeating the term in the native language. Though Lea was sure she'd heard him say it, it was impossible for her to distinguish it from a set of random sounds. "The Mooar Shee is written in wholesale Ancient Gaelic; translating is kind of my speciality."

"Ancient Gaelic," Lea repeated, entranced by the concept. Suddenly, Paxton's literal translation gained some credibility.

"I wasn't able to translate the rest of the statement until I cross-referenced the specific word-mutation that was used for the word 'Great'," Paxton said, his pitch rising in excitement at every word.

"Gaelic languages regularly use different mutations for words depending on what possessive noun comes before them, but in this case it was the mutation for 'Great' itself that the next part depended on. See-"

"Woah Paxton, stop!" Nora said, looking as overwhelmed as Lea felt. "What does it say."

"Oh! Sorry," Paxton said, pushing his glasses up his nose, though they settled right where they'd been before. "I get so excited when something new reveals itself on page."

"It says; 'The eight Noiz together become the Very Great Thing to birth a wish'."

"Nice, Paxton!" Nora said, giving him a hi-five. "Now we're even closer to the rest of the Noiz."

"To make a wish, you need eight Noiz?" Lea asked. "And you only have three?"

"Five, actually," Paxton said. Nora tapped a sack she'd left lying on the chair.

"How do you get them?" Lea asked.

"According to the private investigator I hired, historical records showed that all eight Noiz were once in Paradox City," Nora explained. "A few years ago, my parents found two of them and took them back to Toronto."

"They're the ones we use," Paxton chimed in.

"The one you bonded with was the only other Noiz that had ever left the city," Nora said. "Paxton found it online as part of an exhibit on British and Irish culture in Leipzig."

"I try to keep up to date on all things Gaelic," Paxton said. "We couldn't smuggle it out of the country on our plane, but we bet nobody would check some random box of LPs."

"And I just happened to get yours by mistake," Lea said calmly before she'd finished processing what Paxton had said.

"Smuggle?" she repeated.

"Um... yeah," Paxton repeated. "We kind of... stole it."

"From the exhibit?" Lea asked loudly.

"Yeah," Nora said. "You know those mysterious thieves who have been all around Paradox City this year?"

"Of course," Lea said. Though it wasn't a hot topic ever since they'd gone AWOL, but sometimes people still whispered about the strange thieves who broke into almost every art installation and history exhibition but had only ever stolen something twice.

Then it all clicked.

"Two from your parents, one from Germany," Lea counted.

"One from the Joleen Museum," Nora said, pulling out a silver Noiz. Then she pulled out a golden one. "One from the Mayor's Private Collection."

"You guys are..." Lea said.

"Thieves," Paxton said, almost embarrassed.

"We're the Heist Phantoms," Nora said, pressing play on the news she'd been watching earlier. "And we already need your help."

"Welcome to Paradox City Events with me, Lucky Bagley," the tanned newscaster was saying. "Today we head to Paradox Local Artist's Market where a few special pieces will be on show a surprise Pop-Up Exhibit at the Joleen Museum!"

Right in the centre of a set of podiums was a familiar shape in a brilliant purple.