Chapter 418 (2/2)
It was brightly lit by a large nulow The roolass display shelves, and the lass-encased tables
Stepping up to the closest display, I searched for a plaque or card that , but there was no label on the contents Inside the glass, resting on a purple velvet cushi+on, was a featureless cube
The air changed behindblack crystals folded into existence just long enough for Lyra Dreide to step through into the rooain
Wide-eyed, she stared around, heropen “Is this…some kind of museum?”
I walked slowly down the aisle between ts of display tables, exa like that, yeah This is different fronize any of these artifacts”
The tinkling whisper of the crystal door cah, followed immediately by Boo “Whoa, this is so cool,” sheon the balls of her feet in excitereat that he couldn’t , but the displays seeuardian bear rubbed up against them
Mica arrived only a few seconds later After looking around for ain a dusty old museum? Isn’t that kind of weird? I think it’s weird”
I didn’t respond, finally seeing sonized On the opposite wall from where I’d first appeared, one of the shelves held three identical spheres More Colass front Carefully, I attelass or otherwise open it, but it didn’t respond to subtle force
“I don’t see any way to open the the bottoe of a table “We could smash the h to rip through steel The case neither resisted the force nor shattered under it Instead,incoherently until I pulled ain, I pressed ainst it It felt solid
When Caera and I had reached the second djinn ruin, the place had been collapsing The entrance hall and the library on the other side had been ed into one another They weren’t quite real This museum was probably the same, a visual representation of a place that didn’t exist
“It’sto think of an appropriate azing curiously at an engraved rod
“Yeah, so like that Even the Relictombs zones we’ve cleared reset after we leave They’re h, to test us This roo, really Just a distraction”
“It’s certainly working,” Lyra said, her voice full of awe as she nearly pressed her face up against one of the displays
I craned around to see what she was looking at and felt a sudden jolt of recognition at the handful of es—djinn faces—were projected across each facet with steadfast but forlorn expressions Ie rune, I called forth acrystal, which I had taken frootten about
When the crystal appeared in ht herself and slowly lowered her hand Her eyes darted back to the collection of djinn crystals protected underneath the glass display, her confusion clear
“These are sort of like books Or journals,” I said in answer to her unasked question “Or at least, that’s the i this one around for a while”
“What does it say?” she asked, almost reverent
“I’m…not sure,” I ade”
Ellie ca intoaround with the secret to ancient ic in your pocket and not even known it?” Her brows rose and she shook her head at me
“I very much doubt that,” I said, but Ellie’s words madelibrary, which had overlapped the second ruin, uilty about it at the tih, had been entirely on the keystone, and I’d never given the crystal another thought
“Can you activate it so we all can experience it?” Lyra asked “I have never heard of such a repository of ancient e, and I would be incredibly interested to hear what thissilently across the various facets
I turned the crystal over init, then sent it back into azed atBefore, even in the collapsing library of the second ruin, I’d only had to activate aether to access the ruins hidden below the surface But I’d just used aether to access , ister any of her words Holding upa har purple light
Again, nothing happened
In order to be ainst the floor, then pushed outith aether Nothing changed
I tappedcolumn came back to me “I wonder…”
I ie Mana was there, but norned with the physical attributes of the space in question One would expect to see a high concentration of earth-attributeto the floor and walls, air-attributein the at traces of water- and fire-attribute mana
But theat all
It was like I was looking at a second ithe features of another space
Because the ned with the realities of the cha, like in the other two ruins
Again, I considered Lyra’s words A le to alter the physical characteristics of the Relictombs, but there had to be a way for me to pierce the veil of separation between the an to radiate out froht Mentally, I reached for the invisible seams, the places where the illusion contained itself in opposition to the real It was like feeling for the gap around a hidden door—a place where the two separate pieces didn’t perfectly align
The grasping fingers of e, and the entire rooroaned, her eyes trying to follow along “Re contest, ugh Are you trying to make us all sick?”
I had to trace back over where I’d been twice before I found the edge again As soon as I touched it, a static blur vibrated through the chaitation, and Elliemy eyes to let e with aether I pictured it like a piece of parchment laid over our senses, and so did theI could think of I tore it in two
My companions burst out with dismayed moans, and it sounded as if Mica was very nearly sick as she wretched Someone fell to their hands and knees Lyra cursed under her breath—or offered a prayer to the Vritra, it was difficult to tell which
When I opened ray stone
The third ruin, I thought, still wary
Unlike the last two, however, this place wasn’t a ruin at all The stone walls and floor looked as if they’d just been quarried and shaped yesterday There was no overgrowth, no broken walls or cru It was all in perfect condition
Even the structure in the center of the roos that should have been orbiting the pedestal lay dormant, and the crystal itself was dark
“That was bloody horrible,” Mica coround besideat her I rested a hand on her hair, and she looked up atdown her face “Seconded,” she said weakly
“It was like…having my eyes pulled out of their sockets, then thrown into the air while still connected to ainst the unbleis , purple light over the stonework “You Vritra sure have a ords” To me, he said, “What now, boss? This place seems dead as barbequed roadkill”
I set the palainst the crystal It was cold, and there was no reaction topart of my focus on Realmheart, I channeled additional aether into Aroa’s Requiey flowed down my arm and hand and onto the crystal I pushedas they swar in every crevice as they searched for anything to fix
Soh the crystal’s surface I kept inof the artifact, its purpose and as likely stored within, giving the Godrune a pattern on which to build if it found anything broken
But, after a full five ed
I released the Godrune, and the motes slowly faded away “I don’t think it’s broken”
“Maybe it’s otten to her feet and was sloalking around the circular rings
Frowning, I gathered aether into my hand and imbued it into the projection crystal The crystal absorbed the aether, but it did not co in a trance, Ellie slowly reached out for the crystal as well Her fingertips just brushed its surface, and a spark of h her veins, and into the crystal
It flickered with cloudy, diht fro,” Lyra said, twirling a strand of fire-red hair around her fingers “Eleanor, can you give it more mana?”
“I think so,” Ellie whispered as she pressed both hands firht as pure mana poured into the device
The crystal es shi+fted, jolting slightly, but they did not rise up froin to orbit the pedestal like I’d seen in the first ruin
And yet rew I could only hope the captured remnants of whatever djinn mind haunted this place still re the pedestal and dors flashed, and a voice emanated from the crystal, sharp and ancient and wary “Life—into my old bones—but…” The voice trailed off for a ain as it said, “Is iven, keystone rewarded…I’ve slept for such a very long tilanced down at Regis, sharing the bad feeling that was e that the keystone in your care was already given to soht within the runes shi+fted, al on me “A worthy descendant presented theo They passed uarded, and so the structure housingave a painful thu“Can you tell e was contained within the keystone?”
“That information is not stored within this remnant”
I was acutely aware ofon azes in return “What about your test? The previous uardians or whatever you call yourselves tested ht Even without the keystone—”
“This housing lacks the energy to commit to another test Whatever arts you’ve used to wake me are sufficient only for the most surface-level application ofout My purpose is fulfilled I can see the anguish in your mind, but I can offer you no balrity, gaining a tinny quality like it was echoing out of a can, then faded away entirely The last of the light left both runes and crystal
“Well, shi+t,” Regis said succinctly, sitting back on his haunches
“Agronato look at Lyra for confired helplessly “It is possible This ‘keystone’ in with, or to survive the assassination attee of the reincarnates and the Legacy Or all of it But I’m afraid I don’t know for certain”
Mica flew up off the ground, suddenly in Lyra’s face She pushed her ha her back into the wall “Aren’t you one of his generals or whatever? How could you not know? Don’t lie to us!”
Lyra lifted her chin and glared at Mica “The High Sovereign is quite effective at corona himself sees the entire picture The Scythes and retainers are political figures, both carrot and stick for the civilians The deeper workings of his eely left to the Vritra Clan the froo His ar but train and prepare, a secret even from most of his own continent”
“A likely story,” Mica shot back, pushi+ng harder with her haotten in here hiis asked, careless of the tension between the terful wootten in here besides you?”
I shookthe rooently pulled it away froainst each other”
Grulowered at each other
Ellie atching them nervously as she played with the hem of her shi+rt “So, what do we do?”
“There is still one more ruin out there,” I said firmly “We need to find it Now”