A ripple radiated from the sphere as the human hand touched it. Chala felt the known feeling on his skin, like silk softly brushing past. He stopped, two paces away from the woman, and let his arm drop by his side. "Of all the relic…" he whispered, his face pale. Then, gently, he called, "Jessica, can you hear me?" After a few seconds, the woman opened her eyes and looked at him, puzzled. "Of course I can hear you." The hunter's face was a mask of worry. "How do you feel?" Jessica laughed, "I feel weird, but good weird. I'm elated. It feels like I could fly." She looked at the sphere adoringly. Then she forced herself away from the pull of the relic and glanced at Chala, "What's the matter? You wanted me to become a hunter and bind with a relic." The man tried to smile, then he whispered, "Yes, just not this one."
"I like this one," said Jessica, her voice echoing through the vault, "and it likes me too." Chala had walked to an empty pedestal at the side of the room. A bare black cushion lay on it. He laid a hand on the velvet and closed his eyes for a second. "The strongest magic detector we ever had… getting the sphere." His arms shook, he hesitated, he could feel he could contain it, but he didn't want to. Dark tendrils wrapped his fist. He looked at the pedestal, but in his frenzy, he still found control and punched the wall instead. A large crack appeared in the stone, and the cavern walls shook, making the relics shiver and wail. "Completely useless, but it felt good," he muttered. Then he let his mask fall back on and looked back at Jessica. The woman hadn't noticed the disturbance. She was entranced by the sphere, which now hovered in the air around her, responding to her every movement. "At least you have a strong connection to it," said the man. "Still, it's such a waste," he added.
He softly laid a hand on Jessica's shoulder, "Come, you need to eat. I'll tell you everything there is to know."
"Hide the sphere," ordered Chala as they reached the vault door. "How do I do that?" asked Jessica. "I saw Dhorros summon his axe out of thin air." The man scoffed softly, "Yes, most relics can do that, yours stays a sphere, you have to keep it in your pocket." Jessica's scholarly mind grabbed that piece of information. "So how many others don't change form?" Chala looked at his gloves and muttered, "Just one other." Jessica's mouth made a silent "O," then she frowned and sank into deep thought. Something didn't add up. Or made too much sense. She wasn't sure. "Why do I have to hide it?" Chala glanced at her, "If you think the hunters were scared by yesterday's demonstration, just wait until they see you with that thing." The woman shook her head, "I don't call that answering questions." The leader answered, "And I told you you would eat first."
Chala had finished his meal a while ago. Or rather, he barely had eaten at all. Now he was looking at her unblinking. "You do know that's quite unnerving, don't you?" She asked. Chala didn't react. Jessica rolled her eyes and continued eating, trying to ignore his intimidating presence. When she finished her plate, she stared back at him. Chala uncrossed his arms, took a deep breath, and said, "All artifacts work the same, but they vary in strength". Jessica nodded attentively. She could feel that the time was not for pleasantries and teasing. The hunter leader continued, "The relics give us power. Every power has a cost, and all relics take from us." He grew silent. Jessica waited patiently for a moment before asking, annoyed, "So what is the cost?" Chala looked in her eyes and said, "Our life force."
Jessica gaped at him. "Your sense of timing is shit! That's something you should have told me before binding me to one of those things!" She tried to breathe calmly to calm her heartbeat. "And you make me eat before telling me that! You're really crazy!"
The silence stretched for a while. Chala had his elbows on the table, palm over a fist, hiding his mouth. Jessica could only see his unflinching eyes. "Continue," she said, resigned. She needed all the facts. The hunter continued his explanation, "The stronger the artifact, the more life energy it drains." Then, after a pause, he added, "Yours is very powerful."
Jessica's analytical mind took over, and she finished for him. "So the more powerful the artefact, the faster you die." She glanced at the gloves. "Yours are very powerful. How long have you had these?" She held to the questions and their answer like a lifeline, doing her best not to crumble under the weight of the revelation.
Chala looked down at his gloves and raised his hands. He opened and closed his fingers. "I had them for 30 years." Jessica sighed; once again, her mentor had been overdramatic. His relic was obviously very powerful and barely tapped into his life force. Well, there were marks and scars, she remembered the grey, sickly flesh. But he didn't show signs of weakness or being close to death. It was just Chala's lack of social awareness that was making it sound worse than it was.
Jessica felt more at ease, but she still wanted to know, "So how much life energy does mine use?" Chala got up and walked toward the door. Without looking back, he said, "Come." Jessica followed, annoyed. Where are we going now?" Her mentor answered, "Back to the relic chamber."
Chala silently led her back to the pedestal and opened his hand towards it. Jessica didn't understand, she had already taken the sphere. What else was there to see? She approached the veined, polished stone and noticed some carvings along its sides. Her fingers brushing against it, she slowly understood. Those were names… hundreds of names carved in the stone. Names of previous sphere wielders. "So many?" she asked weakly, holding back her tears. She sniffed and stood up. Her red nose contrasted with her defiant eyes. She almost screamed, "How long, Chala? How long did they live?"
Chala was looking at the list of names and murmured softly, "one."
Jessica fell to her knees, grasping at straws, but her analytical mind could only do so much in the face of sheer terror that made her uncontrollably shiver. I'm going to die, in one year I'm going to die… and there's nothing I can do about it.
But maybe she misheard, maybe Chala misunderstood? He had had his gloves for thirty years. It couldn't be that bad. She gathered her courage, forced her muscles to flex to calm the shivering, and slowly stood up.
The lump in her throat was painful as she asked, "Chala, are you saying I only have one year to live?"
Chala didn't react; his shoulders were slumped, and he kept looking at the names.
"Chala, please!" Begged Jessica.
Slowly, he looked at her, and Jessica shook. She never knew a look could convey such sadness. His eyes misty with tears, Chala said, "One battle".
Through her tears, Jessica tried to read the names, to hold onto something familiar, to escape from the horror she was feeling. She didn't notice her nails breaking against the stone, and she didn't feel the pain.
She softly wailed, "No.. no... no… no…"
She felt Chala's hand on her shoulder, warm, soft, gentle.
She withdrew from the stone, letting out the occasional sob. Chala waited until she calmed a bit more and said, " This is our last resort. Sometimes, an anomaly so strong appears that we have no choice but to sacrifice one of us to save everyone else." After a pause, he added, "May their names burn forever."