The room was really big. I mean, it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be.
After we walked through the doorway, the room opened up into a huge hall. The ceiling was super high. The walls were made of stone, and the floor was black tile that was polished to a shine. In the middle of the room there were twelve statues standing in a circle.
These statues were as tall as people. They were carved out of stone and were smooth like the floor and the walls. They were all facing inward towards the centre of the circle. It was like they were having a meeting or something. Maybe they were just waiting for something to happen.
I took a step forward. My footsteps echoed off the walls. It was really loud in the silence.
The others followed me into the room. Linas's eyes were back to brown again. Maya's silver bracelet was quiet. Raka and Kirana were still shaking off the chill from the sea.
"Hey, look at the statues," Kirana said. Her voice was quiet. It carried really well in the room. "There are twelve of them."
"That's like the artefacts," Maya said.
I walked over to the circle of statues. They were all spaced out evenly. Each one was the same height and made of the same stone. They all had the polish too. Their faces were all different.
I stopped in front of the statue. It was a man, a man with a wrinkled face. His eyes were closed like he was sleeping. I didn't recognise him.
I moved on to the statue. It was a woman, a woman with hair that was carved to look like waves. Her eyes were open. They were empty. I didn't recognise her either.
I kept moving around the circle looking at each statue. None of them looked familiar.
Then I got to the statue… I stopped.
The face on that statue – I knew it. It was my grandfather. He looked younger, harder. His eyes were open and sharp, like he was looking at something that nobody else could see.
"Kael, do you know who that is?" Maya asked from behind me.
I couldn't answer. I just stood there staring at my grandfather's face.
He had never looked like that before. Not in any pictures, not in any memories I had of him. He was always a man sweeping his porch, drinking tea from a chipped cup, telling me stories about heroes.
But this was him when he was young. Before everything
I reached out and touched the stone cheek. It was cold and smooth.
"What are you doing?" Rakas's voice was tense.
I didn't know. I just stood there, my fingers on the stone.
Then I felt something. Just for a moment. It was like a pulse, like the stone was alive.
I pulled my hand back.
"Kael, come look at this," Maya said. Her voice was strained.
I turned around. She was standing in front of the eleventh statue. Her face was pale. Her hand was pressed against her chest.
"This is my father," she said.
I walked over to her. Looked at the statue. It was a man with hair and dark eyes. He looked strong not physically but like he was a man who didn't back down.
"That's the Emperor," I said. "The leader of Ouroboros. Your father."
Maya didn't say anything. She just stared at the statue's eyes. They were dark and empty. Familiar.
"He left when I was really young," she said. "I barely remember what he looked like… This, this is him."
She reached out. Touched the statue's cheek. The silver bracelet on her wrist pulsed with light.
"He's here," she whispered. "Why is he here?"
I didn't have an answer.
Kiran's voice came from across the room. "Lina, what are you looking at?"
I turned around. Lina was standing in front of the last statue. The twelfth one. She was completely still to us, her hands at her sides.
"Lina, what's going on?" I asked. I walked over to her.
She didn't answer.
I stopped beside her. Looked at the statue. My blood went cold.
The face on the statue was Linas's face. Not similar, not familiar. It was exact. Every line, every curve. The same cheekbones, the jaw, and the same shape of her lips.
The eyes were empty. Hollow. Like someone had carved a face. Forgotten to carve a soul.
"Lina, that's—" I started to say.
"I know," she said. Her voice was steady. Her hands were shaking.
I looked at her. Her face was calm. There was something in her eyes. Something I had never seen before.
Fear. Not of the statue, not of the room. Fear of what it meant.
"Kael, I was found in a basket on your grandfather's doorstep," she said. "I don't remember anything before that. I don't know who my parents are or where I came from."
She looked at the statue's face carved in stone.
This statue has been here for centuries. Maybe longer… My face is on it."
Her voice cracked. Just a little.
"How is that possible?" she asked.
I didn't know what to say. I reached out. Took her hand. It was the warm hand that had held mine through everything.
"I don't know," I said. "We'll figure it out. Together."
She held my hand tight. Didn't say anything. Didn't move.
Then Raka made a sound, an intake of breath.
"Kael, look," he said.
I turned around. The statues were moving. Not all of them three. The one of my grandfather, the one of the emperor and the one of Lina.
Their eyes were glowing red like embers that had just been lit.
I stepped back, pulling Lina with me.
"What's going on?" Kirana's voice was sharp.
Maya raised her hand, the silver bracelet pulsing with light. "I don't know. My Null isn't working on them."
"They're not using Kai," Raka said. His hands were up in flames flickering at his palms. "This is something."
The three statues turned their heads slowly, creaking like stone grinding against stone.
They faced us, their eyes burning in the darkness of the room.
Then a voice came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
"Choose the one."
The words echoed off the walls and filled my head.
"Choose right. You don't get to leave."
I looked at the statues. My grandfather, the Emperor, Lina.
Three faces, three choices.
One right, two wrong.
"Kael, what do we do?" Maya's voice was tight.
I stared at the statues at my grandfather's face, carved in stone, eyes burning red. At the Emperor Maya's father, watching with hollow emptiness as his daughter's statue. At Linas' face, carved centuries before she was born.
I didn't know.
The red eyes burnt brighter.
Then the knocking started again from inside the walls from beneath the floor.
From deep in the stone, something was waking up.