The stone felt warm in my hand. It was not hot. It was not cold. It was just warm. Like something that had been waiting for a time to be held.
The creature's white eyes were fixed on the stone. They were fixed on me. Its form was shifting. Darkness was curling at its edges like smoke when it is blown by the wind.
The creature said, "Return it" to me. Its voice was not flat anymore. It was not cold anymore. There was something in its voice now. Something that sounded like a human voice. "Return what was stolen," it said.
Maya was standing beside me. Her silver bracelet was still pulsing with light. "Kael, if we give it back," she said.
I said, "We go home. We fail" to her. I looked at the stone. The light inside it was pulsing like a heart. "Ouroboros will come for it," I said. "They will not care about the creature. They will take it. They will wake it anyway."
The creature's form was growing darker. "The thief's blood speaks of thieves," it said. "You are all the same."
I said "no" to the creature. "My grandfather took something from you," I said. "I do not know why. I am not him."
The creature's white eyes narrowed. "You carry his blood," it said. "You carry what he stole. You are him."
I said, "I am not," to the creature again.
I gripped the stone tighter. The Ouroboros scar on my hand was burning. Something inside my chest was pulsing in answer. It was the Ember Core.
Linas's voice said, "Kael, what are you doing?" in my head.
I said, "I do not know," to her.
The creature was moving. It was not fast. It was not slow. It was just closer. Its form was blocking the light from the door. Its white eyes were filling my vision.
The creature said, "You will not leave with what's ours," to me.
Its hand reached for me. It was dark and formless and cold.
Then Rakas's flames hit it. The fire scattered its form. Black smoke curled away from my face. The creature reformed. It was faster this time.
Kiran's ice followed. Crystal walls rose around us. The creature pressed against them. The ice cracked.
Raka shouted, "Maya, you're null."
Maya said, "It does not work on it. It is not using Kai."
The ice shattered. Darkness rushed toward us.
Then Lina stepped forward. Her hand rose. The same silver-white light from before was shining. It was brighter now. It was stronger. It met the darkness. It stopped it.
The creature recoiled. Its form rippled. It pulled back.
The creature said, "You", to Lina. Its voice changed again. It was not flat. It was not cold. It was like wonder. "You are not supposed to be awake," it said.
Lina did not answer. Her hand was still raised. It was still glowing. I saw her arm trembling.
The creature said, "You were one of us," to Lina. "You were supposed to sleep with us. Until the thief returned. You woke. Why?"
Lina said, "I chose to wake."
The creature stared at her. Its white eyes seemed empty now. Like something was looking through them. Something that recognised her.
The creature said, "We do not choose," to Lina. "We sleep. We wake. We guard. We do not choose."
Lina said, "Then maybe that is the problem. Maybe you should start choosing."
The creature was still. The knocking inside it slowed. It stopped.
The creature said, "Choose" to itself. The word was foreign on its mouth.
Then its eyes moved to me. To the stone in my hand.
The creature said, "He will take it. He will take what was stolen. We will wake. Forever".
I looked at the stone. The red light was pulsing. Once. Twice. Three times.
I said, "What if I do not take it?" to the creature.
The creatures formed stilled. "Then you leave it," it said. "We sleep. Until the next thief comes. The one after. The one after that."
Maya said, 'Ouroboros will come.' They will not stop. They will take it. They will wake you anyway."
The creature looked at her. "Then we will wake," it said. "We will take what we need to survive."
Kirana said, "What you need to survive. You mean people."
The creature did not answer. It did not need to.
I thought about my grandfather. He took this stone. He came here. He opened the door. He took something that was not his. Something that kept these creatures asleep. Kept them from hunting. From taking.
Now I was here. With the blood. The same choice.
I could return it. Go home. Fail. Let Ouroboros come. Let them wake the creature. Let them deal with the consequences.
I could take it. Complete the artefact. Give Aegis to Aldo. To the Academy. To people who might use it to protect. To people who might find another way.
The creature would wake. Forever. It would hunt.
Linas hand touched my arm. Her warm hand. The one that had held mine through everything. "Whatever you choose I am with you" she said.
I looked at her. At her eyes. Not glowing. Not hollow. Just Lina.
I looked at Maya. At her bracelet. At the face of her father, carved in stone. Now shattered on the floor.
I looked at Raka. At his flames. Ready to protect.
I looked at Kirana. On her ice. Ready to hold back the dark.
I said, "We take it."
The creatures' form exploded.
Darkness rushed toward us. Not slow. Not waiting. Hungry.
I shouted "Raka Kirana".
Fire and ice met the darkness. Flame scattered it. Crystal held it back. It kept coming. Pressing. Pushing.
Maya stepped beside me. Her Null was useless. She raised her hands anyway. "I do not know what to do," she said.
I said "Protect Lina" to her.
Maya looked at me. Nodded.
I held the stone in both hands. The Ouroboros scar burnt. The Ember Core in my chest pulsed. Once. Twice. Again.
I pulled. Not the stone. Something inside it. Something connected to the creature. To the temple. To the darkness pressing against us.
The red light in the stone flared. Bright. Brighter. Bright, I had to close my eyes.
In the darkness behind my eyes. I saw it. The temple. Older. Not stone. Not walls. Something else. Something that was never meant to be a building. It was a cage. The creatures were the prisoners. The stone in my hand, the heart of Aegis, was the lock.
My grandfather did not steal a shield. He stole a lock. Without it. The cage was opening.
The light faded. I opened my eyes.
The creature was still. Its form had stopped moving. Its white eyes were fixed on the stone in my hands. The stone was different now. The red light was gone. In its place. Something else. A glow. Pale. Blue-white. Like moonlight on water.
The creature said, "You have taken it. You have chosen."
I looked at the stone. At the glow that had replaced the heart.
I said, "What happens now?" to the creature.
The creature's form began to shift. Not attacking. Not retreating. Changing. The darkness pulled back. The white eyes dimmed.
The creature said, "We wake. We hunt. We take what we need to survive."
Then Lina said, "No".
Her voice was not mine. I turned.
Lina stood at the centre of the circle. Her hand was still raised. Still glowing. Her eyes were different. Not warm brown. Not glowing white. Something else. Something older.
Lina said, "You will not hunt. You will wait."
The creature stared at her. "You cannot command us. You are one of us. Asleep. Waiting. You have no authority."
Lina said, "I am awake. I choose. You will wait. Until we find another way."
The creatures' forms trembled. The darkness at its edges pulled back further.
The creature said, "You are one of us. You cannot."
Lina said, "I can. I am."
The creature was silent. Its white eyes seemed empty. Like something was looking through them. Something that remembered what it was like to hope.
The creature said, "We will wait. Not forever."
Its form began to fade. Darkness pulled back into the walls. Into the floor. Into the shadows where it had been sleeping for centuries.
The creature said, "We will wait. Until you find another way. Until the thief's blood returns to finish what he started."
The white eyes looked at me one time.
The creature said, 'Choose Kael Ember.' The time we wake, we will not wait."
It was gone.
The silence in the temple felt really heavy. It was even heavier than the darkness.
I stood in the middle of the circle. The stone was still warm in my hands. The statues around me were not moving. They just looked like stone. It was really quiet.
Maya spoke quietly. "Kael, what just happened?"
I looked at the stone. There was a light inside it. It was pulsing like a heartbeat.
"Aegis", I said. "The second artefact."
But it is not a shield, Kirana said.
No, I looked at the stone. It is a lock. I just took it.
Raka stopped making flames. His hands were shaking. The creature is going to wake up. It will kill.
'Yes,' I said.
Kirana sounded really cold. You knew that before you took it.
I looked at her. Yes, I knew that.
She looked at me for a time. Then she looked at Lina. Lina is the girl who made the creature wait.
'You made the choice,' Kirana said. Now we have to live with it.
She walked to the door. Raka followed her. Maya looked at the statue on the floor. Then she looked at me.
'He stayed here for twenty years,' Maya said. Waiting. Guarding. I did not know. I thought he left. I thought he did not care. She looked at the stone in my hand. He was trying to fix what your grandfather broke.
I know I said.
Maya nodded. She walked to the door.
Lina stood beside me. Her hand was not glowing anymore. Her eyes looked normal. There was something about them.
'Are you okay?' I asked.
She looked at the stone. At the light inside it.
'I do not know,' she said. I do not know what I am. I do not know why I could do that. I do not know why the creature listened.
I took her hand. It was warm.
'You are Lina,' I said. That is enough for now.
She looked at me. For a moment her eyes glowed. Then it stopped.
'Let us go home,' she said.
We walked to the door. Toward the light. Toward the surface.
The statues stood in silence behind us. The shadows waited. Deep in the stone the creature slept again.
Not forever.
— TO BE CONTINUED.
Synopsis for Chapter 26. We got the Aegis. One Team Member Has Not Been the Same Since Leaving the Sea.
They came out of the sea. Ombak was waiting on the boat. His green eyes flickered when he saw the stone in my hand.
'You took it,' he said. It was not a question.
'We took it,' I said.
Ombak looked at the stone. At the light inside it. Then you know what it is. What it was.
'A lock,' I said. For something that should have stayed asleep.
Ombak nodded slowly. He looked at Lina. You. You spoke to it. Commanded it.
Lina did not answer.
I felt it, Ombak said. The creature. It listened to you. It obeyed. Do you know why?
Lina spoke quietly. No.
Ombak looked at her for a time. Then he looked away. We should go. The door will not stay open forever.
They sailed back. Something was wrong. Kirana sat at the bow. She was not speaking. Raka kept looking at the water behind them. Maya was quiet. She had her hand on her bracelet.
Lina sat beside me. Her hand was in mine. Her eyes were different. They were distant. Like she was looking at something.
That night when they reached the shore, I woke up to find Lina standing at the edge of the water. The moon was full. The sea was calm.
'You should sleep,' I said.
She did not turn. I can not.
'Lina', I said.
'When I was in the water, I heard them,' she said. Not just the creature. Others. Sleeping. Waiting. They were calling to me.
She turned. Her eyes. In the moonlight. We're glowing. Faint. Silver-white.
They know me, Kael. They have always known me. I think. She stopped. Her voice cracked. I think I have always known them.
I stepped closer. I took her hand.
'You are still Lina,' I said.
She looked at our hands. Her glowing hand in mine.
'Am I?' she said.