CHAPTER 31: An Inevitability

Vino sat upon the throne of Lum, swaddled in an old robe of Hope’s, guzzling down a bottle of fresh fountain water. On any other day, sitting upon this seat would have been a phenomenal honor, but now it was nothing more than an injury ward.

“How is that? Good?” Hope asked her guest.

“It’s alright, thank you.” The flauna replied. “Gosh, I hope the others don’t take me running off too harshly.”

The doors slammed open once again, two stair-worn elementals announcing their findings to the long-abandoned grandess.

“We got exactly one thing out of these guys.” Orsel claimed. “One of them overheard a meeting between two members of The Seven— Edrip and Rawth, saying that Shaydon’s soldiers needed to ‘be ready’ for something.”

“Well, it just might be one thing, but it’s big.” Hope said, as she got to work writing the claim down on a sheet of paper, sticking it amongst her other documents with yarn and pins. I mean, what else do soldiers prepare for other than war?”

“Parades, inspections, retirement parties,” Orsel listed off.

“Memorial services.” Jacob added.

“Yeah, that too. Although he also said Edrip was acting weird when Rawth wasn’t around.”

“Weird how?” Hope asked, curiosity piqued.

“Talking to himself, saying someone’s ‘will be done’, I don’t know, he didn’t see much.”

Hope murmured to herself a bit, drawing an ‘X’ on the paper she held, then scribbled it out.

“Well, that’s definitely suspicious, but now that just raises more questions.” She groaned, burying her face in her hands.

“Hey, what do we do with these guys now?” Jake asked, jingling the sack of shayd cores he was holding.

“Hmm? Oh, I don’t know, what do you think?” Hope answered, half-interested.

“I’m down for… y’know,” Jacob drew his thumb over his neck, mimicking a cutting sound.

“We can’t kill them!” Orsel protested, reaching for the bag. “It’s not right!”

“Orsel, these guys came here to capture us so they could do the same to us!” Jake said, pushing Orsel away. “It’s us or them!”

“Isn’t there anything else we can do, like give ‘em a scare or send them away?”

Jacob furrowed his brow, and looked between Orsel and the sack.

“I’ll be back, stay here.” He stormed off.

“Jacob, wait, please! They’re-”

“I’m not going to hurt them, I promise.”

“Then let me come with you.”

“Orsel, I guarantee you that you don’t want to see this. Now stay put… Get some rest, it’s late.”

Orsel trembled at Jake’s presence, hugging his crookshank close. He whimpered as he scooted away, towards the wall. It was awful, but there was some truth to Jake’s philosophy— they were wanted escapees who would be hunted for as long as that wretched nation saw fit. If their momentary freedom came at the cost of… disposing of some unwanted folks bent on taking that freedom away from them, then that would unfortunately have to be the case. As Orsel slumped down, back towards the far wall, Jacob left, sack in hand.

“I’m sorry, Orsel.” Hope consoled. “We all have difficult choices to make. I just hope that in time, you can learn to-”

“I want to rest.” Orsel said, turning around, burying himself in his cloak. Hope looked over at Vino, who himself was dozing off. After such a long day, joining the two in their slumber amongst her pile of documents seemed as though it was the best option for her.

Far beyond the outskirts of Lum, Jacob shuffled onwards, his tail leaving a wide track of sand in his wake. The night, still lit brightly with stars as it was every night, seemed somewhat darker somehow, although there still wasn’t even a cloud in the sky. Jacob slithered far enough to the point where Lum was barely visible, and tightened his grip on the sack, leaving barely enough room for the four cores to even rattle around in. He revved up his hand, the rotating glass claws glinting in the starlight as they ground against one another.

“Sorry, bud.” He said to himself, inching his spinning hand closer to the sack, “But this is just the way things are.” However, as the cloth sack inched its way closer to the whirring obelisk of death, Jacob’s resolve began to falter somewhat. He stopped, contemplated, and sighed. Despite their cruelty and their mission, these were still people— just wrapped up in a bad situation, is all. Still, something needed to be done.

“Dammit.” He mumbled as he poured the cores out of the bag. Almost instantly, the darkness from the night began to coil around the glittering, black gems as they formed into four cloakless shayd.

“What do you have planned for us next, dirtwad? The leader barked. “You’ve tortured us enough, interrogating us, keeping us in that sack.”

“Look.” Jacob frowned, “I’m going to give y’all a chance here, one you probably wouldn’t get under any other circumstance. Leave this place— go back to Shaydon, and never come back for us, understand?.” 

“Easy for you to say, Rawth’ll execute us for deserting the mission.” Another shayd piped up.

“Well, that puts you in an interesting situation, doesn’t it?” said Jake, revving up his claws. “Question is, are you more afraid of Rawth,” He began grinding his two spinning hands against one another, sparks flying to illuminate his underbit face, “or ME?”

“We don’t have to negotiate with the likes of a terr-an” The leader threatened, stepping forwards.

“It’s terr-i-an” the last shayd that was interviewed interrupted. “Three syllables.” 

“I— Ju—” The leader stuttered, taken aback. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll come with us.”

“Look where you are, idjit.” Jake said, spreading his arms out. “You ain’t got no weapons, leaders, or nothing, no one here to—”

The leader lunged forwards, with a formerly unseen rock in his hand. He managed to make the behemoth of a terrian lean back somewhat in shock as he climbed and coiled around him, striking him with it.

“FOR SHAYDON’S GLORY!” He screamed, still bashing at Jake, trying to find his opponent’s core. In spite of the onslaught, however, Jacob was more irritated than physically harmed, and grabbed frantically for the shayd as it zipped around his body. The other three shayd, emboldened, also began to move forwards to join their superior in glorious combat. Unfortunately, Jacob had finally caught hold of his assailant, wrapping his claws around the leader’s torso, and pulling out his core with his other hand, hesitating somewhat before crushing it into shards before the other soldiers, who had now ceased their advancement. The black shards scattered across the desert sands before him as Jacob stood immovably upright, facing the remaining three shayd.

“I’m not going to repeat myself.” Jake ordered firmly, pointing at the sack he held them in. “There’s your cloaks, now leave.”

The shayd kept their eyes locked on Jacob as they pushed one of their trio closer to the sack to retrieve their garments. They robed themselves, cautiously backing away from him, and once they were far enough, ran full-belt off into the dunes, hopefully never to be seen again.

Jacob stood alone for a long time that night before he went back to Lum.

CHAPTER 32: Something Special

The next morning had finally crept upon Lum, same as it had every day since its founding over five hundred years ago— with another certainty being that its leader— a luman grandess— was already hard at work. The escapees were growing somewhat more accustomed to life within this fallen nation, however. For a majority of the morning, Jacob had elected to patrol the streets, surmising that if one group of shayd was out here looking for their posse, more could very well be on the way. Keeping an eye out for any of last night’s survivors was also a priority he wanted to stay on top of, as well. Orsel also went out with Jacob, suspicious of his claims that he had let all the shayd from yesterday go free. His goal, however, was more to make peace with the prospect of death than to reprehend Jacob for his actions, in spite of how uncomfortable he was with them. Taking some time to build more resistance to light and pain in general with the noble terrian was also a greatly appreciated activity. Vino, still recovering, spent his morning within the throne room. He found helping Hope organize her ever-expanding theory was quite therapeutic, and picking the brain of a grandess of all elementals was a feat that few on Crux could boast. The day proved to be quite uneventful, as the afternoon eventually brought the pair of elementals to check in on their friend.

“How you holding up, Vino?” Orsel inquired, patting Vino on the back.

“Ehh!” He groaned in pain, “Still a little tender there… But I’m doing better, thank you.”

“You guys’ve been busy.” Jake commented, pivoting his head around to marvel at the work of the two throne-bound theorists. Hope smiled as she hung up a banner of notes on a yellow string of yarn.

“Well, Vino here’s been a big help.” she accredited, fastening it upon the ceiling. 

“You know, there’s one thing I don’t quite get about this whole theory of yours.” Orsel commented, scratching his head with his crookshank.

“I’m sure we have enough evidence here.” Hope challenged. “Shoot.”

“Well, it’s not really about the whole theory itself per se.” Orsel explained, “It’s just… If this is right, what exactly are you going to do to stop it?”

Hope blinked with realization as Orsel continued his line of questioning

“I mean, is there someone you give all this stuff to, and they go and stop Shaydon, or are there any other grands or grandesses you’re going to share this theory with?”

“There’s a lot of evidence here that shows doing that isn’t necessarily a good idea.” Hope clarified. “A good chunk of this influence Shaydon has on Crux has seeped to places all the way to the top. Telling anyone about anything could potentially alert them that the secret’s out, and who knows what would happen then.” She added one last note that had fallen on the floor onto the just-hung banner. “Until proven otherwise, I can’t trust anyone.”

“So… what are you going to do, then?” Vino asked. Hope turned back towards the curious few, grabbing a few brushed-aside papers.

“I’d like to show you three something special. Follow me.”

The group traversed down the inconvenient flight of stairs and around the perimeter of the archives, towards the back half of the city of Lum, with Hope leading the way. She looked wistfully at an abandoned bazaar and theater, the expanses of the city bringing back fond and sordid memories upon her anguished mind. A small, half-mile hike through the desert outside the eastern gate brought the quartet to an enormous, glass-encrusted crater in the sands, wide enough to encompass maybe half of the city of Lum in its area. In its center stood a humble and untouched temple that, although faded from time and exposure to sand and sun, seemed remarkably undamaged by the catastrophe that had struck Lum. 

“What is this place?” Orsel asked, marveling at the glass crystals that peppered the landscape.

“Never thought I’d be back here again,” Jacob commented. “This is the keystone temple.”

“The birthplace of elemental life.” Added Vino. “Over five hundred years ago, this odd rock, the keystone, shook the very foundations of Crux, changing it into what it is today, scorching, flooding, and sundering the world as we knew it- we thought it was the end times.”

“That sounds awful,” said Orsel.

“Well, after that was all said and done, you guys showed up— elementals, and well, that’s just how it’s been since then.”

“Huh, so that’s really where we all came from? This… keystone?” 

“Yup.” Jake piped. “One big rock made all this trouble.”

They arrived at the doorway of this hallowed ground only to find that it was locked to the public. Hope grabbed a key from inside of her robe and unlocked it, revealing its rarely-seen interior. It was a domed area, taller and wider than that of Hope’s throne room, decorated with finely-cut marble and brilliant metals. Six stained-glass windows segmenting the building adorned the walls, depicting images of the elements themselves. Some of them had portions that were missing or cracked, but the colors and shapes were still distinct enough to show what they represented. Beneath each window was a large, metallic bowl that, at one point, contained a small sampling of each of the respective elements— the only exhibit remaining intact being the bowl of light- a beam that shone down into a glass prism, refracting and reflecting the light as it danced around the platter. All the others had either been cracked, cast onto the floor, or flooded with the passing piles of sand that had inhabited all the other ruins out in this desert.

In the center of the room, however, on a grand pedestal nearly thrice the width of Jake, laid the oft-spoken Keystone.

Its size was fairly… undeserving of the sizable column beneath it, but its beauty more than made up for its lack of stature. It had a smooth, opalescent texture, colors flitting off of its surface and blending into one another with each moment spent staring into it. Its cleavage was almost perfectly cubical as well, the edges looking immaculately squared even with its considerable age. Orsel had never seen something so beautiful before in his entire life- it rivaled even his recent introduction to the stars in the night sky. He reached forwards to touch it, only to be interrupted by Jacob grasping his arm.

“Don’t touch it!” He ordered. “It’s sacred!”

“I thought it’d be bigger.” Vino observed.

“Vino!” Jake hissed, “This thing’s been through a lot.”

Hope ran her hand along the dust covering the pedestal.

“Before the Umbral Incursion began, The Grands of Crux caught Thead, the Grand of Shaydon, doing… something to the Keystone, and we decided it was too dangerous to keep it in one place anymore.”

She looked over at the bowl of earth, the rocks and crystals contained within now buried beneath a mount of sand, trickling in from the cracked window above.

“Our greatest mind, Archemicheron, proposed splitting it into several pieces to keep amongst ourselves— the leaders of the world. This is the piece I was left with.”

“So every world leader has one of these?” Vino asked.

“Every grand does, at least.” Hope clarified. “We do have the largest incentive to keep it safe, after all— our continued existence.”

Orsel pointed gently towards the Keystone with his crookshank.

“So, what does this Keystone have to do with your theory— how to stop this war?”

Hope rummaged through some of the notes she was holding.

“I want to put it back together.”

“Why? What’s that even going to do?” Jake protested. “You guys said it yourselves, anywho— if it was too risky to keep here in the first place, then what good would bringing it back do?”

“Because it’s who we are.” Hope explained, “We may be different, sometimes dangerously so, but we come from the same place. If there is any sight that could convince the enemies of our world’s balance that war and conquest are not to be sought, then the sight of the Keystone, in all its glory, is it.”

“And how do you know that?” Jacob asked, arms folded.

Hope pressed her hand against the face of the Keystone.

“It told me.”

Vino’s eyes bulged as he turned his eyes towards the floor, exhaling. 

“Hoo-boy.”

“I heard that! And it really did, alright!” Hope defended. “I heard it speak, clear as day. It told me: ‘Hope, the Keystone, the one which bears my life upon your world, it must be reunited.’ It was an old man’s voice, I know it was real.” The trio stood blankly at Hope as she desperately looked for their approval.

“It sounds crazy, it’s not something I have reams and reams of evidence for, but something as important to us elementals as this— even if it is for a reason that might seem insane— you can’t deny that it doesn’t mean something in the grand scheme of things.”

“How would you even go about that anyway?” Jake sighed. “You’re just gonna come out of hiding after all these years and ask the other grands, ‘Hey, let’s put the Keystone back together, for old times’ sake?’ It just don’t seem feasible.”

“I hoped to put a team or something together when I thought the time was right.” Hope grumbled, rifling through her papers. “I was planning on… well… taking them.”

“Taking them? Like— stealing them?” Orsel prodded.

“Where would you even find someone willing to do something like that? Vino followed up. “You’d be tasking these people with stealing some of the most heavily guarded and revered objects in Crux’s history— it’s almost impossible.”

“I’m aware of that, yes, but it’s for a good cause.” Hope explained, “In fact, the best cause anyone could possibly imagine— preventing a war on the scale of the Umbral Incursion, and bringing the keystone to its former glory— anyone who did this would be considered the greatest heroes on the face of Crux!”

“Or its greatest criminals.” Jake sneered.

A spark of realization jolted through Hope’s mind

“Hey, what if you guys helped me with this?”

“WHAT!?” Jacob and Vino protested in unison.

“I mean, you guys at least have some experience running from the law, heck, I could even train you— you’d make a crack team of—”

“OUT OF THE QUESTION!” Jake scolded. “Some of us have lives to get back to.”

“But Shaydon is still hunting you guys down! They know you’re out here— maybe it could prove an opportunity for you to remain safe.” Hope encouraged.

“Look,” Vino extrapolated, “just because we had a run-in with Shaydon’s law doesn’t mean we’re willing to throw our lives away for some… pipe dream. I’m as open-minded as the next guy, but this seems outlandishly dangerous.”

“I’m… willing to listen,” Orsel announced, Jacob and Vino meeting his claim with repulsed stares, Vino moving closer to talk to him a bit more personally.

“Alright, I’m not that open-minded. Orsel, this isn’t something you want to do.”

“Now hang on…” Hope interrupted.

Vino shot her a look.

“Now listen, I know you haven’t spent a lot of time outside Shaydon, but this isn’t how things are done out here. What she’s proposing, well, it’s practically suicide.”

“Well, what other choice do I have? I can either do nothing about this and be hunted down by Shaydon, or I can be hunted down and at least say I tried to do something meaningful with my life. This is an opportunity I would never get if I hadn’t left my home.”

“Come on, Orsel, don’t do this.” Jake said.

“But we should. I mean, Jake, you of all people should know: You served during the Umbral Incursion. If you got the chance to prevent that whole war before it even happened, wouldn’t you take it?”

“That’s not the same as— ugh.” Jake spat.

“Besides, you guys promised me you’d help me get my bearings out here, by the way— you owe me this much.”

“But not like this!” Vino protested. “Never like this! We meant we’d help get you a job and a place to stay or something, not join some crazy heist to steal shards of the Keystone of all things!”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I’m at least going to hear Hope out.” Orsel turned, arms folded. “Besides, if even at least half of what she’s said is true, with those theories about Shaydon corrupting all these different places on Crux, I’m going to have to be dealing with that place one way or another anyways— any chance I can get to stop that, I’ll take. Come on, Hope.”

Shocked at his response, Hope exited the Keystone temple with Orsel, beckoning the others to come with her at the doorway. Vino shook his head.

“I’m sorry, Hope. We can’t do this with you. Orsel may be willing to go with you on this, but we—”

“Oh, I know that” She interrupted. ”I just need you to leave, so I can lock the place back up.” 

CHAPTER 33: Supply and Demand

“Back in your cell!” Ven shouted, using her twin-pronged arm to zap the newly-incarcerated hinders of a shayd. He fell face-first into his cell, standing up to clutch the bars promptly after they had just closed.

“You have to talk to Yuttoguln about this, please!” He groveled. “I was one day late on my rent!”

“I was one hour late.” A cellmate behind him piped up. As the newbie looked behind him to see the source of the noise, Ven had stuck her arm into the socket next to the cell, zapping the two jailbirds.

“Now I see why Yuttoguln agreed to our previous arrangement.” She grumbled, looking over at the other cells, each containing up to five shayd in their confines. “This much overcrowding would drive anyone to desperation.” Suddenly, a knock at the basement hatch interrupted her brooding.

“NO MORE!” She screamed. “We’re still processing the last few you sent over.”

“Sister, it’s me!” Eyve revealed, “Come up here! I have something to show you.”

“It had better not be any more of these lowlifes.” She said, banging her mechanical arm on the cage she had just shocked. Once Ven had ascended the steps and ladder up to the main floor of the laboratory, she was met with a sight that nearly instilled a response from her emotive substitution processor. Eyve presented a bag, filled to the brim with glittering, blue gems— some more intact, shaped like teardrops.

“Where did you get these?” Ven asked, grabbing one of them, holding it between her fingers.

“I worked something out with Rawth- this is their first haul from Frostonia! And so quick, too!”

“What… exactly did you work out?” The twin asked, warily.

“Nothing much, a small sum of star for each pound of cores they bring back.”

“How small?”

“Goodness, we’ll be able to work a lot quicker with this much coming in, huh?” Eyve jingled the bag in an attempt to abate the topic.

“How much star did you promise him?” Ven ordered, clutching the core much more firmly.

“A…thousand”

“A what?”

“A thousand, alright?”

“A thousand star for each poun— Eyve!” She swiped the bag onto the floor, causing the fragments to spill and clatter about. “We don’t have that kind of budget, even with Edrip’s grant!” What were you thinking?”

“Well, I thought that with a large enough stock, we would—”

“We would what? Magically get enough star to cover this deal you made without my consul, in between us already working around the clock to make more of these things? I’ve been processing Yuttoguln’s prisoners all day, and where have you been? Making deals and gallivanting around, just like that harlot, Lus—”

“Don’t speak that tramp’s name!” Eyve growled, sending an arc of energy down her mechanical arm. “Progress is more than slaving away in a laboratory, sister. Part of it is preparing the world outside for what is to come, terrible and great as it may be.” 

“Be that as it may.” Ven finished. “What is to come still needs a way of coming. Work still needs to be done, and I require your services for the rest of the day.”

“Bu—”

“I don’t care what you had planned for today, we are going to buckle down and turn these subjects into our next batch of compounds by the end of the day. Understood?”

“Fine.”

“And pick up those core shards. Father didn’t raise a slob.”