(Ezra POV)
The inside of the structure made of moss wasn't exactly how I thought it would be. When we entered the door, there was no room—just a hole in the ground. The only light in this space came from behind the door we had come through.
"My lords, I sense the relic's signature further down that hole," Solmane informed us telepathically from within my core.
"Um, Dad, that drop is fairly steep. You could probably survive it, but I'm not trying to risk it," Cyrus said, seemingly coming out of a deep trance.
I created a small light and tossed it down the hole before us. I watched as the light slowly fall for what seemed like forever, until it finally faded into the dark shadows that encompassed the pit.
"Yeah, you might be right about that. Come, hop on my shoulders and I'll hover us down—just like when you were little. "Cyrus didn't seem to find my joke funny, but he reluctantly gave in.
We slowly descended down the long, lifeless hole until we finally reached its end. At the bottom, the small ball of light I had thrown was still radiating a faint glow. With the bottom softly lit, we were able to see several tunnels diverging throughout the basement of the structure.
"You got any thoughts on which way to go?" Cyrus asked as he dismounted from my shoulders.
"The signature is coming from the uppermost left tunnel," I heard Solmane say through the telepathic link he had created.
As we slowly walked down the dark pathway, I was expecting Cyrus to make some sarcastic remark, but surprisingly none came. His wariness and hesitancy took over. I felt his cosmic energy rise as he enveloped his body with a layer of protection. I wanted to tell him there was no need to waste his reserves because I was here to protect him, but doing that was like telling a wild animal to turn off its instincts.
After a few more paces, the pathway expanded into a wide-open space. "We are here, my lords," Solmane said, and a mote of light left my core, illuminating the room and exposing everything the darkness had hidden.
The large room reminded me much of one of my labs back home. There were a myriad of tables scattered all over, with intriguing contraptions laid on them.
"You look like a kid in a candy store, Dad. Is this how you acted on your excavation trips?" Cyrus said, returning to form.
I ignored his comment as I let my eyes continue to wander across the room, until they finally landed on the object that didn't seem to belong here.
Resting on the table was a crystalline sphere the size of a human heart, pulsing with an eternal, soft radiance. In my heart, I knew exactly what it was. It was the relic I had been in search of for the better part of my life—the object that would have brought my dream into reality, but also something that had caused me to lose almost everything.
I wanted to move and finally hold the relic in my hands, but my body didn't allow it. I felt the urge of my desires and the reasoning of my guilt fight for dominance. It was like I was trapped in quicksand with no way out. Now, in this very moment, I felt a torturous pain. My heart felt like it was being kicked in, as if there was a battering ram beating on it from the outside. Survivor's remorse was the cause. "Why was the universe finally rewarding me with this, and the rest of our clan rewarded with death?" I thought to myself.
It was something I had pushed down for a while—until now. In the back of my mind, part of me hoped I never found it, as a way to repent for what I didn't do.
I noticed Cyrus take one glance at me, then at the relic on the table. He proceeded to take smooth and gentle strides toward it.
"Dad, it's okay. They would have wanted you to find it. They would have wanted you to fulfill your dream. I want you to fulfill your dream. Alright?" my son said to me, turning his head to face me before he grabbed the relic.
Before I knew it, the relic was hovering toward me in the air. My body was no longer paralyzed—it instinctually moved to catch the relic. With the ancient keepsake of our clan in my hands, I felt the warm energy emit faintly.
"What do the runes say?" Cyrus asked, taking a seat on one of the tables.
Finally peering down at the relic, I noticed that the runes seemed incomplete.
"Hey Solmane, you're an expert on this. Could you give me a hand? Something seems off."
Still in the form of a small sphere of light, Solmane hovered near me. Through our telepathic link, I could sense that our new companion was starting to come to a similar understanding as well.
"My lord, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the reason the rune doesn't make sense is because the relic is not whole."
"What do you mean the relic isn't whole? How can a relic not be whole?" Cyrus asked, his tone starting to show agitation.
"It's just as I said, young one. It appears whoever got hold of this relic either obtained the entire thing and hid the other pieces somewhere else, or this was the only piece they happened to stumble upon. I can affirm—this is not the full relic."
"But I thought you were connected to the relic. Shouldn't you have been able to sense where the other pieces are?"
"That is true, but when I took form again after all these years in the astral realm, I didn't sense any other signatures. So I assumed that it was all in one piece here. I assumed wrong."
"Is there a chance that the other pieces are hiding somewhere in the physical realm then?" I asked Solmane as I put the relic away.
"That is a possibility, my lord."
"Well, I guess it's time to leave. Everyone ready? Because I sure am. The longer we stay in these dark pathways, the more I'm reminded of that stupid rift," Cyrus said as he leapt off the table and proceeded to leave the room.
"Was it really that bad, Cy? I'm sure you gained valuable experience from it," I chuckled as Solmane and I followed him out of the room.
"Yes it was. I used to really like dogs, you know."