“Really? You’re focusing on this now? With everything that’s going on, you’re just messing around with this Ancient technology?”

“I made a promise…now I am…fulfilling it…”

“Look, promise or not we have to get out of here. Our lives are in very real danger right now Sharon. Please.”

Michael’s voice strained as worry poured out of his every syllable, but Sharon didn’t reply. She just kept working at the weird stone. Then it finally hit Michael. That looked like actual stone. Every last thing in here had been made out of crystal, but that soft gray was unmistakably alien in here. Then he saw that the rod Sharon had been carrying around had been put in a small recess like a tiny flagpole without any flag.

He sighed and walked up to where Sharon was and put his hands down. It felt oddly warm, like a rock that had been sitting in the sun all day. “Fine then. I should know better than to try and force you to leave when you’re not ready, so how can I help?”

Sharon looked shocked at Michael’s willingness to help, but after a moment a soft smile spread across her face. She reached down and pulled out one of the vials they had made in the lower level of the lab. “Thank you, Michael…take this, and when…I say so lift…the rod and…pour it down the hole…When it is empty…quickly cover it…again with the rod…”

“Sure, seems simply enough,” he said as he grabbed ahold of the vial.

Sharon grew quiet again as her focus seemed to move entirely to where her hands were moving. It was so strange, like a practiced dance only using her fingertips, or some sort of strange massage. Though why she’d massage a stone he’d have no clue. Still, she had proven she knew what she was doing in this place several times. Out of all four of them, she definitely seemed the most at home here.

“Would you have wanted to stay?”

“This requires a lot…of focus to do correctly…”

“Right, sorry. Forget I asked.”

There was an awkward silence after that. Michael wasn’t sure if he wished Carolyn was here, or if he cherished actually being able to have an awkward silence again. He wished the answer was obvious. Though, if it wasn’t awkward, Michael guessed that it would have been obvious which he’d preferred.

“Okay, pour it…not yet…not yet…now!”

Michael stumbled as he was shaken from his thoughts by Sharon’s commands. The rod was oddly cold to the touch, like it had been sitting in a freezer. It almost made him drop everything when he grabbed ahold of it. Luckily he managed to fight through his impulse, and pull it out. A small stream of smoke came out from the hole it was in. HE quickly turned the vial over it, but nothing happened.

“Take the crystal…stopper off first…”

“Right! Sorry, I forgot about that.”

Sharon rolled her eyes with a strange smile Michael often saw on her and Carolyn’s face when they looked at him. It wasn’t an expression he had been used to seeing. He wondered about that as he popped open the top of the vial and was suddenly hit by a strong whiff of what smelt like the raw scent of an electrical spark. He didn’t have time to focus on it though, as he poured it down the smoking hole. As he slid the rod back in, he heard a loud groaning, as if Chronos himself had been sleeping just beneath them and that vial was just splashed in his face to wake him up.

“Yes…”

“Uh, yes what? And is there anything else I can do to help?”

“No that is…or it should be…enough to start it…I just need…to finish the sequence…but my answer…to your question…is yes…”

“Which? Wait, you mean if you wanted to stay?”

“Yes, I love…it here. It is…everything I had hoped…to find and then some…”

“Then why didn’t you stay? Or even say that’s what you thought we should do?”

“Because even though…I love it here…none of you could…have stayed too…”

“I mean, before Triddian went full psycho wasn’t that up in the air?”

Sharon sighed and shook her head as her hands continued to race across the stone. “No, not really…in the end…you would have seen…that it wouldn’t work…but this place…it sings to me…” Sharon closed her eyes and smiled as she tilted her head back. “Like my mother used to…a song so beautiful…words can’t describe it…but none of you…could hear it…you couldn’t sing back…and change the course…of the song…How can I describe it…It’s like…Like speaking French as…your main tongue…and your whole life…being around people…who speak German…Then finally going to…a place where everyone…speaks French like you…comforting…yes, that’s it…it’s comforting, like…a warm blanket…”

Michael just stood and listened. Sharon didn’t speak at length very often. When she let out a frustrated sigh and slumped forward slightly, he figured she was done. Still, he didn’t immediately say anything. Instead, a silence built up between them, but it wasn’t awkward this time. It felt more like a mutual understanding that words weren’t needed. That Michael could understand what she was giving up, even if he didn’t know why.

Sharon stopped messing with the stone and bent down to her side. She picked up the giant book and set it gingerly next to the upright rod. Then she took the other vial and poured it over the book. The cover popped and sizzled. She stepped away and turned towards the archway leading out of the room. As she walked towards it, she held out her hand towards Michael.

She turned towards him with a bittersweet smile and said, “I thought you said…they were waiting for us…We should hurry then…right?”

“But what about your book?”

“If I needed it…I’d be bringing it...wouldn’t I?”

“I mean, I guess so, but…”

“Time is short…we should try and hurry…before we are caught…”

Sometimes Michael really wished he was more perceptive. He knew she looked really sad, but he wasn’t exactly sure why. Plus, there was the book. She had kept it close to her every chance she had, but now she was leaving it behind? None of it made sense to him. Still, there she was with her hand outstretched and clearly waiting for him. He simply sighed and grabbed ahold of her hand to lead the way.

“Alright, we’re going to run for it, okay? No doing anything dumb and dying to save each other deal?”

“Deal…”

There it was again. There was something odd about how she said that, almost as if she had already done it. Like he was walking with a shadow of who she had been.

He tried to ignore it, but there impossibly peaceful walk back just made it worse. There was no sign of Triddian, or any of the army. It was like it was just a ruin again. When they made it to the main room of statues, there was only dust and shattered statues. They looked like they had been there undisturbed for millennia.

Panic set in Michael’s heart as he realized if they saw nothing of the Ancient’s army, then they must have gone after Carolyn and Avialian. He went into a sprint as he rushed down the left pathway. His heart pounding from fear at what he might find and not exertion. Yet, there was never any sign of activity. It was a barren land. They made it out of the tunnel and the statue that had once blocked the path stood half collapsed near the entrance.

Michael strained his ears, but all he could hear was the wind whistling as it poured into the giant dome. He began to panic and kept sprinting towards where the boats had been tied up. He knew it, they had gotten Avialian and Carolyn then retreated back below. He and Sharon took too long, and the others were now lost because he made them split up.

“Like what took you guys so long!”

Michael was stunned as he saw Avialian and Carolyn still struggling with the ropes that held the boats to the shambling crystal. Then everything went black.

Mich

Michael

MICHAEL

“Whuh wha wha?”

Michael finally opened his eyes and saw the three girls standing over him with worried looks on their faces. Though they quickly turned to relieved ones as he came to.

“You’re like so totally rude Mikey! Run up and faint like right as you see me again? Like what’s a girl to think.”

“Yes, you gave us quite a fright Michael. We had thought you may have stumbled right at the proverbial finish line as it were.”

“You scared me…too…”

Michael slowly sat up, which led to a stream of objections. Still, he persisted. The main thing was that he couldn’t see the shambling crystal. It was nowhere above them, or in the distance that he could see. They were at open sea again. He quickly reached around and found the spear he had kept. He pulled it out, and to his dismay it fell apart right in his hands.

“Yes, it seems that saltwater does not agree with anything taken from that place. All of it has quickly crumbled away.”

Michael sighed, because of course anything they had gotten would have turned useless. Still, he was back on the boats, and while not necessarily safe, it did feel a lot more like home after spending a day running around that place.

“Um like I know you just woke up, but…”

Michael looked up at her and suddenly realized his butt was wet.

“None of us can like get the water pump to like actually work…”

Michael let out a sigh and shook his head. It seemed that he already had a long list of work to do. With a deep breath he stood up and smiled. Carolyn was holding a cup she had been using to bail seawater out of the boat. Avialian had slightly tangled up her six legs in rope. Sharon was holding a frying pan with a couple pieces of dried fish in it.

There was a lot to do, and despite everything his life had shown him, he knew that together, the four of them could handle whatever might come.

“Like, are you ready for that group shower now?”

He just hoped that one day the teasing wouldn’t happen quite so often.

THE END