Chapter 46: The Forgotten Crystal
Arthur had only taken three steps before he noticed Athena hadn’t followed. He looked back through the gap in the still-closing doors. She was standing exactly where she had been, one hand holding her notebook in a tight grip.
"Athena?"
She didn’t answer.
Arthur pushed the door back open and followed her gaze. The cracked crystal was drifting again.
Arthur watched it for several seconds. "...It’s pretending."
Athena frowned. "Pretending?"
"It was drifting normally until we came back." Arthur pointed upward. "Now it’s trying to look like the others."
Athena slowly looked toward the crystal. "I don’t like that observation."
"I don’t think the crystal likes being noticed." He stepped inside. "Also, do you know why it’s damaged?"
"...I don’t know." Athena furrowed her brows. "Crystals aren’t supposed to break."
Arthur moved toward it slowly, and every time he closed in, it slipped away into another aisle. He stood completely still. The crystal waited. The moment he moved, it moved too.
"I think it’s smarter than me," he said.
Athena said nothing.
He turned toward her. "You could have at least pretended to disagree."
"Evolution Crystals don’t choose," she said. "They simply drift with mana."
"Ahh, so you’re saying—"
"That one is choosing."
Mithra reappeared from further in the Archive, where she’d apparently been in conversation with one of the staff, and stopped when she saw Arthur standing in the middle of an aisle looking upward.
"What are you two doing?"
"It keeps avoiding me," Arthur said, pointing at the crystal without looking away from it.
Mithra watched it drift in a small correcting arc as his finger moved toward it. "You’re treating it like an object."
Arthur blinked. "It isn’t?"
"If it’s reacting, maybe it’s reacting to someone. Not to you reaching for it." She tilted her head. "Maybe it’s reacting to something about you specifically."
Arthur blinked. "...Vedas."
"I never summoned him," he said. "When we got here I kept finding things and I—" He scratched the back of his neck. "I just kept finding something else."
Athena looked at him. "You forgot."
"I forgot," he admitted.
"You’ve been exploring for almost two hours," Mithra said.
"He’s going to complain."
"Probably."
The golden light of the summoning gathered, and the Goblin Commander stepped out of it. Vedas blinked, then looked around the Evolution Archive with the slow attention of something encountering a new space and giving it the attention it deserved.
Floating books.
Crystal shelves at heights that required looking up.
Lights drifting through the upper levels in slow orbits.
"So..." His eyes came back to Arthur. "...You forgot me."
Arthur immediately looked guilty.
"I leave you alone for one afternoon," Vedas said, crossing his arms, "and you find another ancient ruin?"
Mithra burst into laughter. Even Athena’s lips twitched.
"I wanted to bring you out," Arthur said quickly. "I just got distracted."
Vedas looked around the Archive once more, then nodded. "...Understandable."
"...Really?"
"I don’t know what these are. But they look amazing." Vedas looked around again. "This place..." He smiled quietly. "...Feels peaceful."
Arthur nodded. "I thought you’d like it."
"I do."
"I’m sure you’ll love experiencing another life."
Vedas blinked, then just smiled. "I can’t wait."
Arthur grinned.
Mithra watched the exchange, then looked at the cracked crystal, which had drifted to a neutral position and was holding there.
"If we’re testing whether it’s reacting to someone," she said, "everyone should be here."
She summoned Melo.
The small fox materialized on the floor, looked up, assessed the Archive, and appeared to approve. Athena was already holding Athy, the owl’s small weight familiar on her forearm.
Five seconds passed.
Then ten.
And nothing happened.
The crystal continued its gentle circular path with no apparent interest in any of them. "Maybe we guessed wrong," Arthur said.
Then...
The cracked crystal stopped.
For one impossible second, every crystal in the Archive stopped moving. Silence filled the enormous hall.
Arthur slowly looked around. "Did anyone else..."
Nobody answered.
Then—
Every crystal resumed drifting except one. The cracked crystal trembled before rushing to Vedas in less than a second, and stopped two inches from his face.
Vedas went very still.
It circled him once.
Then again it was like checking something.
"What is it?" Arthur said.
"It feels..." Vedas frowned. "...Lonely." He slowly shook his head. "Like it has been waiting. For some reason it feels familiar."
"Like you’re familiar with it?" Mithra asked. "Maybe it feels like a weapon or item you had for a long time?"
"No. It feels more like something I haven’t seen for a long time, and now I’m only reuniting with it."
Arthur’s smile faded. "Take your time."
"I agree. Keep talking, Vedas." Athena leaned in.
"..." Vedas slowly lowered his hand. "I don’t know why. But I don’t want it to be alone anymore."
Nobody answered.
"This is the first time I’ve seen you like this," Arthur muttered. "It’s new."
Vedas looked down. "I don’t know why I feel like this. Is there something wrong with me?"
"Athena? Is this normal?" Arthur frowned. "Because it sounds like Vedas is feeling the crystal’s emotion without experiencing it himself."
"There’s a phenomenon," she said, when the silence had finished being what it needed to be. "It occurs very rarely." She looked at the crystal, then at Vedas. "Evolution Memories occasionally resonate. They respond to beasts or people whose existence reminds them of something preserved within." She paused. "Not by design but by nature."
Arthur looked between Vedas and the crystal.
"If it resonated with Vedas..." Mithra didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to.
Arthur slowly nodded, then focused on what Vedas was feeling through Synchronization.
Confusion.
Curiosity.
The quiet ache of waiting far longer than anyone should. He stared at Vedas in wonder. It felt like Vedas knew this crystal.
"...Do you want to?" Arthur asked.
Vedas didn’t answer immediately. His eyes never left the crystal. Finally, he nodded. "...Yes."
Arthur smiled. "Then let’s find out together." He stepped forward and placed his hand against the cracked crystal’s surface.
The light shifted at the contact.
Vedas placed his hand beside Arthur’s. Mithra smiled and added hers. Melo pressed one paw against it with the deliberate care of something that had decided this was the correct action.
Athena looked at her notebook, then at the crystal, then at the small group of people touching something she was approximately certain was not meant to be touched in this manner.
"This is probably against several Archive regulations."
"Probably."
She looked at her notebook one more time. "We are already this far." She placed her hand on the crystal.
Athy touched it with one wing, and the contact completed.
A single crack began glowing.
Then another.
Black light spread slowly through every fracture.
Arthur felt the air become colder.
Nobody moved and then the crystal exploded with black light. The Evolution Archive ceased to exist.
Darkness.
Cold wind carrying the smell of smoke and something older than smoke. The clear, distant sound of steel meeting steel in a pattern that had intent behind it. Sun shining down. Footsteps echoing out.
A rough voice tore through the darkness.
"Commander!"
Everything exploded into light.
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