I approached the library slowly and found the old man tinkering with a small ragged and old book.
He didn't speak at first, and only sighed, as if remembering things of a time long since gone.
"Sit," he said after a while.
And I obliged.
"You must have questions for this old man," he asked.
"Yes. Why are you here?" I asked him, "Someone of your ability should not be stuck in this rut."
The old man looked up for a while before speaking and said, "The world knows nothing but greed, greed over the material and the immaterial. Greed for power and wealth, greed for life itself and for death too." The old man then pulled up the old book in his hand and said, "Do you know what this is?" he asked.
I shook my head, "Looks like a normal book," I said.
"Indeed it does," he said then he used some of his Qi, setting it ablaze.
The book's material burnt to ash and revealed something I didn't expect to see.
A pentagonal aqua-colored jewel.
"The Water Key," I replied, I didn't even know what the Keys look like, but its as if something inside me knew it immediately and replied in my stead.
"Indeed, it is something that one day appeared in my possession. I didn't seek it, look for it, or want it. But it still just came and presented itself to me," he said.
"I believe it brought more harm than good," I said.
"Indeed it did, I even tried getting rid of it, but it stuck to me like glue. I threw it in the deepest volcanos and it still found its way back to me. I donated it, tried to break and destroy it, and even sealed it under a mountain range and it still came back, haunting me. It cost me my family, my kin, my clan, my sect, and everything I ever held dear, and it never allowed me to even die…" the old man said.
He hated the thing in his possession and it was clear from the sorrow of his eyes.
"It still brought me opportunities, many of them, so many that I found myself at the Emperor real without even putting up half the work needed. But that only brought more misery and agony to this old man. The Fire Lord sent out a full scout, search and destroy order for my existence. I had nowhere to hide, no family or friends to trust, and everyone I ever turned my head to, either betrayed me, or died trying to help me. This is nothing but a cursed item…long have I tried and hard have I tried to get rid of it, but to no avail…"
I took a moment to think then said, "Then you decided that if you can't get rid of it, nor if you can end your own existence, to hide it alongside you in the only place no one would ever think of looking in."
The old man smirked.
"Inside the belly of the primordial serpent god. I see," I said. "And how has that been working?" I asked.
"Not so good, though I had peaceful centuries of life to live… I still can't perish… this thing refuses to allow me to do so. Not even this serpent can take my life as long as this thing here isn't allowing it," he said.
"Do you wish to have it?" the old man asked after a thought.
"I find no use for it, though I believe Master Rain can find a way to open the door to the Beyond using it. I highly doubt that the Key would willingly jump into my hand," I said.
"Indeed, it had refused to go to another person's hands ever since it came to me, I don't…"
The old man's words were suddenly cut as the small jewel simply jumped and landed on my lap.
Both my brows rose up.
"…"
"…"
I grabbed the small jewel with both hands and gave it back to the old man, but it simply just jumped back onto my lap.
The old man looked at me then the jewel and a couple of teardrops began falling from his eyes.
"Finally…at long last…I can let go…"
"Oi, old man!" just as I finished my words the old man in front of me began decaying, slowly perishing turning to dust as his entire body crumbled as if tens of thousands of years had gone by in a second.
Not even his soul remained nor did the robes he wore. His entire being, which seemed to have been frozen in time for a long period seemed to have finally caught up.
'I suppose I'm your new owner now… but what are you?' I questioned not expecting a reply.
Yet suddenly a vision manifested within my mind.
A vision of a great vast and endless darkness. So vast and so wide that nothing seemed to shine within it, an endlessly expansive darkness.
A golden door opened up within this darkness, a door so great and so vast one would think that it could encompass the entirety of the vast expanse itself. On the surface of this door were five massive orbs of different colors.
The door then dissipated, never opening leaving the five orbs in the darkness.
An infernal red that burned with the passion to burn the seas and mountains.
A cool blue hue that moved to coil around itself, calm at first as the surface of a lake, but then roiling with unfettered rage as the depth of an enraged sea.
A brown glow that had the warmth and stability of the earth for a moment, then it trembled and rumbled as if the world was being turned upside down.
A silver hue that playfully moved about, then suddenly turned to a raging endless storm that would threaten to extinct life itself.
Then finally the last color. Gold. It was just a piece of gold, it looked simple at first, but soon it morphed into shapes and structures, into weapons and tools changing its form, shape and material itself, it turned to iron, then brass then other metals as it changed.
Thes five elements were the first to exist in this darkness. And due to the disappearance of the door, they looked to be so far away from each other, one in every corner of this vast darkness. But soon, they began moving.
They moved faster and faster, toward each other, all to meet in the center of this endless darkness.
They moved for eons, increasing their speed further and further, they moved incredibly fast and powerfully so until the moment of their clash.
The explosion of this crash was so vast and so grand that it sent rumbling echoes that traversed space itself. Breaking into hundreds of billions upon billions of particles.
These particles then were suddenly drawn together creating astral cores.
Some had more fire energy creating stars. Some had more earth energy creating moons, and some had a balance between all creating planets that can be lived in.
But that wasn't all, in every corner of this vast space one of the elements resided, staying there and creating the four corners of the world we know as the Vast Expanse.
And thus these small keys. The origin of this very world and the creators of it.
Small utterly simple-looking, yet holding knowledge and a history unbeknownst to most.
Life found it's way thanks to these five elements, yet the question remains, who placed them here, and for what reason?
I opened my eyes to find the key still staying calmly in my hand, and from within it, an energy that I'd felt before emanated.
Only it was much purer and clearer than what I felt.
"Faith?"
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