Their footsteps echoed through the tombstone. Halcyon walked stiffly, arms wrapped tight around her chest. Lucian kept his hands buried deep in his pants pockets, head bowed, jaw tight. Neither spoke again.
Both their minds were stuck on the argument earlier… they felt it was words from frustration, not malice. Neither had intended to hurt the other… but both had secrets. And Lucian's past… his was heavier.
He was someone, as seen cold and unapproachable... He'd spent so long in this city alone, unable or unwilling… to let anyone in… except Velmora and Randall. Still, she was different. Her openness had coaxed him into moments of vulnerability. But maybe that openness was dangerous. Maybe Halcyon was more like her than he'd noticed.
Does Lucian secretly fear that no matter how much he tries to save others, he will always fail where it matters most?
They slowed when the path shifted…
The stone beneath them had cracks and bowed inward… Lucian's nose twitched at the damp, earthy scent stuck to the air.
Their eyes widened briefly… as they saw
Something, interesting the sight of a unsetteed field stone… figures? That seemed to be dozens of human frozen mid movement, they expression was filled of fear, sorrow and pain.
Halcyon's head tilted. "What happened here?"
She took a few steps closer, heart clenched. Her gaze flicked from face to face. Lucian moved cautiously, avoiding patches of moss and… bones scattered across the ground?
It looks like they were attacked… but froze before death… the attack had to be formidable to freeze other, who could it be is it the owner of this tomb… is it possible after gaining his power maybe he lost control or killed them?
What ancient sin created this tomb's unnatural stillness, freezing life at the edge of death? Is seeking relics and forgotten powers merely reviving the very mistakes that doomed the world before?
Halcyon brows arched up, she blinked rapidly, as felt sadness inside… Just from the expression of them… all these people looked like regular humans before there deaths… Her eyes darted among them.
Before she crouched beside two figures… an old man shielding a child? The people stirred something painful within her. It reminded her, inexplicably, of Lucian.
"Why do you keep crashing into places… like you're trying to escape your sins?"
Lucian flipped a weathered black coin through his fingers. "Hard to believe it's peaceful here," he muttered. "Almost feels like…"
He trailed off... He heard him, but he didn't want to say about it. Both had quiet sighs escaping without realizing.
"Like we could stay?" she murmured.
He nodded faintly.
"Whssh."
They both froze… A whisper slithered through the thick air.
"Lucian…"
His eyes widened, it darted to each other, as they heads a voice coiled around his throat like invisible fingers. He turned sharply, searching the mist… He felt intense foreboding, that he frowned.
"Did you hear that?"
Halcyon looked at him, confused… until she noticed a shard of glass embedded in a headstone at her left. She saw her reflection? But it wasn't her. Not fully. Her eyes were hollow, cracked skin and rotting like a long-dead corpse.
She gasped and staggered back. "No… this can't happen…"
The mist thickened. And, Halcyon rubbed her shoulder and arms.
Two Figures emerged…wispy, translucent, hovering above nothing... Spirits bound by time and regret. Their mouths didn't move, yet their voices echoed like thunder, her hand hid her face.
"Why are you here….if it's not what your really looking for?"
"Why won't you…just admit everything and it could help you forward faster?"
Lucian didn't lisen, to the spirits he clenched his fist and stepped infront Halcyon. "We didn't come to disturb you…"
"No one comes here without guilt… greed or a past." one spirit moaned, circling her.
The other spirit circled Lucian. "You both have the scent of broken oaths."
Halcyon stepped forward, voice shaking. "We're not here to desecrate anything. We're looking for re…"
"So were we… looking for health, rewards and knowing the true history."
"And we died with our questions rotting in our mouths."
The spirits surged closer… there cold wrapped around their limbs like tentacles. The ground below their feet pulsed, they felt something ancient and buried… that when were pulled back down into the ground.
Halcyon glanced around, she didn't understand most about the spirits… she thought of will she die here just like them.
Why would they come out here… shouldn't they stay in seclusion… Lucian knows about, them why don't he ask anything else he just seemed to walking, with a reason for being here he someone of his word he's he staying for Lazarus does be need something for that.
Why does Halcyon's reflection in the shard show decay… What internal rot does it mirror within her?
Everyone knew spirits are one of the supernatural races that inhabit the world. They don't show their face much in the world and prefer to live seclusion, like Velmora.
Spirits are beings who's bodies are made up of immaterial substances such as energies or elements…
Velmora is the only one who broke through his barriers without trying to fix him, and that's why he trusts her more than most.
Seeking ancient relics is a dangerous practice frowned upon by the wise… not because of superstition, but because relics carry the curses and burdens of the past.
"Let's kept moving…" Lucian said.
Halcyon who was behind, in her own deep reflection something clicked in her of admiting she can move forward faster? She stared at Lucian back, her gaze lowered she hesitated… but followed when Lucian called her again... As a cold sweat ran down her back.
The path became narrow, swallowed by mist. Jagged tombstones pierced through the fog like broken teeth. Halcyon's boots crunched against gravel as she walked beside Lucian, their shoulders brushing. For a brief moment, she smiled…genuine and light… almost forgetting why they came.
"You're quiet… you haven't said anything about the spirits."
Lucian didn't answer immediately. He just stared forward his eyes had a tiny glint of happy light.
"…There was a boy once," he finally said, voice low. "Human. Maybe thirteen or fifteen. I don't remember what happened to him… but I remember his eyes. Big. Always searching for something to believe in."
Halcyon head tilted. "What happened?"
Lucian nodded heavily. "I was one a mission to find, out why there was people disappearing from a small village… them there I arrived the village on fire he family dying right infront his eyes deapite them fighting back."
"I even saw his try to fight back but he couldn't it's had to with his magic and for some reason…My instincts kicked in. I saved him."
Halcyon's frowned deeply. "You saved him."
Lucian nodded. "Maybe I shouldn't have… he was useless even if I had let him go he would have died… he didn't have usually a human had." He flexed his fingers, remembering." But instead, I kept him."
Halcyon's eyes widened. This wasn't the usual for him, he was someone to protect his own and forefront… And, its another way he never had anyone close to him beside them.
"Sunnny... He learned," Lucian added quickly. "But he needed time…he lost his family from worst than my kind them he had to come to meet me."
…Silence settled between them. As Halcyon and Lucian, stayed quiet.
Halcyon, smiled and whispered, "You tried to help."
"I know. But trying isn't enough sometimes. Power that can't be used… it's not a gift. It's a curse."
She looked at him, really looked at him…past the usual calm demeanor, past the sarcasm and distant eyes. There was guilt there. Deep and gnawing, however, a gentle warmth spreading across her chest
"…Did he blame you?"
Lucian shook his head slowly. "No. Despite not having it and saying its better he died, it promised him something hat could help." He signed. "What made it worse. He looked at me with gratitude. Called me a hero."
Halcyon shifted closer. "Maybe you were. Maybe you still are. Even if it didn't go perfectly… you saved a life. That means something."
Lucian lips formed a half-smile. "You always find the light in the ashes, don't you?"
Halcyon smirked. "Someone has to."
"It's Asher your talking about right…"
"Yeah…I wonder if he's still at the Sanctum. Searching for this Relic under Lazarus. "
Halcyon eyes widened briefly. "This relic… Does he know? That no matter how hard he tries, you won't give him what he's really looking for?"
Lucian didn't answer. But she felt happy... she saw something, that she wanted for a long time.
"You saved Asher... don't you see what that means? You can save lives, any life you choose, if you put your mind to it. You don't have to pick a side or a species to care about. You just have to care like you did just now."
Lucian sees Asher not just as a boy he saved, but as a second chance he fears he will fail again... Halcyon was oppsite of him who didn't care about life and saving them.
It was the look I'd always seen in his eyes... the quiet acceptance that no matter how hard he fought to save others, he'd always fall short where it mattered most. Maybe that's just how the world works… mercy in the small things, cruelty where it counts.