This was it. The struggle to survive ended here. After all that effort. All the planning. Finding unique ways past all the different obstacles. Making it past every setback. Maybe it was coming onto dry land, or what passed for it. Failing here, in this pitch blackness made it all feel wasted.

“Give…give me a moment…I am sure that…there is some way…to fix this…”

“Like this is pretty bad guys. Try and like find something to grab onto, or like hit a wall as we go down.”

“How is…”

OOMPH

Michael was cut off as he felt a sloped ground come up beneath him. The wind was knocked out of him as he stumbled forward and started to roll further down. He couldn’t see anything, he just heard Carolyn call out somewhere behind him,

“Protect your head and keep rolling!”

Michael thought he heard her say something else, but somehow her voice seemed to be getting further and further away.

After what felt like an hour of tumbling, even though it couldn’t have been more than a minute, Michael finally moved to more of a flat surface and had come to a stop. He felt so dizzy he could swear he was currently lying on the ceiling. So he slowly pushed himself to be sitting up when something slammed hard into his back and forced him forward and onto the ground.

Michael let out a low groan as he lied there. Whatever was on top of him in the darkness replied with its own groan that sounded like Sharon.

“You alright?” he managed to get out as the world danced around him.

“Yeah just…give me a moment…”

As the world slowly started to stop shaking, Michael became keenly aware of the fact that a girl was lying on top of him. He was still too dizzy to do much about it, so he just lied there in silent suffering as he tried to think about something else.

As if to grant his wish in the worst way possible, something hard thudded against his leg. “Ah! What was that? Something just touched my leg!”

Sharon let out an inquisitive hum and put her hand down on Michael’s chest. “Which leg?” she asked innocently.

“Uh, the, the left one.” He stammered.

She slowly traced her hand down along his shirt to his hip, and then down along his leg. “Can you still…feel whatever it…is?”

Michael nodded as he resisted the urge to laugh from the light tickle he felt from Sharon’s fingers. Then realized it was way too dark to see anything, so he answered her, “Yes!”

He fingers slid off Michael’s leg, and onto whatever was up against him.

“Ah, how convenient…”

“Well, what is it? Nothing bad, right?”

He let out a short oof as Sharon pushed herself up off of him. He was still a bit dizzy, so he wasn’t sure how she could be standing up already. He tried to push himself up so he was at least sitting, but nearly fell back a couple times. All the while he could hear Sharon sliding her feet around. Like she was dragging them on the floor without lifting them up at all.

“Pierce through the darkness…reveal the sun to us…who live in…darkness and ignorance…reveal the truth to…your loyal servants…”

As Sharon finished chanting the room started to glow with light. The walls, ceiling, and floor, all lit up with a dim luminescence. It seemed to happen so gently; Michael’s eyes had no trouble adjusting to it. As he sat there slowly taking things in, he saw Sharon standing up and holding the book.

“So, have you always been able to do magic like this? I mean, there were a few times back on the boats that would’ve been really useful you know.”

“It is not as simple…as all that…” explained Sharon calmly as she tried to tuck the book under her arm. “Without Avialian showing…up here. I would…have not been able…to fill in the missing…parts.”

“I guess that makes sense. But now that you got that, you can just do magic now?”

Sharon shook her head. “It is not magic…it is merely a different…style of technology…not even necessarily more…advanced than humanity…just different.”

“Yeah, I’m not going to pretend I really get all that, but I think I understand enough.” Michael was feeling better, so he stood up. The slight change in altitude threw him off again, and he got a little dizzy. Luckily, he managed to keep himself together and didn’t fall back down. “Now, do you have any idea where we are? Did we fall into a trap or something?”

Sharon and Michael both looked around the room they found themselves in. It was a decently sized dome with a single hole leading into it. Michael went over to look in the hole and poked his head through. It hadn’t become illuminated like the room had, but he could still see that it was a steep slope heading up. He assumed it was where they had slid into the room from, and he doubted they could manage to climb up it.

“I only have a…guess as to where…we are.”

“Well, my only guess is we fell in a death trap that we’ll be stuck in until we starve. So hopefully your guess isn’t quite so grim.”

“This is a laboratory…kept secret from…the general populace in…Avialian’s time…traps would not…be unheard of; yet…her suspicions seemed to…be an outlier…so it seems like…an unnecessary security measure…No, I think this…is simply another level…or some form of…storage area.”

“A storage area without any doors and a fall leading to a slide into it? Wait, if it slid us in here, where are Carolyn and Avialian?”

“The ground sloped…in several different ways…we just happened to…end up together…As for the room itself…their technology involved…shaping the crystal into…whatever forms they needed…the ‘slide’ was no doubt…intended to form into…stairs.”

Sharon shambled closer to Michael and looked down towards her feet as she practically whispered, “Would you mind…letting me hold…your arm so…you could help lead…me around?”

Michael was taken back for a second, when he remembered that she was legally blind. He felt a bit embarrassed that he had forgotten, but she hid it so well. “Yeah, go ahead.”

He held out his arm towards her, and in a swift motion she slid her hand into his and grabbed a hold of his hand. He was very startled and instinctually moved to pull away, but she held on tight. Not quite squeezing his hand, but with a grip firm enough he’d have to pull pretty hard to even attempt to free himself.

“I thought you said…you would help me…” Sharon had a pleading sort of ache in her voice that made Michael feel exceptionally guilty for reacting how he did. Still, it felt weird having a girl hold his hand.

“Al…alright fine. But where am I even taking you? It’s just a big circle for a room, unless you’re going to use that book to turn this into stairs for us to climb?”

Sharon smiled as he stopped resisting and gave him a light squeeze on his hand. “The stairs will…not help us now…No, it is better to…head deeper in…take me to the opposing…wall first, and we…can try to find a…path through there.”

“What about Avialian and Carolyn? Are we just going to leave them?”

Sharon squeezed his hand almost possessively as she pouted. “They are both…quite capable of taking…care of themselves.”

“I mean, I don’t know Avialian that well yet, but sometimes with Carolyn I doubt she could make cereal if there were instructions on the box.”

Sharon tried to hold in a chuckle as she rolled her eyes. “In regular society…sure, but in a…dangerous ancient ruin…Why, even if those…statues all tried to…attack her I’d bet she…would survive. At least…if half of her…stories are true.”

Michael shrugged. It seemed like a decent argument, and Sharon was the expert of this place. So, he brought her over to the wall opposite of where they had slid in. As they walked over, he could swear Sharon was slowly edging her way closer to him until he was sure of it because her head was practically resting on his arm. He felt like he couldn’t make a fuss after what happened earlier. Michael felt a twinge of guilt as he knew he enjoyed her being so close. He felt bad, like he was taking advantage of her, and reading into it too much. After all, he knew what kind of guy he was. Not exactly the fish every girl was fighting over.

“Alright, we’re here. Now what?”

Sharon reached out her hand and placed it against the wall. Holding it there she started to hum different notes. When nothing happened, she let out a frustrated huff of air.

“I uh, that sounded nice?”

Sharon’s frustrated look cracked a small smile as she rolled her eyes. “I just thought…I’d try things her…way first. To see…if I could…”

She took in a deep breath and chanted, “Open for the seeker…reveal the path…for those searching…for the truth…”

With a small groaning a thin line appeared vertically along the wall. As the groaning grew louder the line spread, revealing an archway. At first it was pitch black inside, like staring into a bottomless pit, but then the light from the room they were in slowly spread forward, illuminating a small room ahead of them. It was filled with strange looking machines and sealed bottles filled with liquids of every color. It was exactly what Michael thought a mad scientist’s lab would look like. Just made completely out of the same crystal this entire place was.

“I guess it was another part of the lab.”

Sharon smiled. “This is perfect…quick, you must describe…everything for me with…as much detail as you can…I think this is…just what I’ve…been looking for…”