Starry Days & Sunlit Nights: Volume 1 - Reluctant Blaze

Chapter 1.9 - Aspiring Antiquarian

Yumi always looked forward to visiting her friend's home. It was a nice, three-floor residence situated at the base of a large hill, where an observatory and research institute crowned its peak. It was because of this facility that Kylie's family had settled down so close to it.

Anyone who was new to the area could hardly tell from the weather that it was currently the middle of September. Global positioning and seasons meant nothing in this city. Besides the occasional downpour, days were always sunny or cloudy, and ranged between mildly warm and hot. Nights, meanwhile, were always chilly, as if all warmth had abandoned the city, and it only got colder as the evening deepened, before the heat of the dawn took over once more. This unusual meteorological condition spread long past the outskirts, where it would gradually conform to what was the norm of the country.

For decades, scientists had been attempting to study such an anomalous phenomenon hanging over the metropolis, with little results to justify it. As with the nature of their society, the people never really held anything against it. While there were those who missed the icy touch of snow or the tanning heat of the summer sun, many people from all over the globe had learned to adjust to it for the sake of settling into the politically independent city. Liberta City became known as a place of so many different races and cultures under a consistent weather pattern, to the point that one could truly forget which country lay just outside the city limits.

Kylie's parents were two of the meteorologists spearheading the current generation of local scientific investigators. While their predecessors had been quick to abandon the mystery as unsolvable, the proud and intelligent Europeans had showed some promise in their own attempt so far.

As soon as she followed the redhead through the front door, the first thing Yumi would come across was a multitude of models, whether decorative or functional, depicting weather patterns and heavenly bodies. The ground floor corridor was surrounded by artistic images of nature in its various temperaments. Most of the house was carpeted, and sometimes Yumi and her friend would walk along it with bare feet to experience the ticklish sensation it brought to their soles.

Then the two would make it up to Kylie's room, which was completely different from everything else in the house. Where her parents held a fond fixation on the climate and its phenomena, Kylie's interests were more down to earth-rather, they were usually found a layer or two beneath it.

Kylie had always expressed joy in the discovery of artifacts, ever since her family had migrated to the city when she was six years old. Her door alone showed just how much her interest bordered on obsession. Sure, it was just a layer of paper mache, but the sheer amount of detail put into the etchings and symbols, not to mention how much it resembled carved stone, was phenomenal. Every time Yumi went through it, she would feel like an explorer venturing into a tomb. It was probably because of that very same feeling that Kylie had decorated her door that way.

"Make yourself at home," Kylie invited her friend to sit on her beanbag chair while beaming. "I'll be right back with some snacks."

"Alright," Yumi gratefully accepted the offer and plopped down on the cushion as her friend turned on the air conditioning unit and made her way out.

Her amber eyes explored the room. There was the shelf with glass casing where Kylie kept the little antique trinkets she had managed to keep for herself, a modest collection which had grown over time. Besides a standard bed, with a laptop on the side table next to it, and a personal television set with a game system hooked up to it, her friend possessed two desks. On top of the one under the window was a stack of books and sheets of paper spread around under a number of paperweights, while the other was littered with several tools meant for further examination of certain objects. Among the items gathered here were several brushes of varying size, a magnifying glass, a jeweler's eye scope, a bottle of some sort of liquid and a dropper, a notepad, pencils, and a pair of tweezers.

Yumi smiled for her friend, who seemed to have truly found her calling in life.

On the day Kylie and her parents had been shown around the observatory for the first time, the redheaded girl had wandered away from the group and stumbled into the site for an annex of the institute, which at the time had been little more than a large burrow where foundations would be laid. There, she picked up what looked like a short shaft of bronze. But where had it broken off from? What was it used for? Who lost it all the way up here? She was eager to uncover the mystery presented before her, and easily took after her parents, albeit in a much different field of study.

Today, that same memorable artifact had been polished and was proudly bouncing on the redheaded's ample bosom in the form of a necklace.

Yumi had seen most of the other objects in the room on other trips here. But one item caught her eye, one she had not seen in this place until today. Surrounded by the other objects on the second desk was an amulet. It was crafted from white limestone, with a loop of twine tied to it, and had been cleaned and polished to the closest it could come to restoration. On its face was an image of the sun and indecipherable crooked lines below it.

"Pretty sweet, isn't it?" Kylie said, surprising her friend with her return. In her hands was a tray with a couple of glasses of orange juice and a plate of crackers topped with corned beef.

"What is it?" Yumi inquired curiously.

"I'm not really sure," Kylie told her as she set the tray down. "I've seen that sun symbol on a lot of other relics, not just the ones I have here. It pops up just as much as the symbol of a white circle. The two of them probably have some shared connection from the same civilization that came before this city, but I just can't figure it out. The peeps at city hall won't let me check out their stuff to cross reference with. If they wanna be that way I'll just have to hide my stuff from them too! Oh, but back to the amulet. I have no idea what it's for really, but maybe it's some kind of charm for a priest, or something?"

"So, nothing more than guesses, huh?" Yumi muttered, and stroked her hand on the pendant. It was smooth, despite its age, and felt warm to the touch somehow, even while the room was kept cold by the air conditioner. That was odd; Kylie was nothing but thorough, how could she have missed such a detail?

She failed to mention it, however, and she felt herself drawn into the aged piece the more she looked at it. The warmth felt more and more like something that was a part of herself, hidden deep down, the longer she kept contact.

"Yumi, you okay?"

Her trance was dispelled when Kylie spoke up beside her. In her surprise, she very nearly dropped the object; it was even more confusing how she ended up holding it so close to her.

"Sorry, I have no idea what came over me," she told her friend, and extended her hand to return the amulet.

Kylie reached out and clasped Yumi's fingers, gently closing them over the object on her palm.

"Keep it," she said with a friendly smile. "You obviously really like it. I have a bunch of others I still need to study anyway. Just let me know if you find out anything about it."

Yumi felt warmth from her core, but of a different sort from what she felt from the amulet. "I will, thank you," she said, smiling sweetly.