The Metaphorical Key Book II- Forge the Path

Chapter II

Aiden eventually made it to an unoccupied storage room, and he swung open the heavy metal door with a grunt of effort.

The light switch was still working, and he heard the groan of generators and several metallic clangs. Curious, he flicked on the light to see machines haphazardly scattered about.

Not a storage room.

He turned to face the door, which thankfully had a lock. There was a keyhole outside, and a simple twist lock on the inside - he wouldn't need a key or passcode to lock it - that was a relief.

He tried to open it immediately after twisting the lock,, and it didn't budge.

Good.

Aiden fished the fire stone out of his bag and held it in his palm, looking it over and studying the pulsating reds and oranges

He hadn't been able to use it since Curtis had... he didn't want to think about it. The two events had to be connected, right?

He took a deep breath and held his hand over it.

How'd I do it that day? It felt so natural.

On that day, he'd felt as though the stone had become a part of him, not a weapon, but rather an innate ability.

He felt none of that now. It was just a pretty rock.

Frustrated, he tossed the stone to the ground, where it landed with a heavy clang.

"Hey!"

Aiden just about jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice, and he scrambled to the ground, diving for the stone.

Maybe he'd be able to use it if it was life or death? Perhaps that'd been the case with the battle he'd used it in

He never found out. The person who'd shouted wasn't an enemy, it was just Regina. His heart sunk - not because he disliked Regina, as he'd gotten past that dislike, but rather because he knew she'd tell him off

"Don't scare me!"

Regina smiled.

"So... why are you here?"

Aiden gulped.
"Uh, training."

"You know there's an entire room dedicated to that, right?"
"Yeah, but I don't want to hurt anyone."

Regina raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean by that?"
Aiden glanced down at his hands and realized that he was holding onto the stone so tightly that its points dug into his skin. It was humming faintly, shaking slightly in his hands as if it were about to explode - perhaps that would be better than having to deal with the damned thing
"I was training with this."

He flipped his hands to show the stone.

"Oh, that thing."
"I can't use it," Aiden muttered.
"Can't or won't?"
"Can't," Aiden spat. "Look, I'll just go somewhere else."

He reached for the door lock.

As he pushed the door back open, he felt a hand grasp his forearm and yank him backwards, so hard that he fell to the floor and winced as he struck the metal there.

He sighed, dropping his head to the floor so that it bounced slightly as Regina shut the door.

She dropped into a crouch.

"Alright. You're going to listen to me, and you're not going to leave until you've heard what I have to say, got it?'

Aiden nodded, biting his lip.

"You're upset."
"Yeah, I'd realized."
"Don't be short with me, I'm trying to help," Regina's arms were crossed, her teeth grinding against each other.

"I'm sorry, please continue pointing out the obvious."

He heard Regina hiss through her teeth.
"I lost somebody important in my life, too. It sucks, I understand that. And i also understand how horrible it feels when somebody tells you to 'move on' or 'they'd want you to be happy.' It sucks, I get it."

Aiden lifted his head off the ground. She'd piqued his interest.

"We weren't friends for long, but it still stung when I lost her. This was a few years ago - I think I was... twenty-two or so. I'd been a Raven for a while, and I'd spoken with people who died that same week, but no loss had ever impacted me as this one had. As it turns out, the digital records of Ravens are removed - but the physical ones remain. The Catago have backups, but the physical Records room is so crowded that it takes days to search. I asked the double agents we have at Records if they could try to sneak the Records of Hui Yu. It took them some time but they did, and I read every single page of her Records. I got to know her, even after she died. Ask one of the spies if they can find Curtis' Records. Read them, don't forget what you read. Hold him in your heart, grieve when you need to grieve, but move forward with your life. Does that all sound good?"

Aiden nodded, relieved to have somebody give him advice that he could use fairly easily.

"Yeah, yeah that sounds good. Thank you."

He got up and left the room, tucking the stone back into his bag.

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"So, what'd you want to see us for?"

Aiden rubbed his fingers together awkwardly. Dulcie was leaning back in her chair, eyes narrowed and fingers tapping impatiently of the metal she was sitting on. Even her goofy, fluorescent pyjamas did nothing to damped the annoyance that came off her in waves. It was two in the morning, as Aiden wanted to talk when everybody else was asleep.

"Uh... I'm sorry for ditching you guys yesterday. I just... look, so, i found out from Regina that there are physical Records, and we could recover Curtis' Records."

Dulcie's eyes lit up like her highlighter-coloured pyjamas, and she lurched forwards in hr chair, the metal legs squealing as the chair slid forwards. She seemed to have forgotten her anger when she spoke.

"Really? That's great! We should ask the spies in the morning."

Aiden shrugged.
"I... I was thinking we could go ourselves. I just... I want to get them myself. It's my fault he... I guess I just don't want to shove the task of getting the Records to somebody else. I want to be there to find them."

Dulcie sighed.
"Look, I understand your sentiment - it wasn't your fau-"
"It was."

"Even if it was - and I still stand by the fact that it wasn't, that's seriously dangerous. You'd be breaking into a place infested with Catago - and Curtis is - was Italonian. You'd have to go all the way to Italon."

"It's like... a three hour trip by train. We'd be okay. We'd just say we're visiting Italon for the weekend to celebrate my birthday. We can take a vacation, we're allowed to. We could spend some time there, and then grab the Records and they'd be none the wiser. You guys wanted to celebrate my birthday for real, right? Then let's do it! And we can just get the Records while we're at it."

Dulcie got up.
"I can't deal with this right now. You're going to get yourself into so much trouble, gods... please, Aiden, you're my friend and I care so, so much about you, and I want you to be okay, I want you to recover, but you can't do that if you're caught by the Catago and killed!"

She stormed off, and Aiden heard the sound of quiet cries as her footsteps retreated.

Pollux, who hadn't spoken at all in the duration of the conversation, cleared his throat and looked up. Even in the dim light of the library they were speaking in, Aiden could see tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

"When do you want to go? I-I need to know when to pack."  

sksksksksksk I keep making myself sad writing this D: