1 Week Later
Ko sat in complete silence with her eyes fixated on the blank white ceiling. Her thoughts raced around in her mind at the speed of light. She could see back almost perfectly to the temple. The pillars crumbling down around her, the dust filling the air.
The screams of Quin still haunted her. The images of Kori right before he was flattened were all too real. It was like a nightmare she couldn't escape. Every night since then had been filled with a haunting vision of Fischer and Quin both being trapped in there as well. Crushed by tonnes of stone piling down on them.
She couldn't help but feel guilty. It was because of her that they had gone to the temple in the first place, because of her that Kori was even there to begin with. They should've listened to Trikka. She was right about it being far too dangerous.
They had recovered the lantern however. A step forward in finding out who or what was tormenting her. It hadn't come without a cost though. And right now their prize didn't seem worth it at all.
The sudden sound of encroaching footsteps outside the room pulled her away from her dull thoughts. She immediately knew it was Fischer. The way he walked was quite different from that of a carcan. Even Spatch had much heavier sounding footsteps despite his lanky build.
A slight knock on the door was followed by the faint hissing as it slid open and revealed the hallway behind it. The lights inside the house were on, the thin pillar lights on the walls of the hallway coated it in a cooling lapis colour that almost seemed to chill the inside in a calming aura.
Fischer's soft footsteps echoed around the room as he cautiously walked towards his friend. He looked across the room and a look of anxiousness overtook his face. Ko's lack of any sort of reaction to him entering the room was a little unnerving. She continued to stare blankly up at the wall. If she had heard him entering, she made no acknowledgements of it.
He paused for a second, unsure of what to do next. Her head was somewhere else entirely. She had been distraught the past few days after the accident with Kori. And he couldn't blame her. Even he was having difficulty finding things to smile at. The whole house just seemed so empty without him.
He didn't want to disturb her train of thought or interrupt in any way. But at the same time he'd already entered the room. And he knew she had heard it. Walking back would just make things even more awkward.
"Hey. . . you doing ok?" he mumbled, the question not entirely aimed in her direction.
"I guess." She bluntly replied.
Her harsh tone pulled a sigh from his mouth.
"Ko. . ."
She slowly turned her head to the left. Fischer stood a few meters away from the bed with his hands in his pockets, looking down at the floor in contemplation.
"Look. . . I know you blame yourself. And. . . you think that it's your fault," He stumbled as he fished around his head for words in order to formulate a sentence.
"It is. It's as simple as that, Fischer. If it wasn't for me, he'd still be here. If I wasn't here, we'd never have gone to that cave."
"He knew what he was getting into- '' His words were cut off by a sudden eruption from the usually silent zapher.
"Don't say that! That's no excuse! That's like saying you knew what you were getting into when you found me! No you didn't! How could you have?" She glared at him with watery eyes. Looks of pain and regret fluctuated across her face.
Fischer was taken aback by the volume in her voice. She never shouted. Never got angry like that. Especially around him. She was always so kept to herself. He stood there, almost shell shocked.
She seemed to pick up on his blank faced expression. "I'm. . . s-sorry."
She let herself sink back down into the soft bed and continued her entranced stare up at the featureless ceiling.
Another sigh escaped Fischer's mouth. He knew she was right. It was because of her that Kori was gone. But there was no way she- or any of them for that matter- could've done anything about it. And there was no way he was going to start playing the blame game.
Instead he shuffled a little closer to the bed and gently sat down next to her head.
"Ko, the last thing he would want is for us to sink down in cement and never move on. He's gone. . . there isn't anything we can do about that. Trust me. If I could bring him back I would. We all would. But we can't. So we need to do what he would want us to do and find out what it is that's going on in that head of yours."
The zapher lay in silence as she contemplated his words. She didn't like them. They stung like a whip. But she knew them to be true.
He slowly moved his right hand over to her left and gently placed it on top. She didn't move, but he felt her fingers briefly clasp around his. He gently caressed the top of her wrist with his thumb.
She let out a cute little whimper before a small smile took over her face.
"You wanna go get something to eat? C'mon, you haven't eaten in days."
--\/--
Quin sat in one of the main living room couches, observing as Spatch fiddled around with the lantern. The feeling of tumbling down an endless abyss hadn't removed itself from her gut yet. It had been present ever since she lost Kori. Every time she pictured his face she felt lost. Sick. Alone.
Over on the tale Spatch sat with Trikka who watched with a blank face as he fumbled around trying to find out what exactly the device's purpose was.
The device had sat alone on the table for the past week, none of them wanting to even acknowledge it considering the price they had to pay to get it. But they couldn't ignore it forever.
Spatch inspected the device carefully, trying to recreate the scene that played out in the temple. However despite doing exactly as Ko had, the lantern wouldn't light up again. Instead it was like an empty shell. It almost sounded hollow as he tried to activate it.
"This is honestly unlike anything I've ever seen before. And I've come across a lot of ancient ruins," he exclaimed with curiosity flowing through his eyes. The girls just looked at him blankly with no interest in what he was doing. Or at least, they were hiding behind a facade of boredom.
Suddenly a shuffling from the stairs caught the group's attention. All three of them spun around to see Fischer and Ko walking down the stairs.
"Hey, you feeling any better Ko?" Quin solemnly asked.
"Yea. . . I guess," her voice was flat and coarse.
"Hey Ko, give us a hand for a second?" Spatch asked, waving her towards him.
She shuffled over to him, her eyes completely focused on the lantern as it sat motionless at the table. A chill immediately ran down her spine as vivid memories of the temple came rushing back to her.
"I've been trying to get it to open up like how you did back at the temple, but the damn thing doesn't wanna light up. How did you do it?"
She cautiously reached out and grabbed the device by its handle at the top. Resting it against the table she pressed downwards and twisted it until she heard that familiar 'click'.
Immediately the lantern exploded into a shower of light and particles, the same as it had back at the temple.
"Huh. . . I tried exactly that. . . Fischer, why don't you try?"
He looked over at Spatch with a puzzled glint in his eye. But not seeing how it could cause any harm, he headed over and grabbed hold of the device. He pressed the device down just as Spatch and Ko did. But just like Spatch's attempt, the lantern remained silent. His eyes widened slightly and he took a step back.
The whole room felt colder suddenly. If there was any more proof needed that something was toying with Ko, this was it.
"Huh. . . that's. . . interesting," Trikka slowly stated, the strange discovery shaking her from her saddened state. Both her and Quin had both sat upright and were now eyeing both the device and the zapher that was able to control it.
"That can't be a coincidence. . . Looks like it only responds to you Ko," Spatch said.
Ko's bright cerulean eyes stared frightfully at the lantern. There was no way that was an accident. Whoever created the lantern created it so that only she or a handful of other potential people could access it. One question was burning in her head though.
"Why?"
Fischer bit his lower lip in contemplation. He too was having trouble understanding all this. "I don't know. This definitely backs up your claims though. Not that any more evidence was needed after everything that we've seen."
"Open it up again Ko. I remember seeing a bunch of weird symbols before we heard that riddle. Maybe we can decipher them or something," Quin said.
Ko walked up and twisted the device. Just as predicted, it lit up like a bangalore torpedo. Trikka suddenly snapped upright, her eyes quickly filled with a mix of confusion and wonder.
"Oh my god. . ." she stuttered.
"Pretty interesting hey? I can't say I've ever seen anything like it," Spatch stated. Trikka slowly nodded her head in agreement.
Seeing as how everyone was now crowded around the table, Quin bleakly stood up and hobbled over to join them.
Just as it had done in the cave, a bunch of strange symbols started appearing out of thin air. They were made out of a translucent white glow with a harsh cyan outline to them and emitted a strong blue glow. They appeared for around half a second before disappearing and almost melting into the next symbol. There seemed to be four of them in total. They flashed in the same pattern and each one looked radically different from the previous.
"Wait wait wait. . ." Spatch exclaimed, suddenly pointing at the hologram. His exclamation caught the attention of the others.
"There a way to pause this thing or something?"
Ko inspected the device, not seeing any traditional means of halting the holograms like a button. She tried twisting the top again which seemed to do the trick. The hologram froze on a symbol that seemed to get Spatch rather worked up.
"I-I know this symbol. . ." He said as he stood up and inspected it closer. It looked almost like a capital 'N' that had been tilted diagonally. A small line sat just above the uppermost gap in the letter.
The other four all turned and looked at him, waiting for an explanation.
"How? W-what is it?" Ko asked.
The veranah gritted his teeth and his fingers clenched into a three digit fist.
"It belongs to someone I know. Someone you don't want to know."
The group all leaned a little closer.
"Uh, well if they know something about this symbol then I think we do want to know them," Fischer argued.
Spatch let out a deep and regretful sigh as he realised he was going to have to explain to them who this person was.
"I knew this guy from long ago. We used to be mates. Some shit happened, that's not the point. Point is, he's bad news. We told each other we were never gonna cross paths again. There's not much good that can come from him. Why this lantern has his symbol on it I have no idea. I can probably take you to him. But it's not a journey you want to be going on unless you're really bloody desperate."
"I'd say we're pretty desperate. Who is this guy and how do we get to him?" Fischer asked.
Trikka suddenly threw her good hand down on the table. "What? No! You can't possibly be telling me that you're going to go off on another goose chase! After what just happened to Kori?"
A sudden silence filled the air. It was sharp and cooling. Unwavering and menacing.
"Trik . . . look. . . We're finally starting to get somewhere with this. We've come too far now to give up," Fischer stated.
"Are you kidding me? Fischer, I just lost my brother to this stupid quest."
"I know. And believe me, it hurts like nothing else. I know what it's like to lose someone close to me," he stated, nonchalantly looking over at Ko.
"But Kori gave his life for Ko. He gave his life for us, to make sure we could live to see tomorrow. If we stop now, his sacrifice will have been for nothing."
Trikka's eyes began to water as thoughts of her and her little brother began flooding back to her. She looked on in disgust at the human. But that disgust soon turned to shock as she saw the closest thing she had to a sister- Quin- stand up beside him.
"It's what he would've wanted. Hell, it may mean I get to join him soon," she said sombrely.
Trikka's face became flooded with tears as she realised there was no way she would be able to talk any of the down. She let out a muffled cry before getting up and storming out of the room down towards her bed.
As the door slammed shut Fischer could feel his heart starting to sink lower and lower. Ko came over and placed a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him.
"You don't have to do this Fischer," she stated.
"Yes I do. I'm not gonna watch you fall apart as well." He turned his attention back to Spatch.
"So who is this guy?"
Another sigh escaped his boxy snout. "Well. . . he works for the Arbight Syndicate."
Quin's eyes suddenly lit up and her bio lights turned from deep blue to black.
"T-the Arbight Syndicate? You mean the most dangerous cartel in the entire Qalantic? T-that Arbight Syndicate?"
Spatch puckered his lips and nodded.
Quin threw her hands up in frustration and groaned. "Of course he does. Why make things easy?"
The sudden revelation hit Fischer like a freight train. Pirates were bad enough. Space pirates? This wasn't going to be a walk in the park.
"Ok. Well. That definitely complicates things a bit. But I'm sure we can still figure something out. We have to. He got a name?"
Spatch looked up at him with a look in his eyes that told Fischer what he was about to walk into wasn't going to be something he should be looking forwards to.
"Yea. . . Tonner."