The new elements

Chapter 10: a new home

The next morning Lucian is waiting for them at the entrance of the cave city. He escorts them to the gardens at the backside of the palace, draws his sword and inserts it into the pedestal of a broken statue in the middle of the garden. What remains of the statue rises up revealing a staircase underneath it that leads down below the palace. As they walk down the stairs, purple crystals in the shape of braziers start lighting up one by one. At the bottom they find the same mural as the one in secret room in the palace.

This is as far as I can take you your highness, I don't know how to open the door.

I had to touch the wall to open the secret room in the palace...

Cassidy puts her hand on the mural, a line appears in the middle and it slowly starts opening up.

They walk into the room and find a massive purple crystal that's as tall as a tree. It starts glowing brightly as Cassidy approaches and the room quickly fills with a purple glow. Clay turns towards Cassidy.

This is exactly like the crystal we found you in, just much larger.

Suddenly a woman made of pure purple light appears.

It was a subconscious manifestation of your power, a survival instinct that protected you when you were in danger.

Lucian falls on one knee.

Queen Arania!

Cassidy looks at her in disbelief and tears well up in her eyes.

Mom... how?

I'm so happy to see that you're safe Cassidy. When the city fell, I escaped to this room and managed to transfer my consciousness into our founding crystal with the hope that one day you would find your way back here.

I never thought I would see you again... is dad?

Your father bravely fought on the frontlines to buy time for the evacuation... he didn't make it.

Clay puts his arm around Cassidy's shoulder.

A noble sacrifice by a brave man.

The queen smiles at him and nods.

Yes he was, thank you. Cassidy, why don't you introduce us?

Right, this is Clay. He freed me from the crystal and his family took care of me.

Thank you for keeping her safe, I'm very grateful.

These are my other companions. From left to right: Liram, Danir, Brix and Kalea.

It's a pleasure to meet you all, thank you for your help in freeing the city.

Mom, do you know more about what happened?

During my time in the founding crystal, I have seen much of our history. I am aware of three crystals that contain incredible power. The chosen people who inherited their power were able to provide the continent we live on with a great deal of things that made life better for the people. Our founding crystal is one of those three, another one belongs to our enemies to the west, the third I don't know... my powers are limited compared to yours so I'm not able to see everything.

Why are they our enemies?

They've always been isolated because of the location of the crystal, it makes it difficult to grow and prosper. Because of that the king felt that he deserved compensation for that inconvenience. Negotiations took place but it soon became clear that his demands were completely unreasonable, he invaded shortly after.

Do you have any idea what the reavers are exactly?

I can only speculate. I think the king found a way to use his crystal to "change" people. Why else would he abduct people instead of killing them?