Sebarius throws another nervous look over to the heavily armored soldiers that are going from table to table to interrogate the people sitting at them.

'Crystal is right. They don't know whom they are looking for, otherwise they'd go about this differently. Just play it cool, maybe they aren't even here because of you...yeah right, because there'd be even more wanted criminals in this bar this evening than the three of us!'

Sebarius shakes his head and forces his focus back on the story he had started to tell, trying to sort his thoughts.

Eventually he takes a deep breath, the strain of the situation visibly showing on his face, but the carefree and relaxed expression on Crystal's face somehow gives him the feeling that it'll still be alright.

So yes, the Freespirit compound is, as you may already know, a large underground ruin that has been discovered during the last century, which features a number of ancient machines of unknown purpose and one of the largest crystal caves known to man.

The name stems from the first exploration parties, who claimed to have seen 'the light of spirits' roam freely within the crystal caves and even though later examination revealed, that it was just a rather rare strain of glowbugs native to the crystal caves and completely harmless, the name of 'Freespirit' stuck.

Of course, with a name and a background like that, there's no shortage of ghost stories surrounding the place and every now and then people will claim to have heard otherwordly voices within the crystal caves, but thus far no indication of any supernatural event could be proven, so it is assumed that it was just the rather distorted echo of their own voices that spooked them. Of course their overactive imagination helped as well.

Scholars have been trying to figure out the workings of the machines for the better part of a century already, but thus far, they didn't have any success whatsoever...and I guess now they never will.

Anyway, to get back to the present of a few months ago, I travelled to the Freespirit compound following the lead the dog-ear had left me with.

And yes, I was grasping at straws at the time.

So, once at the site, I showed them my old identification of the archeaological scholar society and explained that I wanted to examine the crystal cave.

They didn't even check the expiration date or bother to contact the society about whether my request was genuine, but just waved me through, giving me the rundown of cautionary measures to be taken.

Nothing I had never heard before and judging from the tone of their voices, the officials on site weren't exactly too thrilled about having to repeat the same things for the umteenth time either, but you know how it is with official proceedings.

"You mean there was an official entrance and you just walked into the thing?!" Aiko suddenly asks, her voice just a notch too loud for Sebarius' and Crystal's taste.

A swift stomp on her foot beneath the table later, Aiko grimaces briefly and lowers her voice again, causing Sebarius to chuckle a little and respond, "Why of course. It's not like it was a treasure chamber of some sort."

I didn't even know what to expect to find in there to be perfectly honest.

I guess I was hoping for a miracle to happen, some kind of answer to my prayers and frustrations.

I mean, where else to find a spirit princess than where the spirits roam freely?

Sebarius closes his eyes briefly, while the soldiers pass by their table, not paying them any heed. Yet.

So I ventured down into the well-explored ruins of our precursors, past the various tables detailling the theories and information wrestled from the sparse inscriptions the people before me had managed to translate.

I read them absentmindedly, waiting for something, anything, to happen, but of course the machines did not come to life and no divine being came down to guide me on my path.

Not like I really expected any different, after all that would have been plain foolish.

Eventually, after following the well explored trail, I entered the fabled crystal cave, which was rumored to be a gateway to the spirit realm and I will admit that I was taken aback by the beauty of it.

While the rest of the ruin was illuminated with carefully placed electrical lighting, the cave itself needed nothing of the sort.

The walls were aglow with a blueish light, which seemed to emanate from the crystals scattered all over the place, refracting the glow of the 'spirit bugs', as the glowbugs have been nicknamed, a thousandfold.

It was a beautiful, if not downright magical sight, but that was not the magic I talked about earlier.

Because you see, while I examined the crystals and how it was possible that they could glow all by themselves, I suddenly started hearing voices from seemingly nowhere and at the same time, the entire compound went dark, with only the spirit bugs hovering around me with their pale blue light, much like Will'o'wisps in the stories and I remember thinking 'if I were to follow them, would they lead me to my ultimate demise'?

Sebarius pauses briefly, when suddenly one of the armored guards leans down on the table of the three and states "Sorry to interrupt your little chat, but you and your companions are under arrest."