“What is that?” Cabre asked, his gaze moving over the carving.

Levy shrugged, sending the ball of energy closer, illuminating the massive, ancient, artwork in a soft purple glow. As he raised the light higher, it revealed crystals shimmering along the walls, refracting the light in irregular patterns across the floor. He felt an odd connection to the carving. It pulled him closer as if it were hiding answers. Answers he could only find beneath its surface.

“Looks like it’s been here forever.” Levy replied, grazing a hand over the face of the rock. “I wonder who these people were.”

Cabre approached, inspecting the depiction.

“They almost look like dieties of some sort.” He suggested.

Levy furrowed his brows, letting his gaze drift over the three figures at the top. They seemed so familiar to him, but he couldn’t place why. He was sure he’d never met any of them before. If Cabre was right and they were gods, how could he have? Maybe in a dream? He couldn’t remember having any dreams where people showed up before. It had always just been him and the wasteland. Maybe they were the source of the voices?

“Look at this.”

Levy struggled to pull his gaze from the figures, but finally looked down to where Cabre had crouched down to inspect part of the wall. In a sort of elevated panel, a hand had been carved making an indent. Nothing seemed unordinarily special about it.

“Hm.” Levy didn’t see the addition prompting much more of a response.

He watched as Cabre grazed his hands over the handprint, drawing his face closer to the edges of the panel. Cabre furrowed his brows before sliding his hand flush with the print, though his hands were a tad smaller. Pressing his weight forward, the panel started to slide inward, and the grinding of stone against stone softly echoed through the room. The two paused, waiting for something to happen and as Cabre removed his hand, the panel slid back to its original position. Moments passed. Nothing. The carving remained as it was, the crystals didn’t move from their places in the walls, and they still reflected the light as they had before. Cabre shifted, looking around the cavern before his gaze landed on Levy.

“You should try.” He suggested.

Levy raised a brow. “Me? Why?”

Cabre shrugged. “I dunno. You’ve got… magic.”

He waved his hands around in the air as if mimicking his companion's powers. Levy returned an unimpressed look and Cabre opened his lifted his gaze to the ceiling.

“Maybe your… aura or something is different and will activate something.” Cabre added.

Levy paused, raising his brows.

“My aura?” He scoffed.

“I don’t know how all this stuff works.” Cabre defended. “It’s worth a shot, right?”

Levy let out a sigh and rolled his eyes, pressing his hand firmly against the handprint. His hand fit snuggly into the panel and he pushed it into the wall with little effort. The two waited, just as they had before, but nothing changed. They looked around. Maybe they just hadn’t been paying enough attention to what could be changing?

“Are you using your magic?” Cabre questioned.

“Should I be?” Levy replied.

Cabre lifted his hands toward the panel, clearly expecting Levy to give it a try. With a disgruntled groan, Levy closed his eyes. His eyebrows furrowed and he gritted his teeth, pulling his focus in two different directions as he did his best to maintain their light source and maintain a decent flow into the panel. Magic itself wasn’t taxing, but trying to split focus like this was no easy feat. Before long, it was too much. Above their heads, the floating ball of light began to drop, disspated as it lost altitude. Then, they were in darkness.

“Sorry.” Levy huffed, trying to regain energy as he let his hand fall from the wall.

The panel slid back out and there was a moment of silence as the two sat alone in the dark until the carving began to glow softly. From somewhere deep in the rock, a purple light emanated from its lines, some glowing stronger than others. Along the borders, harsh lines of bold light pulsed out from the rock while along the figure's faces, the slight was merely a soft glow.

“See?” Cabre stood with a smile, looking up at the carving.

Levy sat, his arms laying weakly at his sides. He looked up in awe at the carving. Just as they had done with his magic light, the light from the carving refracted off of the crystals in lovely patterns, though this time they seemed to dance and shift as the energy pulsed from the rock.

“Maybe I don’t know how this stuff works either.” He muttered.

“Look!” Cabre was distracted.

Though maybe that wasn’t entirely bad. Levy turned his attention from the carving to his companion as he pointed to the floor. Not only was the light refracting different than before, it almost seemed to be making a pathway, leading them out of the room.

“Might as well follow it.” Cabre suggested, offering a hand to Levy.

Levy paused, still a bit startled by everything that had happened. Finally, he took Cabre’s hand letting himself be pulled to his feet.

“Might as well.” He replied softly.

And the two made their way down the next hallway. It was odd, the crystals didn’t seem to rely on the carving to light the path. After a few corners and tight passageways, the two noticed that they were emitting their own light. Their reflections still danced smoothly over the floor, but it was no longer as intense. Their soft light was just bright enough for the two to see their path, but if there were entrances branching off, they were left hidden in the darkness.

“What’s it like in the Legion?” Levy asked, his curiosity finally breaking through.

Cabre paused, taking a moment to think about the answer. To be honest, it was a pretty mixed bag. Certain things were alright, others were bad, but a few were good. Most of the good things came from being there with his sister. He shrugged.

“Not awful. The food’s not great.” He finally spoke.

Levy looked over to him, clearly expecting more. He gave a nervous glance to his traveling partner before looking at the path ahead of them.

“Missions are kind of repetitive for me, but being a Raptor is better than working as a common soldier.” He continued.

“Raptor?” Levy furrowed his brows.

“It’s the highest rank you can be in the Legion. We work directly under the Patron. He’s the one who runs the whole thing. Been around for longer than I can remember.” Cabre smiled a bit. “Yvonne likes to joke that he’s some sort of soul-stealing immortal being.”

Cabre let out a chuckle before a bittersweet ache clutched at his chest. He missed being able to spend time with her. It felt like it’d been forever since they’d just gotten to… hang out. It was always missions.

“Who’s Yvonne?” Levy smiled softly.

“She’s my sister.” Cabre replied, pushing the ache down.

Silence settled in for a moment as they walked.

“What’s it like?” Levy looked curiously to Cabre.

“What’s what like?” He looked puzzled for a moment. “Having a sister?”

Levy nodded in response.

“I dunno.” He shrugged. “It’s hard to explain. You’ve been with this person your whole life. They know you better than anyone, but at times it’s like you don’t know each other at all. I’m sure it's different for all sorts of people, but with Yvonne it's like…”

He paused, trying to find the words to describe their relationship. It wasn’t something he could articulate or even replicate with anyone else. It was entirely unique to them. They understood how it worked.

“Like a rivalry, in a way. We’re both competitive, but it’s more in a joking fashion than a malicious or even sporting way. We both make fun of each other, but we both know it’s just that. There’s no contempt behind it. She’s surpassed me as a Raptor, but I don’t even really care. She seems proud of her success, so I am too. Yeah, I want to be successful too, but not if it means squashing her pride.”

Levy smiled. “Sounds nice.”

Cabre smiled fondly, mulling over all the memorable moments he’d had recently with Yvonne. He cherished them like nothing else. And he figured he always would.

“Yeah… It is.” He said softly.

Up ahead, the path began to widen and the crystals were no longer the only thing to light their way. Somewhere in front of them, light was creeping in from somewhere. Lots of light. It wasn’t long before they found its source, and, in turn, an exit. The cavern opened up into a large entrance, gaping like a mouth. Trails of sand fell over its lip in gentle streams as the breeze carried the grains along their way and they sparkled in the sunlight. The two squinted their eyes against the harsh sun, but were happy nonetheless. They’d escaped.

“Look!” Levy exclaimed.

Cabre strained his eyes, blinking a few times before he really saw it. He followed Levy’s finger across the landscape to where he was pointing and not far in the distance sat a town. It was kind of dilapidated and flimsy, but a town.

“Looks like that cave was a bit of a shortcut.” Levy smiled over to Cabre.