Chapter 9: Stone

They reached the bottom of the stairs to a room that seemed like it spanned for miles. The room was littered with desks and screens, each one no different from the last. Teebs grabbed something that looked like a torch, but it didn’t have a place to light it. Then he pressed the button on the side of it and it shot out a beam of light. He could see the room, even though he didn’t light a torch. Of course there were lights above them, but the energy was long gone.

Interesting…, he thought, walking to a desk.

“What’s that?” Shards asked, pointing to the light.

“I don’t know. I just found it,” he replied, looking at it.

He turned it over in his hands, trying to figure out what it was called. Then he found a label that read “Flashlight” in black letters.

“It’s a flashlight,” he said, reading the Old World writing.

“Ooh, sounds interesting. Are there any more?” she asked, looking in a desk.

“Maybe,” he said, looking in the same desk, “so, the personal thing you haven’t told me...”

“Okay, what about it?” she said.

“Aren’t you going to tell me?” he said, handing her the flashlight.

“Might as well. It looks like we’re going to be here for a while,” she said, looking at the desks.

The room didn’t seem as big as it did in the dark. It was about the size of an apartment, a desk no further than five feet from each other. But judging by the amount of paper on each desk, it seemed like the drawers were full.

“But you’re going to have to tell me something personal too!” she said, pointing at him.

“Of course,” he said, turning on another flashlight and walking to another desk, “An eye for an eye, right?”

“Yeah. So, do you want me to start right now?” she asked.

“That would be preferable,” he said, looking at the dates on a paper.

“Okay… Uhh, I was abandoned at a young age by my family,” she said, moving to another drawer.

“Oh, that’s sad,” he said, “Why would they do that?”

“They found out I had forbidden magic,” she said, “Whisper magic.”

“That would make some sense. You were dangerous, yeah, but they shouldn’t have just abandoned you like that,” he said, putting some coins in a bag.

“Yeah… your turn,” she said, putting some of her findings on the desk.

“My dad was killed on land,” he said, oddly calm.

“Oh?” she said.

“Yeah, I was nine when it happened,” he said.

“That’s sad,” she replied.

“Nah. That was awhile ago. What’s more, he wasn’t even a pirate. He was some kind of hit man or something, so he might have been a target, knew too much, or had it coming to him,” he said, “Though I was young, I understood.”

Shards was silent. Hearing him sound so calm, even chuckling a little, was a little unnerving.

“I wasn’t the one who killed him,” he said.

“I wasn’t thinking that,” she said.

“Okay,” he said, moving to another desk.

This one had a keyboard on it. That was the only thing familiar in this place, other than the computers and desks. He brushed the dust off of it and checked if it still worked. All the keys went down with a clacking sound. He smiled and sat at the desk and acted like he worked there. Shards laughed and shook her head.

“I’d hate to know what it felt like working in here, it’s boring,” he said, spinning in the chair.

“Maybe not…,” Shards said, looking in a drawer.

“What did you find?” he said, walking over.

He lost his balance for a second due to dizziness, but recovered quickly.

“I don’t know, but it looks dangerous,” Shards said, holding up a metal object.

It had a narrow end with a brown handle. The inside opened towards the side and had six holes, one of them filled with something metal.

“Can I see that?” he asked.

She handed it to him, not wanting to take it back. He inspected it, trying to find out who made it and for what reason. Then he realized what it was and why it was made. He emptied the object, put it in the drawer, and slammed it shut. He tossed the metal item inside it across the room.

“Why’d you do that?” Shards asked, confused.

“That was a terrible weapon… If Zenith, no, Overworld got its hands on that kind of tech again, it will spell disaster for the world,” Teebs said, burning the drawer shut.

The metal was still red when they left. That weapon was one of the various reasons why the Old World died.