“Steward…”

  A big golden eye was menacingly hovering before us and watching closely, narrowing its focus especially on me, calling me Steward. I’ve never met this thing before, and my name surely wasn’t Steward, so its weird obsession with dubbing me that was very strange.

  “Maybe someone with that name came through that looked like Yalda?” Indena erroneously suggested.

  I put my hands on my hips and super pouted her way. “No way! Why would someone that looks like me have a boy's name?” I asked in a sassy tone.

  “Oi, I’m just trying to narrow down some possibilities!” she argued. “Elma, any ideas over here that won’t offend the Shrimp's fragile ego?”

  She’s one to talk about having an ego!

  Amanda was especially deep in thought. So deep in fact that the light reflecting off her glasses blocked her eyes from view. That was a special kind of ruminating reserved for only the most cultured individuals.

  “Yalda has quite the unique appearance, so I doubt your theory is true.” Amanda said. “However, this eye guardian clearly singles her out with great interest.”

  She proceeded to push me around lightly, showing that the eye tracked me.

  “You sound like you’ve got an idea here,” Indena guessed.

  “The term ‘steward’ may have more than one connotation. It isn’t just a name, you know,” she turned back to the big floating eye. “Perhaps it's a title given to the angels.”

  Steward meant a lot of things. Based on my dictionary in the HELP menu, it could be a name, or a person serving people on a boat, or someone who looked after somewhere while others were gone… It had a lot of different definitions. I couldn’t quite pick out why he would refer to me that way though, even when thinking it might be a name for my people.

  “Eye, tell us, for what purpose do you refer to her that way?” Amanda asked.

  “Demu limam,” spoke the deep voice of the eye. “Neu ko ahka.”

  “What's this thing saying?” Indena asked. “Can’t understand a word.”

  He was speaking Nazalian. The ancient language of the Nazalian people. The first thing was him telling us was “Access denied.” The second part was “What is your name?” or actually “Identify yourself” in this case.

  I guess he was just going to ignore Amanda’s question. Which likely frustrated her, but only for a moment before we were drawn into the mystery of his query.

  “It certainly must have been a title rather then a name,” Amanda concluded.

  If he spoke Nazalian, it probably wasn’t a bad idea to try and communicate with him in that language.

  “Nah nah…” (Hey hey) I spoke up in Nazalian to get the eye’s attention again. “Guha Khmi-mi…” (Mr. Eyeball) “Kyhai ten dan-chyon, oiknaka?” (Please tell me, why are you asking that?)

  “Na steward ni Honchas Demu limam.” (The steward and friends are not allowed in)

  “Kyhai?” (Why?)

  “Demu limam.” (access denied) “Neu ko ahka.” (Identify yourselves.)

  He wasn’t answering my question right. He probably only had the intelligence to respond to certain questions, if even.

  “What’s he saying?” Indena asked me.

  “He’s saying that we can’t go into the temple, I think…” he didn’t specifically say that, but a lot of things in Nazalian are inferred based on the situation. And since we were trying to pass through here, that was why he probably wanted to know if we had permission. “He wants us to identify ourselves, probably to see if we are allowed in.”

  Amanda knew a bit of Nazalian apparently and came to the same conclusion.

  “If it just wants our names…” Indena stepped up to get close to its eye. “I’m Indena. Let me the heck in.”

  “Kuo,” (no) replied the eye with a blink.

  “It said no, so clearly it understood us at least,” Amanda said.

  “Was worth a shot, I guess,” Indena folded her arms and turned away, annoyed.

  “Unless we can discern the identities of anyone who has privilege to enter, we won’t be able to get inside,” Amanda said.

  If the mafia had been around here, then it was also likely that they were allowed access. But that didn’t do us much good since none of us could impersonate them. Might have been a good time for that actor guy to show up. He could have definitely played a mafia guy pretty well given his mimicry magic. Maybe for our sanity’s sake, it was best he wasn’t here at all.

  “Yo, Elma…” Indena turned to Amanda, “any chance one of those Poles Party guys could go through here? If you found that thing in one of their bags, it's probably safe to say they’d be able to get through here.”

  “Likely,” Amanda replied. “But we fall into the same trouble. We don’t have any means to impersonate their members.”

  Without any identification, no chance we’d be able to fake their identity…

  But, hang on… There was some inspiration creeping to life in my memory. I didn’t exactly have any ID cards, but I did see one before…very closely… And thanks to my photographic memory, the exact details were perfectly imprinted on my mind.

  To draw it out into reality though, I had to get a little creative. I lifted my hand and opened my palm. Twinkling dust began to scatter out of my skin and collect into a thin rectangular shape. Details of light threaded through the surface of the forming solar crystal until a fake stardust ID card had been perfectly forged.

  Amanda’s eyes went wide at the identity I was abusing.

  “How did you manage this?” she asked.

  “Back at the palace, I found a card on the ground and helped get it back to someone,” I smiled, knowing that we’d really get some incriminating evidence on a particular soon-to-be prime minister, especially if it turned out that he had access to this spooky place.

  I brought the forged ID card over to the eye. It blinked once and looked the card over.

  “Demu Oumam, Guha Hanol.” (Access granted, Mr. Hanol.)

  Not only did the eye grant us access thanks to the soon-to-be prime minister Hanol’s ID, but we also just proved he’s definitely involved in whatever was going on here.

  “Oh yeah!” Indena cheered. “That guy’s butt is cooked for this one!”

  Although Amanda should have been relieved, she looked a bit more stressed than before.

  “We haven’t proven much yet,” she claimed. “What’s inside here will reveal his fate. So let's not waste time…”

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  The doors that were blocked by the eye now began to part open, as if an invisible pair of giant hands were pushing them for our convenience. As they scraped across old stone floors, the area rumbled violently. Dust and other small particles crumbled down on our heads, getting us acquainted with the instability of this old temple structure.

  Not being averse to adventure, even in potentially dark places like this, once the eye was out of our way, we entered inside. Each of us had some unique form of torch to light the path. Indena had a fire in her hand, Amanda held up her glowing scepter, and my hair was bright with Stardust energy… Also my bright blue eyes were like spotlights.

  It didn’t take long for me to pick up on a dark presence, but apparently that feeling was shared among my friends, because they were getting some bad vibes as well.

  “Look at the size of this hall…” Amanda commented as we stepped down a carpeted hallway with massive pillars lining both the left and right, some of which seemed to have collapsed or been destroyed. At the top of each pillar were some very human looking golden gargoyle statues. “What could be the purpose of such a structure?”

  “Where’s Sov when you need her…?” Indena mumbled something to herself. “She would know what those are…”

  “Hmm?” I turned to her curiously. “Who?”

  “Oh, nothing…” she retracted her statement. “Just thinking about my teacher. She was pretty smart about this stuff.”

  Her teacher must have been something seriously special. Martial arts, magic and history? What an awesome woman! Definitely someone I wanna meet.

  At the end of this hall was a circular chamber surrounded by rows of stands. It kinda’ resembled a gladiator arena or something similar. At the opposite end of where we entered there was a doorway leading to who-knows-where.

  Between us and the door were bones scattered all around the arena. We all trembled until we noticed their metallic shine, likely indicating they were fake.

  “Oi, look at this!” Indena picked up a metal skull. “To be or not to be… Or whatever…”

  “Put that down!” Amanda ordered her. “Good heavens! Have you no shame? What if it’s cursed?”

  I agreed with Amanda. We had no idea what any of this was for, and metal skulls in a creepy stone temple didn’t exactly scream ‘Pick me up, mortal!’

  “Yeah, yeah…” Indena put the skull down. “Fine…”

  Judging by the effigies we saw outside on the bridge, these were probably lead too. A full scan of the head showed that it was actually one whole chunk of metal. The details on this were phenomenal too, nearly identical to a real skull. The ones back on the bridge were obviously hand made when compared to this work of art. I say work of art, but only from a scientific point of view.

  “We’ve found a lot of lead, but no holy steel,” I commented, continuing to scan around the chamber for any other odd details. “It makes me feel like we're not on the right track, but I really have no idea what to expect here.”

  “Are you sure it’s lead?” Indena asked.

  “Ten billion percent sure.”

  Dad would be ashamed of me if I wasn’t able to determine the composition of any material in existence. And even if he wasn’t, I certainly would have been. Having scanners in my hands didn’t give me many excuses.

  “We should move on,” Amanda pulled out her camera and snapped some photos. “I don’t think it would be wise to linger here any more than we need to.”

  To leave this room and move onto whatever awaited beyond, we had to figure out a way to open the door opposite of the one we came in through. There wasn’t any obvious way to do that.

  “We could blast it down…” Indena suggested. “But I have a feeling you guys won’t appreciate that idea.”

  She was right to assume that. We didn’t want to leave evidence of being here. Worse than that, this structure seemed unstable, especially with those broken pillars out in the hallway. One wrong move and the whole thing might collapse in on us. We’d be flattened for sure, and then the mystery of this place would be lost forever.

  “Look at that, she’s becoming wise,” Amanda commented. “There has to be some mechanism to open it, I’m sure.”

  The queen took point in the search to find some way to open the door. We kept our eyes peeled for any sort of lever or maybe a switch in the wall that might trigger a positive outcome for us. I took to the stands to further the search, but only found ever-burning candles lit all around it.

  “We need to think a bit more clearly here,” Amanda announced. “Where would be the most likely spot for a lever?”

  “If this place is an arena like it looks like, then not down here or in the stands…” Indena concluded.

  There probably had to be some kind of operator's box or something hidden around. That probably would have all the switches we could ever want.

  “Hallowed angel, please check above,” Amanda requested. “It would have to be up there if they wanted to keep an eye on the ground floor here.”

  “Roger!” I took to my wings and began searching the dark heights above. It didn’t take long for me to discover that a large circular room with a glass floor was directly above our heads. “Found something!” I called back.

  This room’s position and glass floor looking directly down on the arena made me think of those special boxes you would rent for a lot of money at sports events.

  There was a big issue though. I couldn’t get inside that room. From the looks of it, there might have been a door inside, but no clear way to access it from here.

  Skimming around the glass for any possible way to open the window, I found some vents that were just big enough for a particular snake to sneak in through and check the other side.

  “Samael, you’re up!” I called to my snake.

  He knew the drill. Samael slithered in through the bars of the vent with one of my extra hearts and began searching for a lever. To our great fortune, he found one, but it had a very unexpected effect…

  “Hey, who turned on the lights?” Indena said below.

  On the wall were lines of detail, some larger than others. Once Samael flipped that switch, those details lit up bright enough to give us much better eyesight both in this arena, and out in the hall we came in through. It really brightened this place up a lot. Not quite what we were hoping for, but it did help our eyes.

  “I don’t suppose you found a way to open the door,” Amanda called up.

  “We’re still looking,” I replied.

  Samael continued to scour the room for some sort of means to get us past here, but something began rattling down below, followed by a sudden yelp of pain…

  “Woah!” Indena tossed a fireball, causing an explosion that shook the structure.

  “Be careful!” Amanda shouted to her. “If that thing doesn't kill me, you surely will!”

  “Sorry, your highness!” Indena sarcastically barked back.

  I immediately turned down and both Amanda and Indena backed up as if they were being pressured by some invisible surrounding enemy… but with a keen eye, I saw what was truly collecting around them, coming to seal their demise.

  Those lead bones were moving, all the lot of them. Be it rolling or clawing forward… They worked their way closer and closer to my friends.

  “Spear of Destiny!” I summoned my weapon and flew down, striking each of the bones away, hurling them at a wall to give us some breathing space. “What happened here?” I asked.

  “These stupid bones just started moving when the lights turned on!” Indena pointed to the queen's leg, which had a very small, but deep scratch in it. “If I didn’t use that fireball, she’d probably be missing a foot right now.”

  Missing a foot? How dangerous were these bones?

  I looked back at one of the hands, seeing razor sharp tips to each of the fingers. Same thing with any of the feet scattered around.

  “Those bone hands are sharp as swords, so watch out,” Indena warned me.

  There were a lot of those things around, so it was going to be trouble having to deal with them all. But we needed to do it and give Samael time to find a way to get that door open.

  “Sammy! Hurry and figure something out!”

  “Ssss!” he loudly hissed back.

  “What is going on up there?” Amanda asked, gritting her teeth from the pain of her cut. “Who was that?”

  “My snake!” I replied. “Didn’t you see him in my hair?” I asked.

  “An angel with a pet snake…?” she looked baffled, but shook her head to refocus on the dire situation. “N-never mind… Please, save us…”

  A couple of lead bones weren’t much of a threat to me. They were moving so slowly and uncoordinated that I easily struck them away with my spear when they came into range. A bright flash of gold light would happen when I made contact with them.

  What made the situation more of a challenge was that those bones that were beaten away began to collect together, forming a large skeletal figure of lead. I didn’t notice that was happening until he was put together enough to run on his own two feet.

  A shadow aura began growing around the recently constructed metal creature. It was instantly powerful, more than enough of a threat to put me into my Combat Mode.

  “Hyah!” I sliced my spear across the spine of the skeleton, expecting the stardust energy to defeat its darkness completely, but I failed…not even cutting through its metallic surface.

  Failure wasn’t the only consequence. My spear practically magnetized to the surface of the skeleton. Light energy was being drawn out from the crystal and funneled into the lead, causing the point of contact to shine like gold.

  Its aura began to mix with the light, swirling with black and white energy.

  “No, not this again!” I cried out, despawning my spear and jumping back.

  The last time I saw something like this, it was against that crazy golden bull thing. This guy was going to be big trouble!

  Indena reinforced me, jumping to my side and punching the skull of the lead skeleton with a flaming fist. He was knocked back a few meters.

  “Aim for the head…” Indena advised. “It’s the most solid part of that thing. The rest of its body is too thin to get good hits on.”

  “Right…” I nodded. “Listen, stardust isn’t going to help us here. We need mana based attacks to fight monsters like this.”

  Indena grinned and raised her flaming fist, allowing the fire around it to burn significantly more intensely.

  “Well, seems like a good time to teach you more about the Bronze Dragon Style you stole from me.”

  Even with my broken ears, I could hear a tinge of grudge in her tone.

  “Alright…” I reeled a fist back, flattening out my right hand and raising it out in front of me. Indena did the same. Flames erupted out of both of us, creating an intense aura around our bodies. “Let’s do this!”

  Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, please support me, Taylor The Writer, here on Royal Road! :)