While Lark treaded forward, both curious and reluctant to figure out what this new thing was, Gushi popped out from behind Sphinx, unnoticed. The slime grappled onto Sphinx’s back and then leaned over his shoulder, observing with a perfect degree of stillness until Sphinx moved his head against it. “Oh, Lark’s right, you do feel like a water pillow.”

Unseen to the naked eye, a little blob of sweat trickled like a tear under Gushi’s antenna.

Inches away from the spire, a furious flutter grew from Lark’s stomach to his chest. The strange formation had just opened from the ground up like a mechanism one would unlock in a game once they entered an unexplored map. But he couldn’t shake off the feeling that someone was watching them.

It wasn’t as tall as he first thought, only reaching slightly above his waistline. As he took his time looking over the blue conical tower, light shone from sparkling geodes embedded on the sides. Could they be mana-stones? He marveled at their iconic crystalline shapes.

Behind him, Sphinx said, “They say blue is the natural state of pure mana crystals. The blue-er they are, the higher the purity or so I’ve seen in books.”

Lark turned around and saw Sphinx dutifully dusting a desk lined into the wall.

“Well, go on Inheritor,” he urged.

As usual, Sphinx was no help, but rather to bother him with more questions, Lark re-examined the formation. It’s not like there were any instructions nor any impressions of handprints telling him what to touch. Though, there was something on top of the spire… or rather inside it.

The top half of the mound dipped into a bowl. Geometric shapes and patterns decorated the inner sides, which were in a shade of a darker blue. A glass sphere nestled in a swirl of fine, powdered gray sand on the bottom. Should he pick it up?

This time he asked Sphinx for help.

Sphinx peeked from behind a giant, standing sextant in another corner of the room. The device pointed outside to the giant hole in the wall. “Huh? Oh, that—you haven’t finished yet?” There was a degree of nagging in his voice and a hint of ‘don’t make me come over there.’

Exasperated, Lark asked once more, “What do I do with it?”

“What else do you do with a ball? Pick it up, then put it down - just be gentle with it, there’s only one void crystal like it in the world.”

“Oh, so mister-know-it-all says you’re a void crystal,” Lark murmured to himself and rolled his palm over the shiny ball. Contrary to his expectations, the glass wasn’t at all cold to the touch. In fact, it felt rather comfortable, inviting even. He held it up, eye-level, bewitched by what was occurring inside: Thin filaments of lightning rapped the dome of the sphere, a layer of ice sliced the mid-line, and below them was a spinning inferno.

Then he shook it, trying to see if it was a snow-globe. Nothing changed, but the tips of his fingers felt some slight zaps. Sphinx swooped in next to him. “Stop that, you’re not a kid.” He grabbed Lark’s wrist, and together they settled it back inside the pit, where eddies of the gray sand began to circle it. The void crystal remained still compared to the action surrounding it. One circular motion became three rings. To Lark, the movements were as enchanting as watching a river ebb and flow.

In the eye of the dancing gray storms, shiny rocks unearthed from the gravelly sand.

“Aren’t those mana crystals?” Lark asked Sphinx.

All four of them peered inside. Nympha squeaked first, nearly giving Lark a heart attack. “Almost forgot you were here…umm…how was your nap, Master Nympha?”

Miffed, Nympha ignored him and directed her gaze at the three newly formed crystals sitting at the bottom of the chamber. “As I thought, little one, you’ve grown up a bit in a short time.”

When the dust settled, each one of them grabbed a piece. On the outside, they all had the same color, a crystal clear blue, but they had very different shapes and textures: one was smooth and disk-shaped, another a perfect marble-sphere, and the last had jagged edges like rock-candy.

Nympha explained first. “Mana crystals given by the Void Crystal are a bit different from ones you’d find produced by nature or refined at smithies. These—she cradled the disk one in her paws—define potential. And while they contain some energy, there’s no true arcane energy stored in them. So, I’ve seen humans turn them into pendants, seals, and other scultpive pieces.”

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“I think you could add this one into a wand or a weapon…or maybe it’s a bit too small for that,” Sphinx added, looking at the spheroid crystal like it was some sorta sad pebble.

Lark very much liked the one he held in his palm. It oddly reminded him of the meteorites Sky collected in his room, which were often rough around the edges and banged up obviously from hurtling through space and into the ground. Sky used to say it gave them ‘character’ to their magnetic personalities. This charming character he picked up also turned out to be the biggest out of the three.

After rotating it a bit more, he let out a small gasp. Encased inside the transparent blue, a spark of ember ignited in the center. It was barely there, but he could see it trapped inside, burning softly.

“This is very peculiar,” Nympha finally pointed out to Sphinx. “What kind of testing crystals are these? Celestians tested at birth tend to produce crystals of varied color such as red for fire affinities or green for wind, or even odd colors like pink and silver if there’s an uncommon affinity.”

She held up the crystal as a steering wheel with both paws. “It’s small, but there are floating slabs of white and snow-capped mountains in here.”

“To be honest, I’m not entirely sure,” Sphinx said.

Nympha blinked twice and went back to gazing at the disk—her attitude suggesting: You? Honest? Please.

Strangely pouting to himself, Sphinx dropped his hands to his sides after giving Lark the marble crystal.

“The Void Crystal setup you have here is different from the ones appraisers use in Celestia,” Nympha continued. “It’s not usually orb-shaped, and the sand here is also devoid of color.”

She looked at Lark to explain further. “Typically, appraisers from the royal capital carry a large apparatus to different towns and villages. I’ve never seen one up close, but they’re designed so that a child can be placed inside an open box.”

Lark pictured a coffin and shuddered. Nympha seemed to notice this and squeaked. “Nothing bad happens to the child. Anyways, the Void Crystal is held inside a pendulum, which the appraiser handles and guides over the child’s head and chest.”

“It is said that spirit and mana forces can be measured by a Void Crystal, which was given by the gods and the child must make contact with the crystal so that it will absorb their energy. The appraiser will then place the crystal in a bowl of gem dust.” She looked down at the basin. “I cannot say for sure if this is gem-dust, but the sand they used had every color in nature: garnet-red, sapphire-blue, emerald-green, rose-pink, black-pearls…well, you understand.”

Lark nodded and Nympha went on.

“When the appraiser buries the pendulum under the sand, magic stones are produced in the appropriate colors which coordinate the child’s affinities as we’ve seen. The size of these stones is also said to be a measure of their mana pool at birth.”

“So, how would their spiritual power be measured?” Lark asked.

“That is secretly observed by the appraiser, who usually has a background in fortune-telling or astrology or both. Then they reveal their findings to the family, the town’s guild, and then finally report back to the royal family. However, the only exception to this would be the star children.”

“Children with astral properties such as dark, light, and spatial are taken immediately to the closest royal capital and they stay there until adulthood.”

Lark’s head tilted to the side. Why did this sound so familiar?

Sphinx nudged him. “The notes left behind in the flash drive mentioned this too before.”

Oh, that’s right. The one-in-a-million cases.

“Not that a person with three affinities like yourself would be ignored, however, star children are placed on a different kind of pedestal,” Nympha said then focused back on Sphinx. “I digress. The matter at hand here is what exactly are these?” She shook the disk at Sphinx.

“Well, what can I say? Pantheon is bound to do things a bit differently.”

Nympha’s head jerked slightly as if realizing where she was for the first time. Sphinx offered her a smile.

As the seconds ticked by, her jaw dropped. The information finally sinking in. Sphinx rushed in with another explanation. “The Upper-lands is only limited to this space I’m afraid—this is where the Librarian did his research.”

“The Librarian?” questioned Lark. It was his turn to ask questions as Nympha seemed out of order.

“How do I say this?” Sphinx slow-turned his head to look around them. “He’s the creator of SIM, in other words, your daddy.”

Lark’s eyes narrowed at Sphinx’s attempt to joke. “He’s an Immortal too then. You haven’t exactly told me how SIM ended up on Earth or my grandfather's lab.”

“That is something you will have to ask him, not me.” Sphinx offered another one of his smiles before turning away, done with the conversation apparently.

Nyphma jumped onto Lark's hand to drop off the crystal disk. “I’ll go talk to him,” she said before scurrying over his shoulder to chase after Sphinx.

Now, all three of the mana-crystals sat on the base of his palm. “Let’s see, Wangshi said I had the power trinity—if I were to guess, he meant: fire, ice, and lightning.”

All three natures reflected in his gaze. Truly, at that moment, he felt powerful. Then Gushi’s antenna bopped the back of his head. “Gushi? When did you get there?”

Happy to be finally noticed, Gushi reclaimed his spot on Lark’s shoulder. The slime fidgeted and poked the side of Lark’s cheek. “What’s up buddy?” He put away the mana-crystals inside his pocket.

Gushi bounced off his shoulder and onto the rim of the basin. Slowly, an orb squeezed out of its body. Lark’s eyes widened as he lowered his back, making sure the other two didn’t notice. “Gushi! When did you pick that up?”

Its antenna swung to the left, imitating Lark’s head tilt.

“Alright, never mind. Go on. Put it back quickly before Sphinx sees.”

Gushi gave the best shrug a slime could do and rolled the orb down the rim much to Lark’s horror. The void crystal looped around once until it magically rolled back into the exact center and before Lark could breathe again, the gray sand rose.