“You know, you can lean on me for support,” Raine said.
Nikolay shook his head, only for the motion to send him stumbling over his feet. An arm wrapped around his shoulder and pulled him back, forcing him to use Raine as a crutch.
“I’m fine,” he replied with gritted teeth. “I’ve held us back enough.”
“For the last time, Kolya, it wasn’t your fault. Consider it a part of the temple’s trial.”
“I just don’t understand why I was affected,” Nikolay frowned. “The prophecy revolves around you; I shouldn’t be here in the first place.”
All of a sudden, a voice boomed inside their heads.
“You are falsely assuming the temple is automated.”
Nikolay whipped his head around, trying to find the source of the voice. “Reveal yourself!”
Raine clutched Nikolay tighter to stop him from falling again. It was difficult to restrain him, especially when Nikolay was already on edge from being unknowingly afflicted with the time magic.
“Please, Kolya,” Raine urged. “Calm down — you’ll only hurt yourself further.”
His words temporarily managed to dissuade Nikolay against attempting to break free of his hold.
“I have revealed myself since the beginning,” the echoing voice said. “I am before you as we speak.”
The only thing in front of them was the eroded statue. Raine scanned the entire chamber to search for any alternatives, but he came up empty-handed.
“You’re the statue?” he asked.
“An astute observation,” Nikolay griped. “Like there’s anything else in this empty chamber that it could be.”
Raine decided to let it slide for now, considering how unsettled Nikolay seemed with the foreign voice in their heads.
The voice spoke once again. “It is my physical form, yes. Though technically speaking, if the statue were to erode, I would merely seek another physical manifestation for myself. But I digress; I have neglected introductions for far too long. I am the Keeper of this Temple, otherwise simply known as the Time Keeper.”
“You have the Artifact of Time,” Nikolay bluntly stated.
“That is correct. As you might have ascertained, Raine has already passed my trial without any complications. Thus, I shall gift this artifact to you, the prophecy’s chosen candidate.”
A loud rumbling noise emanated from the statue’s general area. The stone slowly shifted, sending large dark clouds of dust and debris falling away from the statue. When the disturbed particles slowly settled down onto the floor, a bright glow now shone from the base of the statue.
“Here. The Artifact of Time,” the Time Keeper said.
Raine stepped forward and reached for the artifact.
“Though I must warn you, getting closer wi-”
The warning went completely unheard, as Raine suddenly experienced a rush of vertigo. It was like he’d turned upside down and tumbled down an infinite hill, and yet he couldn’t feel his body at all.
When the strange sensation subsided shortly after, he found himself spectating a familiar scene.
A mother sat at a dinner table with her two children: an older daughter and a younger son. The sister pushed the mashed carrots onto her younger brother’s plate, which sparked a temporary scuffle, but quickly dissolved once their mother shot them a meaningful gaze.
The meal on the table wasn’t anything special, and yet the family had never looked happier to be sitting there. At least, that would’ve been the case if Raine wasn’t all too familiar with the younger brother sitting on the right.
Hah. What a sick joke. Raine craned his neck around to search for the person who’d conjured this memory, but received a voice instead of visual confirmation.
“Your brain treasures this type of memory,” the unknown voice said. “Of your family during your childhood.”
It didn’t echo at all, and yet it felt simultaneously far and near to his ears. The voice sounded completely unfamiliar, and yet as familiar as his own voice sounded to him. The paradoxical nature of its origin left Raine instinctively wary.
“Who are you? Why have you brought me here?”
The voice didn’t appear outwardly offended at his questions. “Motives are secondary. Do you not miss your family? They must miss you, after being missing for so long.”
Raine turned his gaze back onto the new scene before him. Snow now piled up against the windows of the house, and the fireplace illuminated the living room in a warm glow. Christmas stockings hung above the hearth, with the names ‘Amory’ and ‘Raine’ scrawled childishly on paper taped to them.
“Are you trying to convince me to abandon the prophecy?” Raine frowned. “You’re not the first person to do that.”
Sure, every night he wanted to go home and sleep in his own comfortable bed instead of in a crappy sleeping bag. And being close to death all the time wasn’t good for his heart, or his anxiety.
But if he looked at the negatives all the time, then going back home wasn’t that much better, either.
If the prophecy hadn’t plopped him on a boat to Kosira, then he would’ve never met Nikolay. As sappy and gross as it sounded, Raine would rather endure their trip’s coldest nights again, if it meant that he could stay with the only person who cared enough that it deluded him into thinking he meant something.
“No matter how many rose-tinted memories of my childhood you bring up,” Raine said. “It won’t change my mind.”
Not as long as Nikolay existed.
“Are you certain? You won’t have another chance to reconsider. Once you set yourself on this path, there won’t be any other opportunity to back away from your chosen fate. Any and all consequences are yours to bear.”
Raine didn’t like the weight of the words that they just said, but he chalked it up to another attempt at persuading him. The last thing he’d do was go back on his word.
“Of course. Now, are you gonna let me go?” he pressed. “I’m pretty sure I have somebody waiting for me, and he isn’t the type to be patient when it comes to me suddenly falling unconscious.”
A hint of amusement tinged the strange voice. “Very well. I shall return you to the world of the present.”
As a parting gift, the apparition relayed one last piece of advice.
“Regardless of who you are, time only flows one way. Life has no script, no rehearsal, and no retake. The only actor that you can control is yourself, so choose your actions wisely.”
When Raine returned to the conscious world, he heard the muffled sounds of Nikolay shouting.
“Couldn’t you have warned him a little earlier?! What if he fell and split his head open on the stone floor?”
“I’m okay, Kolya,” Raine muttered. “And besides, I think I’m too thick-headed to die from falling over.”
After hearing Raine speak, Nikolay jolted and quickly composed himself. He shuffled away, visibly embarrassed that Raine had caught him shouting at the statue.
“You have undoubtedly earned the right to wield the Artifact of Time,” the Time Keeper said, oblivious to Nikolay’s emotions. “Please step forward and take what is yours.”
Raine followed their instruction and reached out to take the shining object. This time, he involuntarily braced himself as he neared the statue again.
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Thankfully, nothing obvious happened when he took the artifact. Truthfully, the object itself looked identical to any earring displayed in a jewellery store. It spared no room for aesthetic appeal, merely hanging a teardrop emerald from a small iron chain that connected to the stud. The ring that Raine obtained from the Temple of Space looked quite ordinary too, aside from the strange refracting quality of the sapphire stone set onto it.
Maybe he was being entitled, but surely the creators of these artifacts could’ve put a little more effort into making them.
The statue spoke again, cutting off Raine’s thoughts. “If you have no more queries, I shall return to my eternal slumber.”
Oh. Uh, what was he supposed to say in response?
“Bye, Time Keeper,” Raine said politely. “Thanks for giving me the artifact.”
Nikolay raised a judgmental eyebrow at Raine’s choice of words, but merely sighed. “Farewell.”
They waited a long minute for any acknowledgement, but received nothing. It seemed like the Time Keeper had gone back into… hibernation? Whatever the spirit version was called.
Raine looked down at the artifact in his hand. Thankfully, he had his ears pierced when he was younger. He hadn’t worn earrings in a long time, though — it seemed like people treated him better when he dressed ‘normally’.
What would’ve happened if they weren’t pierced? Was having pierced ears a requirement for being a ‘Chosen One’? Or did the poor soul have to self-pierce their ears to wear it?
“Are you thinking about unrelated things again?” Nikolay asked with an unamused look. “You’re staring at the artifact.”
Raine hastily put the earring in. “…No. I was just inspecting it.”
“If you say so,” Nikolay replied sceptically. “What happened when you neared the statue? From our perspective, it seemed like you fell unconscious.”
“It showed me joyful memories of my past to convince me against completing the prophecy. In a way, I guess it also showed the future, in a universe where I decided to ditch the artifact. But anyway, I guess it was just another way of revealing the past — like how it did with you, earlier.”
“Perhaps the past is its own type of ‘eternity’,” Nikolay mused. “Ever-present, and yet non-existent at the same time.”
Raine frowned and rubbed his temples. “Sure, that. I’m getting a headache just by thinking too hard about it.”
“Contemplating the past won’t do us any immediate favours,” Nikolay agreed. “We should leave the temple sooner rather than later. We still have that old man’s favour to fulfill, after all.”
They collected their scuba gear left at the entrance. Getting back into the water was just as awkward as leaving it was — they had to dive horizontally to enter the lake again.
Drawing away from the main temple, they headed towards a cluster of wreckages. It looked as though a ship had crashed into the original ruins, though only bits and pieces of the hull remained.
Nikolay and Raine circled the area independently, searching for any worthwhile places to find valuable relics. While Nikolay went further down to examine the original paths that once connected to the temple, Raine made his way around the ship that crashed into the ruins. Ironic that the ship turned into one of the ruins that it sought to uncover.
Merely staring at the exterior of the ship didn’t do much, given that the ugly welded metal looked the same on all sides. Raine swam into the ship itself, through a large gaping hole that looked to have resulted from a collision with a pillar from the ruins.
Fish of all colours, shapes and sizes flitted through the ship’s empty windows. They looked unbothered by Raine’s presence, perhaps completely unfamiliar with humans visiting this area. One fish even bumped into his leg, then dazedly sank to the floor. Raine felt so horrible that he tried picking up the stunned fish, but it quickly swam back to its school after noticing the giant pair of hands heading towards it.
Gaping at the wildlife aside, Raine found little salvageable items in the main hall of the ship. If there was anything, it looked completely unidentifiable. These ruins must’ve been old enough to wear away bones and plastic, which didn’t leave much hope of finding anything for the diver who’d commissioned them.
With enough aimless wandering, however, Raine found a long hallway that stretched diagonally downwards. It was completely preserved, in the sense that the walls completely enclosed the area, without any exposure to the rest of the lake. As such, the only light source was from the opening of the hallway that Raine currently was. It looked ominous from this angle, but it held better chances of having something worth their time.
Raine swam back out of the ship and found Nikolay peering at an arbitrary set of partially crushed stone tables. He signalled for Nikolay to follow him, and led him back to the hallway.
Look at this, Kolya. There’s bound to be well-preserved stuff in here.
Nikolay surveyed the hallway with a critical gaze. You’re right, but there’s no way to tell how long the path is. If we go too far, we won’t have enough oxygen to return to the surface.
That’s hardly an excuse! Raine put his hands on his hips defiantly, with a lack of ability to pull a facial expression. It’s not like we can’t turn back if there’s anything dangerous. Are you sure you’re not just scared of the dark?
It seemed like his taunting was successful, because Nikolay immediately pulled himself into the hallway.
For the record, a dark passageway is hardly the largest of my concerns right now. Let’s just go while we still have oxygen left.
Raine couldn’t help but smile triumphantly as he followed Nikolay inside. The further they swam, the dimmer the entrance’s faint glow became. It reached the point where they were practically enveloped in pitch darkness. As Raine was about to suggest that they turned back, Nikolay pulled out a small flashlight and hit it a couple times.
Even though Nikolay didn’t say anything, Raine could feel the sigh of relief that he released when the flashlight sputtered to life. He patted around in his pockets for his own and pulled it out. Thankfully, the batteries survived their period of incarceration in the rusty shed, and his flashlight also shone its own — albeit dim and yellowed — beam.
The silence pressed in on them as they ventured deeper into the unknown passageway. On either side of them, the walls had multiple doors that all looked identical to each other. The doors had rusted shut, though, so it served more as an eerie wall decoration than a potential area for exploration. Not that there would be anything worthwhile in the private rooms anyway, aside from rotted, half-preserved corpses and their meagre belongings.
After what felt like an eternity of swimming through the unsettling corridor, the walls opened up into a larger chamber. At first glance, the room was so deteriorated that its original purpose was long lost to the erosion of time. But when Raine peered closer at the few surviving remnants of furniture and the shape of the room, it was likely a communal room of some sorts.
Wordlessly, Raine and Nikolay split ways to explore the extent of the large room. Raine drifted towards the further section of the chamber, where fragments of wooden tables and chairs floated in the water. He pulled himself down to sift through the debris collected on the floor, hoping to find something of value buried under the rubble. Amidst the decay, his fingers brushed against something cool.
With bated breath, Raine eagerly unearthed an… unidentifiable piece of distorted iron. It must’ve been part of something more valuable, but the other pieces were probably less robust than the metal.
The rest of his search gathered similar items: all Raine hoped was that they’d at least generate enough revenue to satisfy the retired diver.
With the assorted scraps in his arms, Raine made his way over to Nikolay, who had thoughtfully brought a drawstring bag to store the items in.
As he dumped his findings into the communal bag, Nikolay tapped on his shoulder.
Look at your oxygen meter.
The needle pointed closer to zero than he would’ve liked; just less than a quarter of the tank’s original capacity remained. Raine looked over at Nikolay’s meter, noticing that he was also low on oxygen.
We should head up.
That would be the logical thing to do, but they’d just begun exploring. The bag was barely filled, and Raine was sure that they’d find progressively more valuable items the deeper they went, especially since they’d just reached the end of the long hallway. Even objectively looking at it, the treasure would only get better from here.
Go up without me, Raine signalled. I can continue to search.
Nikolay aggressively shook his head. You must be hoping for a Christmas miracle if you think that I’m leaving you here with low oxygen.
Well, you could be my Christmas angel if you just grant me my wish.
Despite his attempts at being funny, it fell completely flat.
No. We can return tomorrow, if you’re that upset about not being able to scavenge dead people’s belongings.
Raine did his best to pout at Nikolay through the scuba mask, and then reluctantly nodded in acceptance. The longer they argued, the more oxygen they wasted.
Fine. Let’s go.
The journey back to the ‘outside’ took a lot less time than they’d expected. Of course, they were trying to leave as quickly as they could, and they didn’t stop to look around for more relics to take.
Now that they’d left the ship, it was obvious that a decent chunk of time had passed since they entered. The sky — at least, from what they could see of it — was a distorted painting of sunset oranges and light pinks. From the depths of the lake, barely any light illuminated the ship and its surrounding ruins. Even the temple became a dark shadow, standing unremarkably in the middle of the lake. Thankfully, their flashlights weren’t nearly as depleted as their oxygen tanks, so it wasn’t a hassle to keep using them.
They swam over to where Nikolay had fixed the boat anchor. He unravelled the magic at the end and grabbed onto the string that extended high above them.
Are you ready to go? Is there anything we left behind?
Raine swept a cursory glance back at the ship; not that it was any use, considering that it was pitch black.
Doesn’t look like it. Let’s-
Abruptly, water entered through his mask. Raine doubled over and clutched at his chest. He tried to cough it out, but the motion caused him to inhale even more water. In a subconscious panic, his muscles spasmed uselessly in an attempt to expel the never-ending water filling his lungs. The more his body tried to resist, the more water entered his system.
Vaguely, Raine registered the sensation of Nikolay dragging him upwards.
Just before he blacked out, he saw something similar to bright blue wings emerge from Nikolay’s back — a hallucination born from the lack of oxygen his brain was receiving.
—
The next time Raine regained consciousness, he felt somebody pressing on his chest in a steady rhythm.
Raine rolled onto his side and coughed hard enough to dislodge a lung. Eventually, he no longer felt any water blocking his airways, though his chest now ached from the force of his coughs. Expending the little energy he had left, Raine wearily pushed himself up into a sitting position.
How long had it been? Nikolay looked like a mess — or as terrible as somebody could with a conventionally attractive face.
And… was Nikolay crying, or was it just dripping water from the lake?
Suddenly, Nikolay pulled him into a tight embrace.
Raine melted into the physical contact. They could exchange words later — right now, nothing could come close to simply sharing each other’s presence.