They climbed up a flight, but the door on the next landing was locked. Red lights illuminated its border.

So, they climbed up another flight.

Locked again.

“Do we go back down?” Elwin asked.

“We checked every door below us. Come on, let’s go.”

Another floor, another locked door.

And fifteen flights of stairs later…

“Pant… W-wait… up! Pant.” Elwin wheezed. He was holding his scarf in one hand. He regretted not taking it off sooner.

Kari stopped, gulping in great lungfuls of air. He fanned his robes and looked up. There were no more stairs left. And… blue lights on the door. It was open.

“It’s… pant …it’s open!” he managed to say, taking weary steps to the door.

Elwin followed breathlessly.

The door slid open.

“Stop! Stop.” Elwin pleaded, flush-faced, as Kari stumbled through the door.

Kari sat down against the wall and rested. Elwin fell to the ground in a heap nearby. Kari soon caught his breath, in contrast to Elwin who was not faring so well. Kari helped him up.

“We must be nearing the end. There’s almost nowhere left to go.” Kari said in encouragement to the anaemic elf.

Indeed, there were only three doors, and only one was open.

It opened for them, and they stepped through.

And just what did they find?

Mummified corpses littered the floor. Ancient bloodstains streaked across the walls and splayed across the ceiling.

“By ADAM’s illuminant biceps!” Kari exclaimed.

Elwin stood in shock.

Kari tapped a corpse with the tip of his boot. Part of it turned to dust.

“Stop,” Elwin demanded. “These are Ellenians, I think.”

“You think?” Kari asked sarcastically.

“They’re not the Ellenians you know.” Said a commanding voice. Feminine, cold, yet with a tinge of sadness. It came from all around them.

The boys jumped to alertness.

“Who goes there?” Elwin asked aloud.

Silence, and then:

“Do not be afraid.” Said the voice.

And she appeared before them, filling the entire space with spectral blue light.

Her slender body was intangible. A hologram. Gigantic wings spread from her back, spanning the room; two clusters of brilliant blue copper sulphate crystals. A serene halo above her; pure molten gold shaped into laurels.

But most importantly, at least to Elwin, pointy elf ears on her head.

“Wh-who are you?” Elwin stammered out to the larger-than-life figure.

“Hmm…” the elven angel said, very clearly exaggerating her deliberation. “You can call me… Blue.”

“Why don’t you tell us your real name?” Kari said.

From her great height, Blue looked down her nose at him. “I’m sure you have secrets. Let this be mine.”

“Can you at least tell us what happened here?” Elwin asked, gesturing about them.

“That I can,” Blue said. “You two have clearly been through a lot, so let me put your minds at ease. I was in a position similar to your own.”

Kari and Elwin looked at each other.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Being chased by a group of mysterious soldiers?” Elwin asked.

“You did this?” Kari asked incredulously regarding their gruesome surroundings. He was surprised at the fearsome capabilities of their host.

“Among other things.” She said to both questions.

The panels making up the walls moved, hovered, and split apart, forming countless razor-sharp blades. The edges of the blades were stained with millennia-old blood, revealing the true nature of the bloody patterns on the walls.

“Possessing ADAM’s Temple... my greatest shame and perhaps, my greatest endowment. And yet despite my actions, it was too late for my comrades. As for what became of the Ellenian Civil War… it has become a shameful secret, no doubt. After the sacrilege I committed, I sealed the Temple. No one dared enter. And, as the Temple became my new body, no Gift or magic had power over it, so they left me alone. Eventually, through the forces of time and weather, the Temple was buried... I imagine my tale has been forgotten in the passing of time.” Blue said. She looked at Elwin expectantly, who stared back in stunned surprise.

“I-I know of the civil war, but not of the Temple… it’s been buried for so long, I never could’ve even imagined...” Elwin trailed at a loss for words.

Kari merely listened. He had learned of the wars at the dawn of time, after all, knowledge discovered within the ‘Temples’ became the foundation of modern science and magic. The greatest cities in Apolaphia were founded on the largest ones.

“Well, that much is to be expected. The winners write the history books after all.” Blue said melancholically, but her tone quickly changed. “But! Look at what destiny has sent me. Some friends for these trying times, and these are very troubled times indeed.”

“What are you implying?” Kari asked.

“We have much to offer one another. I have knowledge, you have legs. I’m sure we can come to an arrangement.” said Blue.

#

They were back on the move. Blue, now housed in an orb of “morphic metal” had quickly shown her worth, guiding them through the forest while avoiding patrols of armoured soldiers who gleamed like a procession of so many beetles. Apparently Blue could detect invisible, imperceptible communications between the soldiers and their commanders, though she lacked the ability to decode specifics.

Of course, Kari and Elwin had no real way of knowing if this was the truth or something she had just made up for her own entertainment.

In any case, they didn’t run into any trouble as they traversed the Ellenian forests. Blue even deemed their position safe enough to start up a casual conversation from Kari’s coat pocket.

Blue asked Elwin some basic questions, like how he came to be travelling with Kari, and what his motivations were.

Elwin told Blue the same embarrassingly sincere story that he had told Kari, about Lumie. By this, Blue was intrigued, but when it came to his family history, she seemed to grow rapidly disinterested, likely because of her own personal ties to the dark side of the elven city’s history.

Blue changed tack, leading the conversation (and the trio) with the vigour one has after freeing themselves after millennia of self-imposed isolation.

“So, Kari, tell me about yourself,” Blue demanded cheerfully.

“Well.. what do you want to know?” Kari asked.

Elwin seized the opportunity. “Where do you come from? Do you have a family?” the elf asked, brimming with curiosity over this savvy stranger.

Although Kari may have been the type to entertain strangers and put on shows with his Gift for coin, he was quite a private individual when it came to his personal life. Under normal circumstances, Kari would not share much more than his name with people he had just met. But since it seemed like the end of the world was afoot…

“I was born in the Timatus Alliance, though my mother was a refugee from Senstra. She died in childbirth; No one knew my father, though it seems likely he died helping my mother across the border.” Kari said, stating the facts. Hearing no reply, he turned to see Elwin’s reaction.

His face was beet red. “Oh…I-I’m sorry…I didn’t know.” The flustered elf said.

“Then who raised you?” Blue asked, not missing a single beat.

“Blue!” Elwin exclaimed in horror, stopping in place.

“It's quite alright,” Kari said calmly, gesturing to keep moving. In complete honesty, he did not really mind the facts. Things were just the way they always had been. But reactions like Elwin’s had made him sensitive to sharing when he was younger. “I was raised in Carderock Academy. It’s a humble place on a hill overlooking Carderock Village near the border.”

“Did they treat you well?” Blue asked.

“What do you think, O wise elf?” replied Kari somewhat sarcastically as he picked his way across the uneven terrain.

“They permitted you to stay as long as you let them study your Gift.”

“Yeah. That about sums it up. The midwife that delivered me was an alumnus with contacts within the Academy. They agreed to house me, so long as I was useful to them. The midwife was in no position to negotiate. Luckily, I was never subjected to anything too bad. Can’t say the same for other refugees at the neighbouring academies.”

“Someone protected you?” Blue asked.

Kari’s face twitched.

“Perceptive as ever… but that’s enough about me. I’m more concerned about our current situation. You described it as an invasion when we were in the Temple; who are these soldiers, and what do they want?” Kari said, quickly changing the topic.

“I would also like to know.” Elwin chimed in from the side.

Blue sighed, her metal body tickling Kari’s chest as it vibrated to transmit her voice. She oddly seemed to be prioritising getting to know the boys above all else.

“Based on my readings, something truly unusual is occurring to our home planet of Apolaphia. At 1732 hours yesterday evening, a Leviathan-class Intergalactic War Vessel Warped into geostationary orbit above the Amber Savannah about 150 miles east of Al Dherjza. Within ten seconds of completing its Warp manoeuvre, it opened fire on the Savannah for reasons unknown, using its primary orbital cannon.” Blue explained. She projected ghostly images from the orb’s surface to help illustrate her descriptions. Kari recognized the explosion he saw from the mountaintop in Kajesh.

Nevertheless, Elwin was thoroughly confused by her words. “I’m not sure about Kari, but I’m not really following. You’re using a bunch of words I’ve never heard before. In-ter-galactic? What does that mean?” he asked.

“Kari? Are you also as ignorant as our sheltered elven friend here?” Blue asked. If she had an eyebrow, she would have been raising one mockingly. In fact, Kari was beginning to think that she had quite an attitude despite lacking a proper body.