{-Llewel-}

“The final trial is right over here!” David announced, gesturing for them all to enter the new opening. “Oh, we’re so close to all the answers we’ve been looking for! I wonder what’s in it..?” When the entrance closed after they’d all walked in, he blinked and added, “Well, I suppose there’s only one thing we can do! Go on, you four, figure out what you’re supposed to be doing!”

“You’re not going to annoy us the entire time like before?” Zetai remarked dryly before wandering off.

As if to prove her point, he repeated, “Find what will activate the third trial.”

“Don’t go too far, Zetai,” Reynneak called. “It’s dark in here without the light, we don’t know what could be out there.”

“I’m a player! I’m practically invincible!” She was already out of sight and Llewel knew with confidence that she was waving her sword around hoping to set something on fire. The brief sparks of light seemed to suggest as much, anyway.

“Except for the fact we’re going to have to do this over again,” Tinath pointed out. She sighed. “I know where the thing we need to activate is.”

It was a moment later that something clicked and the whole place was lit up by runes.

David nodded. “I believe we need to harvest those runestone over there and make an offering to that statue. Many ancient texts suggest that it was something rather common before Emmyth’s time. It may be exactly what we need to do for the last trial.”

Zetai, Reynneak, and Tinath all nodded and went off to one of the runestones. Llewel was about to join them before he noticed his sister had yet to move from where she stood.

“Myr-Myr?”

“I want to get out of here…” she mumbled, now leaning against the wall.

Tinath seemed a bit too interested to notice it. “Is she getting another headache?”

“Headaches?” David repeated, looking back at the twins. “I didn’t think that was in our range of pain. What kind of NPCs are you, anyway?”

Zetai glanced between Reynneak and the twins and, after a shared nod, she remarked, “I guess it’s alright to tell you now. Their names are Llewel and Myr.”

“Llewel and—as in, Llewel and Myr Beithana? Those two Vureta talks about, no matter how many times they try to wipe her memory of it?” When the twins gave David yet another nod, he simply stood in shock for a moment. “Well, if I were to create a list of everything I intended on doing in my lifetime, running into the two of you definitely wouldn’t be on it. With your unique circumstances there’s plenty of plausible reasons for it. But if something here seems to have triggered Myr, do you feel any different, Llewel?”

He shook his head. “I feel completely fine.”

“Could it be the runes?” Tinath suggested. Her curiosity was clear, even if she tried to hide it by going back to trying to harvest the runestones.

David laughed. “They’re environmental factors! That’s like saying you have a sensitivity to rain or thunder!” He paused. “Though I suppose there’s a chance. People like you shouldn’t even be capable of existing. It’s only natural that it’s not without its flaws.”

“Do you think we can talk about this later?” Zetai said. “As far as I’m concerned, the sooner we’re done, the better. Llewel, if you’re sure you’re alright, then help Reynneak. Myr, just stay there and hopefully we’ll be out of here soon.”

Llewel wandered to where Reynneak was and, if not just to distract himself from his sister, remarked, “You really didn’t get far.”

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“I can’t do much with magic,” the older responded with a shrug. “That’s pretty much all I have.”

“I have a dagger on my person, if you need it,” David remarked. “They did think about if a team of all mages came here.”

“I think we’re good.” Llewel had just cut the piece out that they needed with his dagger. He was the first to put any piece of runestone in front of the statue.

Tinath soon joined him, though she waited until Zetai came with her piece before carefully arranging all of them.

“Shouldn’t placing them all in there be enough?” Zetai asked.

“Back near the part that lit up the runes, there was a drawing,” Tinath explained absently. “We’re supposed to put these in the same position as they are in that drawing.”

Reynneak squinted in the direction of where she’d been before then glanced back at what she was doing. “I don’t think your hawk saw it right. That’s not what it’s supposed to be.”

“I know what I’m doing,” was the only kind of response she gave. She kept them in that position for a moment before going to move them into the position that made another entrance open up. “Come on, what we’re looking for is this way.”

David rushed over to where they were, peering inside the new room. “I believe there’s an exit here as well. And all the things I was hoping to find! What are we all still doing standing here? Let’s see for ourselves what this ruin has been hiding from us!”

The players followed him, but Llewel went back to Myr.

“I’m guessing just harvesting the runestones wasn’t enough?” He offered his support and she gladly took it; it felt like she was putting most of her weight on him, but he didn’t mind.

“I’ll feel better when we leave,” she muttered.

“We’re going to be out of here soon, I promise. It shouldn’t be too much longer.”

When they rejoined the others, David was already giving them their rewards. “Thank you all for helping me. These will definitely help us better understand everything that happened in those ancient times. Keep close care of that [Kyirius Artifact], too. I’m sure it will come in handy later.”

Zetai glanced at the twins and handed Llewel two pairs of daggers. “These are for you two. They do something different so you can fight it out for who gets which later.” She gestured to the exit. “Now, let’s get out of here. There should be a camp nearby that we can stay at for a while.”

…

Thankfully, Myr felt better after getting further away from the ruin and eating something. Llewel would’ve suggested they took this time to talk about what they heard in that hall of mirrors if Reynneak hadn’t checked the time and left. It felt better for all four of them to be there when they talked about it—if not just for having the support of two others while they made sense of it.

Tinath had been petting her hawk and only made a mention of Reynneak's departure once he was gone. “What was that about?”

“We’re both in college,” Zetai responded. She was admiring the sword she’d gotten from David. “That wasn’t because of one of his classes, though. He probably has to call his mom—she and his younger siblings live out of state, so they don’t see each other often.”

“And you?”

“The drive from campus to my house isn’t far. We practically meet up every weekend.” She glanced up at Tinath. “I thought you said earlier that we were here to find our old friends, not make new ones. Why are you suddenly asking about this?”

“Maybe I thought about what someone else would’ve done and realized there was no harm in trying to do the same.” Tinath shrugged. “I’ll talk about me, if that’s what you want. I don’t go to college and I don’t work. Not any ‘real’ job, anyway. Sometimes I help my mom at her work, but usually I’m just your average basement dweller spending all my spare time here.”

“Your mom works for Nankohm, doesn’t she?” Llewel asked, wondering if he truly had a place in the conversation.

Zetai looked between him and Tinath. “She does?”

Tinath motioned to her hawk. “Do you really think I’d be able to mod this on my own? I might be good enough to whip up a short indie game but definitely not good enough to do this.”

“Is that how you know Cassidy, then?”

She shook her head. “I met her at school. I didn’t actually have anything to do with this game until after its release.”

Zetai put the sword in her Inventory. “You know, for both you and the twins, I hope we’re able to find her. I still don’t know what I think about you, but you should be able to see her again. It sounds like you were really close to each other.”

Slowly, Tinath nodded. “I… hope you guys find Casrane, too. Even if I’m not with you when you do.”

“Do you plan on leaving..?” Myr mumbled hesitantly.

“A more accurate way to put it… is that you’re going to learn what you’re risking by keeping me around.”