It takes my sister a couple of swings with her entire strength to finally break open the wall. And apparently it couldn’t have happened any later than that because with her last swing she completely splinters the handle of the sledgehammer, sending its head flying across the room. Luckily no one was standing right there or they would’ve gotten quite a serious concussion.

“Wew.” My sister wipes the sweat from her forehead while the rest of us start clearing away the rubble.

“Mountain didn’t fall on our faces so I would call that a win.” Ruva laughs. “Brute forcing things might have ended up a lot worse than they did.”

“That’s true.” Hilda nods as she leans into the gap behind the wall.

“Do you see anything, Hilda?” I ask.

“Uh, yeah, give me a second, I’m looking for pressure plates.” She takes a minute before she finally gets out of the hole, holding a golden box, the same one that we’d seen depicted on the murals.

“Wow.” Ruva gasps as she sees it. “So it is real.”

“Are you that surprised? With the temple and all?” Lise looks at Ruva.

“It is still a holy relic, babe.” Nikki replies.

“I guess.” My sis then looks back at Hilda. “Can you get it open?”

Hilda starts prying on the lid but she can’t get any movement in it. “I don’t see a lock either.”

“Can you give the box to Ami?” Sam proposes. “Maybe she can get it to open.”

Hilda nods and offers the box to me.

I doubt for a second how to accept it but in the end I decide to just let it rest on my forearms. The second I touch the box however, it starts to emit a white light while I myself start glowing pink. Pain starts to seep into my arms as the box starts to feel glowing hot. When I try to let the box fall on the ground I notice I can’t seem to let it go. I wince to which Sam almost immediately tries to grab the box from my arm but the moment she touches me a force sends her flying against the wall behind her.

“Ami!” My sister cries out as she runs towards me but Hilda stops her in her tracks.

“No, look.” She points at my arms.

The pain is almost unbearable but through my tears I can see that my pink light is slowly but surely pushing the white light away from my arms. It keeps gaining ground until it has covered the entire box. That’s when finally the burning stops and I fall to my knees, but still with the box in hand.

“What just happened?” Ruva rushes over together with all my friends.

Sam stumbles over as well, it seems like the smack only disoriented her a little. “Are you okay, sweetie?” Sam grabs me into a hug.

“It hurt a lot… but I feel fine now. How are you feeling?”

“Just a bit shook up.” She releases me from her hug and smiles. “I actually feel a bit stronger now too.”

“Did you get a notification too, Sam?” Lise asks.

Sam nods.

“Notification?” Ruva tilts her head.

“Uh, never mind that, just has to do with physical feedback.”

-Sis, you really need to work on your excuses.-

Lise carefully takes the box from me. “But really now, what actually happened?”

“I’m not sure.” Hilda brings her hand to the side of her head and scratches her temple. “I have a theory… but it’s a bit absurd.”

“Any theory is better than no theory.” Nikki says as she pats me on the back.

“Well… I think the divine power that was inside of that box saw Ami’s divine power as a rivalling force and they started fighting with each other.” Hilda starts explaining. “In the end, Ami won and took over the relic.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Wait, you are saying Amicia is some kind of divine being?” Ruva interjects.

“Yeah, we kind of hid that from you. Sorry for that.” My sis helps me up with the box now under her arm.

Hilda explains the situation while we walk back towards the temple’s entrance.

“Ah. I think I can understand why you wanted to keep that quiet.”

“The Dwarger at the port kinda knew but for everyone’s safety it’s better to not talk about it too much.”

“Hmm.” Ruva nods.

“Before we leave the temple. Can we look at what’s in the box?” My sister halts the group. “It’s just that that’s the reason why we gave the box to Ami in the first place, right?”

“Yeah, let’s see. I almost forgot because of the lightshow.” Nikki heads over to her partner and together they hold the box level.

“As long as I don’t have to open the lid myself.” I nod.

“Well, let’s see if I can get it open now, now that you are in control of it.” Hilda walks over, while Sam and Ruva complete the circle. “Here goes nothing.” She places her hands on the lid and slowly lifts it off. It comes off with a little pop.

The entire group looks at the contents with great interest. Inside the box there’s a golden armband placed in a soft red velvet interior. However, it doesn’t take long for my sister to blurt out her disappointment. “Wait, that’s it?”

“Wait.” Ruva says. “There’s a text engraved in it.” She carefully takes the armband out.

“Can you read it?” Hilda asks.

“It’s some ancient Dwarger script but luckily I also wrote a dissertation about that subject.”

“What have you not studied?”

Ruva shrugs. “It reads: ‘The will of Go-’ oh! It’s changing!”

I can see the last part of the symbols change a little.

“The will of the Goddess…” Ruva then continues.

“Wow, Ami has bracelet changing powers. That’s neat.” My sis winks at me. “But what does it do? Or is it just some fancy bracelet?”

“I think you’ll only find out by wearing it. I’d say to let our resident Goddess try it out.” Hilda takes the bracelet from my sister and offers it to me. “If you want to, of course.”

I hesitantly touch it and then take it in the palm of my hand. It’s a pretty thin bracelet, even if I’d put it around my wrist.

“Want to put it on?” Sam asks while she takes it from my hand. “I can try it on for you first.”

“No, I’ll wear it.” I shake my head.

Sam smiles and gives me a nod. She gently takes my wrist with one hand and closes the bracelet around it with her other. “Does it feel weird?” She lets go of my hand.

I turn my hand around while I look at it. The rest of the party is also looking at me for any kind of information. “It feels… like a bracelet?”

Hilda comes closer to me and whispers in my ear. “Doesn’t it feel weird? No attribute points or something like that?”

I shrug. “No, it just feels like a bracelet.”

“Maybe it needs time to charge or something?” My sister proposes.

“Ah, like attunement, that could be it.” Hilda rubs her chin.

“Anyhow, shouldn’t we head down before it gets too late? Or are we going to wait until something happens?” Nikki peeks around the corner again. “We’ve got what we came for so we might as well leave, right?”

“I guess so.” Sam nods.

“I’d very much like to study this temple a bit more, but I can always lead a team here on a later date.” Ruva nods as well. “And it’s a shame to leave so much treasure here too.

“We’ve got all we can carry, but it’s best to come back when there isn’t some crazy theocracy looking for it.” Hilda winks.

“If I had more bags I could probably carry another 10 kilograms of loot.” My sis boasts.

“Maybe in your dreams, when you don’t have to get down a mountain.” Nikki flicks her finger against Lise’s forehead.

“Fair.”

We all start climbing down the mountain which goes a lot smoother than going up, even though we still have to be extremely careful not to go too fast. The sun just starts to set the moment we get back to our vehicle.

“How many hours do we have left, Hilda?” My sister looks over to our leader.

“Six to eight.”

“That means we can’t get back to the capital...”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Hmmm.”

Hilda then puts her attention on Ruva who’s putting her gear in the car. “Ruva, would you mind dropping us off in three hours or so?”

“What do you mean? Drop you off in the middle of nowhere?”

“Yes…”

“I could, but why?”

“I think it’s best to not take the relic back to the capital. Just in case the theocracy has a way to track it. We’ll be out of commission for a while and it would be really bad to put unwanted attention on all of you.”

“Hmmm…” Ruva thinks while she puts away another bag. “I guess you can’t really tell me the entire story?”

“Yeah… sorry for that…”

Ruva sighs. “Well… I haven’t known you people for that long… but, you look trustworthy enough to me. Just promise me to come and find me later, okay?”

“We will.” Hilda nods.

“Can we keep the treasure?” Lise joins the conversation.

“Dwarger law dictates that finders are keepers when it comes to long lost artifacts.”

“Hell yes!” My sister balls her fist with joy.

“Sis, please…” I facepalm and shake my head.