Rising Shards

It felt kind of nice to be in charge. Well, Roux wasn’t really the leader of this team exploring caves, Naomi clearly had that honor, but only Roux knew which way they were headed. And in having that knowledge, Roux had power over everyone in the group.

”We take a left at this particular junction,” Roux said. ”Heh heh heh...”

”Roux’s starting to get creepy,” Amara said. ”Usually someone tells them off, but I don’t think I have the capability. Can someone please tell them to settle down with the creepiness?”

”I could always use my mind powers,” Rain said.

”Let’s maybe definitely not do that,” Naomi said.

”I have my camera, I could film them and then show them how creepy they’re being to get them to chill,” KJ said.

”Too many steps,” Amara said.

”Dang, I kinda get Roux, but I don’t have the power someone like Kalei has over them,” Aira said.

Roux didn’t mind everyone talking about them like that, attention like this was fun. Still, they had to scoff at Aira’s comment. ”Pfft, Koridia holds no power nor influence over me, even on a microscopic scale. To prove that, I’ll listen to you to show you.”

Roux stood up straight and power walked the rest of the way, until they reached a stone path blocked by a big boulder.

”I followed Caeda and that lady into the caves,” Roux said. ”They got past this somehow.”

”How do you know that, exactly?” Amara asked. ”If you followed them, didn’t you see them get through this?”

”I was tailing at a distance,” Roux explained. ”So I didn’t see exactly how they did it.”

There wasn’t an easy solution to this. The boulder was too heavy to move, and no one could find a secret switch or anything to get past it.

“I could teleport?” Aira suggested.

“No, that’s too dangerous,” Naomi said. “We don’t know what’s past here, it could just be more rock.”

“I’ve teleported into solid junk before, when that happens I just reflexively teleport back, it’s like a hiccup, basically.”

“Really? Well, if you’re certain…” Amara said.

”I still say that’s too risky,” Naomi said. ”Perhaps we should call it here for today.”

”But we haven’t even found anything yet!” Amara said.

”And I didn’t clear my whole afternoon to show everyone a cave with nothing discernable in it,” Roux said. ”They managed to get past it quickly and shut it just as fast, it must be something simple.”

”I think teleporting is probably the best way to find out,” Aira said.

”Fine, but be careful,” Naomi said.

Aira blinked away. Roux’s ears instinctively perked up, expecting to hear Aira’s screams of terror, but the silence was a bit concerning.

”Sorry, I’m fine!” Aira said, her voice muffled but still audible. ”There’s a keypad in here, I wonder if that’ll make the boulder move.”

”Is there anything in there beside that?” Naomi asked.

”Uh,” Aira said. ”Sorry, just trying some random combinations first. Let’s see...just seems like more cave. Wait...hold on. There’s something...”

”Aira...” Naomi said.

Aira suddenly teleported back, her expression blank. ”That was terrifying. We should maybe run. I’m gonna run.”

”What?” Roux said. There didn’t seem to be an immediate threat, but Aira suddenly teleported away, which made Rain start screaming, and then KJ joined her, both of them practically leaping into Amara’s arms. Amara was able to stay upright while holding both of them, but it made running a lot harder. Naomi and Roux managed to remain calm in their own individual ways, but it was clear they needed to retreat. When they exited the cave, the white landscape of a beach coated in snow greeted them. Whatever had scared Aira didn’t chase them out, but Aira was long gone, with her spaced out footprints showing a trail of teleportations.

”I don’t think Aira’s coming back, so we probably won’t find out what that was about until we can get to her and probably calm her down,” Amara said as she set Rain and KJ down. ”But I’m much more confident that this Anastasia woman isn’t on the up and up if there was something that spooked Aira that badly that she was after.”

”Which would mean that Caeda is someone to watch out for, too,” Roux said. ”But if you subscribed to my newsletter, you’d know I had her on my suspicious students list for quite some time.”

”You had me on that stupid list, it doesn’t have much merit,” Amara said. ”Naomi, what should we do now?”

“I’m tempted to head back in,” Naomi said, eyeing the cave entrance. “But I should probably check in at the school first. Let’s stop here for now.”

”To think the make out caves could house such a dark secret,” Roux said.

”Amara, if you find any more, please report it back to me,” Naomi said.

Amara saluted. “Aye, captain!”

“Not your captain, we’re just doing a trial run to prepare you to potentially, maybe, be a prefect when you reach the next grade,” Naomi said.

”I’m counting this as training for me as well,” Roux said. ”I think I would make an excellent prefect.”

”Yes...well...” Naomi cleared her throat. ”I shall be off.”

Roux wasn’t sure what to make about any of this, but it was really interesting.

I’ll have to make sure I come with on the next spelunking quest...