Both doors shuddered. They opened just enough for the group to see the dim light flickering inside. Gale's Breath of the Void peered inside; there was nothing other than the dim lights that managed to reach the front steps.

  "How convenient for it to suddenly open," Kyle stepped forward, grabbing one of the handles and then looking at Lily. "Come on, help me with this."

  Lily went to the other side, grabbing the other door. They pulled both doors fully open, letting the light spill out further into the street. The room went deep into the building, where rows and rows of metal shelves lined the indoors. Gale had expected books but realized he wouldn't be able to read the letters and also what were in those shelves were not books.

  Hundreds of glass orbs sat on the shelves, with no real pattern to them. Each ball was about the size of a softball, perfectly round and see-through. Most were cracked, with fractured lines like spiderwebs on their surfaces. Some just lay on the floor, fallen from the shelves. A specific shelf near the front door had been smashed downwards and the orbs laid shattered on the floor.

  "What is this place?" Rachel stepped through the doorway.

  Lily stopped at the entrance. "Is this really what we're looking for? A room full of broken orbs?"

  "Well, that's why we're here to find out," Ollie replied, moving past her into the room. "Stay alert."

  The group walked into the library of glass orbs. The shelves themselves spanned two stories high with some going up to the ceiling. Gale's fingers itched wanting to hold one of the orbs. This was definitely a library. In addition to that, what was up with high tech races and orbs?! The Dainv ship had orbs, the thing that Rachel touched to get into the inner city was an orb. Heck, even the Origin Shard itself was an orb.

  "Hey, rookie," Kyle called to Gale. "Don't touch anything in here. These look like they could be important... or dangerous."

  Gale sighed, wanting to roll his eyes but decided not to.

  "Touching things is never a good idea," Clyde said. "Especially not in places like this. Could be booby traps in here."

  Ollie walked to the side of the room, looking at a particular shelf where an orb cracked in half sat. He reached up and grabbed it suddenly.

  "What are you doing?" Rachel almost yelled.

  "Chill," Ollie turned the orb around. The glass caught what little light remained in the room, reflecting off of it to shine into his eyes. He held it up to his ear, then shook it like a christmas present on christmas day. "How are we supposed to know what the hell these do if we don't check 'em?"

  "Oh, I don't know. Maybe after we know this shit isn't booby-trapped?" Kyle suppressed a shout, watching Ollie with a palm on his face.

  Ollie quickly put the ball back on its shelf. "Seems harmless enough. Just glass."

  Gale moved through the central aisle, looking between the rows of shelves. The feeling of being watched that had followed him throughout the city was suddenly gone. Tendrils concentrated all over the library, spanning the whole room. The library had a lot of dark corners and spaces between shelves where shadows built up. The layout made blind spots where someone could hide. He'd definitely not let a stalker get a free hit on him.

  On a pedestal away from the shelves, a single orb that looked different from the rest screamed to him, 'this is bad news'. It looked too eerily similar to how Vianne's orb was set up, as all the circuits flowed into the pedestal. Even the glowing pulse that looked like a heartbeat was the same.

  [Origin Artifact]

  [Type: Memory recall]

  [Description: Artifact Platform used to project memories onto a stage.]

  [Integrity: 78%]

  In the corner of his eye, he caught Rachel in front of a shelf. Her fingers moved across the shelves as she examined them with narrowed eyes.

  "Rachel," Gale moved closer to her. "Are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost."

  She pulled her hand back quickly. "Nothing. It's nothing."

  "You wanna talk about it?" Gale asked. Not sure what's wrong with her, but she seemed oddly worried about the orbs like she was familiar with them.

  Rachel hesitated, opening her mouth, then closing it. She shook her head then said, "Don't worry about it. Just thought I recognized something, but I was wrong."

  "Ok, if you say so," Gale said, though being brushed off didn't sit well with him.

  "Hey, everyone. Check this out," Ollie called out.

  The group gathered around the pedestal where the central orb sat.

  "This looks important," Lily said.

  Kyle leaned closer. "Yeah, the glowy floaty ones on a literal pedestal usually are."

  Gale and Rachel walked up to the pedestal, both watching its heartbeat pulse. Gale leaned in closer to examine the thing.

  It pulsed a third beat.

  "Did you see that?" Rachel asked, backing up slightly.

  The orb's surface changed, its opaqueness turning into something more like a display. Six circles appeared on its surface, each one pointing directly at one of the six people around it.

  "Well, that's not subtle," Kyle took a step back. "Six of us, six circles. Totally not creepy at all."

  Ollie pressed his palm against the circle pointing toward him. The orb registered a flash.

  "Seriously?" Kyle whispered harshly. "Why do you keep touching everything? Did your parents never teach you the 'see see no touch' rule?"

  "Didn't have parents, idiot." Ollie kept his hand on the circle. "It clearly wants us to touch it. Six circles, six people. Come on, it's not rocket science."

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  "Yeah, because rockets make sense," Clyde said. "This isn't some six-player game console where everybody presses A to join the match. It could be a trap."

  "Or a test," Rachel said.

  "Or both," Kyle muttered.

  "Milk's already spilled. Ollie touched it, and nothing bad happened yet. We don't have any other leads, and the red marble led us here specifically. We might as well do what it wants." Lily put her hand on one of the circles. It lit up just like Ollie's had. "See? Nothing to worry about."

  Kyle and Clyde glanced at each other, making different expressions until Kyle finally said, "Fine. But if we all get disintegrated, I'm blaming you, Ollie."

  The twins stepped up and put their hands on one circle each.

  "For the record, this is exactly how horror movies start," Clyde said.

  "Shut up, Clyde," Rachel said, hesitating briefly before placing her hand on her designated circle. The blue light under her palm seemed to beat slightly faster than the others, though nobody else appeared to notice.

  Gale was the last, stepping up closer to the orb, hovering his hand over the circle. There were exactly two times this kind of thing had happened. The first time, some ancient knight roasted him to shreds about his life choices. The second time, an ancient goddess rewarded him. It was a flip of a coin as to what this could be.

  He placed his palm flat against the cool surface. The circle lit up beneath his hand, completing the set.

  For two seconds, nothing happened. Then everything happened all at once.

  The double doors they opened slammed shut. Light drained from the room, slowly going dimmer and dimmer.

  "What the!" Kyle yanked at his hand, but it stayed fixed to the orb's surface. "I can't let go!"

  "Neither can I!" Lily shouted.

  Rachel tried to pull away, straining herself as she pulled her other hand away.

  Darkness crept in from everywhere, swallowing the whole reality that they saw. The only thing that they could see was the light that came from what they touched, the orb and the six circles.

  Clyde and Ollie struggled the same as Rachel, each grabbing their wrist while Kyle even held up his foot to push himself away.

  Gale didn't fight it. The sensation felt familiar. The darkness, the pull, the strange disconnection from physical space. It was exactly the same as the touch of the orbs in the Dainv ship.

  "Stop fighting it," he said. "I think this is supposed to happen."

  The darkness took over everything, covering them entirely. Then the ceiling disappeared, revealing a night sky, but not the one they'd seen outside. This sky moved, stars flying across the black canvas as if time had sped up.

  Three moons appeared above, similar to the fake tri-coloured lights above. They spun backwards faster and faster.

  Days passed in seconds, weeks in minutes.

  Between the stars, Gale saw her silhouette that dwarfed even the largest of stars. A flowing dress with galaxies inside its folds. Hair that went across constellations. The shape of Vianne, her form bigger than even the stars themselves. He could never forget her distinct look.

  The spinning gradually slowed down. The flying stars settled into fixed positions. The moons found their places in the sky, settling into a triangular symmetry that looked like one of the shapes of the symbols on the walls.

  When light returned to the room, everything had changed. All the shelves where cracked orbs had sat were replaced by floating orbs floating on top of one another that reached up to the ceiling like pillars.

  "What the fuck just happened?" Kyle yanked his hand away the moment he could move it. "Touch this. Touch that. Let's all touch everything because we're so goddamn curious. Our days are fucking numbered because none of you can keep your hands to yourselves."

  "Not like you didn't touch it too," Clyde muttered, rubbing his palm.

  Gale turned slowly, taking in the changed space. Every orb in the room now glowed with inner light, unlike the dull, broken spheres from before. They floated in perfect vertical arrangements, one above another, seemingly similar to a library.

  The room itself had gotten bigger as the ceiling rose higher than what seemed possible from the outside of the building. The walls curved upward in that same spiral pattern they'd seen on the exterior, but now those patterns carried reddish hue through them like blood through veins.

  "This is..." Gale said.

  Ollie backed away from the central pedestal, hands raised. "I'm done touching things. Someone else can go ahead and satisfy their curiosity. I'm going on a no-touching diet."

  "Little late for that," Kyle said.

  Lily approached one of the pillars carefully. She drew a deagle from its holster and extended it butt-first toward the lowest floating orb. The weapon made contact with a dull clink.

  "Glass," she tapped it again. "Or something like it."

  Rachel moved away from the group, walking around the room. Her eyes followed along the walls, fingers touching the curved surface. "The doors are gone. There's no exit."

  "Great," Kyle said. "Locked in a room full of magic orbs. At least they don't look like organic ball sacks."

  "At least we're not getting shot at," Clyde said.

  "Yet," Kyle replied.

  Kyle watched the centre continue to give off a steady heartbeat of light. He then walked toward the nearest pillar. "If the Path's golden boy gets to touch stuff, then it's my turn."

  "Kyle, wait!" Ollie shouted.

  "Nope." Kyle reached the pillar and put out his hand. "You had your fun. My turn."

  His fingers touched a floating orb halfway up. A soft wave pulsed from where he touched. The light inside grew brighter and brighter, then a bright flash of light engulfed the whole vicinity.

  "Shit!" Kyle threw his arm across his face to block the light.

  Everyone covered their eyes from the flash. Gale also put up his hands, but that was of no use. The tendrils fed him the brightness altogether, not allowing him to close his visual perception.

  When it faded, Gale lowered his arm and blinked away spots from his vision.

  The room was gone.

  They stood on a metal street that went into the distance. The same city as outside surrounded them, but changed. Tall buildings with organic-looking circuits lined both sides, their surfaces catching sunlight from a stationary object above. And there were people.

  Humans walked the streets, talking, laughing, living their lives. They wore clothes similar to Earth fashion but with small differences in cut and material. A lot of their clothes looked similar to each other. A white military like uniform with black gilded edges. Even the kids had them. One thing to note was that all of the people they saw had crystal growths sticking out from their heads.

  Some had a single horn, others two or three or four. The growths were different sizes but made of the same thing, the unmistakable blue-white crystal of dust corruption.

  "What the hell?" Clyde whispered, drawing his long gun from his shoulder.

  A couple walked past so close that Gale could have reached out and touched them. The woman laughed at something her partner said, playfully hitting his arm. Both had crystal growths, hers a single horn above her right temple, his a pair that curved around his ears.

  Neither seemed bothered by the six out-of-place strangers right there. In fact, they walked through the space Lily occupied without stopping.

  "They can't see us," Rachel said.

  Gale heard a cry, that of a child. A little girl stood nearby the curb, wailing as tears ran down her cheeks. In front of her was what looked like ice cream splattered on the metal floor. She had two tiny crystal buds that formed like horns on her forehead.

  A robotic sound came closer. A spider mech, no larger than the crying child, scuttled toward her on six thin legs. Instead of weapons, it carried what looked like a fresh ice cream cone in a grabber arm.

  The mech stopped before the girl and held out the treat. Her tears instantly dried as she took the cone with one hand and wrapped her other arm around the machine's body in a hug.

  "What the fuck?" Kyle whispered. "Those things tried to kill us."

  "Not here," Gale said, watching as the spider mech gently patted the girl's back with its mechanical grabber arm.

  Ollie stared at the scene, his mouth gaped. "The dust corruption... they're living with it."

  "No shit…" Lily said.

  All six of them looked up as symbols appeared in the air above them. The symbols moved and changed shape. However, Gale could understand the letters as if it told him what it meant directly into his mind.

  "Welcome to the Architect's Tomb."

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