Chapter 10: Relic of centuries

We walked to the main building that stood behind the stage, the floor was made of white marble with visible cracks, some parts stained with mud, the walls looked worn out; it was rather compact inside. An empty receptionist desk sat at the end of the room, a painting of who I presume to be the First queen sat behind the desk, time had taken its effect on it as well, the paint showed signs of fading and one corner was torn. To the right of it was a spiral staircase that lead up and on the left was a hall that has a whole different atmosphere to it,

" That leads to the grand hall, where the Queen usually is, if she feels like it,” The minister says with a gentle sigh at the end, kinda strange but alright. He leads me down the left hall, it led to an open room, six pillars lined, two on each side broken, the sides draped in gold banners that had tatters in them, a dirt stained red carpet covered the entire floor, holes dotted all over. The ceiling seemingly made of gold with a single dim flame keeping the entire room and mood caught in its gloom. At the end sat low steps that lead to the throne, even the throne wasn’t excused from damage, its top was broken with one arm missing, and it was empty, which must’ve been what he meant by the Queen being here if she felt like it. The Minister continues past the throne and into a gallery with multiple artifacts on display in glass boxes that sat along the walls, this room was somewhat brighter and undamaged, the walls and flooring bore the same black and white checkered pattern. At the very end sat two pedestals…made from that strange stone from the weird time cave, except this one looked more refined as if they had carved it into that shape from a bigger piece and polished it to give it a more refined look, but there was two pedestals, meaning two relics were stolen. "We do not know how someone was able to get in here and make away with two of the relics, and it just so happens to be the most important ones in our possession, the spear of Eternal Radiance, and a storage device,” He explains, although the storage device sounds strange, why would that be one of the most important relics? Perhaps there's more to it and it doesn’t look like he’s willing to share, must be some kinda Kingdom secret only a select few can know, reminds me of my own kingdoms secret, except I don't know it. I walk around the area to see if any clues can be spotted that can lead to the culprit but it seems whoever it was left no clues as to them having been here, nothing aside from the glass casing on what I assume was the storage device cut clean in half, while the other one was missing its front panel.

"You won’t be able to find anything with the human eye, you need to look past,” Says a new voice. Walking in was dressed in a dark sapphire dress shirt and black cloak lined with red on the inside, around my height. I’m guessing the crown means she's the queen, but what she said made no sense, look past? " I am Aurum, Queen to the Treasure Kingdom, I already know who you are and I can tell you’re confused,” she states, “ I meant empower your sight with light, you should be able to see more than the ordinary person, “ Aurum explains. I infuse my eyes with power the way she explained, instead of light however it was darkness, at least it worked, I was able to see more like tracks of a creature, meaning it wasn’t a person. “ So, these relics, what makes them so important,” I ask, I had only realized that I accepted to help these people to avoid questions about me being king but I had no idea what these things even did or why they were important enough for a whole announcement, “ The spear of eternal radiance was a gift from your kingdoms first ruler to my great great grandmother, the first queen of the Treasure Kingdom, and the storage device acts as a container for energy and other things,” Aurum explains. The tracks were inconsistent and they lead nowhere.

“ Ever since the eclipsed war ended my grandmother spent her reign attempting to fix what was left of our political standing with the other kingdoms, she would then turn her gaze to the kingdom itself. We were put into debt trying to fix all the damage done, despite all those years of work she could only do so much,” Aurum explains waving her hand to far right, I assume that room lead to the kingdoms money, “ but what about the first queens bounty?” I had only heard rumors about this from Cass, about how the first queen left behind all her wealth somewhere in the kingdom for her successors to find, Aurum lets out an annoyed sigh, as if she was explaining this for the hundredth time, “ If we knew where that old hag left her stash then we wouldn’t talking about it, the only thing to prove its existence is a riddle left behind by her and its remained unsolved,” Aurum with a hint of annoyance in her voice, she lifts the glass casing on one of the displays, handing me a piece of paper that probably held the riddle she mentioned. It was titled “The conundrum of treasure” and it read as follows, “ to own my treasure means to be worthy of it, the darkest jewels often shine the brightest, hidden where time does not go, will your worth be proven,” upon first read this was just nonsense written down by Aurums ancestor, “ I believe the darkest jewel refers to imbuing darkness into a certain gem, though im not sure which one. And “ the cave where time does not flow”, I tried looking for it in the past, couldn’t find anything,” Aurum says taking back the scroll. I have an idea as to where the cave could be, though it doesn’t fit the exact description its still worth checking out, after informing Aurum and the minister about a possible lead I take Aurum and the minister to the location of the strange cave, “ I’ve already looked here hundreds of times, there isn’t anything here, or there wasn’t last time I checked,” Aurum says looking confused at the cave entry, only this time instead of two paths, a third had appeared. In it sat another pedestal with a strange gold gem floating lowly on top, “ This must be the jewel in question, all thats left is for you to infuse it with darkness,” Aurum hands me the gem, how did she know my affinity? I myself wasn’t sure if it was darkness or something else, but it seemed Aurum was confident it was. I take the gem and concentrate a flow of energy into my right hand, slowly the gold color would taint as it shifted gray and veins of black cracked along the surface, eventually the change stopped. As if on cue the wall at the very back shifted open to reveal a slot in the shape of the gem, and what looks to be a slot for a sword? I step forward and place the gem into the slot, the sound of gears clocking echo the chamber before going silent again, i doubt any regular blade would activate the mechanism, Aurum knew this as she summons a blade made of pure white metal from the ground and inserting it into the slot, once again the sound of gears shifting sound before a passage downward opens up to the side, “ The sword of absolute light, there should be two of these but I only found one, I believe the second one is near,” Aurum says jabbing the blade into the ground and it sinks into the earth, and we make our way down. The path down was long, we make the trek in silence, “ How did you know this was here?” the minister asks breaking the silence, “ I was sent their to retrieve something, “ I tell them about the ring and the other item that sat in the cave, Aurum was walking in front of me but her head jolted ever so slightly at the mention of the second item, strange. Eventually we reach the bottom and its as Aurum said, laying in large piles around the room was gold, sitting in the middle on top a pile of gold was another sword, only this one was huge but resembled the one Aurum had. Aurum climbs the pile and places her hand on the sword, it pulses once before it too sank into the earth, “ Pyrite,” she says sliding down the pile “ this wasn’t the queens treasure, it was meant to see whether the one looking for it was driven by greed or something else,” Aurum says picking up one of the pieces only for it to turn into dust along with the rest of it. There was no other way to go other than the way we came, no visible path i guess, Aurum places her hand on the wall as a tile gently shifts under the weight of her palm, she knew it was there however, it shifted the wall open revealing a new hall leading further in. The path was lit by torches with the same blue flame that never seemed to go out. It eventually opened up to a large cave-like room, I mean huge, like it was around the size of the kingdoms castle, aside from the fact that it was filled with gold, gems, weapons, and other treasures there was no doubt that this was the first queens stash. The mounds of treasure formed a circle in the middle, and to reach the center was a clear path, at the center was the culprit, a rather large demon with strange symbols all along its body sat holding the container, the spear not far from it. The container hums to life as if reacting to something, and the demon notices our presence,

" You’ll have to destroy it if you want to get the relics back,” States the Minister, Aurum and the Minister stayed back while I slid down the pile of treasure into the center to confront the creature which gave me no time to prepare, the demon had already lunged forward.