Chapter 41: The Trembling Mother Box
After the female guard finished tidying up the small dark room and left, Xi Nian lay on the relatively clean cot, clutching Aunt Diana's Starlight Diadem tightly in his arms. The flickering cold firelight cast shadows across his body.
Returning the crown was out of the question. Doing so would be a direct slap in Aunt Diana's face.
Yet this crown… was unbearably heavy.
In every sense, it was one of the most precious objects in this world, beyond any measure of value.
"Can I really bear it?"
Xi Nian lay on the bed for a long time before finally sighing. He placed the diadem back on his head, stood, and walked out of the room.
Even without claustrophobia, the place was far too stifling. He needed air.
But halfway to the door, he remembered General Antiope's orders to the guards outside not to let him wander.
Now, he fully understood why Antiope had treated him so harshly.
If anyone tried to lay a hand on Aunt Diana, his own attitude would be a hundred times harsher! And if he had known earlier the true meaning behind this crown, he never would have allowed Aunt Diana to place it on his head!
…
He could, as "His Highness," force his way out and the guards wouldn't dare stop him. But Xi Nian didn't want to make things hard for them, so he turned back into the hallway.
Returning to his door, Xi Nian paused. From deeper inside the old building's corridor, he saw a faint light and felt a breeze drifting through the darkness.
If he wasn't allowed outside, walking inside should be fine, right?
He shrugged.
Besides, the guard had said as long as nothing inside was taken out, there would be no issue.
Without overthinking it, Xi Nian continued deeper into the structure.
"These walls are thick…" The farther he went, the more astonished he became.
The entire circular building, aside from his tiny guard room, was nothing but solid stone walls, with only a single narrow corridor leading inward.
From its design, the place felt like a sealed Pokéball. Once the passage was closed, no one could get out.
"Maybe only the fusion form could break out of this…" Xi Nian muttered, suddenly thinking of the Flerken. Aunt Diana hadn't wanted to bring it to Themyscira, so she left it with a pet-experienced friend for a few days.
That friend's name was… Barry Allen?
Xi Nian soon reached the end of the passage. The space opened wide before him into a vast ancient hall.
The hall's walls were covered in strange stone carvings and Greek inscriptions, as if recording forgotten histories of the Old Gods. From the star-shaped gaps high above, light, wind, and fresh air filtered in, dust motes drifting down like faint beams of starlight.
At the very center, on a two-meter-tall stone altar, sat a square metallic object, rusty and weathered like an old iron box.
No one knew how long it had rested there. Dust, dim light, and time itself seemed frozen around it.
"This is what they've guarded for over a thousand years?" Xi Nian stared in surprise.
He finally understood why no one had touched it in millennia.
The island was protected by Zeus's barrier, and Amazons stood guard. But looking at its pathetic appearance—
Who would even want this broken box?
Of course, maybe it was a hidden artifact.
Xi Nian had no intention of investigating. Standing before the altar, he stretched and took a deep breath. The hall's air, connected to the outside, made him feel much better.
But suddenly—
Something flickered in his peripheral vision.
Xi Nian froze, eyes snapping to the iron box.
Did that thing… just move?
…
Themyscira, Amazon Palace.
Inside the magnificent golden palace, every furnishing—from the gilded throne to the pearl curtains—would be priceless treasures outside these walls.
"Mother." Diana entered, kneeling before the throne.
Seated there was a regal woman, bearing Diana's features, youthful despite her years, wearing a golden crown—the Amazon Queen, Hippolyta. Her face softened with joy upon seeing her daughter.
Hippolyta reached out, touching Diana's cheek tenderly. "Child, you've suffered outside."
"No, Mother," Diana shook her head gently, grasping her mother's hand. "I'm fine. I can take care of myself."
"I know you can. After all, you are the only daughter of the Queen of the Amazons!" Hippolyta smiled, but then her eyes caught Diana's bare forehead. "Diana, your Starlight Diadem?"
"Mother, that's what I came to tell you. This time… I didn't come back alone."
Her face glowed with happiness as she declared, serious and proud, "I gave it to someone. A human."
…
Back in the ancient hall, Xi Nian stared at the iron box in disbelief. Hadn't the guard said it hadn't moved in a thousand years?
Why, then, had it just shuddered?
Maybe it was an illusion.
Maybe just light and shadow playing tricks.
To be sure, Xi Nian held his breath and stepped closer.
At three meters away, he could clearly see the box's strange engravings—shapes like suns and stars—its surface buried beneath thick layers of dust.
The shaft of light from above fell over him.
Instinctively, Xi Nian reached out, wanting to wipe the dust from its surface.
His fingertips were about to touch it—when he suddenly pulled back.
What was he doing? Touching someone else's guarded artifact wasn't exactly polite.
Still, looking at the undisturbed dust coating the box, he convinced himself he must have imagined it earlier. If it really had moved, some of that dust would have fallen.
"Forget it. Time to go back."
He turned and left the hall.
…
Xi Nian never noticed.
The moment he stepped into the corridor, leaving the chamber—
The iron box on the altar trembled, faintly but distinctly. Dust scattered from its surface, vanishing before touching the ground.
The box quivered as though alive.
As though it feared something.
But soon, it fell silent again, resuming the thousand-year stillness.
It slumbered on, waiting for its moment.
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