In the cage, the bars were really old, but that didn't stop them from losing strength. In fact, the moment Darian tried to touch them with his hand, they still felt really hard.
On the right side of the cage, there was an opening: a metal bar had been completely removed, while the other two were bent. Thanks to this, Darian was able to pass right into the cell, Snowy shaking on his shoulder.
"Don't be scared, Snowy," whispered Darian with a calm voice. Darian moved his hand onto his shoulder and slowly petted the small creature, who was feeling a bit better.
The cage was almost empty. The only thing that Darian immediately saw were some wall shackles. Darian walked slowly towards them and kneeled down next to them.
Their manacles were completely destroyed. The metal in the chains was still intact; it wasn't ruined by time. "Why would they even use such a strong metal…" whispered Darian as he looked over the wall shackles. The chains were still intact; only the manacles were half-destroyed.
"It feels weird that there isn't anything else here…" murmured Darian as he slowly returned to his feet. He glanced around, but there wasn't anything else; the cage was empty. The only things he could see were Liro and Lily outside, who were checking on the black crystal.
"They can perfectly reflect us…" pointed out Lily as she put her face right in front of one of the crystals. Her face was reflected perfectly.
Liro touched one of them; the crystals were extremely smooth. His finger slid down the crystal without even making a single sound.
"Why would they place these crystals in this room?" whispered Liro, looking at this crystal. The room was full of this type of crystal; they were all around the room. It looked like they formed a sort of wall around the cell.
Lily noticed that these crystals were placed in a very specific way. In fact, on each side of the wall, these crystals formed a semicircle. "Wait…" whispered Lily as she slowly walked back, standing right in the middle of the room.
"Liro, can you tell me if they are all pointing towards me?" asked Lily as she remained still in the middle of the room. "Alright." Liro went all around these crystals, just to see Lily's reflection in the middle of each of these crystals.
Liro remained still for a moment before speaking again. "You're right, it looks like these crystals are all pointing in your direction, more precisely in the middle of the room," said Liro as he first turned towards Lily, then started to walk towards her.
"Darian, do you know what type of crystal they are?" asked Liro. Darian had just come out of the cage. The moment he heard Liro's question, he shook his head.
"I've never seen anything like this in my entire life…" answered Darian as he walked towards one of these crystals, trying to inspect them.
'Can this be obsidian?' thought Darian as his finger slid down, but after only 2 seconds, his finger slid down off the surface. He immediately shook his head.
"I can tell that I have never seen this type of crystal in my entire life. I thought it was obsidian, but it is too smooth; it doesn't even feel natural," said Darian as he reached the middle where his friends were standing.
"What do you mean they don't even feel natural?" asked Lily, confused. "I've noticed it too. I have never seen any rock this smooth in Therya," answered Liro.
"Many rocks that made crystal and rock in general smoother existed during my time, but they weren't even this precise, and I don't even see a reason to make it this precise…" said Darian, thinking about how they made these types of crystals.
The group remained still in the middle of the room for another 10 seconds, thinking for a solution, before Vane returned from behind the cage with something in his hand. "Guys… I think I've found something important," said Vane. The moment Darian looked at what he had in his hand, he stopped for a moment, and his eyes grew wider.
'Is that… No way…' thought him as he could only remain still. Vane had a feather in his hand. He walked closer to everyone with the object in his hand. "This was stuck under the cage," said Vane. He was holding this feather with one hand and he put it right in the middle of everyone.
This feather was extremely beautiful; it was totally white with some shades of yellow that looked like the yellow of the sun. 'Why are they so similar…' thought Darian as he noticed the full color palette of the feather. He only had one thought in his mind: this feather was extremely similar to the one he had already found, but the one he had was different; it was black, while this one was white.
'No no… it must be a coincidence, right?' thought Darian as he started to sweat hard. Liro was the first one to notice Darian acting weird.
"Darian, is everything alright?" asked Liro. Suddenly, the attention was directed towards Darian, who was still sweating. 'Oh, they don't know about the feather, right…' thought him as he slowly returned to normal.
"Oh, it's nothing. I was just blinded by its beauty, you know," said Darian, trying to convince everyone that everything was alright. Lily and Vane agreed with that. "You're right, the feather is really beautiful, but… what even is this?" asked Lily, trying to change the subject.
Liro was the only one who kept his look over Darian.
"Don't you think that this wing maybe represents the white wing project?" said Liro.
"I think so too, but where would they even find a feather like this…" answered Darian as he slowly took the feather into his hand just to look at it closer.
'They're definitely connected… I must ask Rusty,' thought Darian as he slowly replaced the feather in the middle of them again. "Humanity never saw any animal that had this type of feather; this is definitely strange."
"But don't you think this is coming from a person? Look, there are even the wall shackles in the cage," pointed out Vane, pointing right into the cage.
"Yeah, if I'm not wrong, we saw that in the letter too; they talked about a person, right?" asked Liro. "They always called him 'lab rat,' but if Vane's right… then I guess it was humanoid at least," said Darian as he kept analyzing the feather.
'Yeah… I should keep that for myself…' thought Darian as he was looking less obvious now. He was able to calm himself, and now he wasn't sweating anymore.
"But if it was a humanoid… who could it have been?" asked Liro towards Darian, who shook his head. "Humanity never saw any species with these types of wings… but don't get me wrong, I might be making a mistake. I must ask Rusty whenever I see him again," said Darian.
"I think we have finished here then," said Lily as she stretched herself. It has been a really long journey into this tower. There wasn't any window outside, but they could tell that it was extremely late, especially because their bodies were tired.
"Should we head back then?" asked Vane. Everyone else nodded and slowly went away. Darian, before returning down, put the feather right into his backpack.
'What would I do if the feathers are really connected… if it is true, will this get me closer to discover the truth of that black feather?' This thought both scared and made him excited at the same time. It was such a good thing to discover that he felt amazed.
The group reached the floors below. As they looked outside the window, it was all dark below. They only saw a small light near the city. Everyone at the sight of that looked a bit confused. Lily was the only one who knew what that was.
"Don't be confused, that is definitely Garoo… he is still up playing the flute," said Lily. Suddenly, as she was walking, she remembered something important.
"Now that I think about it, Garoo only stays up this late when the festival of the city is coming…" said Lily. Everyone after hearing that, looked amazed.
"Festival?" asked Darian, curious. He hadn't been to a festival for such a long time… it was some days before he went to XERBAB-7.
"Yeah, a specific day of the month, every six months, we have this festival in which all the city reunites together to dance and have fun. Naluri told me that this festival was created because everyone here thinks that there is a huge monster in the sea right under Yalemba, and on this day, everyone gets closer to the ocean and casts their magic into the sea. Everyone thinks that this calms the ''monster''," said Lily as the group was going down below. Everyone seemed amazed hearing that.
"Monster? What monster is it?" asked Liro, walking next to Lily, who was now leading the way. "No one has ever seen that. The people say that it is thanks to this festival that this monster isn't attacking us or doing anything dangerous… Bah, I don't even think this monster is real, to be honest."
"Maybe it is a krukin?" asked Vane. "I'm sure that there are just a few krukins who can swim normally in the ocean. None of them should be a real problem, though," said Darian.
"I don't know. Someone even said that a bit more than a month ago, they heard something coming from below, but it was late in the night, so I don't think it was really true… well, at least the festival is really fun and nice. I'm sure you will all like that," said Lily as she turned towards the guys, smiling warmly.
"And you said that Garoo always plays his flute before this festival… why?" asked Darian.
"It's simple. Garoo's family was the one that created the music throughout all these generations. This is Garoo's third year as the official musician, and the moment he arrived, the festival became more beautiful and colorful. Before, the town was colored only with lanterns… now, thanks to him, we have the bubbles that all create beautiful colors," answered Lily.
"Woah, so Garoo has always been this interested in music?" asked Liro. Lily nodded her head. "It's also thanks to his family that made him study the instruments… but yeah, whenever we were little, I remember hi-" The group had just reached the first floor. Suddenly, as Lily was speaking, she got interrupted by a scream coming from below.
"WHY WON'T YOU TURN ON AGAINNNN?" shouted this voice. Everyone immediately stopped and returned to silence. They heard someone slamming their hands really hard against something.
"I have really tried everything… but why aren't you workingggg?" shouted this voice coming from below. "It's the room where only the mayor can enter," whispered Lily with a really low voice. Everyone nodded and returned to silence so they could listen better to that voice.
"It's been fucking 8 years… why aren't you working anymoreee? I have tried everything!!" yelled the mayor. The mayor below was in the place where the yellow light was supposed to turn on, but it wasn't happening right now.
"In these 8 years, I have tried everything… I even found this small book about instructions about… this stupid stuff," said the mayor as he spoke with a lower voice. Now the group could barely hear him.
"Arghh, I'll try tomorrow again. I can't do this anymoreee," shouted again the mayor, before turning back and swimming again up in the pond.
"Guys…" said Lily as her whole body was shaking. "What did he mean with that thing not working anymore… is it referring about the voice that has helped the city since its creation?" asked her as her whole body started shaking uncontrollably.
Everyone immediately gathered around her. "Calm down, Lily. You heard the mayor, he's been trying to turn it on," Liro tried to reassure Lily.
"I understand why he changed the years from 10 to 20… it was because that stupid thing stopped working," said Lily as she slammed her feet really hard on the floor. Luckily, the mayor went away, or else he would have heard them.
"If the voice was really an AI… they need constant revisions. It's normal that it turned off around 500 years. He even said that he tried to fix it… but he probably didn't have the right materials. It was impossible," said Darian. Lily looked a bit reassured.
"So there was no way to actually stop that?" asked Lily. Darian nodded his head. "It was destined to stop," said Darian. The group, after that, slowly returned to the entrance. Thanks to Lily's roots, they were able to raise once again to the top. The sky was really dark, and there wasn't anyone around. The mayor went back to his home too.
"It's late… I hope that Naluri hasn't been awake the whole time waiting for us," said Lily as she lead again the way towards Naluri's home.
"You know? We discovered so many things today… nothing feels real anymore," said Lily, looking up at the dark sky.
"Yeah… it is all hard to believe, but it was real, and even too much," said Liro, looking at his hands, remembering when inside the prison he broke down in tears.
The group safely returned to home. Luckily, Naluri didn't greet them; she was already asleep. "Well then, good night, everyone…" said Lily with a sad look. She slowly went to her room, and everyone else did the same.