Chapter 26 – The Third Artifact

We walked on, hands clasped together, the darkness pressing in on us, our senses dulled, the ground beneath our feet a distant memory. Fear gnawed at us, but the warmth of our joined hands, the rhythm of our shared breath, it anchored us, kept us moving forward, one step at a time.

After what felt like an eternity, a faint light appeared in the distance.

“Noah,” Yuri whispered, her voice trembling, her hand tightening around mine, “there’s… something… ahead.”

The light flickered, a faint, pulsating glow in the oppressive darkness, beckoning us forward. But the memory of the trap, the gaping chasm, the near-fatal fall… it made us hesitate.

“Is it… another trap?” I murmured, my heart pounding. “What if…?”

“This light… it feels different, Yuri,” Luna whispered, her golden eyes fixed on the light, her small hand reaching out, as if trying to touch it.

“Different? How?”

“Warm,” she murmured, her brow furrowing. “And… familiar. Like… Arka.” She closed her eyes, her small hand clutching mine tighter. “Like… Arka’s hug.”

I took a deep breath. Warm. Familiar. Safe?

We approached the light cautiously, our steps slow, hesitant. As we drew closer, the light resolved itself into a small, elongated object, its surface shimmering, covered in intricate, glowing patterns. It looked like… a pen.

“A pen…?” Yuri murmured, tilting her head. “Is it… an artifact?”

“Why is it here?”

I picked it up, turning it over in my hand. It was smooth, cool to the touch, but as I held it, a faint warmth spread through my fingers, a subtle vibration resonating within.

“I don’t know…” I said, my brow furrowing. “But it feels… different. Special.”

“How do we use it?” Yuri asked, peering at the pen. “Do we just… hold it?”

I examined the tip of the pen. It looked like it was designed to… write. To draw.

“I think… we have to draw with it,” I said, a sudden intuition striking me.

“Draw? Draw what?” Yuri and Luna echoed, their voices filled with confusion.

“I’m not sure yet,” I admitted, scanning the darkness around us. But there was nothing to draw on. Just the endless void, the swirling fragments of light.

Then, I noticed it. A faint shimmer on the ground beneath our feet, a different kind of light, not the cold, ethereal glow of the fragments, but a warmer, more… grounded light. And etched into the floor, barely visible in the dim light, were faint lines, like… a pattern.

“Those lines…” I murmured, kneeling down, holding the pen close to the surface.

The tip of the pen glowed, a soft, blue light that traced the faint lines on the floor.

“Whoa!” Luna exclaimed, shielding her eyes. “Bright!”

“You mean… we’re supposed to… trace these lines?” Yuri asked, her voice filled with disbelief.

The pen moved smoothly in my hand, as if guided by an unseen force, the light from its tip flowing along the lines, illuminating them, the faint pattern becoming a vibrant, glowing path. But the darkness on either side remained, a constant reminder of the dangers that lurked just beyond the light.

“Noah…” Yuri said, her voice hesitant, her gaze fixed on the glowing path, “are you sure about this? The last time we followed a light…”

Her words gave me pause. She was right. We couldn’t afford another mistake. Not here.

“I… I don’t know,” I admitted, my heart pounding. “But… I think… this is the way.”

“Noah,” Luna whispered, squeezing my side, her voice small, but firm, “Luna trusts Noah.”

I took a deep breath, her words a source of strength, a reminder of the responsibility I carried. I could feel Luna’s small hand trembling on my arm, could feel Yuri’s gaze on my back, her hesitation, her fear.

“I don’t know for sure,” I said, my voice shaking slightly, but my resolve firm. “But… I think we have to try. We don’t have any other… options.” I gripped the pen tighter. “There’s no going back. And staying here… that’s not an option either.”

Yuri hesitated for a moment, then nodded slowly. “You’re right. We have to… keep moving.”

“Stay close, Noah,” Luna whispered, her small hand gripping mine tighter. “Don’t let go.”

I placed the pen on the line, its light flowing smoothly along the pattern, the faint lines becoming a vibrant, glowing path.

“Alright,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s see… where this leads.”

We followed the path, the pen’s light our guide, the darkness pressing in on us, the uncertainty gnawing at us. Was this the right way? Or another trap?

“Noah…” Yuri whispered, her voice filled with apprehension. “…are we… are we going the right way…?”

“So far, so good,” I said, trying to sound confident, though my own heart was pounding. “No traps yet.”

“Just keep going,” I said, my gaze fixed on the pen’s light. “We have to trust… the path.”

The light flowed smoothly, effortlessly, as if guided by an unseen hand, illuminating the path before us, pushing back the darkness, but only just.

“Noah, look!”

Luna pointed towards another light, a bright, red glow emanating from a different path, branching off from ours, beckoning us towards it.

“A fork in the road?” Yuri murmured. “Which way do we…?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head, a sudden certainty washing over me. “It’s… different. I think… it’s trying to… mislead us.”

I kept my gaze fixed on the pen’s light, its steady, blue glow a comforting constant in the shifting, swirling darkness.

“We have to stay on this path,” I said, my voice firm. “Don’t be distracted.”

“But what if… what if it’s the wrong way?” Yuri asked, her voice filled with doubt.

I understood her fear. A wrong turn here could lead us to another dead end, another trap, another brush with… oblivion.

“It might be,” I admitted. “But we’ve made our choice. We have to… trust it.”

We held each other’s hands tighter, our steps synchronized, our movements a silent language of trust, of shared purpose. Other lights appeared, flickering, tempting, some beautiful, some alluring, some even… familiar. But we ignored them, our gaze fixed on the pen’s light, our path, our only hope.

The light from the pen intensified, the path before us glowing brighter, brighter, until it was almost… blinding.

“What’s happening?!” Yuri cried, shielding her eyes.

The air around us shifted, the cold, oppressive darkness replaced by a warmth, a lightness, our senses… returning.

“I think…” I murmured, looking at the pen in my hand, its light now illuminating a wider area, the lines on the ground glowing brighter, “…I think we did it.”

“Noah, look!”

Luna pointed to the floor. The lines we’d been tracing… they were now fully illuminated, forming a complete pattern, a section of a larger design etched into the floor, the pen’s light connecting to it, completing the circuit.

We weren’t just drawing lines. We were completing a pattern. A key.

“Wait…” Luna said, stopping abruptly, her hand gripping my arm tighter. “Something’s… different…”

I looked around, my senses still dulled, but… I could hear something. A faint sound, barely audible, but… there.

“What… what is that?”

I listened intently. A faint sound, a distant echo… but it was there. A sound I hadn’t heard since we’d entered this floor. A sound I’d almost forgotten.

“Noah…” Luna whispered, cupping her ears with her hands. “I can hear… I can hear something!”

“Hear? Hear what?” Yuri asked, her eyes wide with surprise, tilting her head, listening.

I took a deep breath, and then I heard it. My own footsteps. Faint, but… there. The sound of my feet hitting the ground, a sound I hadn’t realized I’d been missing.

“Footsteps…” I whispered, my voice filled with wonder. “I can hear… my footsteps.”

Luna and Yuri looked at me, their eyes wide with disbelief.

“Luna too!” Luna cried, clapping her hands. “Footsteps!”

“It’s true!” Yuri exclaimed, her voice filled with excitement. “I can hear… I can hear better! It’s like… it’s coming back!”

I gripped the pen tighter, my heart pounding with a renewed sense of hope. Our senses… they were returning. This path… it was working.

“We’re on the right track,” I said, my voice stronger now. “Keep going.”

“Noah,” Yuri asked, her voice still tinged with apprehension, “we’ll… we’ll get our senses back, won’t we?”

“We will, Yuri,” I said, my voice firm, confident. “We’re on the right path. Keep moving. We’ll get them back.”

We continued our trek, the sound of our footsteps growing stronger with each step, the faint light guiding us forward, our senses slowly returning, the darkness receding.

“See?” Luna chirped, her voice filled with excitement. “Luna right! This way… good way!”

I let out a sigh of relief, a weight lifting from my chest. For the first time since we’d arrived on the eighth floor, I felt… a sense of certainty, a sense of… hope.

“Keep going,” I said, my gaze fixed on the glowing path. “When we complete the pattern… we’ll break free from this… darkness.”

We walked on, hand in hand, our steps synchronized, our senses returning, the light guiding us forward, our hope renewed. The pen, our third artifact, held the key.

And we were no longer afraid.

Draw. And move forward. Towards the light.