Warily, I walk through the doorway. I turn around and around, soaking in everything around me. I squint at a rusted plating nailed on a wall next to the entrance.414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0wjWIfuRRw
414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0mhB18UsWE
The Eclipse – Dr. Divinos Palladium414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLvPhtO5fFx
When I really look at my surroundings, I immediately know that it had once been a beautiful place. The exquisite designs on the walls are mastered perfectly and each one is different from the other. Although the walls are crumbled and mostly everything is covered in vines and overgrowth, there are two things unaffected by age that stand in the middle of the room that I am in: a tree, blossomed and luscious, with dozens of purple bellflowers gracefully placed on each branch and a stone monument with a fire blazing in a pit attached to it. 414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡATUUjjH2su
I think, how is the fire still like that? Unless someone was here a few minutes ago, which I’m sure they weren’t, this isn’t possible because the fire is fresh. And, after thousands of centuries, the tree would be dead. And no more bellflowers would be growing. But the tree looks fine and new, despite the moss and vines that have curled around it and up the thick trunk.414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5Gpu2V6NxV
But I don’t have time for wondering right now, so I stop. I have a job to do. 414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgYYcGze0T9
Now that I am here, what should I do? I start looking everywhere: in the cracks of the rocky walls encasing me, in small holes in the walls where rocks should have been, and in the crevices on the ground. I even stomp on the ground and pound on the walls trying to find a panel or trap door that might reveal the gem that I am now desperately looking for. Dejected, I sit down on a stump, thinking. Feeling useless.414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt8l2PnPbgm
Suddenly, a breeze sweeps through the Eclipse. The bellflower petal that had been stuck on the oval pendant a few minutes ago, floats up into the air, pulled by the wind. Unsuccessfully, I try getting it back, but it always escapes my grasp. I watch, gaping as it lands in the fire and sizzles into dust. I sigh heavily. This is not going as planned. I lay my head in my hands, thinking that I might as well just go back home.414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5nM6rqf5qP
All of a sudden, I hear something. A grating sound. I turn and see that the stone monument that the petal burned in has a sliding panel. And behind that sliding petal is the one thing that I need to save my family and all my mountain neighbors.414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaAJrJMMkda
I gaze at the gem’s jagged ridges that artistically zigzag back and forth, sparkling in the perversely bright moonlight, and it glows with a golden essence around it, calming me whenever my fingertips touch it’s smooth surface. Crafted with palladium and sapphire, the midnight-blue gem holds fifty bezels skillfully cut on each side of the briolette, while the keen culet points downward, securely fastened into the bottom of the compartment. Just below the table of the briolette, the level crown slopes downward, without any lumps or bumps creating a clear reflection because of its glassy texture that aids it to shine its brightest.414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡITGKKsb3qK
It’s beauty and power was undeniable, but I tentatively reached out, worried that it might set out a trap and transport me into a dungeon. But nothing happened. Nothing. 414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ62OdkYKN8U
I sigh, smiling, and silently cross over the doorway. I hear the old man’s voice in my head, telling me: Hold it up to ships and all of it will vanish. All of it.414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj3D8aBZOC1
Still a bit unsure, I hold the gem up to the sky where I see shadows of the Excellensor’s ship circling the city. I wait. In less than a minute, I see the ships fading. I am still unsure. What is happening? Are they just moving or is this the gem’s doing? But then something happens. I am scanning the sky looking for any sign of the ships and guards, when my eye catches the flag of the Imperium rippling in the sky. And then, it explodes. In a million sparks. 414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNbsWk2ItbL
After an instance of silence, the dancing sparks fly up into the air like golden petals. Then, they rapidly float down in oscillate motions, growing steadily yet silently into tiny flickering lights in the dark sky. Right before my eyes, the soundless sparks erupt into fierce flames swallowing up the draped flag until it disappears, leaving only writhing embers quickly fading into ash before it leaves a heavy blanket of silence that fills the entire atmosphere.414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt3zc5LhETF
Then all is quiet. I am quiet. Did I do it? Was it worth it? Was it the gem that did that?414Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHxkYOtigx8
And then I know. I know it. With the newfound courage that I feel; I am certain that I have done it. Just as the fire burnt the Imperium’s flag, a new fire also burns in me. And I know that I succeeded.
