"Don't tell me that you are serious." Xayah asked him.
"Did I perhaps stutter?" Lanius asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You can't be serious!" Xayah yelled. "Why should we trust them? Just because they..."saved" us?"
"Their goal is to protect people from the mist and the wraiths. This would really make our lives easier if they helped us." Lanius explained.
"Xayah, for once...just trust humans." Rakan said and approached them. He then gently placed his hand on her wrist and slowly lowering it.
Xayah placed the feather back in her "wing" and moved away from both the Winter and the Sentinels, clearly irritated. Rakan sighed.
"Now, where...are we?" Akali asked as she looked around.
"We're near a temple of some sort." the younger Sentinel said.
"A temple?" Ahri look confused. Her eyes then widened. "We're near the vault."
"What vault?" Sett asked.
"Ahri's tribe used to live in the Isles. They constructed some sort of vault to store their knowledge." Lanius explained.
"While the vault itself is empty now, we could use it as a safe location to pass the night." Ahri said.
"OK, lead the way." Sett exclaimed.
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As they entered the vault, Lanius looked around him. The stone halls were indeed empty and dusty, yet he could hear the magic within. It was like a faint humming sound. The young man turned towards the others, who also looked around the place, all but Ahri who seemed nervous.
"We should be fine here, at least for the day. Try to rest a bit and don't wander too far. You might find some weird looking statues, they're deactivated golems. Just don't touch them." Ahri explained and everyone headed to a direction.
Lanius explored the place. As he passed through the halls, he stumbled upon a room with odd engravings on its walls and a some sort of podium with a necklace similar to the one that Ahri wore. The young man approached it to examine it. He picked it up and used his Sovereign's Dominance on it. The necklace was fully covered with an aura similar to Ahri's, an ever-changing rainbow outline. Similarly, the whole room was filled with particles of the same color.
"I guess that magic never fades in here no matter what." he thought.
As he pulled the artifact closer, he remembered about the Echo Amber around his neck. The Winter touched it with his hand, and a whole scene unravelled in front of his eyes. Screams of terror and agony, pain and dread. The Vesani's screams dying in their lips as they got corrupted by the sheer force of a weird looking teal field of energy. And then...silence.
Lanius zoned back in and stared at the necklace in his open palm. Such devastation, such destruction caused by one man. Lanius placed the necklace in his satchel and left the room in a hurry. He walked back into the main hall and took a good look around. Sett sat alone in a corner and looked at some sort of scroll.
Xayah and Rakan were sitting against the wall that was adjacent to him. The two Sentinels, they were right in the center, discussing something. Akali and Kayn were nowhere to be found, same for Ahri. Lanius moved and stopped next to them.
"All good?" the young man asked the two Lhotlan as he squated down.
"Good...for now." Rakan replied. Xayah did not speak, instead she just lowered her gaze to her feet and crossed her arms.
"What's wrong, Xayah?" Lanius asked her, being a bit concerned.
"I think that you'll be in a bad situation for once in this quest, Lanius." she replied.
"Why do you think that?" he now asked.
"You trust too quickly, that's why." she replied again.
"I trust those that I deem trustable." Lanius explained. "I wouldn't take Kayn with me otherwise."
Xayah finally looked at him straight in the eyes. "Why exactly do you trust that Yánléi then?"
"Because he has potential. Because he truly wants to liberate our lands." Lanius explained. "Aside from that, they agreed to stop attack and imprisoning vastaya."
"You think that the will keep their promises?" Rakan joined in at the conversation. "As I've told you, humans made hundreds of promises..."
"...and kept none." Xayah finished his sentence. "If you think that after everything is over, they'll stop, you're just foolish."
"Then I'm foolish I guess. I promised to you that you'll finally be able to stop fighting them... I intend to keep mine, no matter what. Even if it means that I'll have to make them my enemies." Lanius said as he got up. "Just keep that in mind." he added and walked off, towards the two Sentinels.
"Sorry for the small scene earlier, she's just a bit suspicious about humans." Lanius told the two men.
"Nah, it's all cool man. It happens a lot. I mean...wouldn't you be suspicious of two guys with guns that approach you in the middle of nowhere and take you to another place, also in the middle of nowhere?" the younger Sentinel said.
"Aren't you also a human? Does that mean that she's suspicious of you too?" the elder Sentinel then asked.
"Well...no for the first, yes for the second. I'm half-human and half-vastaya, similar to the beefed guy behind us." Lanius motioned towards Sett. "She still treats me with suspicion as we met...in a kind of unorthodox way."
"I see." the elder replied. "What's your name?"
"Lanius. Yours?" The young man muttered.
"Me and my partner over here don't use names. We call ourselves with our nicknames." elder Sentinel replied.
"And what are your nicknames then?" Lanius asked.
"Just call me The Rookie." the younger Sentinel replied. "The old man goes by Grizzle." he snickered.
"And what do you know, mere child?" the elder Sentinel asked. "The only thing you were able to do is flee the damn Warden and be a pain in our ass. If I weren't here, you'd be gone more than enough times in the past two years."
"I know that when you're at the age of having only white hair, you retire and don't go living as a hermit, fighting the undead." the Rookie replied.
"Anyway...I guess that we'll keep you company for a few days." Lanius explained as he got up.
"A little strange company never hurt." Grizzle replied.
The young man walked off to find Ahri.
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"There you are, Foxy. I've been looking for you in the whole vault." the young man said as he entered the other room.
Ahri did not speak to him. She seemed to be looking at a weird gem in her hands. Lanius approached the vesani and sat down next to her. "I think that you should rest." he said.
"I'll know after I find this things use." she replied. "I've been trying to find out it's use for an hour or so."
Lanius carefully picked it up and examined it up close. It was an octahedron made out of a crystallised green material with yellow stripes. He then looked around the room. "It should fit in somewhere in here." he said.
"But...where?" she asked.
Lanius thought for a few seconds, trying to remember possible locations.