Like a puppet on strings, Kassim trailed behind her. At times when he thought he had lost her, he would catch a glimpse of her figure disappearing into a nearby room or dashing through yet another hallway.
Finally bursting through the last door she ran through, Kasim stumbled upon a dried-up field illuminated by the pale moon. Panting, he scanned his surroundings. The field was so dry that deep cracks littered the ground. The sandy field was still warm from the heat of the day, raising the temperature of the field.
He took a step forward, causing the sandy-colored lizards camouflaged on the ground to scuttle away in a frenzy. The corners of his mouth twitched thinking about one of them slithering over his bare foot in the darkness.
Keeping a lookout for the mysterious girl, he took another step forward and then another, careful not to step on any lizards. As the heat rose up from the ground, beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and a few trickled down the sides of his face.
He squinted trying to find a trace of the young girl. At that moment, a strange cooling sensation emanated from the marble jewel resting on his collar, and the unusual coldness of the pendant slowly spread around his chest. Reaching for the marble jewel, the soul shard, he found that the pendant was glowing. A soft light reminiscent of the moon was pulsing within the strange jewel.
Abruptly, the ground quaked, sending tremors rippling through the earth. The soil vibrated, causing sand and pebbles to dance in the air. The parched soil in front of him suddenly sunk into a gap. The gap got bigger until a large square hole was formed in the ground, the surrounding sand and dirt flowed freely into the sunken space. Finally, the ground stilled. The entrance to an underground chamber was revealed, with sandy steps that lead to unknown depths.
There, at the bottom of the steps where the light rays were struggling to reach, the little girl gazed up at Kasim, a gentle smile on her pale lips.
Kasim wasn't sure before but he was convinced now. His visions started with the lavish party at the fountain, a scene from years ago, an imprint left behind on the courtyard. Then there was the pair of fearsome eyes and the ringed hand that struck him across the face, that one felt more real, he could even feel the lingering strong emotions that surrounded that incident, which was probably a tiny fragment of Kasim's memories. Then, Mr Aldric from the slave house. Unlike the other visions, he didn't actually see much, but he felt the evil of that man clearly. This girl, however, wasn't a vision or a memory of a feeling, she interacted with him and led him into this underground chamber, yet her lack of footprints and the way she soundlessly moved around the palace made him certain she was something more akin to an apparition. He watched as the mysterious girl disappeared into the depths of the underground chamber.
His adventurous spirit had taken him this far, but even he had his limits. He wasn't insane enough to follow her to his possible doom. Yet, an inexplicable urge to pursue her tugged at him, tainting his judgment with an almost irresistible pull.
Kasim stepped towards the entrance.
Suddenly the door to the field burst open. In the doorway stood Suriya, her satin nightgown lifted above her knees bunched into her clenched fists, and her bright eyes darted between Kasim and the entrance to the chamber in front of him.
"You—" She panted, unable to string words together in her stricken and out-of-breath state.
Beside her stood Einar, holding onto the doorframe for support after sprinting here when he felt the ground tremble, he gaped at the unbelievable scene in front of him. "Kasim... How did you..."
Thanks to their sudden arrival, Kasim wouldn't have to explore this death trap by himself.
Suriya and Einar stalked towards him. "How did you get it to open?" Suriya peered down into the chamber in amazement.
"You know about this place?" Kasim asked surprised. "I didn't do much of anything, it just opened on its own." He left out the bit about the little girl who led him here, it was for the best.
Einar reached for the marble pendant, his eyes sharp with scrutiny.
"It's glowing," As soon as Einar touched it, the light within the marble dimmed and the ground shook. The secret passage started retracting as if rejecting Einar's touch.
Kasim immediately stepped back, the marble's glow was restored, and the ground stilled.
Einar squinted at the gleaming jewel, a hint of anguish in his eyes. "So it has chosen you..."
Kasim saw the turmoil in Einar's expression and paused, taking the moment to scrutinize him. So there was a reason for his harsh words earlier today... Jealousy was a monster, and if Einar couldn't control his, Kasim wondered if he should be weary of this particular family member.
"Grandmother was right," Suriya fixated on the glowing jewel.
"Right about what?" Kasim inquired.
"We've tried to open the tomb countless times, with and without the jewel. Grandmother insisted it was futile until one of us was acknowledged as the rightful heir, whatever that means…." She said in a huff, confusion etched her brow.
With Einar taking the lead, Kasim in the middle, and Suriya behind him, the three stepped into the underground chamber and slowly descended the steps. After a bit of back and forth between Suriya and Einar, they began to give Kasim a family history lesson, which turned into a general history lesson when they realized the extent of Kasim's memory loss.
By the time Kassim set foot at the bottom of the long set of stairs, he knew the gist of his family history. He already knew they lived in the capital city of Al-Saraya, in the Great Maghresh Empire. Their family surname was originally just Kanaan, but after the family's huge contributions to the empire during the Ish-Ak dynasty, they became the only family to be awarded the honorary prefix to their name during that Dynasty. Thus the name was changed to Ish-Kanaan. Although the family had fallen to ruin over the centuries, that honorary prefix still remained.
Suriya kicked around in the darkness, "It should be somewhere around here..." She grunted as she got on her hands and knees, searching the darkness for something.
Einar picked up an object from the floor and swiped it against the wall. The torch burst aflame and the darkness was illuminated by the warm glow of torch fire. Suriya got to her feet begrudgingly and handed one of the two torches she found on the floor to Kasim while giving Einar a dirty look. They lit their torches from Einar's fire and slowly wandered into the depths.
What Kasim thought would be a small underground chamber was actually a long stone passageway. Einar raised his torch higher and walked forward confidently.
"Have you been here before?" Kasim asked, noticing Einar's stride.
"Yes..." Einar stared forward into the darkness. "Rahim brought me here years ago when the tomb was still left open." Rahim was the name of Kasim's father who had died a few months prior.
"I was still too young back then," Suriya added, her curious eyes eagerly traversing the long passage.
"Although Rahim left it open, it was forbidden for anyone to go down there without his permission." Added Einar.
"This place used to be a safe for all the family's precious belongings. Although most of it was sold off during hard times. There were still many valuable things down here." Einar's jaw tightened and his eyes seemed to burn just as fiercely as the torch fire. "Close to the end, when Rahim was in a coma, some of our relatives broke in and took what they could when he was too weak to stop them." Einar's hand clenched tightly around the base of the torch, his knuckles gradually turning white.
Kasim nodded, recalling a few lines in his diary where the former Kasim lamented his thieving relatives for stealing his birthrights.
Kasim finally stepped out of the passage and found himself in a large bunker. Einar and Suriya went around lighting the torches that were attached to the walls with metal grates, slowly illuminating the dark chamber.
From the traces left behind, he could tell the place once housed many valuables. large wooden trunks with splintered fronts were left wide open, they had been broken into and ransacked. There were metal stands and hangers all around the room, hinting about the objects or clothes that used to hang from them. Toppled over shelves, light patches on the floors that suggested carpets used to be there. Stone steps led up to the second floor, which was made up of smaller rooms that they looked through one by one. The thieves were as thorough as they were disrespectful, they took everything and left behind a mess of splintered wood and the tools they used to pry open cupboards and trunks.
Kassim convened with the others on the bottom floor again after a while.
"I'm glad Rahim isn't here to see this..." Einar muttered scornfully as his eyes swept over the barren chamber.
Suriya pointed at the stone wall at the back of the chamber, her eyes wide with excitement. "There's another room back there!"
Kasim swiveled around. There was no passageway or door on the wall, but because of the unique light provided by the torches, the shadows on the wall revealed the outline of the hidden stone door in the wall. Kassim rushed to the wall. An extra sensation of coldness permeated through his chest from the shard, as if the pendant was energised by the discovery. Einar followed closely behind him.
Unlike the ground entrance that had opened as soon as he approached, this hidden entrance remained sealed. However, he was not discouraged. The pendant itself was encouraging him by sending refreshing icy shockwaves through his body. He took the jewel in his hand and leaned in close. The stonewall heated up and he could hear the sound of mechanisms moving behind the surface. The jewel was vibrating in his hand, but nothing else happened, as if there was some unforeseen condition that he wasn't meeting.
Kassim turned to Einar, "Do you know anything about this?"
Einar's grim expression told Kasim everything he needed to know. Rahim had never shown this part of the underground chamber to Einar. Most likely, for a reason.