At first it was smooth going. The tunnel went straight and was in good condition. But it was dark and quite narrow in here. Good thing that neither of them was afraid of enclosed spaces.

Then they came to a spot where the path split in two. Lucas took the map Malen had given them out of the small bag attached - along with his new mining tool - to the harness he wore.

Kress pointed his flashlight at it to provide some illumination. "Which way should we go?"

Lucas studied the map for a moment. "Left. And then straight."

They followed the left tunnel, but at the next intersection the way straight was blocked.

Kress looked at the map again over Lucas's shoulder. "Can we go around?" he asked.

"I think so." Malen had marked the most direct route on red on the map, but if they could take some other way, he'd rather not try to dig their way through a cave-in. "Yes...this way."

As things turned out, the detour was not much better. The tunnels were not completely blocked, but they had collapsed at places, the floor littered with fallen rocks and parts of wooden ceiling beams.

"...How does that ability of yours work?" Kress asked. He was getting a little nervous.

"What ability?"

"Hearing the voice of the earth or whatever."

"Oh...that. I don't really know," Lucas shrugged. "I thought everybody was the same."

Kress groaned.

"Hey, don't worry," Lucas gave him a bright smile. "I'm sure it will work out. I've never come to any danger underground."

"I hope you're right...Look." Kress pointed to a veritable wall of debris in front of them. "That's probably what she was talking about when she said that only someone small can get through here."

Lucas studied the obstacle for a moment. "It looks stable enough if we don't try to break through it with force. Come on!"

'Take a deep breath,' Kress reminded himself. 'It's not going to just collapse.'

At least he hoped so.

Lucas really knew what he was doing, maneuvering past the rocks like it was nothing more than a maze in children's playground. Kress followed considerably slower, freezing on his tracks whenever something around him moved. It only took one stone to start a rockslide - or in this case collapse the tunnel around them.

Lucas was looking at the map again when Kress made it to the other side of the wall of debris. "This is the place she marked. But there's nothing here."

The small area was littered with fallen rocks and practically collapsed on all sides. They were supposed to know what to do when they got here, so...what could it be?

Kress's hand moved to his chest almost on its own. The pendants were reacting to something, vibrating against his skin with a faint humming sound. "Lucas..."

The other boy turned to look at him. "What is it?"

"Can you clear this side without burying us alive?"

"Hmm." He ran his hand over the rocks. "At least partially. Why?"

"I think whatever she wanted us to find is under there."

With utmost care Lucas cleared the rubble away. Kress just watched him in silence, the only task he really could do to hold the flashlight.

Suddenly Lucas yelped loudly and backed away straight into Kress.

"What now?!" Kress snapped, his voice trembling slightly. He wasn't really scared. Just startled. Yes, that was it.

"It's-" Lucas had to swallow to find his voice properly. "It's a person."

Kress raised the flashlight a little higher to see better. Lucas was right. It was a person, or more specifically, a skeleton of one. More than half of the bones visible with some of the rubble cleared had been crushed by falling rocks.

He pushed the other boy practically clinging to him to side. "There's nothing to be scared over. Corpses don't just rise and attack you."

Lucas shuddered. "Of course they don't!" But it was still creepy!

Kress knelt down next to the corpse. The pendants were definitely resonating. Carefully he cleared the smaller rocks around the broken skull away.

There it was. So this person had also been a keeper. The chain of the pendant was broken, for which Kress was sort of graceful as now he didn't need to move the bones to free it.

"This is it." He showed the item to Lucas. "We can go back now."

Next he took the communicator out of his pocket and quickly input the number Rolan had taped at the back of the device. "Rolan? Can you hear me?"

"More or less. There's a lot of static. Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong. We found it. We're coming back out now."

He could almost hear Rolan sigh in relief. "That's great! I'll see you soon."

"Let's go," he said to Lucas as he pocketed he communicator again, only to find the other boy kneeling next to the corpse. "...What are you doing?"

"Wishing him a swift journey to join the Sky spirits," Lucas replied without looking at him.

"He died a long time ago. And you don't even know him."

"That doesn't matter. Everybody should have someone to pray for them when they have passed away." He still thought the entire scene was creepy, but this was something he should do. Even more so since both his parents were keepers.

Maybe a few minutes wouldn't make that much of a difference, Kress decided and closed his eyes for a moment to pay his respects.

After that little moment of silence they quickly retraced their steps. Lucas moved with absolute certainty, barely even looking at the map.

Kress wasn't completely sure if he'd already lost track of where to go, but he decided to trust the heathen boy. Maybe it was part of his gift. The air smelled clearer the farther they walked, so they had to be approaching the exit.

Rolan was clearly happy to see them none the worse for the wear - just covered in dust and with a few minor scrapes. He wrapped his arms around their shoulders and steered them back towards the town. "You two are just something else," he said with a smile.

Kress frowned at this sudden invasion of his personal space and pulled away, moving to walk beside Lucas and Rolan just out of touching reach.

Rolan chuckled. "Touchy as always."

~*~*~

While Kress and Lucas searched the tunnels, Mrei waited in Malen's house. There was a recording of a children's handicraft show running on the television, and she tried to focus on it since Malen had put it on just for her. But her thoughts kept straying to her friends. Would Kress and Lucas really be alright?

There was some kind of commotion outside. "Wait here," Malen told her before going to investigate.

She was met by several soldiers going through the houses and any passers-by on the street one-by-one and asking questions.

"What is going on?" Malen asked the nearest one. "I'm the leader of this town, so I would appreciate it if you didn't just barge in without announcing yourselves."

"We are looking for someone. A young girl of high birth." He handed her a small picture. "She's 10 years old. Have you seen her?" The picture contained a little girl with long blonde hair and a gown fit for a princess. Malen studied it for a good while. "I'm sorry. I haven't seen anyone like her here. Neither do I see why a noble's child would even be in our little town."

"Are you certain?" the soldier asked. "If we find out you've been lying..."

"No need to threaten me or my people. I have no reason to shelter a child who's not of my tribe."

"I imagine you'd have plenty of reasons to shelter the culprit if it was one your own who abducted her-"

"Leave it," another soldier, this one female, said. "Nobody here has seen her. Let's move on." She lowered her voice as they walked away, "They're heathens, but they're still citizens of the kingdom. Don't incite unrest with false accusations. Our orders were to handle this delicately."

"Just a bunch of king's soldiers, looking for some noble girl," Malen commented to Mrei as she returned indoors. "Disgusting grunts, all of them. Always accusing us first, no matter what happens. I bet that girl just ran away from home and is probably staying with a friend somewhere close to the capital."

Mrei couldn't help but fidget a little.

"Go play outside if you can't wait for your brother here," Malen told her. "Some of those soldiers may be lowlife, but they still have to follow their own rules. They wouldn't just snatch an orphan girl off the street."

Orphan girl? Was it possible that...she really hadn't recognized her?

"No, no, I'm fine," she hurried to assure her.

~*~*~

Mrei hugged each of her friends fiercely the moment they returned.

"Told you we'd be fine, didn't I?" Lucas grinned.

"Uh huh. But I was still worried."

Meanwhile, Kress turned to Malen. "Was this what you wanted me to find?" he asked, holding the pendant they had retrieved from the tunnels by its broken chain. "Some test. You just wanted someone to get back what you should have never lost in the first place."

"I did not lose it," her tone was icy cold. "It was never really mine to keep to begin with."

Rolan crossed his arms over his chest. "I think you owe us some form of explanation."

"My father was the keeper. He died when the tunnels collapsed." She averted her eyes. "I took on his other duties, but I could never bear to go back there. Not even knowing he would have wanted me to be his successor. So technically I was the new keeper, but I figured that if the spirits really wanted that thing not to stay buried with my father's body, they'd send someone to retrieve it."

"So can we keep this?" Kress asked.

"Go ahead, take it. It only brings back painful memories."

He nodded. "Thank you."

"So...where do we go from here?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know yet," Rolan admitted. "We have Jian's and Aidan's, as well as the missing one Kress brought along, and we can't locate Romi's right now. Malen, do you know any other keepers?"

She shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. I haven't had any contact with others than Jian lately."

That was problematic.

"Aidan might know, though," she added.

"Aidan?"

"Some teen riding a solar bike brought a letter from him. It was addressed to you all. I almost forgot about it with the recent funeral to deal with." She walked to a small letter-holder on tabletop and picked out one envelope. "Here," she handed it to Rolan.

It made sense that Aidan would have known they'd come here eventually - Taora was a central meeting place and a known location for one of the pendants. Rolan quickly opened the envelope and read the short letter within.

"Come see me whenever you can. I found some information you'll want to hear," was all it said.

"It looks like we're going to see your father, Lucas." Rolan nodded to Malen. "Thank you."