Gos didn't see anything to study in the bead.

All it was was a tiny, shiny, clear bead. Well, it didn't have any holes or could it be strung to a piece of string, but still. If the bead meant anything, Gos couldn't see its importance.

"If you have any magical powers, now would be a good time to show it," Gos muttered to the bead. The bead didn't respond. No glittery magic, none of that stuff.

He turned it around his hand, and the clear bead just rolled around his palm. He did almost everything he could think of to activate the bead somehow. Nothing worked.

What was Lysth doing? Well, being helpful as usual by watching Gos suffer.

While Gos was in the middle of shaking it to try and extract the private information, he accidentally put too much pressure on the bead. The tiny ball collapsed, like all the air was deflated from it.

Lysth turned, its eyes widened at the cracked bead. Before Gos had time to react or tell Lysth that none of this was his fault, a voice in the air said, "I accidentally dropped my Mom's potted plant, and she never knew."

Then. as quick as it appeared, the voice disappeared without a trace.

For a minute, he did nothing and neither did Lysth. He was trying to process what just happened. Where did the voice come from. Why is the bead so easy to crack? What was that voice?

He turned his head to Lysth, who looked as confused as he felt. They spent a whole five minutes or so in silence, both of them trying to figure out what had just happened.

Finally, Lysth broke the silence. "That was something. Gos, when I told you to figure out how to use the bead, I didn't mean to crush it."

"Hey, you're supposed to be the worker, the servant, whatever! I'm not supposed to be any of this," Gos growled.

Lysth didn't look fazed. The outline around it was a color between green and red. "Look, Gos, I thought we went over this. I'm not really supposed to be your servant. Out of both of us, I hold more power here. I think you should be more grateful. I'm even helping you, don't you think?"

Gos bit his tongue and turned back to the crushed bead in his hand.

The bead wasn't there. Poof. One moment it was in his hand, the next moment it was gone. Gos bent down, scanning the ground, seeing if the bead fell down. Nothing.

He got up again, staring at the pouch. The bead had disappeared. Around the same time he broke it. And when he broke it, the voice shimmered in the air. With a start, he realized that meant...

He turned back to his Spirit servant. They both looked at each other, and Gos felt a connection between them. Lysth seemed to have understood. A smile creeped on its face.

Gos started, "Do you think..."

"Yes," the spirit replied to the unfinished thought.

It floated towards the table, right next to where Gos was sitting. It took the pouch from his desk, and it dangled the leather pouch in the air. The sound of many tiny beads jiggling filled the room.

"Well," it stated. "Looks like we better start cracking."

~~~

A/N:

I apologize for the very short chapter. This was like half the word-count of all my previous chapters. All the other chapters will be longer, I promise.

Anyways, here's a thought: If you were a character/person in the book, would you go to Serca to store your private information (AKA Secrets)?

Oh, and I almost forgot: Gos's backstory is coming up in a few chapters. It's going to take up a whole chapter (at least, that's what I'm planning). 

Well, have an amazing day/night!