Will of a Prince

Lidia flew back down to the ground with Sheeby. Everyone gathered around her in awe. Squabee stuttered over her words as she tried to speak.

"S-Should I bow, Miss Lidia? I-I mean, my queen?"

Lidia laughed.

"Please don’t call me that. Just keep calling me Lidia. It’s better that way."

"I’m married to a queen! That must make me a king then! I’m the king of Lumos!"

Slimo started jumping up and down with joy. However, he stopped in the middle of one of his jumps.

"Wait, what the hell is Lumos anyway? Where is that place?"

Lidia shrugged her shoulders.

"Beats me. Let’s go in and find out. Sheeby can just walk with us, so she doesn’t waste her energy flying needlessly."

Everyone began walking towards the large doors. Sheeby and Lidia were the first two to enter, followed by Slimo, Squabee, then Sarah. However, when Jacob tried walking through, something strange happened. One of the statues lifted their head and slammed the sword down inches in front of his face. Glowing dark red eyes appeared behind its visor as it stared Jacob down.

"Zalo scum. Leave this place at once before you regret it."

Jacob raised his hands.

"I’m not with Zalo! He marked me against my will! If I could get rid if this mark, I would do so in a heartbeat!"

"Liar! I see nothing but corruption inside you and that girl next to you. You are both forbidden from entering this place, unless you crave an early grave."

Lidia stormed outside and pointed her finger at the guardian.

"As the Queen of Lumos, I demand you let these two inside!"

The guardian didn’t budge.

"I apologize, my lady. This rule flows far beyond your authority. It would take the Great Serpent themself to get these two inside."

Lidia was about to argue further, but Maria spoke out before she could.

"It’s okay, mom. Jacob and I will wait outside. Just be careful in there."

Lidia looked at Maria regretfully.

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"We can handle whatever comes our way. Trust me."

Lidia nodded her head and began walking inside with the others.

"I promise we won’t take too long. Just try not to do anything crazy while we are inside."

Jacob and Maria waved them by as one of the guardians closed the door shut and retook their position on their side. Even though they turned back into statues, Jacob could still feel their eyes looking at him defensively, as if anticipating a surprise attack. Jacob scoffed under his breath.

"Like I could even scratch those things anyway."

Inside the structure, Lidia was glowing so bright that every part of the room was illuminated. Right in the middle, there was a giant stairwell leading downward.

"Ahh, there must be a lower area that we can explore. I was wondering what two large guardians were doing protecting this block of stone."

They reached the stairs and scouted ahead to see how long the way down would take. The stairs appeared endless with multiple rooms branching off at different altitudes.

"We don’t have to visit every single room... do we?"

Sarah’s eyes widened.

"Wait a moment. Without Jacob or Maria, how are we going to be able to read any sort of knowledge or text?!"

Lidia felt like slapping herself in the forehead. However, there wasn’t much they could do to sneak them past guardians. It would be more trouble than it was worth.

"We’ll figure it out. Perhaps those symbols were only a secret code for Luminators to read."

They all began their descent down the stairs, staying close to one another as their boots clacked against the stone. With each step, their sounds would echo far downward into the unknown. There was no doubt that without Lidia’s help in illuminating the place, one or all of them would have stripped down the stairs.

They passed the first archway that seemingly led to a different area and looked inside it. However, the ceiling had collapsed and the path was blocked. There also appeared to be strange coloring painted over the rocks in different places.

"Well, at least we don’t have to worry about what’s over there."

They continued forward, passing another room. It was in a similar state. The passageway barricaded, colors sprayed everywhere, and not a single indication of what happened to be found. Lidia’s eyes grew serious.

"Something about this doesn’t seem right. The guardians said the door would only close if they found a traitor. Does that mean there was someone who betrayed the Luminators and they were locked inside?"

Slimo nodded his head.

"I was thinking the same thing. All of this fallout must have been from some clashes that happened with the traitor. Also, maybe those things aren’t guardians after all."

"What do you mean? Aren’t they protecting the place?"

"They could be. Or, they could be trying to keep something in it."

Everyone went silent and stopped walking down the stairs for a moment.

"Hold on, so you’re saying the traitor could still be in here? After all these years?"

Slimo shrugged.

"There’s no such thing as no such thing. It would be unwise to rule that out as an option simply because it sounds improbable."

Slimo was right. Even if his intuition was wrong, it didn’t hurt to stay on your guard.

"What kind of thing could infiltrate the clan of a deity’s lineage?!"

"Something that knew what it was getting into but still chose to act anyway. That also may mean something else."

"What is it?"

"This place must be harboring something very important to Zalo if he wanted to send a spy in here. Maybe we can see what it is for ourselves."

"Something important to Zalo... or maybe it’s something dangerous to him."

"Either way, it looks like we didn’t risk our lives coming here for nothing. Let’s keep walking and see what we can find. I got my bets on the tressure being at the very bottom of this place."

Thirty minutes of walking down steep steps flew by. They could already see the stairs ending and start to stretch out towards one final, colossal room. Right in its center was none other than a giant stone serpent statue, almost an exact replica of the one Lidia and Slimo had found inside the time leviathan. They all stopped and stared at it in awe. Sarah stepped backward timidly.

"What the hell is that thing?"

Slimo started walking forward.

"It’s the Great Serpent. This thing, whatever it is, was what blessed Lidia with her light powers."

Squabee lifted her hand at the walls of the room.

"Everyone, look at these plaques! Look at how much writing is on them!"

Sqaubee was right. Each wall was littered with paragraphs upon paragraphs of information. This room was special for three reasons. One, it was the only room they had discovered in the entire temple that wasn’t destroyed. Two, they managed to find a serpent statue in it. And three, the text on the wall was in a language they could read, or the room was somehow making it such that they could read it. Whichever one it was, no one had the slightest clue.

Lidia walked up to the wall and started reading it. She placed her hand gently on its surface.

"This isn’t information. These are names."

Slimo walked along the other side of the room and started reading himself.

"Names of the Luminators?"

"I believe so. There are so many. Is this some sort of memorial for them?"

"Hey, Lidia. I think you should come and see this. Actually, I think everyone should."

Everyone looked over at Slimo and jogged over towards the wall he was at. He pointed at five glowing names right at the bottom of one of the lists. They all read: Sheeby, Sarah, Squabee, Slimo, and Lidia.

Squabee jumped back in shock.

"Woah! How did my name get on that thing?!"

Sarah touched the back of her neck where the rose mark was.

"Did Lidia convert us? Are we truly Luminators now?"

"It sure seems that way."

Slimo pointed to two different spots that were far away from each other on the wall. First, he pointed to a blank spot under Lidia’s name.

"Look at this one. There’s only one faded letter on it but it’s glowing so brightly."

Lidia looked closely.

"L?"

"Exactly. It seems there’s another Luminator somewhere out there who’s name starts with L. Maybe their name is L too."

"That means not all the Luminators are dead. There’s still hope! We need to find them!"

Squabee was now standing in front of the large statue, staring at it curiously while the others continued talking.

"We can look for them if we have time, but I think we need to be careful of something else if we decided that."

He brought his finger over to the other name he was pointing at. Or rather, it wasn’t a name at all. It was a string of familiar symbols, the only name not translated on the entire wall, and Lidia recognized these symbols all too well.

"Traitor..."

The symbols were glowing dark black, even with Lidia’s powers brightening every other name around it. Not only that...

"...what the hell does this mean?"

Surrounding the name, painted in dried blood, was a drawing of an eye.