Page 61 of Forsaken Secrets

23

Kaiya

We stepped through the door and into a room almost as large as the main library. But judging by the neatly organized metal shelving and the active lyphos lamps … this area was currently in use.

Oh gods. I hadn't considered that someone would get here before us. And whoever this was had obviously been here a while.

I stepped forward, but my toe caught on something and I stumbled. Warm hands gripped my shoulders, holding me upright.

I looked up into swirling silver eyes and my breath caught.

"Be careful. The floors aren't even," Lynk said, his eyes dark at the edges.

He dropped his hands and walked away, stalking towards the far wall.

What in the seven hells?

I looked at the ground and gasped. The stone floors were glassy and warped, like wax exposed to a flame. Even the walls and ceiling bulged and warped in places.

What kind of heat would melt stone? Was Eli right? Could a relic have done this?

No human mages controlled fire like that. Elemental magic was the domain of the Fae.

The damage seemed to expand outwards towards the back of the room, and I stepped towards it. Perhaps there would be a clue …

No. If there had been a powerful fire relic down here, it was long gone now. And the last thing we needed was to run into the people who now possessed it.

"We're alone." Lynk's voice echoed in the room.

To my left and right were dozens of shelving units, items of different shapes and sizes displayed neatly on them. I didn't even need to touch one to know that they were tempered relics.

"What is this place?" Eli whispered, voice full of awe.

"More like whose is it?" I said, looking towards a doorway along the back of the room. "We should grab as many relics as we can and get out of here before the owner returns."

I wandered towards the nearest shelf. Was this room where the remaining relics in the ruins around Gleyma had gone?

If so, how had someone found so many of them?

A small statue tugged at me. It was made of the most beautifully golden metal that glinted in the lyphos light. Someone had molded it in the shape of a fleiral — horse-like, but with wings and a tall horn atop its head. As I watched, the feathers on the wings seemed to flutter, and I'd swear the eye closest to me blinked.

What creature was inside of it? I'd read that before the Fall, Forgesmiths were able to merge living and non-living materials together. But I'd never dreamt I'd actually see one.

Then the relic seemed to come to life in front of my eyes, its wings shaking as if in a breeze.

If I could just touch it …

"NO." Lynk's gravelly voice broke me from the trance. "I haven't seen a luring relic in ages, but trust me when I say that you do not want to go near that monstrosity."

I froze, then reached out with my korra. Sure enough, its korra had twisted into a writhing ball of dark strands. I released it and turned to Lynk. "I don't know what came over me."

He nodded, silver eyes dark.

"If I'd touched it, would I have turned into a wraith of some sort? Is that what happened to those wraiths we fought earlier?"

He shook his head. "The relics may have been what created the wraiths, but the mage would need to use the relic first. And unless it was an extremely strong relic, it would take many uses before they were twisted and turned into a wraith."

Was that any better?

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