Page 14 of Destroyer

On either side of the artifact lay various tools and implements, ready to be used in the inspection. There was even a brass microscope, such a new piece of technology that only three were housed at the Tower and there was a waiting list a mile long to use one.

Ru noticed with relief that instead of a bevy of researchers looking on, only Lady Maryn was present this time. Ru suspected that Lady Maryn had banished the researchers to their tents, possibly for safety reasons, but more likely to free Ru from distraction. And while she truly felt that the artifact was not volatile, Ru’s shoulders relaxed in the knowledge that if anything went awry, she and Lady Maryn would be the only ones in immediate danger.

Pulling her mess of hair into a loose braid down her back, Ru approached the table. Lady Maryn stood a few feet away, arms crossed over her chest, watching with arched brows. Lady Maryn expected results and answers, but Ru was desperate for clarity.

As she came to the table, Ru bent over slightly to see the artifact more closely. It appeared, as she had earlier thought, to be made of some kind of obsidian. Like a bubble of ancient magma, belched from the earth’s core. And now that she was close to it, with a sense of relief, she found that she no longer felt the obsessive desire to hold it.

Yet its touch remained, an invisible tether from it to her, soft against her thoughts. So it hadn’t been exhaustion, then, or delirium.

She would need to lift it, to allow her fingers to move over it, to study it with every one of the five senses. If she was expected to determine if it was, indeed, magic, she should feel it on her skin.

And if Ru was being honest with herself, she had no idea where to start. How were any of these tools meant to determine the artifact’s nature? The thoughts and feelings this particular artifact had been communicating to Ru were not normal, but how could she prove something that was taking place only in her mind?

She breathed slowly, trying to calm her nerves. The hum of anxiety had leaped up in her, making her doubt.

But Lady Maryn had shown confidence. The regent herself, her advisor, they believed what she'd written — called her here because no one else would do. Surety moved through her like sinking into a warm bath, returning to a place of understanding. This was where she belonged; these were the questions she had been born to answer.

The artifact sat in the sun, still and dark. And even though Ru knew it couldn’t, she almost thought that she saw it moving, or a shadow of a memory of movement. The projection of something living, breathing… and then it seemed to tug at its tether, pulling suddenly taut against her mind, urging her.

Encouraging her.

She knew what it wanted. She blinked hard, feeling at once full of knowing and completely off-kilter; a drunkenness of thought.

“Please take a note,” she said, surprised at the steady confidence of her voice. “I am going to begin the inspection now. Item one: physical touch.”

“With bare skin?” asked Lady Maryn, scratching at a leather-bound notebook with a small pencil.

“Yes,” said Ru. “It’s safe.”

She had no proof that it was. There was no logic behind her statement, no rationale. But she wanted to. She needed to press the whorls of her fingers to its surface to understand what it was.

“This thing was buried at the epicenter of the Destruction,” said Lady Maryn. “Possibly since the event itself. It could be a weapon. An explosive. If it's magic, it could be some kind of conjuring stone.”

Lady Maryn’s words faded to a distant wordless hum in Ru’s ears as she went on and on with her overly cautious rhetoric. Of course it wasn’t a weapon or a conjuring stone. It was only at the epicenter of the crater because it… well, it didn't matter. Somehow, it felt imperative to Ru that she touch it. The weight of it on her mind was too much, her need too strong.

She was meant to be here. She was meant to find it.

From far away, as if someone were knocking on her door while she slept, the sound entering her dreams but failing to wake her completely, Ru heard Lady Maryn’s protests. She took them into consideration. And then dismissed them.

“It’s safe,” she said again, reaching for the artifact.

“Wait—” Lady Maryn’s voice was harsh, frightened. She rushed toward Ru, an arm outstretched.

There were other voices, suddenly, emerging from the tents behind them. As if they saw something Ru didn’t.

But it was all background noise, muffled, easily ignored, like the buzz of a fly. Ru reached out and pressed both palms to the artifact.

Silence rang in her ears.

It was cold, just as she had predicted. Smooth. Perfect. A burst of white joy exploded in her, radiating outward like sunlight.

She was meant to be here.

And in that instant, wanting to share the moment with Lady Maryn, she glanced over her shoulder. Horror was etched across the other woman's face, her mouth twisted in a scream, only inches from Ru.

Then everything went black.

Ru saw nothing. Heard nothing. Felt nothing. She hung suspended in it. And then the burst of light drew inward, imploding, a rupture. Ru was crushed by an impossible weight.

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