Soul Stone

Heartstone

The wind whistled through the trees like an arrow flying from a bow, piercing Zeke's skin and scraping at his every cut and bruise. His had instantly regretted deciding that the weather outside was T-shirt weather, and now he was definitely paying for it. Though he and Sweeper went for walks about twice a week now, they mostly just discussed the theory behind the use of soul stones. Sweeper's invitation to give him a practical lesson had come as a great surprise to him, and he was determined to show what he'd learned in the short time they'd been conducting these lessons.

Now though, he started to come back down to earth from cloud nine. It was a windy night out, and Sweeper had taken him much further into the woods then they usually went. The wind chased imaginary ghosts through the canopies above him, and leaves beneath his feet cracked like miniature bones. Zeke came back to reality when he noticed Sweeper had stopped outside of a cave, the inside of which was pitch-black. Although it was dark and the visibility was low, Zeke could still dimly see that the cave was obviously man-made, dug into the side of a large, steep hill. "This nice little hole is your first test. Get through the cave, up the hill behind it, and capture the flag I stuck in the meadow about a half-mile after you reach the plateau" Sweeper ordered.

"Why?" Zeke asked, finding himself yelling slightly over the wind. He couldn't figure out what using his soul stone to guide him through a mini-obstacle course would prove, exactly.

"If you're going to question me, this whole process isn't going to work out!" Sweeper yelled back, over the wind "Run the course, and I'll answer everything later!"

Zeke sighed, feeling the wind pick up. He'd begun to learn that getting information from Sweeper was like squeezing water from a stone, and it was easier to just shut up and do as he asked. He looked at the cave for a moment, before gripping his stone in his right hand, and plunging in.

Sweeper looked on after him, smiling slightly. The cave Zeke had just run into was a former mine for heartstones that had been wrestled away from the Dark Tree decades before. Heartstones were theorized to be a much more primitive forefather to the soul stones people had today. Very few deposits were left anywhere in the world, and none were really minded anymore, since Heartstones had no real combat-related usage, particularly not individually. They didn't affect people, only stones. While in contact with a heartstone, soul stones tended to have their powers go a little... haywire. Sending Zeke in there was mostly just acting on a hunch. He assumed that Zeke, displaying the connection he'd already shown with soul stones, would have some kind of reaction to the heartstones. Either way, if he wasn't out in an hour, Sweeper fully intended to go in after him and get him out of there.

************

Kayne dropped to one knee, exhaling sharply into the wide-open nothingness of the night air. It was a cold night to begin with, so it just made the stark contrast of the gale outside, and the burning stone on his chest that much sharper. After a second, the burning sensation stopped, and he just felt his stone get pleasingly warm. When he glanced down, he could see it faintly glowing red through the fabric of his black sweatshirt. He looked around at the other black-clad people moving along nearby. It seemed as though all of them had felt what he'd just felt. He glanced at the wide, long box they were helping to transport into Hansen Academy. Baron needed to be transferred back into the school, after all. Night Owl claimed that an expert of his thought Baron was responding poorly to the surgery he'd been administered, and needed to see him immediately.

Kayne hadn't noticed anything wrong, really. Other then coming back from a trip he'd taken a little worse for wear, Baron's health had improved dramatically. Hearing that things were going poorly then anticipated was... unsettling.

"Where the fuck is it?" someone grumbled, crawling around on his hands and knees.

Kayne had no idea who he was working with on this operation, and they didn't know him, either. What his associate was looking for was a man-hole cover. Under that cover would be a little switch they'd flick to open up the passage to the Dark Tree lab they were looking for.