The Things I Learned About Lioto Reyez

The Second Story

The center of the city was colorful, beautiful, and just a little too perfect. The sun shone on the cool stone of the decorative buildings that lined the small, round plaza that stood in the exact center of Cielo Soleado. 

Lia pulled on Lioto's hand, and Lioto looked down at her, observing her eyes as they brimmed with excitement.

"Lioto!" She signed. "Isn't it so beautiful?"

"I guess so," Lioto signed back, smiling at his little sister.

As one, the brother and sister turned towards their favorite place in town: the great big building that seemed to be made to draw attention from the people milling about the plaza. 

No one knew what the building was there for. The days when it had been used had faded away and the memory of them had been lost over time. Eventually, the Council had closed the building indefinitely, storing away its secrets for eternity. Lioto and Lia, however, had found a way in when they were adventuring once, and they liked to explore the expanses of the huge building when they had the time.

Lioto and Lia forced themselves to walk calmly towards the building, lest their excited footsteps make a racket. They snuck into the little space between the big building and the building next to it, and squeezed their way over to a window set low in the wall that had broken centuries ago and stood open.

Lioto went first, like always, creeping through the window to drop into a crouch on the floor of the small room the window led to. He quickly moved aside as Lia landed beside him. The room that they were in was just a small space, like the closet at Lioto and Lia's house, but, unlike that closet, this space was empty. There appeared to be no door in or out of the room, but after years of hiding out in here, the siblings had found one. 

Lioto ran his hand on the smooth surface of the wall until he found the one imperfection: a small, round dent in the stone. He pushed his finger into the dent, and one of the walls of the room retracted into the ground, revealing a long hallway.

Lioto and Lia exchanged a glance, then ran down the hallway, letting their feet make some noise. No one could hear them in this empty building, so it didn't matter.

The hallway led to two sets of narrow stairs: one going down, one going up.

"We should explore farther down," Lia signed to Lioto, just as she did every time they came to this part of the building.

"No, not this time," Lioto signed back. He had a bad feeling about going farther down, as if there might be something down there, waiting for them.

Lia pouted, but followed Lioto up the stairs to a wooden door at the top. Through the door was another small room about the size of the one they entered in to, but this one had two doors: one that led to the stairs, and one bigger, more ornate one that led to a large entryway area. In the entryway, two massive doors marked the real entrance to the building, though they were locked and sealed shut.

Lioto headed toward another set of double doors in the entryway, but Lia raced ahead of him, getting to them first and throwing them open to reveal the best part of the whole building.

Lioto was sure this room must have used to have had a name, but that name had been lost to history. Lia had started calling it 'The Miracle' many years ago, and now that was their usual name for it. Lioto thought it was a rather long name, and hard to sign, but Lia never did seem to care how long it took to sign a name, she would sign it anyway.

The Miracle was the biggest room in the whole building, with massive colored windows that stood far above the ground outside. It was filled with all kinds of interesting things, like the rows and rows of fancy benches that seemed to have been made for royalty, and the embroidered cloth that was thrown over a big, cold, white stone that stood at the head of the room. Lioto couldn't imagine what the room had ever been used for, but he was sure it was something amazing. Unlike the whole rest of the town, The Miracle didn't have that same false perfection hanging over it, it emanated true perfection and undying beauty. Before he had first seen this room, Lioto had thought that Cielo Soleado was perfect, but compared to this room, the whole city seemed ugly and fake.

Lioto felt a tug on his sleeve and looked over at his sister.

"Lioto, look!" Lia signed, her face filled with an awe that Lioto had not seen on it in a while. She threw out a hand, finger outstretched, pointing to the far side of the room.

Lioto followed her finger to the only thing in the room that Lioto had never seen before: a large golden bowl made out of some kind of metal. The bowl was perched on five legs, standing serenely at the front of The Miracle. Of course, a metal bowl wasn't a strange thing to find in The Miracle, but Lioto had never seen one in The Miracle that was this big.

Lia ran toward it and Lioto followed her. When suddenly Lia stopped short just before reaching the bowl, Lioto ran into her. Lioto rapped his finger on her shoulder in annoyance, but then he forgot all about her sudden stop as he glanced at what she was looking at.

Inside the bowl were five rods of some kind of stone. They lay criss crossed over each other, and where they met, there was something Lioto had never seen before. 

A single, brilliant-red light flickered in the midst of the rods. It wasn't a normal light either, not one of the round bulbs that illuminated Lioto and Lia's house, it seemed almost transparent, almost as if it was made of nothing but air. 

Lia nudged her brother to get his attention. "What is it, Lioto?" She signed.

"I think..." Lioto paused, trying to recall the sign that he had only seen used once or twice when some of the older citizens were telling of the Days Before. "I think it's...fire."