The Twelve Stars

Chapter 3

The blinding light filled the entire Vault. When I opened my eyes, my hand was holding the Allcron Stone. Across from me, Finn laid against the stone wall, unconscious. Something was wrong. I stood up and limped towards him, holding my one arm. I was worried that I might have accidentally harmed him with my curse. If I had touched him in anyway during the explosion, who knows how my curse could have affected him?

"Callyk?" Robyn asked. I dropped down next to Finn to inspect his injuries. Robyn stood behind me. When my eyes reached his hands, I froze. A dark burn covered his right hand, looking as if he had plunged it into the fire. Robyn saw it too. "Callyk, that wasn't..."

Before I could respond, Finn's hand shot up and grabbed mine. My eyes met his and what I saw was fear. I noticed that his breathing was uneven. His pale face shimmered with sweat. "W-what is going on?" he stammered. I feared it was my curse's doing finally taking effect on him. That relief was resolved at the thought that he would be dead by now if it was. He saw the shock on my face and realised.

"You are the Dark Wielder," he said.

"You should be dead," I replied.

He barely managed to turn my hand up. The explosion from the Allcron Stone had burned a hole in the palm of my right glove, exposing a burn mark underneath. Confusion hit hard when he placed his right hand next to mine to reveal an identical burn mark on his palm.

"What is that?" he asked.

I couldn't answer him. Just as quickly, I pulled my hand away, not understanding any of this. That and the fact that I was able to touch him without killing him was something I was not able to make sense of. When I looked back at Finn, he had passed out again. I picked myself up, the Allcron Stone still in my hand. Around us, the aftermath of the explosion had debris and dust falling from the cracks in the wall.

"We should get out of here," I said. "We have the Allcron Stone. It's what we came here for. The guards will take care of Finn."

"This way," Robyn said. She headed for the door that Finn had entered from. I was about to follow her until I looked up to see just what it was that we were walking into. One thing I should probably mention, despite my power, I'm afraid of the dark. Especially confined places like this tunnel. Robyn noticed my hesitation and stopped halfway in to face me.

"Callyk?" She asked.

Seeing her standing there in the darkness unafraid made me feel silly for being scared at all. If Robyn could enter the tunnel, so could I. I felt my confidence return and hurried after her. After all, it was better being together than being in the dark alone. The tunnel we followed took us up and to the surface. It was mid-afternoon when we reached the exit. Down under, we could already hear the Guard searching for the prince. Robyn and I stopped to catch our breaths, looking back at the underground entrance to make sure we weren't being followed. For some reason, the burn on my palm had faded until it just looked like a thin cut and my sprained leg stopped hurting. I looked at my hand, curious.

"What is it?" Robyn asked.

Unsure how to answer, I said, "Nothing. Let's get this back to Quentin. He will know how to work this." I held up the stone to her.

"But your hand," she said. I put the stone into the satchel around my waist, now self-conscious of the scar that it had left.

"Don't worry about it. We will figure it out later," I said.

***

The ride back felt longer. There was silence between us once we had unhitched our horses from their post at the beginning of the forest to get home. Normally, Robyn and I would have gone our separate ways, but Robyn was already involved in this. She had helped me retrieve the Allcron Stone and so she came with me to see Quentin who was up in his bed when we returned. News reached us in the village of my uncle's recovery that once the medics had claimed him strong enough to move, he had been helped back to the comfort of his home.