Lost Identity: Eloria Series Book 1 | ✓

20: The Tunnel

7/6/3028

"You'll have to lead the way." I hovered my hand over the lift grid. The lack of buttons was confusing.

Martin brushed my hand aside. "Relax, I've got this. We need to go down."

I looked at the grid and saw that we were on the top floor. Below us were four more floors, until the final one: T-floor.

Martin shrugged. "Guess that means basement."

"Attention, lift?" I said.

"Input command." The grid flashed a bright yellow.

"Err..." I stalled for a moment. "Basement level."

The grid flashed red. "Denied. Unknown command."

"T-floor," Martin blurted.

The grid flashed blue. "Affirmed."

We zipped downward and exited once the lift door opened.

A rich scent of earth and minerals pervaded the tunnel. Vines and moss grew on the walls unrestricted, no concrete supports holding the tunnel up. It was as if there was some other kind of force holding the dirt back from caving in. The tunnel was lit by exquisite orbs of light that floated several feet above us.

It was beautiful, really.

"Does any of this look familiar to you?" I asked.

"Yeah, it sort of does." Martin ran his fingers through his hair. "Funny, I thought I'd imagined it all."

I could easily see how he thought that—T-floor looked like an enchanted cavern from a land of fairy tales.

"Where do we go?" I asked after we had a moment to take in the sights.

"Straight ahead. It'll take us a while though."

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't walk the first time I was in here. We drove on those hovering carts over there." He pointed just to the right of us where the hovering carts were lined up in a row. They looked like go-karts—compact, four-seater vehicles that didn't look like they'd go very fast, but probably faster than travelling on foot. "I don't know how to operate it, but I could try."

"Let's just walk to be safe—we don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

"Yeah, I guess."

As we walked, I told Martin about the conversation I had with Stanjah in the corin carriage about the Elosra Crystals and why Sye-Liene was so important to the Ankins.

"So, I have to call you Sye-Liene when people are around?" He gently elbowed me.

"No, you have to call me Sye-Liene Anmyn or just Anmyn."

"Ah." He rolled his eyes. "Then do you think you could actually be Sye-Liene?"

"To be honest, I don't know. Keiran is completely convinced."

"Keiran, huh? So, you trust him?"

"He told me he'd help us get Katie back and I believe he'll try. I think he genuinely wants to help us."

"You wanna know what I think?" He looked at me sideways with a mischievous smirk. "My hunch is that you like him."

"Wh... Who? Keiran?" I was completely caught off guard. "He's dating Ilta—besides, I don't think he thinks of me in that way. Sye-Liene was raised by the Ankin royal family."

"Who did you get your information from?"

"Jarek. I asked him if Ilta and Keiran were together and he said that he thinks they are."