The bloodied stairs were nearly featureless, only having slight lips on them that made climbing them easier. Kain looked up the stairway and began to climb them; more blood stained the stone steps and more glass littered the area. The climb was quick, but the two heard an odd noise the higher they climbed; the noise was a low, almost inaudible humming. Kain never even caught a sense of it, but Luna heard it much better on account of her impressive hearing.
‘Hey, do you hear that?’ she asked.
‘No. What is it?’ Kain asked. He heard no sound that was out of place, but channeled energy into his ears at Luna’s question, letting him hear the low humming. He said, ‘Now I hear it. It sounds very dull, quiet even.’
‘Do you know what it might be?’
‘Nope. My best guess would be a few things humans made like a refrigerator, but I doubt they have one of those here.’ Luna didn’t respond, only grunting a reply. Hearing the faint sound that he doubted he could have ever heard from the bottom of the structure, he climbed the stairs more cautiously. He inched his way up, eventually cresting the top of the staircase. The top was made of an indent in the structure with dried blood covering it. The only remarkable thing there was a large green gem with visible lines of red that dimly glowed. It was about the size of a baseball and had triangular bases that extended for a few inches before reaching the other base. Kain remembered a coworker who had a strange love of geometry and whose passion did not die with the annoyed muttering of those around him; according to him, the shape was a triangular prism.
The triangular gem laid on its side, soaking in blood. Kain stepped over the top step, walking into the indent with his full attention on his surroundings. He had no idea if the gem was put there as a trap, but he was ready to spend as much effort as needed to keep himself and Luna safe. He inched his way closer and closer, keeping his eyes on the gem that continued to glow with a dull light. He reached the gem without incident and first poked it with his giant dagger. The gem made no reaction so he pushed it to the side, which, again, changed nothing about the gem. He finally picked it up and examined it. It was warm to the touch and it beat like a heart every so often. The quiet humming was still there, which caused Kain to sigh in relief at least he had not caused it to do anything.
Luna broke his concentration, saying, ‘I doubt even you know what this is.’ Her mouth curved slightly upward, which gave a teasing look.
Kain ignored her provocative smile, saying, ‘No I don’t know what this is. It could honestly be anything and I would have no doubt about it. It is interesting though.’ He studied the gem as he talked, moving it around in his hands.
Luna sighed, ‘You’re no fun… Anyway, what’s so interesting about it?’ She crawled closer to the gem to get a better look.
Kain smiled and chuckled, which transitioned into an almost maniacal laugh. He said, ‘It isn’t blue!’
Luna, caught off guard by her brother’s strange behavior, backed up a bit on his shoulder, asking, ‘Blue?’
It took a few minutes for him to calm down, but once finished Kain felt a bit embarrassed about his outburst, turning to Luna and awkwardly saying, ‘Sorry… I’ve just been a bit sick of everything in this place being blue. This is one of the few places where barely anything is blue. I’m sure that if I look hard enough at the metal on the tower, I’ll see the blue in it, but no matter how hard I look, I can’t see any blue.’
Luna looked into his eyes for a moment before laughing hysterically. She soon calmed herself, saying, ‘That’s the first time you’ve been so… what’s the word- emotive! That’s it!’ She laughed again, saying ‘You should do it more often, it’s kind of cute.’
Kain’s face broke composure again, his blue skin turning almost as red as his hair in embarrassment. He shot back, saying, ‘So what? You aren’t? How many times have you pouted or shown your emotions on your sleeve?’
Luna went wide-eyed, menatlly shouting, ‘I am not cute!’ She turned and pouted, unintentionally being cute again. Kain chuckled, refocusing himself back to the crystal. Even without probing it with an energy limb, he could tell that, whatever it was, it was densely filled with energy. He made an energy limb and cut all outside sensation, probing the crystal. It didn’t take long for him to be stunned into losing concentration. If the box he had seen earlier was like a grandfather clock in scope, then this gem was like a planet in scope; it was millions of times more complicated. Kain scoured the surface, but noticed something about the layout of the energy inside the gem. There were two layers to the design, one that kept something in and one that kept everything else out. The layer on the outside and the layer on the inside actually looked very similar in design, only having a few differences between them. He gazed at the outside layer as it cycled the energy from the air around itself, creating an extremely tough barrier. Even with every drop of power he could muster, Kain doubted that he could break the gem just by looking at the energy density. Although, despite the density of the gem, there was very little energy being radiated out compared to what was there, which he believed had something to do with one of the designs unique to that layer.
The second layer was similar to the first in the fact that it circulated energy; though the energy inside the layers was anything but what Kain had gotten used to. At the most basic level the energy was similar to the energy around him, but almost everything else was different. To him, the energy that he manipulated was blue in color, but the energy in the gem was red in color. That was how he perceived it and it made him wonder what it was in the gem. The second layer cycled the red energy, similarly to the first layer, but the goal in doing so was beyond Kain. At the base of the gem a formation beat like a heart which seemed to keep the energy in the crystal moving, but he still had no idea.
‘What… is this thing?’ Kain muttered.
‘I dunno.’ Luna replied.
‘I was being rhetorical.’
‘Oh.’
The two were silent for a while, both studying the green gem. Eventually, Kain spoke, ‘This has gotten me a bit tired. You?’ Luna nodded, ‘How about we sit down somewhere and take a break?’ She nodded again, so Kain walked down the stairs and traversed the overgrown garden, cutting plants away with the giant dagger. After a few hundred feet, they reached the outer glass wall. The material was sturdy, resisting the weight of Kain’s steps whenever he walked over one. There was a hole in the wall ten feet high, which was where they sat. There was no wind, which was a new experience for Kain. Any other time he had been on a roof or when he opened a window very high up he had to deal with the whipping wind lashing at him. Now, however, it was calm and nearly silent, the only noise coming from either of their breathing or some conflict in the bluish-green forest below.
He closed his eyes and listened to the movements below, channeling more energy into his ears than before. He heard the clashing of antlers, likely deer fighting over something or other. He heard the sounds of birds flapping their wings in the sky. He even saw some fly off to an island nearby. The specific island was one that was covered in grass and not much else. There were hills that blocked his view, but he assumed that there was not much else by referencing his knowledge from Earth. Turning his attention back to the forest below, he heard the sounds of green apes somewhere in the distance. He also heard loud cracks and snaps that he assumed was the replication of some green apes. He eventually pulled his attention away from the forest and withdrew his energy from his ears. He looked down to see Luna had moved off of his shoulder and was examining the green gem in her hands, which they had brought from the stone structure. He noticed her trying and failing to examine the gem with her energy, like he had done, and was utterly failing at doing so. In the midst of her attempts, he rubbed her head, breaking her focus. She looked up, pouting a bit at him for breaking her concentration, but enjoying the feeling of him rubbing her head.
‘Calm down a bit. We’re taking a break. There’s no need to push yourself right now.’ Kain soothed, still rubbing her head.
She put the gem down and laid on her side one eye looking up at him. He pulled his hand back, using it to support his upper body as he leaned back and looked out into the fog that covered this place. After a bit, she said, sadly, ‘I feel useless.’
He looked down, seeing her look up at him with sad eyes, ‘Why would you think that?’
‘I… I can’t do anything. I can’t figure out most of the stuff here. I can’t figure anything about this thing out.’ She patted the gem, ‘I can’t even fight. All I can do is run.’
‘Hey, remember what I said about working out our flaws?’
‘Yeah… But I don’t know how to.’ She whispered.
‘Do you want to know how I see it?’ She lightly nodded, ‘None of us can be perfect. We can’t just be able to do everything, all the time. Do you know why humans developed language?’
‘Why?’
‘Because we need others to do the things we’re not good at. Think about it the opposite way. I may be able to make sense of these civilizations and I may be able to feel more complex energy systems, but I can’t for the life of me create anything useful with energy on a dime like you can, nor do I have such a strong survival instinct as you do. Some things come from the unique experiences we have, and some are just talents we’re born with. It doesn’t make you useless that you can’t do certain things, it just means that you’ll have to rely on me for support in those areas. Besides, if not being able to do something bugs you that much, just try to learn or practice. But just remember not to take it too far. That’s important.’
Luna looked up at Kain, watching his reassuring smile. She eventually said, ‘So I can rely on you to do the things that I’m not good at?’
‘Yep. That’s what a big brother does.’
‘Even if we need to fight something?’
He chuckled a bit, replying, ‘Since when were you incapable of fighting? You have a bunch of fireballs that you can command at will.’ Hearing that, Luna brought the floating flames that were still in the room due to her absent mindedness out. They floated around her, almost dancing. Kain continued. ‘I’m sure that there would be very few things that would want to get hit by that. Besides, it’s not like fire’s your only option.’
‘Wait, really?’
‘Yeah, this energy stuff is based on concepts, so by using some of the concepts that I learned from Earth, you’ll get some good firepower going.’
‘Then-! Can you teach me some of it?’ Luna said, getting up quickly with her eyes sparkling.
‘Sure. I’ll teach you a few of the more basic ideas that come to mind. After that, we’ll continue on our way down.’
