With the business concluded, they all decided to get lunch. It wasn't anything special, but it gave Emory and Soren time to recover more magik and gave Cath and Tethys a chance to pepper Soren with questions about the Elandrian. He told them mostly about Arcadia even though he was from a smaller city on a different planet. What surprised them both the most were the variety of creatures from myth such as unicorns and wyverns. Cath also found it interesting that normal society in Arcadia sounded very similar to the Council's culture.
After lunch, Cath and Tethys split off to tend to different parts of the outpost's development while Emory and Soren walked out into the hills. They spent the time largely in silence, only talking to comment about the wildlife around them, as Emory led Soren to the large stone tablet where she had trained with Athos. Once they arrived, Soren spent several minutes inspecting the glyphs carved into the hard rock.
He thought aloud, "What kind of crazy luck is it that Athos managed to find you while he was looking for more information about the Ancients."
"Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I found him," Emory murmured, "Originally, we were supposed to land in a completely different location. However, our close-range scans picked up an energy signal which persuaded me to change course. Still, it's surprising that it all worked out together."
"Pure luck. That's all I can say. So, what does this thing do anyway?" Soren wondered.
"I'm not sure," Emory conceded, "We never did anything with it while we were training. What do the glyphs mean or can you tell?"
Soren rubbed his chin, "Honestly, I'm not the best at spell work, but I'll see what I can come up with."
"Or," Emory looked at the tablet with a devilish grin, "I could just light it up and see what happens?"
"Nope, we're not doing that. We teleported a few million people today," Soren shut down that idea immediately as he bent down to get a closer look at the inscriptions.
"I was just kidding," Emory giggled, "I know it's not a viable option, especially with the outpost so close."
Soren continued scanning the tablet while Emory switched between watching him and admiring the landscape around them. After about five minutes, he slowly rose from the ground and created a small mote of magik on each finger on one hand. Emory turned just in time to see him shove the motes into an indentation near the center of the tablet. In an instant, the whole ground lit up bright red before fading just as quickly as it appeared.
Emory frowned, "What was that? I can't use magik on it, but you can? That's not fair!"
"I was trying to test something," Soren sighed as he sat back on the ground, "See, this part here says how to open it. So, I wondered if it could tell I wasn't an Ancient or not."
"Open it? That means it's a chest of some sort, right? Maybe there's something useful inside," Emory mused.
"That's not necessarily true," Soren grimaced, "To be honest, I still have no idea what it is, just that it opens with Contract from an Ancient." Without skipping a beat, Emory made the same motes as Soren had and plunged her hand into the indentation. This time the ground lit up blue and stayed illuminated. Then a hiss came from the tablet as it changed from a single continuous rock to a series of concentric circles around a center column. Like a dial, each circle rotated to a different position, creating a different assortment of glyphs on the top. Finally, the center column rose out of the ground ten feet into the air, revealing hundreds of new inscriptions covering the tube.
Soren widened his eyes as he slowly turned to Emory, "What did you do?"
"I don't know!" Emory panicked, "I just did what you did!" They both gingerly walked off the tablet but froze when a section of the tube's wall dropped. A small ornate box sat ominously on the floor of the cylinder, no bigger than a large jewelry box.
"What do you think is in the box?" Soren whispered.
"Go open it and find out," Emory hissed, "I already opened the big seal; there shouldn't be any traps or locks."
Soren shook his head, "You open it. It's clearly made for an Ancient." Emory tiptoed closer to the box though she had covered herself in magik first. Her hands trembled as they approached the box, and she could feel her heart thumping like a drum. With a single, lightning-fast flick of her wrists, she popped off the top and leaned back immediately afterwards. A silver crown adorned with a single massive pristine diamond sat on a velvet cushion. It glittered in the light, and Emory could feel a pressure coming from the crown. Yet, it seemed to call to her; she couldn't take her eyes off it. Then Emory looked back at Soren, raised her shoulders, and motioned with her hands.
"What should I do now?" Emory enunciated every syllable.
"How should I know?" Soren squeaked, "We've gone much further than I expected."
Emory glared, "Do you think I should take the box or try to seal everything back up? Have you ever seen something like this before? Do you have any ideas about our current dilemma?"
"Well, given how much time has passed, I doubt it's on a timer," Soren hypothesized, "And when you add in how particular the lock was in the first place, it doesn't seem likely that there are any traps. Why don't we see if the item is enchanted first?" Emory nodded and crept close enough to wave her hand over the top.
"Level five enchantment: Arcane. Active Skill: Magik Mastery."
"You do not meet the requirements to use this active skill. Until you have met the requirements, you cannot activate the active skill."
"What does that mean? I've never seen this message before," Emory raised her eyebrow as she turned to Soren.
"Nor have I," Soren replied with an equally confused face, "But now that I'm closer, I can see it's mithril. Let's box it up, seal up this, and go back. Maybe we can ask Athos later."
Emory suddenly grinned, "Or tomorrow, when we go to Bustrun, we could ask Ninian. If anyone might know about an Ancient crown, it might be an Ancient." She closed the box back up, put it in her bag, and created motes on her fingertips. Since the indentation was on top of the tube, she had to hop up before attempting to lock up the cylinder. Luckily, putting the motes back in did the trick, and instantly the tablet began transform back the way it was. Once it was done, they started walking back to the outpost.
As they walked back, they talked about the crown some more. Besides never hearing of an enchantment with a condition, Soren had no idea what the active skill was. Normally, when you reveal the information about it, text would also appear and describe the skills. However, this one only had the limiting message. It was also frustrating that the message didn't even say what the requirements were or how many there were. By the time they arrived back at the outpost, it was evening.
They met up with Cath and Tethys for dinner. Once they revealed to the pair what they had done in the afternoon, Tethys immediately began chiding Emory for being irresponsible. But when Emory pulled the crown out for all to see, Tethys immediately apologized for her comments. They all stared at its beauty while they finished eating and felt a little sad when she chose to put it away. After dinner, Emory walked Soren to the barracks before heading to her own room aboard the ship for the first time in a long time. Though she wasn't particularly attached to it, she was happy to lay on a bed she could call her own. As she drifted off to sleep, a singular thought burned into her mind: who had left such a mystical artifact in a lockbox?