"What do we do now?" One of Radhika's friends asked as she collapsed to the ground. Her expression was blank, but somewhere in her cloudy eyes there was an insinuation of horror.
Nobody answered.
"Can this key have a duplicate or something?" Drio asked, though no mark of hope was on that statement.
"Well, there isn't mention of any..." Saaret trailed away. "I cannot help with information I don't have. And that list is very small."
"We can at least try to find clues. Anything that helps us get close to... Juvo." Lily sniffed. Her eyes were glistening, yet tears didn't fall. As her perception of the world blurred, she looked away and wiped her eyes.
"Jayden, man come help me with this," Markus called.
He went to him and the both of them helped Drio get the idol up straight on the ground.
"I looked everywhere, it's solid", Drio said looking down.
"Needed a ball light. Would've helped examine the hole," Sanduo said as he failed to get any angle that offered a clear view all the way to the other end of the hole.
"What you refer to, is it that piece of technology that is a small sphere that emanates light?"
"To put it flatly, yep." Markus replied. He put his middle finger through it. "Can tell this much that it's bigger than this."
"Come on, Markus," Jayden hit him on the shoulder.
"What? I have nothing else that's thin and long which can be used to measure the depth of this hole. What did I do wrong?" He apparently had no idea what he had just done.
"Here you go," Saaret handed the ball light to him. "Good enough?"
"Yeah... You had this? How c-"
"Got it from the lads in the Sanctum."
"When?" Jayden asked.
"Now. I can make instantaneous jumps. Does it matter?"
"No," Markus grumbled as he put the ball light in the hole. It dropped to the bottom and glowed.
"Let's have a look," Jayden crouched beside him.
The IMG waited in anticipation of an observation as the duo examined the hole. "What do you see," Lily called over, her hands crossed and a slight frown on her forehead.
"Well, it has circular indentations like the key hole on the book. Nothing else really." They took the ball light back. "Nothing else."
They were in a trance now. What would they do? How could they find Juvo?
Amidst the forlorn crew, Lily's face lit up. Sierra spotted it. "What?" she almost whispered, her voice quivering with emotion.
She looked at Sierra, then to all of them. "We need to get back." She turned to Saaret. "But not the monastery. Take us to the temple on Zyphon."
"Why may I ask?"
"The Gods," she whispered, a smile appearing on her face, brightening it. "Genius."
"What are you talking about?" a boy asked aside Radhika.
She looked at him, momentarily, then went to Jayden and Markus. In her pace was an unnatural swift.
"Guys, Juvo got lured away."
"What?" both of them asked in unison as they suddenly stood up.
"The story. It suggested that the key was lost here," she pointed to the ground where pieces of debris still lay scattered, "but what happens then? If anyone like Juvo comes for it, they will definitely come here. Right here!"
YOU ARE READING
THE MULTIVERSAL CRIMINAL
Science FictionA girl with secrets. Secrets on which the very fabric of space and time are threatened of their existence. "What she did was a crime"- is what they'd all say. But was what she did, really what she is being accused of? Is she really a criminal; a Mul...
