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"Do you feel any sort of dangerous magic coming from within?" I asked my mate.
Her brow furrowed. "No, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything hidden underneath some complicated nulling spell."
"So what do we do with it?" Phalen quizzed. "Stare at it until it does a trick?"
"No," Lyric grinned mischievously. "We blow it the fuck up."
Ten minutes later we were in what Lyric had dubbed as the fun section of our training grounds. If anything needed to be blown to smithereens, this was where it was done.
Our small group was stationed inside a protective walled-off bunker built with enchanted stone. It ensured no debris or spells would reach us.
"Can I press the button?" Lyric begged Phalen. "Pretty please?"
The Shadow Army Commander patted the top of her head. "You are adorable. Of course you can."
Smiling somewhat maniacally, she snatched the detonator from Phalen. I threw a cursory glance at Draven who was watching his mate intently.
"Everyone ready?" Phalen checked, his attention moving from the small device in Lyric's hand and following the wire connected to it. The thin cable touched the ground, exited through a small hole in the front wall, and fed all the way out to the explosives underneath the box.
Thanks to the width of the pit we used for testing explosives, we had just enough of an angle to see.
"I was born ready!" Lyric yelled, eliciting a sigh from her mate.
Raven's eyes widened as my shoulders shook. She covered her mouth but I could see the corners of her mouth lifting.
"Three!" Lyric began counting down excitedly on her own. "Two! One! Blastoff!"
The click of the button made me tense. No one breathed as we stood soundlessly, peering out the thin viewing slats in the wall.
Nothing happened.
Lyric clicked furiously. "It's broken, Phalen.”
"It's not bro–"
BOOM!
The ground shook. Dirt and debris flew everywhere, temporarily obscuring our view. When the dust started settling, we saw that the box was completely obliterated. The explosion left behind a crater where the box once sat.
We watched in awe as the smoke cleared to reveal a small, shimmering object in the center of the crater.
"What is that?" Lyric whispered, her eyes fixed on the object.
"I don't know," Draven murmured, his hand reaching out to steady her.
Phalen was the first to move, stepping out of the bunker. He moved cautiously to get a closer look from a safe distance. "It looks like a crystal,” he called out from the edge of the pit.
“Stay here,” Draven ordered.
The Shadow Lord joined Phalen, who then shifted into shadow form and safely inspected the thing more closely. When he became flesh again, the duo spoke animatedly, too low for us to hear.
Draven looked back over his shoulder to the bunker. “Come out, but don’t get too close and don’t touch it.”
Soon we were all in the pit, crowding around the crater, staring at the crystal. It was about the size and length of a soup spoon, and sparkled a bright turquoise blue in the sunlight.
"It's beautiful," Lyric breathed. “But what the hell is it?”
As we gazed down, something strange began to happen. The crystal’s glow burned brighter and brighter until it was almost blinding.
