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"So five of you are going to die, huh?" Avarice commented, looking down at me with a smirk.
"I once tracked down a renowned oracle, hoping to learn something interesting about my future. They were only human, so they couldn't see nearly far enough into my future for anything substantial, but I did learn that typically, prophecies speak about a specific event. Though five of you are going to die at whatever time the prophecy spoke on, that doesn't mean none of you will die before or even after that," he grinned, clearly appreciating his immortality.
"Of course, you could hear it," I sighed, walking past him. Amused, he walked beside me. "Keep it to yourself, okay? Viraa thinks it's something to worry about further down the road, so we should focus on now before trying to figure that out. I don't want to worry the others about it yet. We have enough on our plates."
"Hm. It's not that I care, but perhaps...," he began but trailed off as he noticed an artifact we were passing.
When I looked at it, I understood why it'd catch his attention. Despite being dull, colorless, and only slightly larger than a quarter, the stone exuded a mystical aura without displaying any power.
"What is this..." Avarice said, his golden eyes now glowing as he stepped closer to it.
"Careful," said a voice behind us. When I turned, the specialist stood there, gazing at the stone with a look of proud wonder. "It catches everyone's attention. No one knows the origins of that stone, but it's been around since the beginning. It's one of Cindar's greatest wonders."
"What does it do?" I asked him.
"After all this time, we still can't fully answer that question. So far, its only special attributes are being indestructible and having a conscience of its own."
"What do you mean?" Avarice asked him, finally peeling his eyes off the stone.
"Every cindarian that's touched the stone became catatonic for decades, some even centuries, before returning to normal. Once they could explain their experience, they each said the stone spoke to them," the specialist said in a ghost-story sort of way, enjoying retelling the mythos to newcomers. "However, it didn't speak in a clear manner, such as what we're doing now. According to the testifiers, it was undeniably communicating to their very souls, whispering its name to them–The Stone of Compassion–and that it was searching for someone worthy of wielding it..."
The specialist's sentence was cut short as we noticed the stone had begun to glow a dull pink. Observing it, he leaned in and adjusted his glasses.
"It's never done this before..."
"Intriguing," Avarice stepped closer to the stone. "If I go comatose, just stab me through the heart. I should resurrect just fine after."
Without hesitation, in fact, with a sick, almost crazed look of wonder in his eyes, he reached out his hand to touch the stone, but the stone faded back to a colorless gem and sent out a shock that blasted him backward a few feet before he could touch it. Then, it began to glow pink again.
Avarice skidded to a stop and fell to a knee; his hand stung and smoking.
They both looked at me expectedly.
"Um, I'm not interested in being shocked or put in a coma," I held up my hands defensively.
"It's responding to you for some reason," Avarice stated, standing.
I rubbed my fingers anxiously but edged closer to the stone. It glowed brighter as I got nearer. Then, before I could reach my hand out, it broke free of its display case and floated before me.
"Amazing! It's finally chosen someone...you," the specialist exhaled in exhilaration. "Go on, touch it."
As the stone glowed brightly in front of me, I held my breath, gathered my courage, and clasped both hands around it. The light it gave off not only dimmed, but the stone also changed to a turquoise color, matching my spirit energy.
I stood there in silence, holding it tightly.
"So? Does it speak to you?" the specialist inquired impatiently.
"Yeah, it gave me its name," I finally spoke, confirming the other testimonies. I noticed that the others had come over as well now. "But that's not all. This stone is where cintracies originated from. It's also why Cindar's environments are so extreme."
"Incredible...," the specialist pushed his glasses back and looked at us as if we should be reacting the same way he was. "There were theories that was the case, but of course, no one could ever confirm this. Most started to believe that cintracies were something genetic, which technically, I suppose it is in some cases, but to know it all started from the stone that's been here the whole time....How? How did it happen? Does it say?"
"I can show you all what it showed me," I said as I shared my memories with everyone except the noncindarian specialist, who had to rely on my descriptions instead.
Long ago, during the time of the Ancient Beasts, an era the librarian referred to as the Era Before, the Sphinx encountered a beast that touched the stone. The beast was knocked unconscious for a year. After that, the Sphinx kept the stone under lock and key, intending to observe it later if he could find a way to do so.
Later, long after learning how to use spirit manipulation, the Sphinx tried to run experiments on the stone. During one of them, the Sphinx directed a focused beam of spirit energy at the stone, causing it to glow intensely before releasing an explosion of unknown matter throughout the planet and its moons. None of the other Ancient Beasts knew what occurred or displayed any changes, but each of their spirit energies was altered and bound with the unknown matter from the stone.
Further down the line, after creating the Primeval Pneumarians, this alteration manifested as different abilities within the Primeval Pneumarians, beginning the creation of cintracies. Over time, Cindar's environments changed as everlasting lava pools that radiated heat too hot for even a pneumarian to withstand formed on its poles, and Cindar's five moons developed elements of their own; one of them started emitting near-absolute zero temperatures as it orbits around the equator, forming the ice belt we saw from Gaia.
"Snaer the Winter Moon," the librarian commented as the memory finished along with my descriptions.
"That's what it showed me," I said. I was about to ask what to do with the stone next, but to everyone's surprise, it became a necklace and wrapped itself around my neck before hanging as a new pendant.
I tried to yank it off, but even with my strength, it wouldn't break.
"It won't come off," I stated, giving up.
"Does it do anything else?" Tymon asked me.
"No, I think it's just a normal stone now, besides what it's done already. Wait. No...it feels like it's sucking my energy from me," I noticed the fractional drop of energy seeping from me.
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