"Pay close attention to the carvings. The Orthodox bestowed upon Pandora, the first ruler of humanity, a sealed jar that served as the bridge which ended the Twilight Epoch and ushered in the Novel Ages."
Led by Instructor Rosario, the cadets moved through the caves. The paths were lit by gas lamps, and along the walls, carvings told the history of Pandora in silence.
Instructor Rosario’s finger found a womanly figure, Pandora, and traced down to where she clutched a jar that stood nearly half as tall as she did.
"No one truly knows what transpired during the Novel Ages, but from the scant evidence available, we are led to believe humanity once lived among the Orthodox and the celestial bodies."
Rosario lowered his voice. His finger moved along the carvings, tracing them to their end.
"According to our analysis, the jar was intended to preserve the connection between higher-dinsional beings and humanity. However, in the end, before Pandora’s death, she committed the unforgivable act of opening it by shattering the vessel."
He breathed out slowly as though even the retelling still caught him sowhere tender. As though he’d been there among the lots himself.
"The jar likely unleashed calamity upon this world, severing humanity’s ability to interact with higher beings and filling existence with sorrow, disease, and endless suffering."
A cadet, before Instructor Rosario, hurriedly asked, "Are you suggesting there were no difficulties during the Novel Ages, Instructor Rosario? Then why did Pandora die, and why was the jar broken?"
A soft smile tugged at Rosario’s lips. "All of these are speculations. Not even scholars can confirm them with certainty, which is why they are not discussed in class."
"However, we have sufficient evidence to suggest that there were no significant difficulties during the Novel Ages, which leads us to believe that the first ruler, Pandora, lived between three and five hundred years.
Even during the Twilight Epoch, prior to the existence of gods among humans, human lifespans were significantly longer, and suffering was largely unknown. Pandora’s curiosity brought this to an end."
Raine and Charlotte kept their distance, enough that Raine could hold both Maria and Leomaris in her sight at once.
While Charlotte listened without missing a beat, Raine could only sigh, shaking her head in quiet disbelief.
Her gaze found its way back to the figure that had placed the jar in Pandora’s hands: six arms, hair spilling down in waves that nearly matched her height, a veil drawn over her face as she sat behind the tree of life. The Lady of the Frozen Veil.
The true account never pinned the alliance between humanity and the celestial bodies on the Orthodox, the gods and goddesses. It was the Lady of the Frozen Veil who’d brokered it.
Most citizens, and the Prism Kingdom’s own lot emperor among them, served the Firstlight Goddess, which put the Lady of the Frozen Veil squarely in rival territory.
And so, every institution within the kingdom dressed it up as a collective decision of the Orthodox, the Lady of the Frozen Veil’s role was reduced to that of a figurehead, justified only by the fact that she was the veil between the human realm and all others.
’Well, no one can say they are wrong either, since nothing exists to prove otherwise.’
"That will be it for today. Tomorrow, we will go deeper into the cave and continue studying Pandora’s leadership through the remaining carvings."
The cadets didn’t need telling twice. The mont Instructor Rosario spoke, they were off at a clip, as though the narrow walls had been slowly suffocating them all along.
Raine was quick to pull Charlotte into conversation, trailing behind Leomaris with just enough gap between herself and Marie to keep an eye on her.
She’d noticed sothing strange about Marie the night before. An imnse amount of energy had been sitting around her, whether it was stacked curse energy or shadowy flas, Raine hadn’t been able to work out.
Either way, there was no overlooking it. If it were curse energy she was sitting on and planned to let go at so point, every soul on the Pandora Floating Island would end up branded. And if it wasn’t, it was just as powerful, just as dangerous. She had to be stopped.
Before long, they spilled out onto a great balcony. Aristocrats enjoyed the rails on either side, so with their gaze fixed on the Red Sea far to their left, others turned back to face Chatenham City.
For a mont, Leomaris and his butler just stood there. Leomaris’s eyes darted about. He had the look of a man with sothing on his mind. But after a beat, whatever it was seed to pass. His expression settled, and the two of them moved to the rails to take in the view.
Raine’s expression darkened. ’Can he feel it? Can he feel that he’d been cursed?’
Careful not to drift too far from Leomaris, Raine, and Charlotte settled by the rails all the sa.
Yesterday, she’d made her move toward Marie, and the girl had simply disappeared, even though Raine had been re seconds away and had heard both her voice and soone else’s clear as day.
’There’s no mistaking it. It’s that sa person.’
Whoever Marie had been talking to, their voice had tickled sothing in her the mont she heard it. It was familiar, but eluding her all the sa. It wasn’t until she’d spent nearly the whole night on it that she finally worked it out.
The sa person Erald had been speaking to before the citadel simulation test. She couldn’t put a face to the voice, not yet, but given that Erald had wanted Leomaris dead, this one was clearly in on it too.
But there was sothing she needed to confirm first. Had she truly heard them, or had her mind been playing tricks?
The gap between hearing that voice and reaching the balcony was too narrow for anyone to have cleared out in ti. And even if they’d managed it, they’d have had to brush past her, there was only one way out.
’There are only two possibilities: either they were there and concealed their presence, or I was simply hearing things. There is only one way to find out.’
—
"Hehe... don’t worry. Tomorrow, I’ll gather my courage and finally have a conversation with him."
"Are you sure? You’ve been saying that for ages now. Ti is of the essence... we can’t afford to waste any more of it."
—
Their words, not hers. If Marie approached Leomaris today, it could only an one thing. She had been there, and she was the one behind it.
Near enough straight away, her heart began hamring as Marie moved. It was a cautious thing, almost as though she was frightened or perhaps just shy of sothing.
She checked in every direction, making sure she wasn’t being watched, but Raine gave nothing away. Not even Charlotte, with whom she was in the middle of chatting, had any clue where her mind and eyes had drifted.
Once Marie was sure she was in the clear, she continued. Still hesitant and sheepish. And when she finally closed in, she ca to a stop.
Raine’s fist tightened to a white knuckle, her palm going slick with the wait. Then Marie said sothing to catch Leomaris’s attention, and just like that, Raine’s emotions turned on her.
’This bitch...’
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