Chapter 3：Weeping Canyon
1793words
The cabin listed severely to one side, with all unsecured items tumbled against the lower wall.
"Stay still," Mary commanded, pressing Eileen back as she attempted to rise. "Three ribs cracked. I've just bound them with memory threads." Above them, Mary's crystal ball hovered, projecting a translucent image of Eileen's ribcage, where three luminous filaments wrapped tightly around the damaged bones.
"Where's Leo?" The raspy voice barely sounded like her own.
"Cockpit," Mary replied, her tone unnervingly calm. "He and Gordon are attempting to repair the guidance system. We made a forced landing at the edge of Weeping Canyon—which counts as fortunate, all things considered."
Eileen forced herself upright despite the pain that darkened the edges of her vision. The cabin was otherwise empty. "Kyle and Norton are scouting the terrain," Mary explained, seemingly reading her thoughts. "Our noble lady is outside having a tantrum. The storm damaged our energy core—Gordon says we need star tear stones from the canyon to continue."
Through the window lay a landscape unlike anything Eileen had ever witnessed. Towering walls of dark crimson rock reached toward the clouds, their surfaces pockmarked with honeycomb-like cavities. When the wind gusted, it produced an eerie sound reminiscent of distant sobbing—the haunting feature that had given Weeping Canyon its name.
Further below, violet mist swirled through the canyon depths, occasionally illuminated by flashes of lightning from within.
"That mist…" Eileen began.
"Crystal source sediment," Mary said, recalling her crystal ball. "Contact causes memory disruption in living beings. We need a professional apothecary to prepare protective oil." She fixed Eileen with a pointed look. "You have two hours. Materials await in the blue box in the galley."
When Eileen limped into the galley, she found Lydia frantically rummaging through the supplies. "What exactly are you doing?" she demanded.
The noblewoman startled so violently she nearly toppled a jar of rare spices. "I—I was merely…" Her eyes fixed on the formula sheet in Eileen's hand, and her expression hardened with sudden resolve. "Listen carefully. I need to descend first. My father's men should be waiting at the canyon floor. I can assist with your herb preparation, in exchange for…"
Only then did Eileen notice the ornate signal flare holstered at Lydia's waist. "You planned your exit strategy before we even departed, didn't you?"
"That's hardly your concern," Lydia replied, chin lifting haughtily even as her fingers trembled. "Do you imagine you're the only one with loved ones at stake? My brother—"
A tremendous crash interrupted her. The carriage lurched violently, tilting even more severely. Eileen clutched the counter to keep her footing, but Lydia slammed into a storage cabinet—sending more than a dozen metal canisters tumbling out, each marked with ominous hazard symbols.
"Gordon's 'little toys,'" came Leo's voice from the doorway. He looked dreadful—right arm wrapped in blood-soaked bandages, a fresh burn marking his cheek. "Good news: guidance system's operational again. Bad news: we've got uninvited company."
Eileen followed him to the cockpit, where Gordon hunched over a complex array of optical instruments. The projection displayed approximately a dozen heat signatures clustered at the canyon entrance. "Hunting squad," he growled through clenched teeth. "Bandits who specialize in tracking crystal-powered vehicles."
"How did they find us?" Eileen asked.
"The storm exposed our position," Leo explained, indicating a flashing red marker. "They've blockaded the only entrance to the canyon. Our options: blast through them, or…" he turned to Eileen with a meaningful look, "navigate through the mist below."
Norton and Kyle returned at that moment, both coated in dust. "There's an ancient tunnel at the valley floor," Norton announced, barely containing his excitement. "The inscriptions identify it as an emergency passage constructed by the Crystal Folk! However, the entrance appears to be occupied by some manner of creature…"
"Shadow lizards," Kyle interjected, speaking for the first time. His voice was surprisingly clear and cold. "Adults reach five meters in length. They feed on crystal sources and guard the Star Tear stone deposits."
Everyone turned to Gordon. The man with the metal eyepatch considered silently for a moment, then his lips curved into a grim smile. "Seems we'll need to divide our forces. Leo, Kyle and I will distract the hunting squad."
"Mary, Norton and our pharmacist will retrieve the Star Tear stones." He fixed Lydia with a knowing look. "As for our noble lady… I presume you have your own agenda?"
Lydia paled visibly but managed a nod. "My signal is scheduled for sunset. I could… perhaps persuade them to assist your efforts as well."
"How heartwarming," Leo drawled. "Now, before we march cheerfully to our deaths, would anyone care to sample my finest tequila?"
Preparing the protective oil proved far more complex than Eileen had anticipated.
Mary's formula demanded precise blending of seven crystal-sensitive herbs with living mercury, heated to an exact temperature and stirred until a rainbow-hued film formed on the surface. The most perilous step came last—adding three drops of one's own blood as a biological marker. Without this personal element, the potion would turn against the user's own memories.
"Memory exists as another form of energy," Mary explained, helping Eileen grind delicate moonlight grass to powder. "The canyon mist consumes memories in stages—first recent recollections, then sense of identity, finally basic survival instincts. The oil doesn't prevent this process, but rather… offers a decoy."
Norton hunched nearby, sketching a tunnel map while periodically interrupting with scholarly asides: "Fascinating—ancient texts describe Weeping Canyon as a mass grave from the Primordial Wars. Those eerie sounds we hear are actually the lingering souls of—"
"Shut up, Norton," Eileen and Mary snapped in perfect unison.
By an hour before sunset, preparations were complete. Eileen distributed small vials of the protective oil. "Apply to temples and wrists, reapply every two hours without fail. If hallucinations begin, immediately swallow a blue capsule."
She fixed Norton with a stern look. "Especially you—resist any scholarly impulse to taste the mist."
Gordon's team departed heavily armed, carrying enough explosives to trigger a modest avalanche. Lydia emerged in practical hunting leathers, her blonde hair secured in a tight braid—finally resembling an actual adventurer rather than a pampered aristocrat.
"Good luck," she said to Eileen, then hesitated before adding, "If my people… that is, should the opportunity arise, I'll inform them of your need for assistance."
The Starchaser looked oddly forlorn against the twilight sky. As the three companions approached the vertical shaft at the canyon's edge, Eileen glanced back at the carriage, struck by the impression that it faintly glowed, like some great beast merely sleeping.
The tunnel entrance proved far more concealed than described—merely an irregular fissure in the nearly vertical cliff face, artfully disguised by hanging vines.
Norton descended first, followed by Mary. Eileen came last, finding the rock face cold and slick with moisture. Certain sections felt unnaturally smooth, as though polished by the frequent passage of something large.
Roughly fifty meters down, the narrow shaft abruptly opened into a larger space. They found themselves on a natural stone ledge facing a pitch-black tunnel mouth. Norton cracked a luminescent rod, its pale green light revealing ancient script carved above the entrance: "ONLY THOSE WHO FORGET MAY PASS."
"The optimistic reading suggests 'approach with an empty mind,'" Norton said, nervously adjusting his spectacles. "The pessimistic interpretation would be…"
A harsh scraping sound echoed from deep within the tunnel. The protective oil on Eileen's skin suddenly burned hot—a warning of high-concentration crystal energy approaching.
Before she could shout a warning, the darkness was pierced by two pale green orbs—the eyes of a shadow lizard, each easily the size of a dinner plate.
As the creature emerged from the gloom, Eileen understood why Kyle's description had fallen so short. This was no mere oversized reptile. The shadow lizard's body consisted of semi-solid darkness, with constellation-like patterns of blue light flowing continuously across its surface.
When its jaws parted, they revealed teeth formed entirely of crystal, while a brighter azure glow emanated from deep in its throat—surely reflecting the Star Tear stone deposits beyond.
"Freeze," Mary whispered, her crystal ball emitting a subtle glow. "It's tracking us through dual senses—heat detection and crystal energy resonance."
The shadow lizard swung its massive head in a pendulum motion, forked tongue flicking rapidly. Eileen felt the protective oil practically boiling against her skin—the creature was emitting some form of crystal energy detection wave. Frost began crystallizing on Norton's spectacles—an involuntary reaction of his latent crystal-kin bloodline. The scholar clearly had no awareness of what his body was doing.
"Norton!" Eileen hissed in warning, but too late.
The shadow lizard lunged with impossible speed, its movement leaving phantom images trailing behind it. Mary's crystal ball flared brilliantly, generating three identical heat signatures in different locations. The creature struck the wrong target, its crystalline fangs sinking deep into solid rock.
"RUN!"
They bolted deeper into the tunnel as the shadow lizard's roar vibrated through the rock, dislodging a rain of stone fragments from above. Eileen's potion satchel spilled open in their flight, vials scattering across the floor, but she dared not slow to retrieve them. The passage repeatedly forked, forcing them to choose directions by pure instinct as the scraping sounds gained on them.
Mary halted so abruptly that Eileen nearly collided with her. The memory mage pointed wordlessly to the ground—dozens of bleached skeletons lay scattered across the passage, all positioned as though crawling forward when death took them. Most disturbing was the perfect circular hole drilled into the frontal bone of each skull.
"Memory extraction," Mary whispered, genuine fear threading her usually composed voice. "This isn't the shadow lizard's den… it's a Crystal Folk execution ground."
Norton suddenly doubled over with an agonized moan. He dropped to his knees, his spectacles now completely frosted over, as luminous blue vein-like patterns emerged beneath his skin. "I… I can feel them…" he gasped, clawing at his throat. "They're calling to me…"
New sounds echoed from the tunnel depths—not the shadow lizard's roar, but delicate tinkling like crystal wind chimes. Purple mist began flowing from every branch passage, coalescing into vaguely humanoid shapes in the air before them.
Mary's crystal ball pulsed with frantic light. "Memory specters!" she cried. "Reapply the protective oil, now!"
Eileen fumbled with her vial's stopper, but Norton had already risen and begun walking trance-like toward the mist. She lunged for his wrist only to be thrown backward by a powerful electric discharge.
In the final moment before darkness claimed her, she glimpsed Norton's eyes behind his frosted lenses—now completely transformed into the luminous blue of pure crystal energy.
