Silence returned to the chamber, broken only by our labored breathing and the steady hum of the structure surrounding us. The Shadow Guardians had dissipated completely, leaving only a residual chill in the air and a sense that the darkness itself had receded slightly. The medallion in my hand was still warm, its connection to the structure's rhythm as palpable as my own heartbeat.
We regrouped near the central column, the point where the structure's rhythm seemed to converge most strongly in this chamber. The column was impressive, made of the same smooth, dark crystal, but its surface wasn't uniform; it seemed to be composed of segments that interlocked in an upward spiral, and fine veins of light pulsed within it in sync with the ambient hum. The niches in the walls, empty and dark, seemed to watch the column, as if their purpose were tied to it.
"This must be some kind of... control or activation room," Maelle surmised, running her hand over the column's cold surface. "Like those old mechanisms that require multiple keys or sequences to work."
"The niches..." Sciel murmured, examining them closely. "They could have housed objects. Or perhaps... they're not for objects. Perhaps they're points of focus. Or of connection."
My intuition focused on the column. The rhythm emanating from it was the purest I'd ever felt in the entire structure, the heartbeat that guided us. And I felt the medallion in my hand respond to it with a unique intensity. It was as if the medallion were the key, and the column, the main lock to this chamber.
I brought the medallion closer to the column. As in the previous mural, the column's crystal reacted, glowing where the medallion touched it. But this time, the glow didn't spread. It concentrated in one of the thin luminous veins that ran along the column. The vein flickered more brightly, and I felt a change in the rhythm of the structure, a kind of subtle 'click' in the steady pulse.
"It seems like the medallion triggers something in the spine," I said. "But it's not enough to touch it. There's... more. As if the spine expects something more after recognizing the medallion."
We wondered what that 'something else' could be. Another key? A sequence of taps? A particular action? I remembered the Echoes' words: The Veil has a rhythm of its own. It whispers. If you can listen... if you can feel... you will find the passage. And the Echo had looked at me. My ability to sense rhythm wasn't just for finding invisible paths; it was for tuning in.
I closed my eyes again, holding the medallion against the column. I concentrated on the rhythm of the column, trying to go beyond its steady pulse and feel its subtleties, its variations. The medallion seemed to help, amplifying the finer parts of the rhythm. And then, I felt it. Beneath the main beat, there was a secondary pattern, a kind of echo, a whisper within the roar. It was a more complex rhythm, changing in intensity and speed.
"The rhythm... has a pattern," I said, opening my eyes. "The column doesn't just respond to the presence of the medallion. It responds to a particular rhythm. A sequence."
"A rhythmic sequence?" Sciel asked, interested. "Like a melody?"
"Something like that," I nodded. "It's... as if the column is silently 'singing' that pattern, and it expects us to respond with the same 'melody,' but through the medallion or by interacting with it."
The challenge was to translate that rhythmic pattern that only I could feel into tangible action. I remembered Maelle's words about the niches as 'connection points.' Perhaps the niches corresponded to different 'notes' or 'fragments' of the rhythm, and we had to activate them in the correct sequence, guided by the pattern I felt.
We spread out around the column and the niches, ready. I focused on the rhythmic pattern I felt, trying to isolate its components, its pauses, its accelerations. It was like listening to a complex piece of music and trying to replicate it by playing different instruments in the correct order. Maelle and Sciel approached the niches, ready to interact with them if that was what was needed. Gustave and Lune kept guard, watching the chamber for any unexpected reactions.
I began to 'listen' to the rhythm I felt and translate it into directions. "First... I feel a long, sustained pulse. It corresponds to... this niche here," I pointed to one of the niches. Maelle approached and placed her gloved hand on the niche. The niche flickered with light.
"Good," Gustave whispered. "Go on."
The next fragment of the rhythm was a quick, double pulse. "Now... two quick pulses. I think it's... these two niches in a row," I indicated two more. Sciel moved quickly and touched both niches in quick succession. They blinked in response.
We followed the rhythmic pattern, activating niches in different parts of the chamber, sometimes one by one, sometimes in rapid succession. It was exhausting to maintain focus, the rhythm of the Veil trying to blend with the pattern I felt, creating confusion. There were mistakes. When we activated the wrong niche, the column would make a dissonant sound and the lights in the niches would go out, forcing us to start the sequence over. Frustration mounted, but our determination grew.
Finally, I reached the end of the rhythmic pattern. I indicated the last niche, and Sciel activated it.
There was a moment of tense silence. Then the central column reacted powerfully. The fine, luminous veins running through it ignited with intense light, spiraling upward to the ceiling. The structure's hum rose to a higher frequency, and the rhythm I felt from the column became pure, powerful, and focused.
In the center of the chamber, around the base of the column, the crystal floor began to ripple, as if it were water. The crystalline formations around it retracted, and at the center of the swirling molten crystal, an opening appeared. Not an arch or a passage, but a void that seemed to extend to an entirely different place, filled with a pulsing white light. The air that came out of it was warm, with a scent I didn't recognize, at once strangely familiar and completely alien.
The medallion in my hand vibrated strongly, as if reacting to the energy of the void. The rhythm coming from it was overwhelmingly powerful, unlike anything I'd felt so far in the structure or the Veil. It was the rhythm... of the Source. Or what was closer to it than anything else we'd encountered.
We approached the edge of the opening, peering into the pulsing white light. The void didn't feel like a physical place; it felt like a door to another dimension, created by the structure itself, activated by the rhythm we had replicated. The footprints we had followed... would they lead to this void? Was this the final path to the Source?
"This must be it," Gustave whispered, his voice filled with wonder. "The path that leads beyond the Nexus. The path that leads to the Source."
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