Episode 7: The Argument
292 Words
The team’s latest disagreement ignited over morning coffee. Evelyn wanted to pursue the academic lead directly; Dylan insisted on tracing encrypted communications first.
Their bickering broke when Lyric’s phone rang—Dylan’s wife.
Dylan snatched the phone, flustered. “Hey love. No, it’s chamomile—yes, I’m sure.”
He stepped out to take the call. Evelyn watched him go, amused.
“She definitely knows,” she said. “She just lets him have the lie.”
Caspian resolved their debate with typical decisive efficiency. Evelyn would attend the student’s old lecture circuit in an academic cover, observing only. Dylan would trace the auction communications in parallel. Lyric would accompany him to the second vault.
Lyric blinked. “There’s a second vault?”
“Six underground levels total.” Caspian’s tone was dry. “You were told the others were maintenance. We were all lying.”
Sub-Level Three was utilitarian, a stark contrast to the polished main vault: metal shelving, archival document boxes, 24/7 climate control and electronics. At its center lay a hand-drawn ritual map, centuries old, reinforced with archival linen.
Seven faded red marks dotted the page, spanning global locations.
“The original discovery sites,” Caspian said.
Lyric leaned in, not touching the paper. “This isn’t geographic placement. It’s geometric. These relics were deliberately positioned in a ritual pattern nine hundred years ago. Your family didn’t collect them—they placed them.”
Caspian’s silence confirmed it.
“Evelyn’s monograph published this pattern,” Lyric said slowly. “The Reclaimer read it. They know the full ritual layout.”
“She couldn’t have known the danger,” Caspian said quietly.
There was no anger in his voice—only exhaustion. The heaviness of a centuries-old secret finally unraveling.
- Writer
