Dawn had barely brushed the sky with its first pale strokes of gold when Kai and Cana stepped out of their inn.
Balsam Village still slept—lanterns guttering out one by one, vendors just starting to roll up the shutters of their shops, the smell of wet stone and cooling spring steam drifting lazily through the crisp morning air.
Cana stretched with a long groan, a half-empty sake bottle tucked under her arm. "Ugh… why are we awake before even the sun is properly awake?"
Kai didn't answer. He simply adjusted the straps on his pouch, rolled his shoulders once, and started walking eastward.
Cana trudged behind him, rubbing her eyes. "You know… most people who were half-dead yesterday would still be snoring right now."
"Then most people are weak," Kai replied blandly.
"No you are wierd," she muttered without heat.
They left the last houses of Balsam behind them, stepping into the forest path leading deeper eastward. According to the job, a two-day walk awaited them.
Obviously Kai had no intention of walking.
Halfway down the dirt trail, he crouched and began rummaging through his pouch with the single-minded intensity of someone searching for treasure. Cana leaned over his shoulder, curious. "What are you doing? Don't tell me you're going to—"
Her suspicion was confirmed the moment Kai pulled out small metal plates, a handful of lacrima shards, a coil of flexible tubing, and something that looked suspiciously like wheels.
"Oh boy," she sighed.
Kai ignored her completely as he sat down, lifted one foot, and began tinkering with a speed and precision that always made her brain hurt. Screws were twisted, plates shifted, lacrima slid into compartments as if the shoes were always meant to house them. Tiny sparks snapped as the metal fused, rearranged, reshaped itself to fit his needs.
Within seconds—seconds—his boots shimmered, segmented, and unfolded into sleek magic skates humming with stored energy.
Kai stood, testing their weight, then looked at her with a blank, expectant stare.
"You hopping on, or walking?"
Cana grinned, already moving. "As if I'm walking two days. Move over, big guy."
She jumped easily onto his back, legs hooking around his waist, arms looping over his shoulders. Kai barely budged under the added weight. She snickered against his ear.
"I still don't understand how this 'tinker stuff' works."
Kai started forward at a slow glide as the skates hummed. "I feel the same about your cards."
She tugged his hair immediately. "My cards work on luck and magic sealed in carriers! An actual system called holder type magic! Not—whatever the hell your thing is."
Kai reached back with one hand and pinched her butt without hesitation.
Cana yelped, nearly falling off as she grabbed his shoulder. "HEY! Mind your hand ."
Kai hums. " Then don't pull my hair, you reap what you sow."
He continued skating, voice calm as water. "Same goes for Tinkerer magic. I take materials and fuse or dismantle them using magic as energy. Everything depends on properties and structure. Tires roll. Lacrima stores and releases energy. Gears compress. Bolts reinforce. Batteries power." He shrugged. "Not random ass pulls like your 'card luck'."
"That's not how—" Cana stopped, realizing she had no good argument since her magic did rely on luck and intuition. "...You're annoying."
Kai only hummed, leaning forward slightly as the skates activated fully .
Wind rushed around them as their speed increased, leaves whipping past in green blurs. Cana tightened her legs around him as the forest streamed by, the hum of the lacrima growing steadier, stronger.
An hour later—far earlier than any normal mage could've managed—they reached the site.
The forest thinned abruptly. The ground dropped away. A crack in the world itself yawned before them—a massive ravine carved deep into the earth like a wound that never healed.
Cana hopped off Kai's back as he dispelled the skates, the metal folding back into normal boots. She approached the edge and peered down, whistling low.
"That's… deep." Cana mutters grabbing another bottle from nowhere.
Kai leans down nodding, "Still not deeper than the debt you owe me ."
He ducks just in time to avoid a bottle thrown by cana as she stares at him unimpressed, before they both walk towards the edge.
The ravine stretched endlessly below, its walls jagged and layered with dark stone. Iron hooks hammered into the rock face marked where the previous archeology team had climbed down. The faint sound of flowing water echoed up from the depths, ghostly and soft.
"Is this the ruin?" Cana asked.
Kai nodded. "Likely. See the hooks? They must've descended here."
Cana glanced at the hooks, then at her outfit, then at Kai. "So… how exactly are we going down, should I use a wind card to get us down ?"
Kai didn't bother answering with words.
He simply walked to the edge.
Turned to face her with a slow, amused smile.
"Hey beauty without brain."
"What did you call me?", cana looks at him annoyed, but kai ignores her and asks.
"Ever jumped from five thousand feet?"
Her eyes widened. "What do you—"
She didn't get to finish.
Kai grabbed her by the waist in one smooth motion and jumped.
Cana's scream hit the air instantly.
"KAIIII—YOU PSYCHO—WE'RE GOING TO DIE—STOP—PUT ME DOWN—NOT LIKE THIS—!!"
Wind roared around them. Her cards shot into her hand on instinct. She slapped three different ones together, desperate for anything to slow their plummet.
"Kai what the HELL are you doing?!"
Kai laughed. Actually laughed—deep, amused, unbothered, as though falling into a bottomless ravine was a pleasant morning stroll.
"Calm down," he called over the rush of air. "Trust me."
"TRUST—YOU—?!"
He didn't answer. His right foot lifted slightly, angle shifting as if stepping onto an invisible stair—and then he stomped downward.
"Feather Fall."
A luminous magic circle flashed beneath his boot.
Instantly their deadly plunge softened. The violent rushing air slowed. The fall became gentle, like drifting downward on a warm current. Cana could breathe again—though she refused to unclench her fingers from his cloak.
They descended like leaves caught in a lazy wind, floating down into the ravine's depths.
When their feet touched ground, the first thing they both heard was the soft rush of water. A narrow underground stream flowed beside them, glowing faintly from minerals embedded in the rock.
But far more eye-catching was the structure ahead.
A giant stone door towered over them—three times Kai's height—etched with ancient patterns spiraling across its surface. Symbols interlocked in delicate, seamless swirls, like constellations carved into rock. Time had worn the stone, but the craftsmanship remained breathtaking.
Cana stared up, awe slowly washing over her face.
"We.. can still walk?" she whispered, before her eyes shits towards the giant door with beautiful patterns. "No wonder the archeology team was excited."
Kai stepped forward, eyes scanning every pattern, every groove.
"We found the entrance."
Cana approached the colossal stone door with slow, careful steps. The air down here was cool and damp, carrying the faint mineral tang of the underground stream. She brushed her fingers against the ancient surface—expecting rough, worn rock—but was surprised to feel a smooth, strangely cold finish where the carved patterns swirled in elegant spirals.
"Huh… this is actually kind of beautiful," she murmured.
As her gaze dipped down, she noticed the slightest gap between the twin slabs—a narrow line of darkness splitting the stone. The archeological team must have forced it open, at least enough for someone to slip inside. A sliver of stale air drifted out, brushing her face like the ghost of a breath.
Cana was about to duck inside when she realized Kai hadn't followed.
He stood several paces back, eyes sweeping across the walls surrounding the stone door. His fingers traced the edges of the carvings—not touching them, just hovering a hairbreadth above—as though feeling invisible currents.
Then, abruptly, he turned away and walked straight toward the stream.
Cana blinked. "Uh… Kai? What are you—"
He didn't stop.
Kai crouched near the water, stared into the flow as though reading a book only he could see, then without warning—
jumped into the stream.
Cana choked on her own spit.
"WHAT—HEY—KAI?!"
She rushed forward to the edge, heart hammering. The water flowed into a narrow tunnel, vanishing into darkness. She could hear nothing past the rushing current.
"KAI!" Her voice echoed against the stone walls. "If you die I'm gonna kill you! Are you LISTENING—?!"
Five long, nerve-wracking minutes passed.
Then something splashed near the tunnel's mouth. Kai emerged from the water, drenched from head to toe, coat plastered to his skin, hair dripping, and expression utterly unbothered—as if going for a casual swim in a death cave was normal.
Cana stared at him, mouth open. "What… were you doing?!"
Kai shook water from his hair, droplets flicking everywhere. "Something you can't,Investigation."
"Invest—what—WHY?!"
"To find all possible paths before we enter the maze ," he said simply. "The water's coming from underground, not from above. I was just checking if it connected to the ruins as well. Drainage systems are common in older structures."
Cana blinked. "And…what did you find?"
"Nothing your tiny drunk brain could understand, Brownie."
She gaped at him, offended. "I'm going to drown you myself if you joke about my intelligence again."
Kai brushed past her like she hadn't said anything, water still dripping from his clothes, and headed toward the stone door.
Cana glared holes in the back of his head but followed.
The narrow gap was just wide enough for them to slip through. Once inside, a thick wave of darkness swallowed them whole.
Cana exhaled in disbelief. "How did the team even explore this?! Did they forget to leave lights?"
Kai didn't respond verbally. Instead, he reached into his pouch and pulled out a small metal spider-like object no bigger than his palm. Its eyes flickered to life with pale bluish light that illuminated the immediate surroundings.
Cana laughed. "Pixie! I forgot you still had that creepy little thing."
Kai mutters amused. "Its useful besides it would look more creepy if I carry around a cute doll."
Pixie crawled onto his shoulder and projected two small forward-facing beams like tiny flashlights.
Only then did they see what the expedition team had left behind.
Lamps mounted along the walls.
Dozens of them.
Dead. Unlit. Drained.
Kai approached one and snapped off the outer shell with a casual twist. He plucked the tiny lacrima core from inside—dull and colorless—and inspected it.
Cana stepped closer. "Burnt out?"
Kai shook his head slightly confused, "Probably not ."
"Why?"
"The team came here just a month ago and that's the maximum the lamps could have been installed for," he said, tossing the empty lacrima into his pouch. "Lighting drains slowly. A core this size should've lasted at least six months. Something might have drained them."
Cana frowned.
"That… doesn't sound great."
"Nope, but it sounds intriguing" Kai replied intrested, taking down another lamp and pocketing its parts like a man picking apples.
Cana sighed. "So we're ignoring the creepy part and just stealing them?"
"Correct, now remember we are not on a picnic so keep your eyes and ears open for anything that isn't rock or dust."
She rolled her eyes but followed as Pixie illuminated the path. The cave walls shifted as they walked—no longer raw stone but smooth surfaces carved with murals. Primitive yet expressive.
People running from something. Buildings destroyed. A mass of symbols surrounding kneeling figures. Then, further along… The same people celebrating, dancing, building homes beneath swirling symbols.
Cana frowned. "What's all this supposed to be?"
Kai glanced at one mural for a while ,noticing the stone carving had a pattern of connecting each mural through lines and he mutters. "Meso period i guess, maybe older."
Cana blinked. "What does that mean?"
"Think 'very old, Pre-Fiore. Before even the current Council's founding,'" he translated flatly.
"That's not very educational."
"Neither are you ," he responds back with a sigh.
She threw her empty bottle at him. He caught it without looking and tucked it into his pouch.
"This is why no one likes you," she muttered.
Kai ignored that and continued forward until they reached a large chamber that split into three paths.
All three tunnels yawned before them like dark throats.
Cana stepped forward. "Which way?"
Kai pulled out a small vial of shimmering ink, dipped his finger, and drew a mark on the wall beside the left tunnel. Then another mark on the right.
"Middle," he said.
"Why middle?"
"Uh...because I marked the other two and because we were walking straight."
"…That doesn't sound reassuring."
" It wasn't meant to be, since I am not very assured myself."
Cana groaned.
They walked straight, their footsteps echoing softly. Pixie clicked on Kai's shoulder, sweeping its tiny lights across the stone floor.
Then—
A sound.
Soft.
Scraping. Shuffling. Something moving just at the edge of the glow.
Both Kai and Cana froze instantly.
Her hand hovered over her cards. His fingers twitched toward his side, ready to pull something from the pouch.
The faint figure shifted again ahead of them—just beyond Pixie's reach.
A silhouette.
Humanoid.
Unmoving.
Watching.
Cana swallowed. "Kai…?"
Kai didn't respond immediately his shadow expanding around him as he calmly pushes cana behind him.
"It's...gone ?", kai mutters slightly confused as if confirming.