Will stared at her in the moonlight, still catching his breath. "You said you carry a shard. Is it… like mine?"
Vex didn't answer right away. She stepped into the shadows cast by the stone outcrop, and for a moment, Will saw it — the suit.
It clung to her like armor, but it wasn't metal. It was alive. Dark, scaled plates rippled across her arms and chest, and jagged jaws — dozens of them — opened and closed along her shoulders and spine. Crocodilian. Hungry. Breathing.
Will flinched. "That's… part of you?"
Vex nodded. "It's my shard. It fused years ago."
"Can you take it off?"
She looked at him, eyes unreadable. "Only if I control my joy."
Will blinked. "Your joy?"
"The crystal responds to emotion," she said. "Fear makes it lash out. Anger makes it grow. But joy… joy makes it loosen. It wants to stay with those who suffer. If I feel too much happiness, it lets go."
Will tried to process that. "So you have to stay miserable?" Vex gave a half-smile. "Not miserable. Just… balanced. I've learned to live with it. To use it."
She stepped closer, the jaws on her suit twitching slightly. "Yours is new. It'll talk to you soon. It'll test you. If you let it feed on your worst emotions, it'll consume you."
Will swallowed hard. "And if I don't?"
"Then you might survive." Will stared at her, still shaken. "You know, for someone covered in teeth, you're surprisingly calm."
Vex raised an eyebrow. "They're croc teeth. Crocs are superior."
Will blinked. "Wait, you mean crocodiles? You actually like those things?"
She crossed her arms. "They're ancient, efficient, and terrifying. What's not to like?"
Will scoffed. "Alligators are cooler. Sleeker. Less murdery."
Vex snorted. "Less murdery? Crocs have a stronger bite force and they hunt with strategy. Alligators just sit around waiting for snacks."
"They're smarter," Will said. "And they don't have that creepy smile."
Vex gestured to her suit, where one of the jawed plates twitched. "This creepy smile saved my life more than once."
Will shook his head. "You're seriously defending crocodiles in the middle of the desert after I got force-fed a sentient crystal?" Vex smirked. "You started it."
Will opened his mouth, then closed it. Fair point.
They walked in silence for a moment, the tension easing just slightly. The wind picked up again, brushing sand across their boots.
Then Will muttered, "Still think gators are cooler."
Vex didn't look at him. "Keep talking like that and the suit might bite you."
They walked in silence after the reptile debate, the desert stretching out like a canvas of ash and bone. The stars above were sharp and cold, and the wind had shifted — no longer playful, but purposeful. Will felt it in his chest: the shard was stirring again.
Vex slowed her pace as they approached a jagged ridge of stone jutting from the sand like a broken tooth. She ran her fingers along a narrow crevice between two slabs, then turned to Will.
"We're here," she said.
Will peered into the gap. "Doesn't look like much."
"It's not supposed to," Vex replied. "The Trial Chamber hides from the unchosen."
They slipped through the crevice, the stone walls closing in around them. The passage was tight, the air thick with heat and something else — a hum, low and ancient, vibrating through the rock.
Then the tunnel opened.
The chamber was vast, carved into the earth like a forgotten cathedral. Veins of crystal pulsed along the walls, casting eerie blue light across the floor. Symbols were etched into the stone — some familiar, some alien. The air was heavy, like it had been waiting for centuries.
Will stepped forward, his boots echoing. "This place…"
"It's alive," Vex said. "The shard knows it. You'll feel it soon."
Will's chest tightened. The crystal inside him throbbed once, then again — faster now, like a drumbeat syncing with the chamber's pulse.
At the center stood a circular platform surrounded by jagged crystal spires. Will approached slowly, his hand reaching behind his back.
He drew his weapon — the double kurigasama.
Twin sickles, curved and deadly, forged from dark alloy. A single chain, one meter long, connected them like a tethered storm. The blades were worn but balanced, the chain coiled loosely between his hands, ready to strike or bind.
The moment the weapon cleared its sheath, the chamber responded.
The crystal veins flared. The air thickened. Will's shard surged in his chest, flooding his limbs with heat and light.
Then it leapt — from him into the weapon.
The sickles glowed, not brightly, but with a deep, internal shimmer. The chain snapped then relaxed, like it had taken a breath.
The enchantment wasn't loud. It was intimate.
The shard whispered through the metal, threading itself into the weapon's core. Will felt it — the double kurigasama wasn't just steel anymore. It was aware. It responded to his grip, his thoughts, his emotions.
He twirled one sickle experimentally. The chain followed like a serpent, smooth and precise.
Vex stepped closer, her suit of croc-jawed armor twitching with interest. "It's bonded."
Will looked down at the weapon. "It feels… alive."
"It is," she said. "The shard accepted it. Now it'll grow with you. Adapt. But it'll also test you."
The chamber's far wall groaned.
A stone door began to rise, dust spilling from its edges.
Vex didn't move. "This is where it begins." Will tightened his grip on the kurigasama. The chain hummed faintly, like it was waiting.
From the darkness beyond the door, something stirred.
The Trial had begun.