"So, as it turns out, people actually like this, so I thought "Hey, I might as well give them more since there are actually people who read this!" I have the next chapter done, but I think I'm gonna hold off uploading that one for a little while to let this chapter get settled. Thanks for the support so far!

MYSTLYK MUSEUM

Four keys down. We were half way there. Possibilities buzzed in my brain as I walked down the now-familiar path through Ravenloss's dusty streets. What was on the other side of the Gate? What would we do when we got there? Did I leave the water running at home? Wait… no I didn't. As I neared said gate, I found Tomix doing exactly the same thing he was last time; pouring over charts and scrolls with the same amount of fervor that Artix has while fighting the undead. He actually smiled when he looked up and saw me. It wasn't quite as large as the smile he wore when he saw Aspar again, but it was more than the usual smirk he gave me. He actually looked… happy.

"Good morning Karin," he said. He stood straighter than before and his yellow eyes seemed to almost shine in the gloom. Seeing him so relaxed (for once) makes me smile back.

"Good morning Tomix!" I replied, already feeling refreshed and raring to go, "Anything I miss while I was busy saving the world?"

"Actually Karin, it's the Bolt Key," my smile dropped and I eyed him accusingly.

"Wait, you've found it already?" I crossed my arms and pouted dramatically, "without my help?" Tomix rolled his eyes and shook his head, chuckling under his breath.

"Oh, no no," he said, "but I know where it is. We must venture into a ChaosWeaver museum," he looked at me pointedly, "Mystlyk Museum."

"ChaosWeavers have museums?" I raised an eyebrow, "Huh, I never really figured them for the cultural type." I shrugged and leaned against Tomix's desk. "I wonder if it's from the time before. You know, when they were fully human?" He snorted.

"I'm not sure," he said with a sigh. Part of me thought that he didn't really care. "But I do know we have to find that key." With a swift motion he cleared the table, stuffing the scroll he had been examining into the seemingly bottomless pocket of his coat. "Let's go!"

"Is this place really creepy, or is it just me?" I whispered, afraid of breaking the stifling silence of the museum, "No, it's not just me; this place is definitely creepy."

"Creepy is a good word for it…" Tomix whispered back. We moved slowly, the silence making us paranoid. Our footsteps echoed loudly on the museum's scuffed marble floor and all around the vaulted ceilings.

"We must have beaten the ChaosWeavers here," I remarked, "Otherwise this place would be literally crawling," I shivered at the thought of all of those legs. Why did they have to have so many?

"Better for us to comb the museum. The key has to be here somewhere."

Time seemed to slow inside of the museum. Our path took us past dust-coated displays, one after the next until I had lost track of where we actually were. I was starting to sneeze from the sheer amount of dust our boots kicked up.

"Man, this place is a mess!" I couldn't help but point out; the silence was starting to give me a headache and just demanded that I start talking, "I mean, look at this! It looks like no one's been here in years! What's the point of a museum if no one comes to it?"

"Karin, come over here for a second," Tomix's voice came from an adjacent room. I was never going to get used to the way he could just disappear like that. I found him standing before a display; a large glass cylinder containing an enormous roll of parchment.

"What's this supposed to be?" I leaned in close, trying to decipher the faint sketchy lines that covered it. "It looks like a schematic…"

"'The Judgement Wheel'," Tomix read off the plaque and our eyes snapped together, "Karin, the Greedling…"

"This is what Greed is after! This is what's behind the Gate!" I placed my hands against the glass and peered up at the object of Greed's desire. I pursed my lips. "Doesn't look much like a wheel, does it?" Indeed, the contraption looked more like a pendulum, with a sharp crescent on one end of a long shaft and a hammer head at the other.

"I suppose not, but if Greed is after it, it can't be anything good," Tomix's hand came down on my shoulder, "Come on, we should keep looking."

I studied the parchment even as I backed out of the room. I wanted to be ready in case I had to deal with that thing. It looked suspiciously like a weapon.

"Whelp, no key yet," I announced as I rejoined him in the hall, "We've gotta be getting close, I don't think there's much of this place we haven't seen yet."

"Hello?" another voice cut off Tomix's reply, coming from a small room nearby, "is someone there? Preferably someone whose not a spider?" The door opened just wide enough for a person to poke their head through, and that person had some very familiar copper colored hair. Riadne smiled brilliantly and pushed to door more to get through. A young man with blond hair and the most startling green eyes followed her out.

"Riadne!" Tomix was quick to meet her, peering over her shoulder to eye the young man behind her, "And… Izaac? Is that you?" He reached out to grasp his hand. Covering Izaac's arms were spirit looms much like the ones Tomix wore.

"Tomix my old friend!" Izaac said as he beamed with pearly white teeth, "I see you've already met my new friend Riadne! But… who is this with you?" he turned to me, green eyes instantly turning bright with curiosity. I couldn't help but smile. Izaac obviously was the kind of person to wear his emotions on his sleeve. His open face and expressive eyes were such a contrast to Tomix. And those large eyes grew wide with dawning realization. "That's not Karin, Hero of Falconreach, is it? Could it be?"

I offered him a shrug and a grin, "Guess I'm kinda famous, huh?"

I could hear Tomix rolling his eyes that time. "This it is, my friend. She's helping me hunt for Greed here in Ravenloss."

"It is good to meet you Izaac. I see you and Tomix are already friends, did you know him from school?"

"Oh yes, we were very good friends there!"

"You must have some fun stories about Tomix as a young man then!" Riadne piped up and instantly my mind began to fill with all sorts of devious plans. School stories always made good for blackmail material. Tomix's eyes had very subtly gone wide, but I'd been around him enough by this point to know that the thought of me having that knowledge terrified him. Oh yeah… this could be fun.

"Yeah! I bet you do! Can you tell us some? It sounds to me like you got into a bit of trouble when you were younger, Tomix," said angry SoulWeaver fixed me with a burning glare that I leveled with a menacing grin.

"Anyways…" he said with a growling undertone and one final pointed stare in my direction before clearing his throat and continuing, "We're searching for a key. Metallic, yellow, some spikes on the end. You know, like what you'd think a Bolt Key looks like. But, what are you two doing here?" Izaac's face seemed to light up like he'd just taken in a whole lot of sugar.

"You know I've always wanted to study archeology instead of SoulWeaving," he said, "so I'm here on an exploratory mission from the Headmaster of Edelia! There's so much just in this one building to study!" The entire idea of staying in this creepy, dusting, huge building gave me the shivers, but Izaac seemed totally elated by the notion.

"And I'm here to watch ChaosWeavers," Riadne cut in before Izaac could launch into what was probably going to be an archeology lecture, "I saw Izaac here skulking about the building and followed him in. As for the ChaosWeavers, I hope to have more information for you the next time we meet." Her smile started to fade and the once comfortable atmosphere sobered, "And it's good you're here, so I can tell you that I've seen more of those… those things."

Tomix and I exchanged a look. We knew exactly what she was talking about; those strange floating constructs that we had fought in Silkwood Park. "They have a look about them… they just feel like they're ChaosWeavers, wouldn't you say?" I asked. Surely if Riadne had seen them again she would have more information. She shook her head, clearly baffled.

"Or parts of them, at least. But they can't be, can th-" a horrendous crash cut her off, amplified two fold by the vaulted ceiling. The faint sound of scuttling legs and a hissing language soon followed.

"What was that?" Izaac's eyes were darting fitfully around the hall, his voice in a nervous whisper.

"ChaosWeavers, no doubt," Tomix answered, hands already alight with violet wisps of energy. I pulled my sword in kind.

"Riadne, Izaac, you two stay here. Go back in that room and barricade the door. Tomix and I need to make sure the building is secure," I told them in my most commanding voice, and they were quick to comply.

"We will be back soon. Stay safe!" Tomix added over his shoulder, already striding down the hall toward the swelling sound of arachnids. He flashed me a quick yellow glance. "You ready?"

I cracked my neck loudly. "Let's go get 'em!"

"So Tomix!" I shouted over the screams of dying ChaosWeavers, "about that whole "Embarrassing Tales of Young Tomix" thing!"

"Karin, now is really not the time!" he yelled back between bursts of soul energy.

"C'mon!" I whined, flinching as acid-green blood splashed against my face, "I promise I won't tell anyone!"

"That, I sincerely doubt, Karin!" Tomix's voice was next to me this time as he phased into existence with his back pressed against mine. "Switch with me!" In a fluid motion we swapped places, trading my Death Widows for his ChaosWeaver guards where my long-range sword could find the chinks in their armor more easily than his soul claws.

"You just know me too well, don't you?" He just shot me a tight smirk in reply as another monster fell.

Minutes began to blur as the incoming enemies began to dwindle. At last a final spider died with a frustrated hiss and it was silent.

"It looks like we've killed everything, Tomix" I told him, wiping sweat from my forehead. The ChaosWeavers really seemed to stop us this time. Heh, as if that would ever happen.

"Yes, I think so," Tomix sounded as winded as I felt, but his eyes were still sharp, "But we've got to make sure the others are still safe. Let's hurry!" I nodded in agreement and the two of us took off as fast as we could back through the museum's main hall. The little room where Izaac and Riadne were holed up was further away than I remembered. I pounded my fist on the door.

"Izaac! It's Karin and Tomix! You can come out now!" I shouted. There were sounds of objects being scrapped across the floor before the door opened just a crack to reveal a wide, livid green eye.

"You're safe, thank goodness! But…" He looked over my shoulder and into the empty room beyond Izaac, "But where is-"

"I don't know!" Izaac cried, slumping against the door frame. "I- I heard screams and ran back! I'd been in another room, making sure they couldn't get in!" he gestured to another door back in the dark recesses of the room. His hands were shaking. "And I heard the screams! I made my way back and she was gone!" a choked sob escaped from him and he slid to the ground. I felt Tomix tense next to me and his fingers gripped my arm in a tight grasp. His eyes were wild when I turned to look at him. In that instant he wasn't that cool, collected SoulWeaver I knew. He was scared, and that scared me.

"We've got to rescue Riadne, Karin! Let's go!" He seemed ready to bolt then and there but my firm hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"But Tomix, the key," I said, trying to remind him what we were here to do, "We still don't have the key! I didn't see any sign of it, and we've been through the whole museum!" He seemed to deflate as I spoke, shoulders sagging.

"I… I suppose I could have misread the runes on the gate…" he said slowly. He backed away, his face turning dark as he seemed to slump in on himself. In the doorframe, Izaac was still curled up into a ball and shaking like a leaf. I couldn't help a huff of irritation. The last thing I needed at a time like this was a couple of brooding men.

"Come on, let's get out of here. I'll plan a war for us to rescue Riadne while you study the runes. We'll find the key AND Riadne, I promise." I gave Tomix a stern look (that he ignored) and offered a hand to Izaac. He looked up with eyes glistening with tears. "Come on, Izaac, we can't leave you here alone. They could come back." He took my hand and I pulled him to his feet with more force than was probably necessary.

Izaac and Tomix moped on either side of me while I lead the way out of the museum. Tomix looked drained, but I could see the wheels turning in his head. Whatever he was thinking about made his eyes tight with grief and his lips thin into a line. Izaac was dragging his feet, wiping at his cheeks with his sleeve. I could feel their gloomy moods hovering over me, threatening to bring me down with them. This was not supposed to happen.

What are we gonna do now?