Crisis City never stopped burning.
Silver had reluctantly accepted this fact long ago. For every fire he or anyone else put out, Iblis's minions started five more. The only way to stop the burning altogether would be to take out Iblis for good, and that was far easier said than done.
Still, even if the fires could never be put out for good, there were other ways to make the city a little more livable. Building shelters from fire-resistant materials, digging working wells, figuring out systems to get water to the tops of buildings, mixing ash with soil so plants could grow… Little things that made people feel less like rats scrabbling for survival and more like they were actually alive. Some people thought living in Crisis City was madness, but the survivors all had their reasons, whether it be a stubborn determination to hold on to what was once the home of their ancestors, a defiance against the fires that ravaged the land, or a fear of the world that lay beyond the flames. Silver's reason was comparatively simple: he was here for the other survivors.
After ten years living amid the burning rubble and constant attacks by Iblis's minions, Silver was well used to the perils of Crisis City. Psychically swatting down screeching takers and biters was instinctual, and the constant heat barely bothered him anymore (or at least, that's what he told himself.) But being acclimatized to the heat and smoke didn't mean it wasn't exhausting. So when the survivors he'd been escorting ducked into their shelter, food and water in hand, Silver was glad to finally drop his guard and land on top of a building.
As he drank from his canteen and chewed on the small strip of meat left in his pocketspace, Silver surveyed the city. The last scavengers were all hurrying to their shelters on top of the buildings. No one was eager to be caught out past sunrise. It was never truly safe in Crisis City; after sunset was the closest it ever got, and even then stalkers and titans still crept and lumbered between the buildings, and bursts of fire still periodically split the streets with lava-filled crevices. But that was still better than what it was like after sunrise.
"Sunrise" was maybe not the right word; the blanket of ash and smoke overhead never let them see the sun, but it did glow molten gold and red around the edges when it was daytime, and if that wasn't indication enough, the swarms of screeching takers in the sky and snarling biters on the ground, swarming over it in such numbers they couldn't be counted, certainly were. Even Silver knew better than to linger outside after sunrise. Normally the moment everyone else was back in their shelters he would head for his own home, but today he had a different destination in mind.
Putting the lid back on his canteen, Silver lifted himself into the air once more, his telekinesis casting an aqua glow on his ash-stained fur. He surveyed the city one last time from the sky, ensuring no one else was out in the streets, before nodding to himself and shooting off towards the edge of the city.
Crisis City was hardly the only city in Iblis's territory, but it was the only one verging on "habitable". Every other city he'd explored in Iblis's domain had been destroyed completely, leaving no buildings stable enough to use as shelter. And even when night fell, the monsters continued to swarm, a fact Silver had learned from painful experience.
What made Crisis City different was its placement. It was a coastal city set on the edge of the ocean, on the border between Iblis's and Argus's domains. Though Iblis's minions didn't hesitate to risk proximity to the waves during the day, when their master was strongest, they seemed much more hesitant to be so near the ocean after the sun went down. This made Crisis City something of a "no man's land" when it came to the two forces; Iblis's minions were warded away by the sea, and Argus's influence was weakened by the city's proximity to Iblis. That was the main reason anyone lived in Crisis City despite its inhospitableness. It was one place you didn't have to fear incurring Argus's wrath, but didn't have to live in constant terror of Iblis, either. A neutral zone. If you got on the bad side of either being, Crisis City was where you went. That also made it the perfect place to hide certain… relics that were better kept out of the grasp of both forces.
As the city behind him was filled with the angry screeches and roars of Iblis's minions and the smoky sky was fully backlit by the new day, Silver arrived at the edge of the sea. He touched down lightly on the cliff that overlooked the ocean and breathed in the fresh, not ash-tainted breeze. Beneath his feet the sea, dark and vast as the night sky, crashed against the rocky shore. Here the ground didn't send up waves of heat, and here he (usually) didn't have to constantly be on the alert for an attack. Many of the survivors wondered why Silver didn't just live here. His answer was that he wanted to live in the city so he could be on hand if anyone needed him. That, and he needed to keep an eye on Iblis. But in the past year he'd found himself having to visit the shore more and more frequently.
Today was one such day. The distant and still unfamiliar lights tugged at his mind, strangely insistent. Usually the Time Stones seemed to prefer leaving him to himself, only gently pulling at him to stop by every so often, but today their voices in his mind were unusually loud and clear: Come, come now, something is wrong. Granted, they often had a different definition of something being wrong than Silver did. They got agitated anytime Mephiles came too close to them, ignoring Silver's patient explanations that no, Mephiles is not evil incarnate, he lives here too you know. This could be something equally mundane.
Still, Silver was the one who brought the Stones from the Never Planet, and it was his responsibility to make sure they stayed safe. He lifted himself off the cliff, then carefully dropped down to the cave below. Behind him the waves sent water spraying down his back, while in front of him the shadows of the cave were lit by the purple glow of the strange crystals that populated it.
I'm here, he told the Stones.
Something is happening, they whispered. Their voices were like faint music in the back of his mind, distant and hard to hear unless he focused on them. Today they were much easier to make out than he was used to, like the symphony had randomly decided to add singers to the mix. Usually all he got from the Stones were faint impressions and vague ideas. This was the first time he'd heard them talk to him. It was unnerving.
He stepped into the cave, looking around warily. The cave entrance cast his shadow long and dark before him. There didn't seem to be anything in the first cavern, so he moved through it, heading towards the chamber where the Stones rested, deeper in the cave system. The further he got from the entrance, the darker the tunnels got. Not even the cloudy light from the surface reached down here, only the faint glow of bioluminescent mushrooms and moss, and the eerie shine of the crystals. With the same ease as narrowing his eyes or clenching his fists, Silver made his markings glow brighter. The cave was cast in cyan light. He walked forward cautiously, eyes scanning the shadows as he drew near the Time Stones' chamber. What had the Stones so on edge? There was no sign of any intruder.
Watch him, Silver, the Time Stones whispered, and then their voices vanished into nothing. Silver stumbled, nearly tripping over a rock. The shift from the unusual strength of their presence just a moment ago to this sudden silence now was dizzying. They'd never been loud, but they'd never been this silent, this distant since he found them on the Little Planet a year ago. Silver broke into a run.
On instinct Silver reached for a weapon with his mind as he burst into the dark chamber. His eyes swept the cave, but there was no sign of the Stones, only the soft gurgling of the underground river. Even the Sprites that had taken up residence in the cave after the Stones arrived were quiet, watching Silver with wide, confused eyes. At first glance the cave seemed deserted, but something brushed at Silver's senses. Someone else was in here.
Grasping a nearby rock with his mind, Silver carefully stepped around the patch of mushrooms where the Sprites were hovering. He gestured at them to move back, and they quickly flew out of the chamber. It was just Silver and the intruder now. He neared the pile of rocks that he'd been trying to construct into a podium for the Time Stones. As he drew closer he could see something was glowing on the other side of the pile, far brighter than any of the mushrooms, moss, or crystals native to the caverns. He could see a tail poking out from around the stones, slender and cat-like with a flame-shaped tuft at the end.
"{Come out with your hands up!}" He called in Spanish, pulling the rock up next to his head and wincing at the crack in his voice. Tooth would have teased him mercilessly over that.
The tail twitched, and then suddenly was gone. White fur blurred at the edge of Silver's vision and he whirled around, throwing the rock in the direction of the movement. It slammed into the wall and Silver growled, grabbing several more stones as he spun, trying to track where the intruder had gone. He felt a brush of light against his mind, similar to what he felt when one of Iblis's minions was about to attack him, and whirled around, throwing the rocks as he did so. One must have hit, as there was a cry of pain. Silver quickly pressed his advantage, reaching out and grabbing the figure with his psychokinesis in the brief moment when it was stunned from the blow.
Taking a breath to regain his composure, Silver narrowed his eyes at his captive. He carefully stepped closer. A white cat of some kind glared hotly at him as it hung in the air, suspended in a cyan glow. It was a person, the same as Silver, but it was far taller and leaner than anyone from Silver's time. Shorter fur, too, except for the bushy mane on its head, the tuft on its tail, and the ruff around its neck, all bright gold. It had brown fur on its muzzle, chest, paws, and in its ears, but other than that its fur was white. That was even more unusual than how tall and slender it was. Silver was pale for a Temporan, and even he wasn't pure white. It made the cat—lion? Lions had manes, didn't they?—clearly visible amid the darkness of the cave, even without the strange glow that seemed to surround it, emanating light and warmth as surely as a campfire. It reminded him of the energy Iblis's minions gave off, but weaker. Or… softer?
What stood out to Silver the most, however, were the glowing markings on its forehead and palms. Walking around it in a circle, Silver saw there was another mark on its back, too. A yellow circle with seven red rays in the shape of a stylized sun. The mark of Iblis. Silver had seen it on Iblis's minions and on those foolish enough to venture too far into the desert, only to return mad with sun sickness. He remembered well the pupil-less eyes, the unexplained aggression against some and friendliness to others, the relentless attacks, the eerie grins and complete indifference to pain. The sickness and the mark that came with it usually faded by nightfall, as long as the victim was kept out of Iblis's reach, but it was still a… memorable experience for all involved.
The thing was, the lion didn't look like it had sun sickness. It had pupils, and its expression wasn't mindless. Its glare had been replaced with a confused, curious look as it studied him in turn. The afflicted usually only had two expressions: explosive rage and mindless cheeriness. This was neither of those.
And the lion's mark was different, too. It wasn't the temporary glow that marked someone with sun sickness, but it also wasn't the same shape as the marks on Iblis's minions. The seven rays were smooth, not flame-shaped. They almost looked like… petals. And the glow of the markings seemed somehow purer, more like a warm campfire and less like a burning building.
Still, it was clearly Iblis's mark, even if a slightly different shape. Was this some sort of trick? A new minion? A new form of sun sickness?
The Time Stones were gone. And this creature was the only clue he had.
Silver narrowed his eyes. "{You're going to tell me everything.}"