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Legend of the Promised One
Crystal of the Revalie

They had landed on a random island so Neri could look at the new map she'd brought and they could all have lunch. This was the second day, and they were getting close.
Miya waded out of the water, her hands full of clustered seaweed pods, "Here you go everyone!"
"Thanks." Neri took a bunch, holding it in one hand and a pencil in the other.
Jobah was sitting on a rock where he could look over Neri's shoulder. "Do you know where we are on that map?"
"Yes." Neri put a star on the island where they were and another where they were going. "We're close. I just had to stop and get my bearings. And eat!"
Jobah grimaced at the cluster of pods, "I keep expecting these things to taste like grapes but they're salty and they squeak on my teeth."
"I like the squeaking. What's a grape?"
"I guess Oceanna doesn't have enough land to grow them."
"We don't have enough land to grow anything fancy, even if they would grow on Oceanna. I'd like to visit the other planets someday." Then it hit her, again. "How can I be talking about this when-everyone's-"
"We're only human, we have to rest and eat."
Neri got up and walked to the water to draw the Lady's wheel in the sand. "Bright one, protect my friends."
"What was that?" Jobah asked when she returned.
"It's silly I guess but this is a legend I thought She might be listening."
"Oh, your goddess. I follow the Threefold God. Most people on Bandor do. Do you mind?"
"Of course not. I'm going to see what Miya's doing."
Miya was looking at a tide pool, cautiously poking an anemone with one finger. "Neri, what is this?"
"Anemone. They can't hurt you but if you touch it too much your fingers will go numb. It has a little bit of poison, to kill tiny fish." Neri had a fuzzy memory of her father telling her just that. She couldn't remember ever not knowing things like anemones and fish, they were just things people knew like the sun coming up in the morning and the tide flowing in and out. But the girl born from an egg didn't know these things.
They watched the anemone uncurl, spreading pink tentacles in the water.
"If you two are done with the biology lesson, shall we go?"
"All right." Miya said, and Neri waded out to get their gliders, which were floating a little way out.

"Miya tell me... what do you remember?"
"Hmm?"
"What's the first thing you remember?" Neri asked. Miya was standing tucked behind her on the glider, their heads close together.
"Ah... I remember... I remember being born. The egg was too small so I pushed and it burst open. Then I could see the stars. Galiel asked my name, and I didn't know it. That's the first thing I remember."
Neri thought for the first time that even Galiel lived as a person day to day. Could he have felt lonely like any other person? And Miya was... sweet. Sort of like a friend and a child at once. Someone to share the stars with.
Or just someone to make into the false legend.
"Why did you do it? You lied to everyone, you pretended to be their legend, their Promised One and they believed you could change things for them. How could you..."
This time when Miya answered it was in a cool distant voice. "I did what I thought was best. That was always the things Galiel asked of me until... he told your friend to kill you. I didn't want you to die... He can control them after they change, I don't know how. He says, forgive me Princess, that they have the minds of beasts, easy to change."
Neri concentrated very, very hard on what she was doing. These things she was hearing hurt terribly and Miya was only trying to explain. "Please don't say any more."

Jobah waved and called, "I don't think you needed that map after all!"
"Wow!" Miya said, jerking sideways to see and making the glider rock.
The island was built up in tiers like a step pyramid of gray stone. Neri had never seen anything like it. "Well that's where we're going all right!"
"Land on top or on the beach?"
"Beach!" Neri replied. It would be easier to climb up the mountain than down it anyway.
Jobah landed on the beach, jumping clear and catching the glider as it swung past. Neri tried to land in the water, messed it up, and dumped herself and Miya in the drink. Miya came up laughing, her hair plastered to her head, "You are so clumsy!"
Neri grinned at her and started towing their glider to shore.
It was just an island, uninhabited and bushy beyond the golden sand. Neri saw curved marks in the sand where seals had rested then pushed off into the water.
"Is that a building or what?" Jobah asked, looking up and shading his eyes.
"I don't know. Let's go up and see."
"I can't sense a crystal." Miya said, frowning.
There was no path. They had to pick their way around waist high bushes and rocks and duck under the low branches of trees. Miya kept scurrying forward or hanging back to look at leaves or birds of mushrooms. Jobah looked like he wanted to do the same but had too much dignity.
The lowest tier was a blank wall of gray stone higher than their heads. It looked like many huge stones had been se up edge to edge around the mountain and mortared together. This wall went on long enough to make Neri wondered if it circled the whole island. Maybe it was just an experiment in combating erosion or something. Just as she was about to suggest they give up and try coming in from the top, they found the door. It was simple, two slabs connected by a strange lock: two claws from one side encircled a flat disk from the other.
"What is this?" Miya wrapped her hands around the bottom claw and tugged, then swung from it with all her weight. The lock didn't shift. As Miya let go her hand brushed the round plate and left a smear of blue light.
The three of them stared.
"It's... touch it again."
Miya swept her hand across. Light glowed, and quickly faded.
"Try your hand, Neri." Jobah said.
Neri didn't want to, suddenly terrified it wouldn't work. She was Lady Neri's descendent, it was an honor, a great thing, she'd been told since she was too young to understand. What would she be, if the Lapis technology wouldn't work fore her?
"Neri?"
"Let's all try at the same time." Neri held up her right hand and looked at her companions.
Three hands flattened against the disk and pulled away. The two outer handprints faded. Neri's stayed. The lock unlatched and swung open, and the stones sunk into the cliff and slid aside.
They were looking at a huge silver room, and a spaceship., It was as different from Galiel's as anything could be: sleek and silver.
"It's beautiful." Neri observed.
"It's old."
Miya went in. She fit, pristine black and white against pristine silver. Neri and Jobah followed. Their footsteps were quiet on the floor. The back of the ship wasn't so clean, it was burned black, the metal pitted and eaten away.
High on one side was an old crest from the days just after Earth and the Lapis Planet came together as one people. Below it was the ship's name. Revalie.
"It's way too small to be a colony ship. An explorer maybe?"
"Princess, come open the door." Miya was pulling on a door with no luck. This time the problem was not mysterious technology but a stuck door. The three of them crowded together and threw all their strength at the wheel locking the door. It finally turned and air hissed as the ship's seal was broken.
They climbed into an alien hallway. Light was coming at strange angles, through the walls. The floor warmed under their feet.
"That way. Go on, Neri." Miya gave her friend a shove.
Neri went.
They found the control room. The crystal was inside a pillar, glowing in the light of three converging sunbeams. Neri lifted it free and a tingle went through her hands. The main screen in front of her lit up for just a second and a voice said, "Testing testing, I'll say the world situation is all my brother's fau-" Then the screen went dead and all the lights went off and came back on more dimly.
Miya said, "We should go, before the rest of the power runs out."
Neri wanted to see the rest of that nonsensical message. She wanted to know how the Revalie had come here and who had flown it and why it had been walled up inside a mountain. But there wasn't time. "All right. Let's go."
They left the ship and wrestled its door closed and sealed again. A serpent lay in the sun across the open cave door. Neri held out her hand to stop the others. "Stay back."
"Poison?" Jobah asked.
"Yes. There's no hospital here to give antidote."
The serpent looked at them, its tail with the barbed sting lashing the air. Then it raised its head and bowed to Neri, and slipped away.
As she walked down the hill new leaves appeared on bushes and flower buds opened. A seal heaved itself out of the water, humming curiously. Seeing it, Jobah backed away and Miya hid behind a tree.
Neri crouched in the sand, holding the crystal out for the seal to see. It sniffed, its whiskers brushing Neri's hands. The wickedly sharp teeth were just inches from her fingers, but the seal was only curious.
Miya too was curious, she came out and crouched behind Neri. "What is it? Is it a gentle creature?" She drew back as the seal's head swung to look at her.
"An Oceannaic leopard seal. Yes, they're gentle."
Miya reached out a trembling hand to stroke the gray fur and the seal sighed happily under her hand. Then t turned and pushed off into the ocean and away.
"It's like a miracle." Jobah held out a branch covered with tiny leaves and white flowers. "This was on the ground, already broken off the tree."
"Ah..." Neri didn't know what to say. She touched the branch and one end split into roots. "Leave it. Let's go."
They did. Jobah kept looking back at the new flowered bush growing at the water's edge.