Chapter 196: Treasure

The lid opened up without a creak or any other form of resistance. I still didn’t get yelled at, so that was also good. Inside of the chest were three red cushions and each cushion held a different item. I wasn’t going to comment on how navy would have fit the whole ambiance of the place better, but I definitely thought it.

The left pillow had a golden goblet covered in gems. The middle one held a purple shard of something. On the right one rested a small, pitch black dagger, not even the size of my hand—and my hands were pretty small.

“Ooh,” I said, hovering both of my hands over the goodies. “Looks like I found some treasure.”

“What is it?” Kasia whispered from across the room, but still loud enough so I could hear it.

“Treasure!” I whispered back.

She cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered. “What?”

“Trea—Why are we whispering?” I whispered.

She raised her palms and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Alright,” I said in a normal voice. “So I found some treasure. We have an expensive looking goblet here, a little black dagger, and something that looks suspiciously like a soul shard. I mean, if someone were to ask me what I thought a soul shard would look like I’d probably describe this. It kind of looks like a piece of purple glass.”

I leaned back a bit and frowned. “Maybe it’s just a piece of purple glass and they put it here to throw us off, knowing we’d assume it was the soul shard. Maybe they put it there so we’d leave the other stuff alone and just take that. And then we’d also forget about the real soul shard which is obviously somewhere else.”

I stood up straight and looked around the room. “Maybe they put the real soul shard inside of that fire behind the chest. Maybe it’s in the brazier and they put it there so I’d hurt myself trying to grab it.” I stood on my toes, hoping to catch a glimpse inside, but I couldn’t. “This pedestal is of suspicious height. It’s like they made it exactly too tall for me to look inside. This is most certainly a plot for me to burn my fingers.”

“You’re just small,” Bogumir said.

“You’re one to talk,” I scoffed. “You’re smaller than my hand right now. You’re smaller than that baby dagger in the chest. And I’m not small, I’m of average height for a Graecian woman. Get your facts straight.”

Bogumir grumbled something that I couldn’t understand and didn’t care about. What I needed was to loot loot. What I didn’t need was baseless accusations about my height. Especially not from someone with the size and face of a thumb. Haha, good one, I thought to myself, I should probably say that.

“You’re a thumb,” I said, grinning, proud of my clever retort.

“What did you say?” Kasia asked. “Something about a thumb?”

“I was just—I wasn’t talking to you! I was talking to Bogumir!”

“Huh?” Bogumir grunted. “Did you say something to me? I wasn’t paying attention.”

“By the Goddess!” I shouted. “Really? Really?!”

“Just repeat it. Don’t make a big deal out of it. You zone out all the time.”

“It’s just—” I threw my hands up in frustration. “—You know what? Never mind!”

“No, I want to know. Don’t be like that, just tell me.”

“No!” I crossed my arms and sat down on the floor.

“Suit yourself,” Bogumir said. “Probably wasn’t that important then.”

That really annoyed me for some reason. It was a super good comeback and he had ruined it for me. Maybe he did hear it and only pretended he didn’t, just to mess with me. I opened the satchel only to find Bogumir staring up at me.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“NOTHING.” I said, slapping the satchel closed and returning my focus to the chest.

I took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. I’d get him next time and I’d be twice as witty.

Where was I before Bogumir rudely distracted me? Something about the soul shard… Would they hide it in a brazier though? They could. No one would think about checking there. It would be a good hiding spot. Then again, that little piece of maybe-glass also looked like it could be it. Then I remembered that I could just cast [Artifact Index] on it and save myself the trouble of getting burned—unless the real soul shard was in the brazier.

I squinted at the little shard.

[Soul Shard]

This shard contains a fragment of a soul.

“Alright guys,” I said, clapping my hands together. “That piece of glass is definitely a soul shard. It just doesn’t say whose soul. Could be anyone’s.”

“Didn’t the book say Bies divded her soul into nine pieces and hid them?” Vasil asked.

“Well, yeah, obviously, but wouldn’t it make sense to plant some fakes?” I shook my head.

“No? Not if you would want to be rescued.”

“But it also said there would be guardians, and I haven’t seen any yet.”

Bogumir’s head popped out of the satchel again. “Besides the ones you killed?”

“Look. It was a misunderstanding. And it was because of you. You told me to do it. Unless they were the guardians and I was supposed to kill them. Then it wasn’t a misunderstanding. At least I don’t see a stupid puzzle anywhere, so you were wrong about that.”

“So take the stupid shard and let’s get the hell out of here.”

“What about the other stuff?”

“You leave it, because it’s obviously a trap. I’m telling you, don’t even look at it, don’t try to identify them or anything. Just grab the shard, leave everything else, and run.”

“But what if it’s good stuff though? Or what if it isn’t a trap at all? Why can’t we just grab everything and run?”

“Because of the traps.”

I got on my hands and knees and tried to see under the chest, but I couldn’t, because it was on the floor. “I don’t see any traps. I don’t see any hatches or wires.” I inspected the ceiling. “Nothing up there either. Maybe it’s not a trap. What if I run like super fast? What if I use [Haste]?”

“What about Kasia?” Bogumir asked.

“Kasia,” I gestured at her. “Did you gain any levels from those statues?”

“Two!” she said.

“Wow. Nice. Uh. Do you have access to [Haste]?”

“I do!”

“Well don’t take it, but if something bad happens—” I raised my finger. “—which probably won’t, but if it does, take [Haste].”

I turned back to the chest. Something still felt odd. Why was it so easy? Maybe this whole room was a decoy? I gave the chest a little kick, but nothing happened.

“What are you doing?” Bogumir asked.

“It’s just weird that it’s so easy,” I replied. “I was just checking if the chest was a decoy. Maybe the whole room is one.”

Bogumir groaned. “Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s hard. Just be grateful to have something go so smoothly for once. Please just grab the damn shard and let’s go back to the cathedral. There’s a piece of cake waiting there with my name on it.”

“You wrote your name on a piece of cake?”

“What? No. I just want to eat some of the leftover cake.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you just say that then?”

“That’s… it’s just an idiom.”

“What?!” I gasped. “You’re an idiot! And a thumb!”

“By Stvora,” he sighed. “It’s a figure of speech. It’s just something we say in Silesia. It doesn’t mean it literally has my name on it. I was just expressing a strong desire to have some of that cake.”

“Oh… Sorry, I thought you were calling me an idiot. I know what an idiom is. We just don’t have that one in Graecia. We don’t say that something has your name on it.”

“Oh. Well, I did not know that.”

"I guess we both learned something today."

“Great. Now can you get that shard so we can go?”

“Yes.”

Grabbing the other two artifacts was pretty tempting, but I figured for once I’d just listen to someone else when they gave me a warning. Bogumir had a lot of experience with dungeons, and did I really need those treasures? Yes. Yes, I really did need those treasures. But did I want them? Yes. Yes, I really did want those treasures. But could I really justify potentially setting off a trap that would put us in danger? Well… if we didn’t die we’d get some cool new loot. That probably made it worth it. Getting cool loot was kind of my thing. Besides shooting people in the face, of course, and that had been a simple misunderstanding due to Bogumir’s meddling. Although all the other people and monsters I shot in the face were slightly less Bogumir’s fault.

I glanced between the artifacts and hesitated. Did they whisper my name? No, not really, but they could have, so they clearly wanted me to take them.

No! No. Get a hold of yourself, Hecate. Don’t. Just this once. Take the shard and leave.

I took another deep breath and counted to ten, or I would have, but I got bored when I reached four. “Alright. I will only grab that soul shard and I will leave the rest.”

I carefully put my hand inside of the chest and grabbed the soul shard. It felt just like a cold piece of glass. Thankfully, nothing seemed to happen. I figured Bogumir was right. This was fine. We were fine.

“Um, Hecate?” Kasia said.

I looked over my shoulder at her. “What?”

She just stood there staring wide-eyed, her finger trembling as she pointed right at me. Or… past me?