POV: Leo
The footsteps came back.
My entire being surged with hope. They returned! They actually returned!
"HERE! I'M RIGHT HERE!" I shouted into the void, knowing they couldn't hear me but unable to stop myself.
Light flooded my awareness again. Not as bright as before, but steady. Like torchlight or lantern glow.
"See? I told you we should check everything." The first voice from before. Young. Male. Excited.
"Fine, you were right. Happy now?" A different voice. Older. Grumpy. "But we're wasting time. The scroll said the treasure was deeper in."
"This sword though... look at the metalwork. I've never seen patterns like this."
Hands touched the blade—MY blade—and I felt it! Actually felt the pressure of fingers against metal. The sensation was bizarre and wonderful and terrifying all at once.
"Don't get attached," the grumpy voice warned. "We're treasure hunters, not collectors."
"But what if this IS the treasure? What if this is Stormbringer's Echo?"
My thoughts screeched to a halt.
Stormbringer's Echo? That was MY sword's name? The replica I bought had a real name?
"That's just a legend," the older man scoffed. "A fairy tale to scare children."
"Legends come from somewhere! My grandfather told me about it. A sword that could make any warrior unstoppable. A blade with a soul inside it."
A blade with a SOUL? Is that what I am now? A soul trapped in a sword?
"If that sword was real," the grumpy voice said slowly, "it would be worth more than everything we've stolen combined."
"We're not thieves! We're treasure hunters. There's a difference."
"Whatever helps you sleep, kid. Now put it down. We have three more chambers to search before sunrise."
"Wait! Let me just—"
The world spun. Someone lifted me—lifted the sword—into the air. I would have gotten dizzy if I still had a stomach.
"It's lighter than it looks," the young voice said with wonder. "And feel this balance. Perfect. Like it was made for my hand specifically."
YES! I screamed in my mind. Take me with you! Please, don't leave me in this cave!
"Put. It. Down." The older voice turned dangerous. "We don't touch anything until we find what we came for. Rules, remember?"
A long pause. Then, with obvious reluctance, hands placed me back down. The light moved away.
"NO!" I shrieked uselessly. "COME BACK! TAKE ME WITH YOU!"
But they couldn't hear me. No one ever could.
Their footsteps faded. Voices became echoes. Then whispers. Then nothing.
The darkness swallowed me whole again.
I wanted to cry. If I still had eyes, tears would have poured down my face. They were so close! Someone finally appreciated what I was—what the sword was—and they just LEFT me here!
Time crawled forward. Or backward. Or sideways. I honestly couldn't tell anymore.
But something had changed. Now I knew things. Important things.
I had a name: Stormbringer's Echo.
I was a legend. People told stories about me.
I had a purpose: making warriors unstoppable.
And most importantly—I wasn't supposed to be empty. I was supposed to have a soul inside. Which meant maybe, just maybe, this was supposed to happen. Maybe I wasn't trapped by accident. Maybe this was always my destiny.
That thought was somehow more terrifying than the alternative.
The next time voices came, I'd stopped counting time completely. Could've been days later. Could've been years. My mind had learned to sort of... hibernate between visits. Shutting down to avoid going insane.
These voices were different. Harsh. Angry.
"—told you the map was fake!"
"Shut up! It has to be here somewhere!"
"We've been searching for hours! There's nothing but rocks and rusty junk!"
Rusty junk? RUSTY JUNK?! I was a legendary blade, not rusty junk!
"Wait." A third voice. Female. Sharp. "What's that on the altar?"
Altar? I was on an altar? That actually made sense. Sacred weapons usually got displayed on altars in the old days.
Footsteps approached. Fast. Eager.
"Finally! That's got to be it!"
Hands grabbed me. These hands were rough. Careless. They yanked me up without any respect.
"Careful, you idiot! If you damage it—"
"Relax. It's just a sword. Probably not even the right one."
Just a sword? JUST A SWORD?!
"The scroll mentioned Stormbringer's Echo. This could be it."
"Or it could be a decoy. Rich people love leaving fake treasures to mess with grave robbers."
"We're not grave robbers!"
"We're literally robbing a grave-cave. Same thing."
They argued while carrying me through what I assumed was the cave system. I felt every bump and jostle. Felt the temperature change as we moved through different chambers. Cold. Warm. Cold again. Damp.
"This thing better be worth something," the rough-hands person grumbled. "Or I'm melting it down for scrap metal."
SCRAP METAL?! Over my dead body! Well... over my dead soul? This was confusing.
"Wait!" The female voice again. "Do you hear that?"
Everyone stopped moving. Silence stretched out.
"Hear what?"
"I thought... never mind. Probably just wind through the cave."
They started moving again. Hope flickered in my consciousness. We were leaving the cave! I was finally getting out!
But then the arguing started again.
"Who gets to carry it?"
"I found it!"
"I led us here!"
"Well, I'm the strongest, so—"
Their voices overlapped into chaos. Suddenly, hands fumbled. The grip loosened.
I was falling.
The impact rang through my metal body like a bell. Pain—actual pain!—shot through my awareness. I didn't know I could still feel pain!
"Nice going! You dropped a priceless artifact!"
"YOU pushed me!"
"I did not!"
"Pick it up before—"
A deep rumbling sound interrupted them. Rocks groaned. Dust fell.
"What was that?"
"The cave! It's collapsing!"
"RUN!"
Footsteps thundered away in every direction. Screams echoed through chambers. The rumbling grew louder, turning into a roar.
"WAIT!" I tried to shout. "DON'T LEAVE ME!"
But they were gone. Running for their lives. And I was still lying on the cave floor while rocks started falling from above.
Each impact shook me. Boulder-sized chunks crashed nearby. The roaring became deafening even to my muffled senses. Dust filled the air so thick I could somehow sense it.
Then—WHAM!
Something huge landed right next to me. Then another rock. And another. They piled up around me, burying me under stone and rubble.
The sounds gradually stopped. The rumbling faded. Everything became still.
And once again, I was trapped. But this time, instead of just being abandoned in a cave, I was buried under a mountain of collapsed rock.
Nobody knew I was here. Nobody would come looking. The treasure hunters probably thought I got crushed. Destroyed.
How long would I stay buried this time? Decades? Centuries?
Forever?
Despair settled over me like a heavy blanket. This was it. This was how I'd spend eternity. Not in silent darkness, but crushed under stone, waiting for nothing.
But then, just as I started to give up completely, I felt something new.
A vibration. Faint but rhythmic. Like footsteps.
Someone was walking above the rubble pile.
And they were digging.