[Jessari]

It had been too long since she had last come. The quiet young woman approached the ruins, shoulders squared, hands tucked deep within her pockets. Wisps of dark hair tickled her forehead as the frigid wind pulled them from her loose ponytail.

The ruins of the cathedral looked far less spooky in the daytime than it did at night, but the tension between her shoulders did not ease as she turned her eyes upon it. It still intimidated her, this project she had undertaken. While it felt like years since she had first begun, it looked as though she had done nothing at all.

[Jessari]

 "Didn't think you'd show!"

As Journey turned the corner, she saw a young man waving to her from the midst of what might possibly have been a garden at some point in the past. Weeds and sticker bushes had taken over, twisting together to cover nearly every square inch contained between the bounds of a crumbling stone border. The young man had somehow managed to make it to the middle, and was currently wielding a large pair of hedge clippers in an effort to clear a path back.

Despite the weight of the memories on her mind, Journey managed a small smile. "Wouldn't it have been easier to work from the outside in?"

[Jessari]

The young man looked at her blankly for a moment, then laughed, running a hand through his hair and chuckling as he glanced at the weeds surrounding him. Had all the colors in Evelon not been 'glitching', Journey was sure she'd see an embarrassed flush filling his tanned cheeks.

"Yeah, well, working smarter not harder never builds muscles," he laughed. Then his look changed to one of expectation. "Did you bring it?" The young man was in his early twenties, but the excitement in his voice and the slight bounce he gave as he asked made him sound like he was a good ten years younger.

[Jessari]

Journey blew out an exasperated breath, shrugging the backpack off her shoulders. "Ye-e-esss," she said, drawing out the word. She hadn't wanted to participate in the whole 'Rescue the Colors!" mission. She had enough on her plate as it was. But Devlin here had been insistent, and it was so hard to turn him down when he really had his mind set on something. Besides, although she would never admit it, his excitement was contagious, and she found herself wondering what they might manage to find. She reached into the main pouch of her backpack and drew out a small device.

[Jessari]

"Here," she said, tossing it to him with a quick snap of her wrist. "You wanted to do this so bad, you figure out how to use this...thing."

Devlin yelped, dropping the hedge clippers as he scrambled to catch the device. Journey winced as the blades barely missed spiking him to the ground, sticking instead in the ground between his feet. The young man barely seemed to notice, already turning the device over and over in his hands. "Seems fairly straightforward," he said. "Just a power button, and a Mode button. Wanna start now?" His expression was so openly hopeful that she allowed a chuckle to escape.

[Jessari]

"Sure," she said, attempting to sound reluctant and not quite managing to pull it off. "Let's go."

It took Devlin a few minutes to extract himself from the bramble garden. Journey closed her eyes, wincing every time she heard the quiet rip of clothing snagged by thorns, and the sharp, pained yelp of flesh snagged by the same.

Finally, Devlin stood before her, hands on his knees as he attempted to slow his breathing. "It's so much harder to avoid the thorns when everything is some shade of grey. Okay, so..." He fiddled around with the device for a second, then brightened. "Hey, we're right in the middle of a hotspot!"

[Jessari]

"Really? Let me see," Journey said, leaning toward him in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the screen, but he was already moving. She shook her head, sighing, then slung her backpack over her shoulder and hustled to catch up to him.

It had been, oh, about two or three years since she had first met him. She had been working on rebuilding the rock wall around the cathedral when he had popped up behind her out of nowhere, asking what she was doing in a cheery voice. He had almost gotten himself stabbed. Journey's lips quirked in a smile. She was glad that hadn't happened, for multiple reasons. First, she might have felt guilty. Second, he had been a big help.

[Jessari]

Devlin had already disappeared around a corner, and Journey followed. She wasn't one to get spooked easily, but with all the color drained from, well, everything, Lya Pointa Cathedral seemed somehow larger, more solemn. Even the air seemed heavier.

"Devlin, wait up!"

She could hear his footsteps not too far away, scuffing through dirt, kicking bits of rubble. Then, she heard an, "Ooof!" and the solid impact of a body hitting the floor. She picked up her speed, "Devin, are you okay?"

"I'm okay!" he called, as she rounded the corner and entered what they had determined had been the main worship room. Journey knew there had to be a more official term for it, but she had never been particularly religious.

[Jessari]

Devlin was climbing to his knees, covered in dust and shaking his head ruefully. "No worries! Just, umm, wasn't watching where I was going. Too busy watching the, uh..." He lifted his empty hand, peering hard at it as though he didn't recognize it. "Hey, where'd the thingie go?"

They both looked around. "Uh, Devlin? I think you found your 'hotspot'."

Journey lifted a hand to point ahead of them. The ancient altar still stood, the only thing left intact from before they had begun their tedious reconstruction. Beneath it was a darkness so thick, so truly dark, that it stood out from all the other shades of grey and black that surrounded them.

[Jessari]

Devlin jumped to his feet, eyes lighting up. "That's great! But without the device, how do we...?"

Journey shrugged. "It has to be around here somewhere," she said, nudging a pile of debris with her foot. Go figure. They found a concentration of color, just as they lost the device they were supposed to collect it with.

All of a sudden, a cheery beeping echoed through the room, seeming completely out of place in the solemn silence. As the two watched, the darkness beneath the altar swirled, spiraling in a twister shape before being sucked into the device, which had conveniently landed in the midst of it all.

"Huh. Well, I guess we can call that a mission complete." Journey picked up the device. "I think I'll keep a hold of it this time. Now, let's go turn this thing in."

[Color Harvested]