337 Short

Dark climbed up the side of the bone pile while the bag continued to whisper.

“Key formed. User access available. Please remove advisor key.”

“Key?” Jay said, raising a brow, “Be gentle, Dark.”

Dark’s skeletal claws slowly curled around the bag opening, gently pulling it open.

Jay stepped around the side, peering in. The black cube was… different. It had shrunk and deformed—or reconstructed, into a sphere shape, a palm-size orb. Though there was a slightly raised part of it poking out with squared edges.

The key? Jay thought.

(Dark, slowly pull that square part out.) Jay ordered from behind his death-walker’s sentry shield—standing behind it as a safety precaution. There was no telling what Viladore’s black cube—well, black sphere—was capable of. He couldn’t be sure if there was a booby-trap or a self-destruct.

Dark’s slender white fingers grasped the tiny bit poking out and gently pulled—yet the orb didn’t let go.