[center][h1]Emil[/h1][/center]

The deep blue stone seemed like a hole in his palm to Emil. He looked through it, rather than at it, but could feel its weight on the skin and knew it was a real tangible object. Focusing his eyes he observed the strange thing more closely along the edges and the surface of the stone. [color=00a651][i]A fetish of some sort? Or a key?[/i][/color] It was by no means an object of extraordinary design. In fact, it was quite simple, like one of trinkets street vendors sell in the Orient. But the simplicity is what made it compelling, as it often happens when a man expects in his mind something of importance to be fancy, only to be given the opposite.

[color=00a651][i]Are we to use a submarine? A crew of ladies and gentleman most mysterious and diverse going on an expedition?[/i][/color] As the now tender Faye concluded the talk of their coming quest his mind played images, and her voice mingled with and was eventually replaced by visions of his imagination's make: whispering waves, cresting and breaking one on another; pale foam on moonlit black sands and shingle; the quivering surface of the endless ocean; ebony depths; chasms in the ocean's floor where the Kraken sleeps, stirring shells and bones; ruined pillars and antique runes carved in them; hollow citadels of sunken cities and their spires; a call of a solitary leviathan echoing from one statue of a bizarre god to the other. [color=00a651][i]And a siren's song most sonorous. [/i][/color]

[color=0072bc]”What may the purpose of this item be?"[/color] Emil asked nothing how Faye's expression indeed was changed: [color=00a651][i]gentler now and... humane, smiling.[/i][/color] He turned to the professor like a child being shy in front of a lady. [color=00a651][i]My throat is even more sore now. And my eyes ache. Wait, someone's coming![/i][/color] [color=0072bc]”I can hear footsteps without the cell. Someone's coming.”[/color]

He gave Faye another look and quickly put the amulet in the pocket. [color=00a651][i]I've nowhere to run now, Steiner.[/i][/color]