She reaches down and plucks a rock from the bottom of the Chest. It’s a perfectly round crystal no bigger than a Ping-Pong ball, and when she touches it, the light brightens even more. And then it fades, and begins to slowly pulse. We watch the crystal, transfixed by the glow. Then, suddenly, Six lets it drop to the floor. The crystal ceases to pulse and resumes its steady glow. Sam reaches down to pick it up.

“Don’t!” Six yells.

He looks up, confused.

“Something doesn’t feel right about it,” she says.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“It felt like pinpricks against my palm. When I grabbed hold of it I got a really bad feeling.”

“This stuff is my Inheritance,” I say. “Maybe I’m the only one allowed to touch it?”

I bend down and carefully pick up the glowing crystal. Within seconds it feels as if I’m holding a radioactive cactus; my stomach compresses and acid climbs up my throat, and I instantly toss the crystal onto a blanket. I swallow. “Maybe I’m doing it wrong.”

“Maybe we don’t know how to use it. I mean, you said Henri kept you from seeing inside because you weren’t ready. Maybe you’re still not ready?”

“Well, that would be pretty lame,” I say.

“This sucks,” Sam says.

Six walks into the kitchen and returns with two towels and a plastic bag. She carefully grabs the glowing crystal with a towel and drops both into the bag, which she then wraps in a second towel.

“You really think that’s necessary?” I ask. My stomach continues to gurgle.

She shrugs. “I don’t know about you, but the feeling I got when I touched it was bad news. Better safe than sorry.”

What’s left in the Chest is everything comprising my Inheritance, and I’m not really sure where to start. I reach in and grab an object I’ve seen before, the oblong crystal Henri used to spread the Lumen from my hands to the rest of my body. It comes alive and bathes the dining room in its bright light. The crystal’s center begins swirling with what looks like smoke, twisting and turning back on itself, as I have seen it do before.

“Now we’re talking,” Sam says.

“Here,” I say, giving it to him. The crystal falls inert when it transfers hands. “I’ve already seen it.”

Also inside the Chest are a few smaller crystals, a black diamond, a collection of brittle leaves bound with twine, and a star-shaped talisman the same pale blue as the pendant around my neck, which tells me it’s Loralite, the rarest gem found only at Lorien’s core. There’s also a bright red oval bracelet and an amber-colored stone in the shape of a raindrop.