The Vaults of Lyriumia. A place very few had access to. Colt found himself standing outside the massive silver doors, Leo and Nikki at his sides. They were at the base of the Towers of Kiloqua. Well, technically, they were under them. The doors the three stared at reached all the way to the ceiling, and to each of the walls of the corridor. It was one of the oldest doors on the planet.

"Did not know this place existed," Nikki said in awe.

"Neither did I," Leo muttered under his breath. He gave Colt a sideways glance. "How do you know about it?"

With a smile, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a shimmering silver key. Colt waved it in front of Leo. "I know people."

Nikki snatched it from his hand. "Amneris gave you this?!"

"She did," he said, taking it back. "Lvaane approved."

Leo sighed loudly. "Of course, he did."

Colt found the small lock on the door and pushed the key inside. He twisted it to the side then removed it. Colt pushed the doors open. They swung inside a dark chamber. The key was returned to his pocket.

The moment the three stepped inside, white Faelight orbs burst into existence. The entire room lit up. Leo and Nikki gasped at what they saw. Floors upon floors of boxes and cases and cabinets and bookshelves stretched as far as the eye could see! It was sort of an organized chaos with the occasional hoverpad littered here and there to reach the upper levels. There were even ladders and stairs.

Nikki stared on, her jaw hanging. "How the fuck are we supposed to find a key in this mess?"

Leo pulled back his hair with a leather strap. "By searching everywhere."

Nikki's shoulders slumped and her head lolled back as she let out a long, dramatic groan. Leo grabbed her wrist. Colt placed his hands on her back. The pair pulled and pushed her further into the room.

Seeing there was no escape, Nikki made a B-line for one of the hoverpads, disappearing onto one of the higher levels. Leo made his way to a ridiculously large pile of crates which could be considered its own warehouse. Colt, who actually knew his way around the Vaults, merely sighed and went to one of the many computer screens on the walls.

* * * * * * * *

On one of the upper levels, Nikki found herself distracted by see-thorough cabinets of jewellery. She walked past them, reading the labels as she went aloud. She paused at a cabinet full of rings and made an impressed sound. There were so many made from so many materials and gems, each one of them different. Wedding rings from famous people, royal rings from past Rulers, some with names she'd never heard of.

Nikki paused at a ring made of gold with strange writing on it. She read the label and frowned. "The hell is the 'One Ring'?" She shrugged, unimpressed with the simple design in the middle of such creative others. "Whatever."

* * * * * * * *

Down below, Leo was lifting the lid off crates with a crowbar he'd found leaning against the wall. He wedged it under the lid of the first crate that took his interest and opened it, peaking inside the long crate. Two swords. He recognised them immediately. Excalibur and Caliburn. The lid was closed.

The next crate was giant. Instead of even trying to open this one, he read the label. Spaceship. He made a surprised sound. Leo didn't know Lyriumia had any of those laying around in storage.

There was another crate nearby only this one was burnt. Its label looked almost melted. Curiously, Leo opened the crate. He whistled at the gold inside before remembering the burn marks on the crate. "Lost Ark." The lid was closed, and Leo quickly moved away.

* * * * * * * *

Colt, who was pretending not to listen to his companions' wonder, tapped away idly at the lit-up screen in front of him. He'd forgotten how much security the builders had put in place to get into one of these things. Yes, he knew the codes, Amneris had told him, but it was ridiculous. Very few people still alive knew this place existed and even less knew the codes or about the entry key. There were maybe five copies at most of it, and he had one of them.

One retinal scan, two more codes and a hand scan later, Colt finally reached the main page of the Vault's computer system. There were too many areas to scroll through, so he typed 'keys' and 'map' into the search bar. A map of the vaults appeared on screen. It showed the path from the current terminal to the section where keys were kept. Colt snapped a photo of it on his phone. That narrowed down the search area. He only wished he knew what he was looking for.

Colt glanced back at the screen then typed 'Derakai' and 'key' into the search bar. Yet another layer of security showed up instead of any search results. Colt rolled his eyes and put in the Master Code Amneris gave him for when something like this happened. The code was accepted and an image of the key showed up on screen. Colt couldn't hide his amazement. Once again, he snapped a photo of the key, then logged out and closed the screen.

"You are both in the wrong section," he called, hurrying to a hover pad.

"Well, duh!" came Nikki's sarcastic response. She stuck her head over the railing to look down at Colt. "Have you seen all these necklaces? This chick owns way too many diamonds. I don't even know what half this shit is."

Leo appeared out of a corridor near Colt. He put down a crowbar—where did he get a crowbar—and came to Colt's side. The two men stood on one of the hoverpads. Colt directed it to the level above where Nikki waited. She stepped on board. Colt changed the settings to take them even higher.

They stepped off at the sixth level. Colt led the way through a maze of protected bookcases, all the way to another collection of enchained-class-fronted wooded cabinets. Each and every one, and all of their shelves, were filled with keys. Each key was carefully placed and had its own label, and information on what it could be used to open.

"That," Leo said, "is a lot of keys."

Nikki couldn't hide her displeasure. "Where do we even start?"

Colt held up his phone and showed them both the picture. "We split up and look for this. Call out when you find it."

Leo and Nikki nodded. The three split up.

* * * * * * * *

Leo went to the left, scanning quickly as he walked on one side of a cabinet. He couldn't see anything that matched the photo Colt had shown, but he did find a few keys to places he hadn't expected. Leo found himself stopping at one of these and leaning in closer to the glass. The key was made of a bright silver substance so clear it almost looked like a silver-coloured diamond. It was decorated with pale blue stones which appeared to glow.

His eyes flicked down to the label below it. The first line was written in the Old Language, Leo couldn't read it. The second line, however, he could read. Ruler's Vault.

Leo made an impressed noise. The Ruler had a Personal Vault. Fancy that.

Then it clicked.

Amneris had a personal vault. Leo shivered involuntarily. That was a terrible idea. He dared not thinking about what she kept in it. No doubt it was the stuff of nightmares.

* * * * * * * *

Nikki was taking a slower approach to searching the key collection down the centre. She took her time, looking over each individual one for any signs that looked similar to Colt's photo. So far, there was nothing too interesting to note. All the keys were different in everything except for the fact that they were creatively designed and highly decorated. So far, she'd seen some funky gold keys, some sleek black keys, and one very boring silver key with the label TARDIS underneath, whatever that meant. There was nothing that looked even remotely Lyriumian or God Worlds-y in design. Nikki sighed as she reached the end of the cabinet and stared on the next one.

* * * * * * * *

Colt had taken the right aisle. The number of keys here alone was incredible! He'd never though there were so many places the God Worlds had access to both here and on the Lower Planes. The idea that there were some with access to Planes above their own only added to his sense of amazement. Who knew what most of these things would really lead to? It was impossible to tell how long they'd been in storage.

The key he was looking for was halfway down this aisle. Colt stopped and gawked at it. The picture didn't do it justice.

The key was a small thing. It had a round head covered in small red, orange, and gold gemstones. On its body was a tiny carving of the symbol of Derakai – a sort of squiggly line with an arch on either side of the bumps and a small orb next to them. It had a strange base which could only fit a strange lock. One side was almost spikey. The other was a series of small rectangles. The rest of the key, however, was entirely smooth, as though someone came in and polished it every day.

The label beneath the key was fairly simple, though done in elegant handwriting:

Key to Derakai – Realm of Iocus

Colt had no idea what it meant. Instead of thinking about it too much, he called out, "I FOUND IT!"

Leo and Nikki found him before he got the enchanted glass panel to unlock. Colt carefully plucked the key from its resting place and held it up to the light. He could swear it was glowing.

"Okay," Nikki said, "we have a key. Now we just need a door."

Leo nodded. "This means a trip to Iruu. We should meet up with the others first to see if they know anything about what we're getting ourselves into."

"Agreed," Colt said. Besides, he wanted to check up on Hathy. As the two going after the original Time and Space, they were bound to get into some trouble.