Chapter 82

The group stood frozen, eyes darting between one another, as Ivory Effigy’s form shimmered, casting five silken spider threads from her body. Each thread snaked toward the pile of treasures, plucking five small chests and setting them before the stone platforms where the group stood.

One held the truth.

The five stared at the chests, identical in size, their surfaces a glossy black. At each seal, a blood-red spider’s eye swiveled, glinting as if sizing up its onlookers.

“Can I pick one up?” Ethan asked, his voice steady, directed at Ivory Effigy.

“Of course,” she purred, her smile twisting like a puppeteer toying with a marionette.

Ethan lifted a chest, running his fingers over its intricate carvings, then grabbed another for comparison. The others watched in silence, giving him space to probe and inspect.

Without opening them, he could only judge by externals: appearance, size, material, weight. Likely bronze, each measured roughly twenty centimeters long, twelve wide, five high. Assuming a wall thickness of two centimeters, they’d weigh about seven-point-three kilos.

But without tools, his estimates were guesswork. A string of twenty-four quail-egg-sized Black Pearl Necklaces weighed maybe a hundred grams—too light to tip the scales noticeably.

The chests’ textures matched, their materials identical, their sizes uniform. Clearly forged from the same mold.