The stairs that led down to the Dark Cove were shaped like the inside of a seashell, the whorl that his eyes followed whenever he had picked one up as a child. It spiraled downwards, and he followed the steps with an almost careless pace, taking his time, one hand pressed against the wall to keep his balance, the other in the pocket of his worn jeans.

It didn't take very long; only a few moments until he reached the bottom, or at least, it should have, if Chance was walking at a brisker pace. As it was, he finally ambled down to the end of the stairs in about ten minutes, his gaze silently roaming the walls of the chamber he now stood in. It reminded him of the stars; there were gleaming runes etched onto the stone tablets that lined the majority of the walls, softly glowing blues that made the entire place feel eerily as though one was standing in outer space.

Chance found he rather liked the sensation.

He stood entirely still for a while, simply tracing the lines of the walls and the runes and the tablets with his eyes, and the silence pressed down on him, weighed heavily upon his shoulders like a cape. He wore it well - silence was nothing new to him, after all - but eventually there was the smallest disturbance.

A soft voice broke through the cloak of darkness and solitude.

{ - hello there. - }

At first Chance thought that perhaps it was someone that he hadn't seen that had come after him; but then he realized, somewhat belatedly, that the voice was all around him, inside of his thoughts, slipping and sliding through his mind like a breath of fresh air.

"Hey," he said aloud, and his voice was strangely loud in the dim of the chamber. "Who are you?"

The eternal question asked yet again. There was a gentle laugh that seemed to reverberate inside of his head, rising and falling in pitch like it was a series of bells all trilling at once, and it was rather pleasant to listen to. The faintest smile tugged at the corners of Chance's lips as he waited.

{ - asher. that is the name that was given to me. - }

The voice didn't seem either male or female, but rather a curious neutrality instead, somewhere between the two, or perhaps both at once. Chance lifted a hand and ran it absently through his head of curly black hair. His gaze raked the walls of the chamber, trying to discern the source of the sound.

"Where are you?" he asked lightly. "Where can I find you?"

Another laugh, just as gentle.

{ - you find me. I chose you, but you must find me first. - }

A peculiar conundrum, but Chance didn't think much of it. Slowly he revolved on the spot, frowning slightly in concentration as his eyes passed from tablet to tablet. Once or twice he started to step forward, only to shake his head and move back to his spot, standing directly in the middle of the dark chamber.

Finally, however, a little smirk appeared on his face, and Chance moved diagonally to his right, stretching out a hand upwards. His fingers brushed against the corner of a tablet almost out of reach, just barely grazing the edge; and there was a little flicker in his thoughts, as though Asher was pleased.

He pulled down the tablet and had only seconds to examine it before it grew brighter and brighter, finally disappearing in a flash of pale white light. Chance waited for it to subside, and as it did, he felt something heavy forming between his fingers, a heavy weight against the palm of his hand.

A long bow, glittering blue and cool to the touch. Chance raised his eyebrows, lifting his other hand to run his fingers along the side of the weapon, and he felt a soft trill of happiness spread throughout his thoughts. Asher was satisfied with their new owner.

{ - what is your name? - }

"Chance," he answered, as the bow disappeared. Something clinked against the stone floor of the chamber, and he stooped down. A little pin in the shape of a snowflake, hardly bigger than a quarter, lay just beside his foot, and Chance picked it up, turning it over in his hands. It felt pleasantly cool, and he reached into the hood of his sweatshirt and pinned it to the shirt he wore beneath, tucked out of sight.

"My name is Chance."