Olivia
There was still so much I didn’t know about this place, about my destiny. But when I stumbled upon the safe, cleverly hidden behind a painting in what once served as my aunt's private archive, it felt like I had unearthed a direct link to those secrets.
The solid steel door, adorned with an electronic keypad, seemed oddly out of place against the aging wallpaper and dark mahogany bookshelves. I hesitated for a moment, tracing my fingers over the cold metal, contemplating the importance of what might lie within.
“What are you hiding?” I whispered to it, my breath causing dust particles in the air to stir. Was the peridot inside? Was the peridot the second artifact?
Trying a few generic combinations—birthdays, anniversaries, the current year—all yielded the same beepin
