At the inn I finally find a working payphone to contact Hugo, confirming the time of our arrival tomorrow.

And that’s when he tells me about Mom and Mam. He’s got tears in his voice as he tells me the full story. Grandma is with him, as he has refused to let her stay alone in Brindleton Bay. He gives her the phone, and Grandma and I talk. We’re both grief-stricken, but neither of us cries. In a way we’re both happy, impossibly happy to have each other.

When I hang up, I hang around the marketplace aimlessly. I know I’ll have to tell Hannah — but not tonight.

My feet bring me to the statue of Madre Cosecha.

She’s a mother figure to the Selvadoradans, They respect her, and honor her, for bringing their community to life. I pay her my respects, and to my own beloved mothers, as well.

I managed to unlock the way to the very last corridor — no thanks to Hannah’s new friend — and we are now faced with one single mystery.

There’s an elevated slab on the floor, that clearly demands to be stepped on. Hannah can smell a trap, though, and she starts examining it. 

I’m on the other side of the room, digging up old relics for her to examine later.

Hannah tells me that, according to what she’s observed, one needs a spirited state of mind to activate the switch. She says the glyphs on the slab seem to depict some sort of food, a mystical offering that would bring you to the right spiritual space.

“Mom, I know. The berries! The berries you found! Give me the green ones!”

An energized step…

It works! The whole room is now bathed in a mystical blue light, and on the other end of the corridor, a gateway opens.

The treasure room.

Hannah steps into that magical space, and she might as well be walking among the stars. The walls glitter with a billion gems, and the gems themselves cast an eerie blue light on the two chests in the middle of the room.

In the first, most plain of the two treasure chests, there’s a golden, ancient plate, and many coins.

Trembling, and not just with poison fever, Hannah places her hands on the second chest, the most heavily decorated of the two.

She pushes against the lid. Golden light pours out.

She knows what this is — our friend at then inn talked about them — what Hannah is holding, she knows, is an item of immense power.

It’s an ancient relic.

Just because he’s possibly dead and shines like turquoise doesn’t mean we shouldn’t greet him like anybody else. And in the customary Selvadoradan manner, as well!

“Yeah, we’re trying to get past this next trap,” Hannah explains in a rudimentary Selvadoradan. I just start examining the pillar she was looking at. I’m not about that whole talking skeleton business.

“Sorry,” the blue dude says. “I was a bit busy when they built this room, I have no idea how to deal with this. However, if you want, I can dance the simrumba like no one else alive!”

Hannah doesn’t have the heart to correct him.

She also doesn’t dare ask where he found these bones, since they’re obviously not a part of his, er, body.

Hannah goes and takes pictures of everything pertaining to ancient Selvadoradan lore, and she takes notes as well. My budding archeologist.

There’s another trap ahead, so we divide the tasks and start problem-solving together, mother and daughter. We’re each in a different corner of the room, but we’re bonding, sharing details we noticed and insight on mysteries from behind our notebooks.

Hannah is the first to crack her code — or at least she thinks she has.

Bravely, she sticks her hand into an opening in the pillar.

Another tarantula!

With a bit less class than for her first spider attack, she jerks her hand away.

The spider is off her skin, but unfortunately this has distracted her from the real peril.

A dart flies across the room and sticks itself straight into Hannah’s neck. Her whole body tenses up. Poison!

The effects are instantaneous. Hannah’s skin gets bloated and fluorescent green, and she develops an immediate headache and nausea.

… Seriously?