The Time Hopper

The Temple

My house was a wash. No one had been taking care of it since my family had lived there, so it was kind of falling apart, and I wasn't convinced it would be big enough for us all to use as our home base. Besides, while the location was remote, it wouldn't be easy to fortify, and both Obsivian and Consequences knew where it was. Even if they did doubt we would take up residence here, they'd most likely check here at the least. 

So instead, we began to travel around the world to remote spots, looking for an abandoned house that we could set up camp in. We found a few that were decent enough, but they all had major drawbacks. The biggest issue was that mages live literally everywhere, so there was always a pocket of them a little too close for comfort. Besides, the other children of the elements needed to be somewhat close to humans so they could buy clothes and food, if they even knew how. Granted, most of my experience in basic life skills came from the past, but at least I'd actually looked after myself to a limited extent (with Riley helping, of course). They'd been living safe and tucked away in the Tir Na Gog their whole lives. They had better control and understanding of their powers, yeah, but I actually understood how to talk to normal people. 

After a week of searching, we had three possible locations, and I wasn't convinced by any of them. The first was in the amazon rain forest, an abandoned corporate building that was a few hours away from a little town. Deeper into the wilderness there was a small clan of mages, but from the prying I had Riley do they rarely ventured from their swathe of land and didn't seem to be in contact with Obsivian or Consequences. 

The second was an abandoned building in Tokyo, an old factory that was now fenced off and went entirely undisturbed as far as I, and the thick layers of dust, could tell. If they were canny about how they came and went, they could probably slip under the radar. As a general rules, mages who lived in the city were hiding from someone, so they were more likely to ignore or hide from their own kind. Of course, forking over the children of the elements would also be a brilliant way to earn forgiveness for anything they had done. 

And finally, there was the monastery in the Himalayan mountains. It disguised itself so well as a human place that we had almost passed right by it, before Riley started to insist that he'd smelled lavender and burnt hair. I had dismissed it at first, only for him to keep saying it until I gave in and went to investigate. The monks and nuns had been burning herbs to mask the scent of their seldom used magic, and they looked so similar to the Tibetan settlements I had visited in the past I was shocked. 

We had crept as close as we dared, hiding behind rocks and trees and walls as we tried to figure out what was going on inside. 

"Maybe we should knock two of them out, steal their clothes, and sneak inside." I suggested after twenty minutes of watching mundane comings and goings. Riley looked at me incredulously. 

"You don't think that that might be overkill?" He asked me sarcastically. I shrugged. 

"I don't think it is, no. We need to investigate this place and figure out what's going on before we can say if that empty castle palace temple thing is safe to stay in." I had talked myself into what had been a vague idea, so I picked up a near by rock and got ready to charge out, a young woman about my size in my sights. As I began to move, Riley grabbed my wrist and yanked me back down with a light slap to the hand holding the rock, making me drop it with a rueful glare. 

"No, Sadie! I am not letting you assault a nun!" He scolded me firmly. I rolled my eyes. 

"Look, they're all mages, I doubt that they're real nuns." I assured him, not that it seemed to work. 

"Right, still not going to let you assault someone just because you have some repressed feelings that you want to get out!" He hissed. I scowled at him.