The Academy Of Space And Time

Where I get answers but not the ones I'm looking for

We wound up in a place I wasn't expecting. It looked like a desert.

"Do you think Set..." Jeff started saying. I wanted him to shut up, because I was getting anxious, but he was right. The god had attacked with sandy storms and jackals before --- both of them his symbols.

"Duck!" I shouted at Jeff. A shoot of fire was about to blast him in the chest --- someone else's spell.

"This doesn't look like something Set might do," Raegan said. "But only the heroes of the quest have magic here..."

"Not if you're like us," a cold, female voice said. We turned around and saw an old grey-haired lady. "We came here to talk to you. We're very similar to the Circle, but a secret organisation and we follow our own rules. We can move between the worlds at will."

"And what would your name be?" Raegan asked.

"The Awakened," she replied. And then, a young woman behind her, with long hair and sad eyes, snapped her fingers.

The next thing I knew was that we were inside some sort of building.

"Is it normal?" I asked. "Why are we inside a room?"

The Awakened were five in total, and they were looking at us. They looked ethereal, as if they weren't even there, and they were all older than us.

Maybe I was dead. Maybe that young woman had had killed us with the snap of her fingers. Maybe they were there to weigh my heart to decide if I did wrong or right, like they believed in Ancient Egypt.

"Why did you come all this way? What are you trying to tell us?" Jeff asked.

"This is a better question," the older woman replied. "To congratulate you. Even though we have a few heads up — Raegan, don't drink alcohol while on our quest. And Ryan, I understand you wanting to taunt the Arcane, but don't do that anymore. It was too risky."

I wanted to protest, but Jeff beat me to it.

"Excuse me?" Jeff asked in a rebellious tone. "This is our quest. Not yours. It was my grandfather who assigned it to us."

"But we are the ones who made sure you saw the Blasted Tower," a woman in her thirties with long brown hair replied to Jeff. "We made a spell on the flyer so that it would remain on the ground until you picked it up. Obviously, it goes without saying that the man from the Odd Oddities circus wasn't at the Academy to congratulate Jake --- he was there to deliver the flyer, and make sure it got into your hands. There's more of us —- we are only the leaders. My name is Eileen Gardner and before joining this clan, I was a pirate. I also am an Enlightener."

I wondered if I had correctly heard the pirate part, but I didn't dare ask.

"She's Aimee Adams," she continued, pointing to the older woman. "The man standing to my left is Luther Graves, the new High Priest of the New Faith, they're both Jurists, and the one to my right is Morgan McCarthy, the founder of the Odd Oddities circus. He's a Earth Hierophant."

"The New Faith?" Raegan laughed. "Not what I'd call an awakening."

The monk walked towards her.

"I understand if you don't have the Faith," he said. "And I can't erase the damage that the believers of the New Faith might have done to you. But I can ask you to understand that sometimes behind great power hides great knowledge."

Raegan must have agreed, because she kept her mouth shut. I was not what I'd call a believer either, but I thought Raegan not biting back must have been proof that miracles existed.

"You know better than everyone that the New Faith worships the gods," the monk added. "I am very sorry I can't make my followers understand the truth of this universe. It is too risky, to change what hasn't been changed for years. But we Awakened worship another kind of God, not a minor one, but a capital G one. The God of time, the father of all the minor gods. The one they get their powers from."