The Academy Of Space And Time

Where I make a scene and get what I deserve

When the portal closed behind us, my insides felt as if they'd been inside a milk shaker.

It felt amazing and I couldn't wait to do that again every time we had to move.

No, actually, scratch that. I was kidding.

Ever since the Awakened had mentioned the New Faith, Raegan's eyes were grey and cloudy with worry.

I wanted to ask her what she thought about what the Awakened had told us about Set, but none of my friends were approaching the topic, so I didn't either.

After a while, I cleared my throat. "Thoughts?"

Edgar looked around. We weren't in the forest anymore, but in a place that looked more like an oasis. "Yes," he said. "Do you know any Mudras for cleaning clothes?"

"Sorry?"

"You wet your trousers, back in the Blasted Tower."

"I do have a thought," Jeff said. "Considering that the second clue we had was the image of the Arcane in the fire painting, and it was the High Priest. The name for the leader of the New Faith. So, there must be a correlation. Let's look for a temple."

"What has the New Faith got to do with KI anyway?" Raegan asked.

"The questions are infinite, the answers limited," Jeff replied.

We walked up and down the beach, until we found a Temple in the waters. There were marble steps, so one could enter without being wet. Speaking of, I didn't know a Mudra to get oneself dry. I would need a change of clothes. I started off by taking off my trousers.

"What — are — you — doing?" Edgar hissed through his teeth.

"Don't worry," I said. "My underpants aren't the least bit enticing. And at least now you won't complain."

"How do you know words like enticing, anyway?"

"I thought we already established that I could read."

In the meantime, our friends had already walked into the Temple. It did remind me of the New Faith, in the way that this one too was white and it had a Greek architecture.

This one was huge as well, and the light seemed to pour in from everywhere.

There was a woman praying, inside. It struck me as bizzarre, but she'd heard us coming, and she hadn't threatened us yet, which was would be a first for the enemies we'd met so far.

I approached the woman, trying to act braver than I felt. "Who are you?"

Thankfully, she smiled at me. She was in her mid-thirties, perhaps early fourties, and she had dark skin and long black hair, braided with coloured extensions.

"The Awakened sent me to help with your quest," she replied. "But I am not one of them. I've changed things a bit around here. You could call it... spice things up."

She made a gesture, like a Mudra, and something appeared out of nowhere. It was an altar, a different one from the one where she was kneeling.

"This altar," Edgar joined us from the other side of the room. "Look at this. There's sage, and this kind of black powder... I've read about it. It seems those ingredients are here to establish contact with the dead."

That said, Edgar snorted the black powder and used fire from a torch to light the sage on fire.

"What is he doing...?" Jeff asked.

"I've always thought he was weird," Raegan shrugged. "But after all, aren't we all?"

"Those are indeed items to contact the dead," the woman smiled. "But I don't want you to be the one to use them, Edgar Wollstonecraft. Raegan McIntosh, inhale the black powder. You're the one I want to help the most."