Sophie recalled seeing the town’s inn the first time she had been to the Adventurer’s Guild, but she hadn’t paid it much attention since then. Now, as she and Acacia walked inside, she realized that it looked exactly like she had imagined an inn out of a fantasy novel might look like. There was a long wooden desk and a friendly-looking man with a bristly grey mustache sitting behind it. A wooden staircase that presumably led up to rooms for rent. And even a few tables and chairs in a large open space off to the side – probably some sort of gathering space, if she had to guess.

Acacia made a beeline for the desk, and the man behind it greeted her warmly. “You're looking for Ingrid?” he asked, before she even stated their purpose.

“Yep,” she replied. “Is she in her usual room?”

The man nodded, gesturing for them to head upstairs. “Go on ahead. I think she's still up there for the day.”

“She better be,” Acacia muttered and practically dragged Sophie up the stairs with her.

Sophie was pretty sure you couldn't do this sort of thing back in Seattle – surely there were some sort of privacy laws that prevented it. She wasn’t sure, exactly, but apparently such a thing didn't matter in a small fantasy town like Caulis where Acacia seemed to know everyone and everyone seemed to know her. In fact, Acacia even knew what room Ingrid usually stayed in. She stopped in front of the door marked with a brassy number 8 and knocked on it with a bit more force than Sophie thought was necessary.

“Ingrid!” she practically shouted. “I know you’re in there!”

“Are you sure this is okay?” Sophie whispered. She glanced down the hallway worried that some other resident of the inn might poke their head out and yell right back at them. She already felt fairly uncertain about the whole situation… Especially after what Calli had said about Ingrid to begin with.

But then the doors swung open and a beautiful blonde woman stood before them. She was wearing coral-colored priestess robes similar to Sophie’s own and looked as if she were maybe a few years older than them, but not by much. Maybe closer to Briony’s age, but younger than Sterling. Her hair was pulled back into a loose bun with soft waves framing her face, and her bright green eyes sparkled with delight at seeing them.

Or perhaps just at seeing Acacia.

“It’s been ages!” she sang out and immediately pulled Acacia in for a hug.

“Well, why didn't you tell me you were in town?” Acacia pouted, obviously still annoyed that she had to find out from Sophie.

The woman who could only be Ingrid shrugged one dainty shoulder. “I would have eventually, you know.”

Acacia frowned at the answer, shaking her head. “You should have stopped by the bakery, at least.”

“Who is this?” Ingrid interrupted, her eyes landing on Sophie as she deftly dodged Acacia’s questions. Sophie stepped in suddenly feeling a wave of anxiety about meeting another priestess for the first time.

A real priestess.

Not that Sophie wasn’t a real priestess, but a lot of days – and especially recently – she didn’t really feel like one.

“This is Sophie,” Acacia replied before Sophie could find her own voice amid her tumbling thoughts. “She's our new priestess.”

“Linden never mentioned you had a priestess…” Ingrid replied, obviously confused. “Does Caulis no longer need my services then?”

Acacia shook her head. “Of course not! He wouldn't have known. She arrived right around the time he left up to meet you for the quest. And besides, she’s still learning purification. That’s what we wanted to talk about.”

“I see,” Ingrid replied, her eyes scanning over Sophie curiously. “But Caulis has no shrine or shrine spirit –”

“We do,” Sophie said firmly, finally finding it within herself to speak up. “We do have a shrine, and the spirit is still there. Her name's Elowen.”

Part of Sophie felt unreasonably annoyed that this other priestess hadn't even thought to check to see if there was a spirit. But given the rumors surrounding the shrine and what Sterling had said the day he came out to see the shrine for the first time she supposed it made some sort of sense.

“She's faded,” Sophie continued, when it seemed like Ingrid was waiting for more information. “Well, not entirely. Sterling said she was pretty far into it though.”

“Sterling!” Ingrid replied, catching on to the name with interest. “I suppose you would be working with him, wouldn’t you?”

“Her brother,” Acacia whispered to Sophie, and Sophie’s eyebrows raised in surprise.

Sterling was… Ingrid’s brother?

“Well, regardless if she’s almost faded or not, surely I must meet her,” Ingrid continued. “The spirit, I mean. But I doubt I have the time. Linden has us leaving on this quest tomorrow –”

“Wait a second – tomorrow? You’re leaving again?!” Acacia complained, obviously distressed. “Where are you going this time?”

Ingrid waved a hand at her. “It’s nearby,” she promised. “We’ll only be gone for a day or two, if that. We’ll likely go straight there and back. That’s why I haven’t been to see you yet, silly. I figured you’d just get upset.”

Ingrid gave Acacia a pointed look, as Acacia pouted even further at the news. Sophie frowned as well, but for a different reason entirely. She remembered Calli mentioning something about a mana well nearby. Was it really so close that they could be back within a day? With all of her newfound focus on learning purification, she had completely forgotten to have Linden come out to look at the shrine and determine if he could do anything to fix it. Maybe if the well was close enough…

“You’re purifying a mana well?” she asked.

Ingrid nodded, looking excited about the prospect. “We are! It’s a newly formed well, and we’ve heard there’s not much corruption. But there is enough to cause some trouble to the locals who live near it, so we’re going to go nip it in the bud before it gets worse.”

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“Do you think –” Sophie began, glancing at Acacia and then back to Ingrid. “Do you think it might be possible to reroute the mana to our shrine? After you purify it of course?”

Ingrid pursed her lips in thought. “What a fascinating idea. I simply don’t know. It’s difficult to completely purify something, of course. And it would depend on how far away it is exactly. So that’s why the spirit here is fading, then? There’s no mana at the shrine?”

Sophie nodded. “Sterling confirmed it, as well. There’s barely any mana there and no source nearby that we know of. Unless that mana well would work…”

“We would have to see the extent of the problem at the shrine, probably. I suppose I might be able to go out there today, if Linden would accompany me. He’d have a better idea of if the area nearby would hold up to something as drastic as rerouting a mana well. Between the two of us, I imagine we’ll have a good idea if there could be a solution.”

“That would be wonderful – Wait, today?”

“Yes, of course. We’re leaving first thing tomorrow morning, dear. I suppose we could look when we get back, but it would be better to do so before we make the trip to the mana well.”

Sophie thought back to the Magewood tree sitting in the entryway of the shrine with no small amount of dread. Sure, Ingrid seemed nice enough upon meeting her, but Sophie wasn’t sure that she could be completely trusted with the knowledge about the tree…

“Oh, right, um –”

Acacia glanced at her with no small amount of confusion.

“If you two are able to find Linden, today would be fine. I just need to get back to the shrine to, uh, tell Elowen that we’ll have guests.”

“What about lunch?” Acacia asked, already looking disappointed.

“Rain check?” Sophie laughed nervously.

Ingrid also gave Sophie a very strange look at this request, but she shrugged, seeming unconcerned about the details. “We’ll go find Linden, Acacia. I suppose we can get lunch together afterwards.”

Acacia perked up a bit at that, and Sophie felt a little better for abandoning her.

“Right. Thanks then! I’ve got to go!” she said and practically fled out of the inn. She just had to move that tree before Ingrid caught sight of it.

***

Sophie barely had time to explain the situation to Elowen, drag the Magewood tree into the back area of the shrine with no small amount of effort, and finally make sure the greenhouse door was firmly shut before she heard familiar voices on the path heading towards the shrine. Elowen darted out ahead curiously, obviously excited about the visitors, even though she had also expressed hesitation about meeting another priestess.

Acacia was chatting loudly about something as usual and led the charge up the steps to the courtyard. “Sophie!” she shouted and waved. “We found him!”

Linden gave a wave as well as he looked around the courtyard with a large dose of curiosity. “It’s been ages since I’ve bothered coming up here,” he said. “But it’s looking real nice.”

Sophie beamed at the acknowledgement of her effort. She had been trying to keep it nice. Partially because they still had to figure out the situation with the midsummer’s festival, which was yet another thing on the long list of things she needed to deal with.

“So this is Caulis’s shrine. How rustic!” Ingrid declared, interrupting Sophie’s thoughts as she made her own way up the stone steps behind the other two. She had a little displeased frown on her face, and Elowen’s expression darkened to match it.

“Rustic?” Elowen repeated with a sour tone, and Ingrid’s gaze lifted to land on the spirit.

“Ah, so you must be the faded spirit. What a shame that your shrine has been neglected for so long.”

Sophie felt the oddest urge to place herself between Elowen and the honestly sort of rude priestess, but Acacia interrupted.

“It really is!” she said, but it sounded a lot more sincere coming from her. “It’s so terrible. We had no idea Elowen had been here the entire time.”

Ingrid looked at Elowen for a long moment before she finally shrugged and looked away, her eyes landing on the portal stones on the edge of the courtyard. She walked over to them, tilting over to inspect them more closely. Elowen continued to stare at the priestess unhappily, however, even as she stuck close to Sophie.

“Just ignore her,” Sophie said under her breath. “She’ll hopefully have some ideas to help us.”

Elowen nodded, but she didn’t look too happy about it.

Sophie glanced around to find Acacia and was surprised to note that she and Linden had left the courtyard. Linden had a faint aura of mana use about him, and Acacia stood nearby, watching him with no small amount of awe.

After a few moments, Linden nodded to himself and then came back over to where Sophie and Elowen stood.

“We might be able to redirect mana here,” Linden began. “The area seems open to it. It’s not completely cut off to mana, exactly. It seems like the original source has just been completely drained.”

Sophie wasn’t exactly sure what any of that meant, but it sounded like good news to her. “So the mana well?” she asked. “It could potentially fix the shrine?”

Linden looked thoughtful for a moment, but eventually shook his head. “I can’t say for sure. It would take an awfully large amount of mana to fix the shrine. I’d have to see the size of the mana well we’re working with.”

Ingrid rejoined the group as well. “The portal stone would be nice to get working. I imagine if we get it running again, the one in town would open back up as well. Does it connect to Sentus?”

Linden shrugged. “I don’t know. That would be a question for Ryland or someone who remembered when it was still working.”

Sophie turned to Elowen, but Elowen just shook her head softly. It seemed she didn’t recall, at least.

“Well, it’s worth a try,” Ingrid said. “I do love a challenge! Once we get to the mana well, we’ll have a better idea if it will work at all.” She turned to Sophie, eyes suddenly sparkling with something that reminded Sophie a bit too much of Calli when she was at her most push.

“Sophie, you should come with us!”

“What?” Sophie replied, nearly in unison with Elowen, although Elowen sounded far more affronted.

“Absolutely not!” Elowen continued. “I forbid it.”

“But why?” Acacia cut in. “Why would Sophie go?”

The words weren’t unkind, but they kind of stung. Sophie realized she didn’t have much going for her yet, but she was a priestess.

“To learn, silly,” Ingrid said. “She’ll go questing eventually. It’d be better to start off in a party like ours on a simple quest.”

Sophie glanced over at Linden, hopeful that he would disagree, but he looked amenable to the idea.

“Ingrid’s right,” he agreed. “She should come with us.” He turned to Sophie. “A relatively safe quest nearby with an experienced group? You really won’t get a better chance for your first run.”

“She does not need to go questing,” Elowen said, even though only Ingrid and Sophie could hear her.

Sophie truly did not want to go questing. Not one bit, in fact. But Elowen was wrong. She did need to go.

“I need to learn,” she said softly. She hated to disagree with Elowen, especially when the spirit seemed so upset at the mere idea. “It would be a good opportunity.”

Elowen looked utterly stricken, but Linden clapped his hands together. “Let’s do it then!”

Sophie just hoped she hadn’t agreed to something she would sorely regret.