The group did eventually manage to get out of the airport once they landed, albeit with a little more difficulty as Keira had now brought two wooden things in her carry on. Once it was determined that they were harmless, however, they were off. It was another few hours as the campus that they were staying on was at the other end of the city with a mountain of cars between them, but after arriving food and accommodation was sorted out quickly. They had to share rooms, but they could also chose on who they wanted to share with. Keira had chosen Naima, and while she had woken up with a face full of her own medicine in the shape of blankets and spare shirts, they still got along quite well. It was while they were waiting on the coach the next day when the topic of what they were going to do came up.
“So we will be dropped off and picked up at Morsemt’s Temple, those of you who want to go on the bike ride around it are more than welcome to, however in the case where you don’t want to do that we have someone willing to take you for a quick walk around the temple and surrounding area. Any questions?”
“Do we have to pay to enter the temple?”
“There will be an opportunity to donate at the entrances, but it is not necessary. It is necessary to rent the bikes however.” Clarified the teacher. Naima grimaced and then turned to Keira.
“Well, that cinches it. I’ll be doing the walking tour.”
“I thought you were going to be doing the walk anyway, to let it all sink in.”
“I mean… It still might’ve been nice to ride around with you though.”
“Oh no. I’m doing the walk too. I get severe anxiety whenever I ride a bike.”
“Oh.” Naima quieted down and turned her head to look outside the window. Not long after, the questions dried up and the driver was given the go ahead to drive straight into the city of Memorstadt. Furdanism was the most common religion in Junein, it had been since the inception of the country, so most of the major cities were homages to different aspects of nature. Memorstadt represented death, with multiple famous statues and memorials for historic battles and figures. Most famously it had murals on every surface one would fit on which included buildings, walls and sometimes the ground in the main squares. It made sense then, that Morsemt’s Temple would be in the centre of the city. As it was in the centre of the city, it was nowhere near as long a drive as it had been to the campus and about half an hour later they were all stood with their backpacks outside the entrance. A different leader to the one who had spoken in the bus stepped to the front this time.
“Those of you who are not going to do the bike ride are going to come with me. As we’re all going to be meeting here after we’re done, the temple will be our last stop. Our first stop will be some of the tourist places here so we can get souvenirs. Will that be okay with everyone?” There was a quiet muttering amongst those at the back of the group, Keira included, and he seemed to take this as a positive response. They then split off and began their walk across the city. Naima took this as an opportunity to do more talking.
“So Keira! What are you hoping to get? I’m probably going to get a few snow globes, maybe a post card for Mum, keyrings for friends…”
“I’ll get a few things for Morgan and Iris, and a fridge magnet for Grandma Harriet, but not much else. At least for other people.”
“Okay. Why fridge magnets for your Grandma? Does she have a really nice fridge?”
“Grandad Euan used to get a fridge magnet from wherever he travelled to with work so she’s ended up with quite a collection. Me and my cousins still get her some when we travel, even got her a magnetic board she can hang up in her room at the home for her last birthday.”
“So she doesn’t even have a fridge.” Keira gave Naima a deadpan look before speeding up her walk a bit. The question wasn’t entirely unappreciated as it got her to think along the lines of what the hell she was supposed to do. All she had was a cryptic piece of paper and an ever increasing urge to stab the fey. While she had faith in her deciphering abilities, she doubted that the group would agree to spend half of their day in one of the biggest cities in the world to hang out at the library with her and read books. The internet had also been surprisingly useless, which meant that the cryptic piece of paper was a dead end. Keira, now having caught up to the front of the group, flagged down the leader and gestured to a shop that had caught her eye.
“I think we should look at all the sorts of stores that Memorstadt has to offer.” Keira enunciated her suggestion with the most innocent smile she could muster. The leader looked at the store labelled ‘Put out those Firearms’ and then looked back at Keira deadpan.
“You’re underage.” He said before leading the group into a much more appropriate store that had letter openers, flags and figurines on the window display. Keira skulked in after him and then began eyeing up one of the display cases in the corners. It held the same stock as the window display and Keira felt her eyes being drawn to one particular letter opener saying that is was coated in silver. While stabbing maybe less effective, it might still work the next time she ran into Gastele. Just in case.
The rest of the shopping trip went smoothly, with them only going in a few more souvenir stores and tourist spots before the focus shifted more towards cloths. Due to Keira’s pickiness with cloths she didn’t end up getting any, but Naima had found a hat she liked. She walked up to Keira holding in her hands before twirling it onto her head.
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“Look at this hat Keira! It speaks to me.”
“That would probably concern me more than anything.” Naima gave Keira the most unimpressed look she had seen that day, bringing a laugh out of her. “It does look good on you, though.”
“Thank you!” Naima smiled and dashed off to the register, leaving Keira with the few guys that had come with them at the entrance while everyone was paying. Once everyone was done with that, the group walked back to the temple in order for their quick tour.
Morsemt’s Temple followed the tradition of other Furdan temples by being a walled garden with any holy sites and building residing inside of the high walls and large gates. The group passed one of the donation booths on the way in and Naima dropped in a few coins before jogging to catch up with the people who were trailing behind. Unfortunately they didn’t have the time to fully explore the temple due to their quick tour of the city in the morning, but they did still visit the larger sites such as the buildings, stone mausoleums and the most infamous grave site. Keira thought that it was a little morbid, but it also made sense as Morsemt was supposed to be the Furdan representation of death. Eventually they got to the last stop on their tour. It was a large greenhouse at the centre of the garden that covered a large pond filled with white lotus flowers.
“This is where we’ll be meeting the people who got the bike rentals. In the meantime take a look around.”
Naima immediately grabbed Keira’s arm and dragged her over to one of the information boards that were scattered around the greenhouse. The closest one they found themselves in front of was the story of a lost man who had gotten lost in the forest. He had found a stream and followed it, believing that is would lead to a large body of water and any town that would be beside it. However, the further downstream he went, the more the fog set in and he began to realise that he had found himself in Morsemt’s domain. The man eventually found his way out again, but was still left lost in the woods for days and on the edge of insanity. Keira skimmed over it and began searching for some of the more obscure stories, though most of them she knew already and most of them included Moresmt’s opposite, the Black Asp. It wasn’t given a name as according to those practising Furdanism it claimed that it was the part of Morsemt that held all of the cruelty and misery of death that was often missing from the stories that talked about ferrying the dead.
Keira stopped in front of an information board that held a particularly nice drawing of a lotus flower with ink running off of it’s petals creating a stream of black. This continued down the edge of the board where it slowly took the shape of a snake. She already knew the story, as it was the most well known one, but that didn’t stop Naima grabbing her arm and starting on an explanation anyway.
“This one is on Morsemt’s birth. I did some research on the type of information this place would have and the sort of background behind the stories. For example, this one is thought to be one of the earliest to come around, though it’s hard to tell since ancient Furdans didn’t keep records.”
“If you did research before coming here, why are you reading these?”
“I wanted to show and talk about them with you. And I know that you know some of these myths, but maybe you don’t know the historical detail surrounding them. Or the nice pictures they have attached.”
“I have to admit, that is the nicest depiction of the Black Asp I have seen.” Naima beamed in response. “Give me a second while I read through this then.” Keira couldn’t help but feel awkward as Naima watched her skim over the information, and as she was nearing the end, her reading was interrupted.
“So? Spot anything interesting?”
“I find the history behind the stories more interesting than the stories themselves, especially in how they have been preserved throughout the years. Usually there are fluctuations in the stories depending on the culture at the time or the sort of morals they wanted to push, but this one has stayed almost exactly the same through even empires.”
“Well some stories can stay the same.”
“They really don’t, not to the extent that this one has. Through all iterations it has remained fact that Morsemt and the Asp came to the mortals at the same time, which was when the first human died. It has remained that the Asp takes care of the violent business that Morsemt doesn’t want to attend to personally and that Morsemt eventually gives his body to house the souls of the dead.”
“You sure know your stuff!” A cheerful voice cut in from behind her. They both turned to see a man walking towards them. He was dressed far to nicely to be in what was essentially a garden with a neat waistcoat over a shirt, slick clack hair and tinted sunglasses that hid his eyes. Keira began to move away, reaching out to grab Naima who had a suddenly thoughtful look on her face. “Always good to know that the youngsters are educated in Morsemt’s sacrifice. And that the boards weren’t a waste of money.”
“Right… Uh- we’re going to get going…”
“Don’t be like that!” He cut Keira off and then took an expensive looking phone out of his pocket. “It’s been a while since I’ve visited. So naturally, I was just asking if you could take a photo of me.”
“Um…” The man unlocked the phone and then practically threw it at Keira, who caught it with a little fumbling to stop it from breaking. When she looked on the screen however, she noticed that it wasn’t open on the camera app. Instead it was open on a note that read ‘I’m here from Gastele. Keep an eye out and we’ll meet at your earliest convenience.’ Keira looked back up at the man who raised an eyebrow above the sunglasses.
“Well? What are you waiting for?” Keira quickly opened the camera app and snapped a shaky photo. Then she shoved the phone back into the man’s hands and went to grab Naima’s hand to drag her away. Naima resisted however, her concentrated face dropping into one of recognition.
“I know you. You’re the guy who runs the AnnointAllure thing! The scammer!” The man grinned at this and titled his head towards them.
“Guilty as charged. The name’s Kheka, if we ever run into each other again.” Keira couldn’t see his eyes, but she felt that if she could he would be looking directly at her. She swallowed dryly.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Then she finally managed to usher Naima away from him and back towards the entrance where they were going to be meeting with the other group. Keira spared a look behind her and paled when she saw that the man wasn’t there anymore. Naima didn’t say anything when she felt Keira pick up the pace.