Maura found herself sitting on the couch next to Amelia as Eric and Chief Carter sat in the chairs facing them. She had been zoning out, still a little stuck in the sudden dashing of her dreams but her mind was beginning to work again and she began to parse the words being said.

“... seemed like some locals - not Khersi. The weapons they used and the things they said… I think that they were told that we would be heading to the wholesaler and laid a trap for us. I didn’t recognise any of them, at any rate.” Eric finished saying.

Maura cleared her throat and everyone looked at her. Before she could speak, Amelia hugged her a bit harder with the arm around her shoulders.

Amelia asked, “How are you, Maura? You looked a little stunned.”

Maura closed her eyes tight and shook her head a little for a moment to line her thoughts back up, then took a deep breath and responded, “I’m… alright. Not really, but I wasn’t hurt. I should go and treat Jerome, but before that I wanted to say that one of the men, the first one I hit with a rock, was a mage with a scrying spell anchored to him. The spell was disrupted when I hit him with the rock. I’m not sure what that means, but they seemed to want me yet didn’t know what I looked like. Maybe because I worked expensive healing on people? I hope they don’t know anything else.”

Amelia had a pinched expression on her face as Chief Carter coughed and spoke up. “Well. That’s good information to have, but I don’t think it will help us immediately. Maura, you go help Jerome and we’ll take care of everything else. What supplies did you still need from the city? We can get someone else to go and make the order for us while we keep all of our tribe in the camp.”

Maura nodded and said, “The only thing I’m missing is parchment, chalk, and blank books. I could possibly bind books myself, but that would take a lot of time and I already have a lot to write. I could use at least one large crate of chalk in sticks for writing, a large number of blank paper, and maybe… fifty blank books? I probably won’t be able to write that fast, but that should last me into the summer, easily.”

As she was talking, she realized that she was shaking a little bit, but her mind was stuck in a strange spot between scared, relieved, and combat. She moved to stand up to go to the healing tent and check on Jerome as it was something that she could focus on, but Amelia held her down for a moment.

She looked into her eyes with kindness and understanding and said, “Maura, know that it is alright to be out of sorts after what happened, but I want you to know that this isn’t your fault. You did the right thing. Go help out Jerome and then come right back here, alright? Once we’re done, I’ll come find you if you aren’t back already.”

That relaxed Maura a bit and she looked into Amelia’s eyes and gave her a little smile and nod. Amelia smiled back and helped her stand from the couch. As she was leaving the tent, she realized that her clothing was still muddy and she had probably gotten a little on the couch, but she forced herself not to worry about it for now and began to move towards the healing tent.

The camp was a hive of activity with people moving around and checking the perimeter. When they had come back to camp they had just issued a general alarm and had some runners from other tribes head into the city to call back any of Frozen River that were missing. There were only a few people, and Maura knew that most were probably in the Khersi camp as opposed to the city, but people were worried.

She kept her head down and moved quickly to the medical tent. One of the camp guards was standing at the tent flap holding a javelin and keeping an eye out. Maura made eye contact for a moment before he nodded to her and moved away from the entrance.

When she entered the tent Jerome was lying on a cot with his armor and pants removed. Celia and Perry had helped him into the tent, but they had already left by the time Maura arrived.

She moved over to kneel at his side and was happy to see his eyes open. He was obviously in pain, but at least he hadn’t lost too much blood, though he was pale.

She said, “Jerome, I’ll only take a few minutes to get ready and then we can get you patched up. Just rest for now and try to relax.”

He grunted an affirmative and she stood up to move towards the supplies. She tripped a little on her dress and there was a moment of fury that popped into her head. She corrected her stumble and almost began to rip her dress off, but realized at the last moment that it wasn’t the dress she was mad at, specifically, just the situation.

She was much more familiar with the healing tent now than she had been at first. Some of her tools were already on the shelves that she had reorganized and she had used it multiple times to diagnose or treat other members of the clan over the last week. As she picked up a small metal pot and placed some tools and water in to bring to a quick boil, her mind was beginning to mull over what she knew.

The last week and a half had been a rollercoaster for her. From the moment the magical flare lit up the sky her whole life had changed. She could barely recognise anything about her new situation. She was currently in strange clothing in a strange tent surrounded by strange people, noise, smells, without a monster in sight and a much faster pace of life. She was feeling overwhelmed by everything happening, especially at the speed in which her life was changing.

It wasn’t so bad on the journey here as she worked on her presents and learned from Amelia for the most part, but now that they were near the city it felt like the action felt never ending.

Her dreams of what it would be like to find people and civilization had been dashed in almost every way and she was feeling a bit depressed about everything. She had hoped to find a grand place of safety and culture where she could learn new things and teach or heal without issues. What she found instead was a complicated mess of different people barely working together.

She finished cleaning her hands and preparing her equipment by the time she had thought through her journey so far. She wasn’t ready to speculate on what had happened in the last day or what it could mean yet. She would probably need to talk to Amelia about it all to understand anything anyway.

As she removed the bandages and began to clean Jerome’s leg she was able to push back all of those intrusive thoughts and focus on healing. Healing, she had found, was something that she truly loved and enjoyed. She could lose herself in the simple yet involved process of diagnosing a body and working on issues.

There was almost never anything surprising about what she found while healing, but it was a nice puzzle sometimes to find all of the issues and the best methods to get from where they currently were to an optimal solution. Her soul felt at peace and the distractions and strange feelings fell away as she lost herself in a process that she truly enjoyed.

Before she knew it, she was finishing up the last suture and gently healing Jerome’s leg. He had actually managed to fall asleep due to the combination of the local anesthetic, the quiet and warm tent, and his exhaustion. She felt a little bad that he would need to wake up soon to eat something, but she could leave instructions with the guard outside so he could at least get a little nap in.

As Maura began to clean up all of her tools and boil the fouled bandages she took a moment to simply stand near the fire and think.

She was talented at self reflection after her years alone, but hadn’t really taken a moment in the last week to really think about her situation. She had been riding high on an emotional wave and was so optimistic about the future while simultaneously terrified and skittish, but now people were dead and Frozen River was being targeted. Amelia said it wasn’t her fault, but that was objectively false.

If Maura hadn’t been here, then they wouldn’t be having these issues. On the other hand, if Maura left now or was taken, then things would most likely get much worse. Amelia and Chief Carter had taken a gamble on bringing Maura under their protection, but they were looking to the future and had grand plans. Maura herself only wanted to live and be near people, and teach.

As her mind moved in slow circles, she decided that she really was in the best place for her to be right now. If she had thought of the consequences, or more accurately had even been aware of the possibilities, then it might have been possible to change something before entering the city. In her ignorance and trust in the Carters she had brought strife to the people she cared about, but it was also their decision to do so. Yes, five people were now dead, but their actions were not something that either Maura or the Carters could claim credit for.

Was it her fault when a monster attacked her? Was it her fault when the snow fell? No, she just had to train herself in how to properly deal with those situations. With this realization, Maura finally felt some closure in the wound in her heart. It was not her fault, as Amelia said, but she could be doing better. She needed to learn more and be more aware of her surroundings. She was ignorant, but ignorance could be cured.

She had been focused, driven, and proactive in her time in the wilderness - it was time to bring that mindset into her current situation, at least a little bit. The truth was that there were monsters here - they were just different than she was used to dealing with.

Amelia and Chief Carter had been under the impression that she was fragile and needed to be protected, but she knew better. She had survived situations that most people alive probably wouldn’t. She was better than this. She was in a new situation and the rules had changed, but unless she wanted to learn all of her lessons the hard way like she had in the wilderness, she needed to change.

Maura took a deep breath and felt her shoulders relax. She hadn’t even known she was scrunched up or had tension in her body, but noticed it now as it was fading. She finished cleaning the bandages and hanging them to dry. She put everything away before leaving the tent and giving the guard instructions about Jerome’s diet and fluid intake.

She quickly made her way back to the main tent, much more focused and alive than she had been. She made sure to check her surroundings and tried to notice if there was anyone strange or acting suspiciously, but she honestly wouldn’t even know what that might look like. She just studied different faces and made a note about anyone she was unfamiliar with.

She forced herself to use the steps on the wagons and took extra care with her dress. It was just a new skill to learn, she decided.

She gave a quick double wrap on the post outside before she moved the flap back and entered. It was something that she had been told to do before, but kept forgetting about. It was common courtesy to let people know someone was entering but she had always wanted to stay silent.

Eric had left, but Chief Carter and Amelia were still inside talking. They looked up as she entered. Amelia gave her a kind smile, but Chief Carter seemed to realize something was different.

Maura moved to stand between them while her hand began to glow as she laid a more subtle anti-scrying ward around the tent. She then said, “I need to say something. Please listen?”

Amelia had a mild expression of surprise, but Chief Carter nodded to her as he began to pack a pipe with a curious twinkle in his eyes and said, “Of course, Maura. We’re all ears.”

Maura straightened herself and after clearing her throat began. “I think… I think I need to change. I haven’t been thinking right this last week, but I’ve been trying to learn. I’m a little overwhelmed with everything, but I can teach myself the new rules even if I don’t know them very well. Tomorrow I’d like to go to the temple and talk to the priest. I know it’ll be dangerous, but I think I need to learn to control my… trauma.

“Once I’ve done that I can stay in the camp and work on setting up the new school wagon and getting everything ready to teach new students, but I’d also like to see if there is anyone in the camps that can teach advanced mathematics like geometry and algebra. Another teacher to teach anyone who doesn’t know how to write - there’s lots of writing to learn before we even start working on runework. If I can delegate teaching those subjects to someone else it will give me more time to teach the things that only I know.

“Depending on how many new students we get, I may need my own wagon and two separate school wagons, also. There is a lot that needs to be taught before basic magic can even be begun, and there will probably be a large range of ages in students. Young people and old people won’t get along in the same classes.

“I’ll also need an assistant or maybe even two. Someone more professional and organized who can keep track of students, grades, and help me with organization and supplies. If there are scribes with good handwriting - not cursive - then we can use a few to copy the books that I write, saving even more time. They can stay in my wagon so we can all work together, perhaps.

“If we are really going to get these classes started, it is going to end up being a larger endeavor than I think you realize. I knew it would be, but I’ve been so frazzled and overwhelmed I didn’t put enough thought into it. I also don’t think I… wanted it to be. I’ve always dreamt of having a small group of people I could teach and learn with, but that’s not what we are doing, is it? We’re hopefully training the inaugural class of the Khersi’s magical corps.

“We could easily quadruple the number of supplies I was thinking of. More than that, even. I know it’ll be expensive, but this is supposed to be for the future of all of the Khersi, right? You can trade slots in the school for money or supplies we need to really make it work, especially with the larger clans. We may get some bad apples that way, but simply let them know that I can and will fail people out of the classes if I feel like it isn’t worth wasting my time on them or they are a disruption. Learning from me is a privilege, and if they squander it then they aren’t worthy of it.

“If that won’t work, I know of a few hidden caches of supplies that we could sell to other clans. There are at least ten primary feathers and a load of other things in my last camp that I harvested but didn’t need to use for my cloak.

“I think you haven’t fully appreciated your political power just yet. You are still thinking of things as you would for a smaller clan, but we have a literally invaluable resource and other clans will do almost anything to have their own trained healers and mages. We have much more leverage than we have been using. Maybe use that to help me get to the temple safely tomorrow? Or even safety for the camp in general.

“I’d also like to make sure that I have two days a week that I can do other things like teaching my hunting skills or just staying in for a day and doing my own work or healing, or I’ll probably burn out.”

Maura took a moment to breathe. Amelia and Chief Carter looked a little stunned, but were also listening intently. She realized that she had been properly speaking, not using her normal wispy near-whisper, probably for the first time since she learned better. She was a little surprised to hear her smooth light voice - it had been five years but hadn’t seemed to have changed. She had also said more today and yesterday than she had in any other month of her life. She blushed a little before she cleared her throat and continued.

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“I know it isn’t really my fault, what happened in town, but things like this will probably keep happening, so I want to make sure that I make the best use of my time. I think we should hand over the investigation to Deep Wood or something and focus our energies on the plan for the future, not reacting to what is happening but being proactive about what will.

“I’ll need to take lessons either from you, Amelia, or some other tutor on all of the things I don’t know, which is basically everything. History, culture, even how to eat in different company, what clothing is appropriate in certain situations… I don’t really know what I don’t know.

“I’m sorry to drop this all on you, but I guess I was finally shocked into really thinking about things. It’ll be a work in progress, but we may as well get it working the right way from the beginning.”

Maura’s new well of confidence had been fully drained by the end of her speech, and she found herself fidgeting and looking at her feet. She was a little worried that she had gone too far, but when she peeked a glance at the Carters, she saw proud expressions on their faces.

Chief Carter had been smoking his pipe and seemed to have been captivated by her words. He shot to his feet with a fierce gleam in his eye and began pacing back and forth after aggressively pointing his pipe stem at her as he said, “Well said, Maura. Well said! You’re right. We’ve been too passive with this whole affair. Hell! We should never have let you go into the city without a real escort in the first place! I know it was what you wanted, and we wanted to give you a nice day in the city, but we’ve been too cavalier with everything, haven’t we?

“A year from now all of the Khersi could be in a damned war with the Arcanum and here we are sitting around worrying about small things. I noticed the anti-scrying ward. We need to keep it up at all times in this tent and pretend it’s that artifact - whoever was spying on the council meeting already knows about the damned thing. Hells, we should have a larger guard and checkpoints around the camp. With so many new faces some infiltrators are going to make it in.

“We need to get you your own wagon immediately and move the ‘ward stone’ there. It should be reinforced and protected! Having you sleep in the corner of a wagon designed as a classroom?! I feel terrible for even considering it. You, Maura, are a treasure to our people, and we should be treating you as such. An assistant?! You need a damned entourage!”

At that Amelia finally coughed loudly in a way that knocked Chief Carter back a little bit. He seemed to finally notice Maura’s expression that clearly stated that she had gone too far and was now terrified again.

He flushed a bit and continued, “*Ahem* Well, maybe not that. I don’t think you would be comfortable with that, I may have gotten carried away. But bodyguards, certainly. We already know someone is after you. Let’s sit down and talk this all through. I’ll get some paper and we can make notes.”

Amelia jumped up to give Maura a comforting hug. It helped her come back from the edge of the panic attack that she was about to fall into from how aggressive she had been.

She remembered, finally, what some of the researchers and professors had been like in the college in the before times. Seeing death and realizing the situation she had found herself in had knocked rust off of those memories. She knew that everything she said was important, but it was only after she had finished that she remembered how far that kind of speaking was from who she had been while fleeing for her life.

After a few minutes, she was able to bring herself back somewhere between determined and overwhelmed. They sat and talked for hours into the night planning on the next steps. By the time she was wiggling into her bedroll she felt much better about the future, even if it was different than she had dreamed.

—

The temple was a strange building in the inner city.

To Maura it looked like someone had repurposed a theatre and tried to expertly hide it. It was a challenge to do so, as most of the buildings inside of the inner city were made from some kind of white marble that had been imported and expertly laid during the time of the Drend Republic so well that there was almost no wear from age. The newer buildings were built out of local quarry so any patches or alterations were glaringly obvious.

The temple wasn’t so bad. There were a few places that had some repair work, but it was the religious iconography that, to Maura, stood out as something new. She actually had no knowledge of any religion in her lexicon. In the before times it had been generally accepted that there either were no gods or if there had been they had died which explained the lessening of magic.

According to Cpt. Logan, who had arrived to escort her as he was off duty for the next week or so, there were five gods but only four were represented in the temple. The God of earth Ennoc, God of sky Shellah, God of the astral Juporn, and God of the hells Mineck. The fifth god was Arcanus, god of magic… though he was generally believed to be propaganda from the Arcanum, and not well hidden propaganda either.

Most ‘free cities’ like Torrine purposefully ignored that particular god as a way of reducing the political power of the Arcanum. Maura wanted to ask about cities and such, but didn’t want to sound too ignorant in front of new people.

She was currently in a large group of ten including the Captain. Eric had volunteered for escort duty, now fully geared, and there were three other Frozen River guards, plus four guards from some of the groups that wanted to join Frozen River.

According to the Khersi there were no gods but spirits that had different aspects and didn’t have names. The great spirits were things like the heavens, earth, water, wind etc. but there were many more including different aspects of magic. This was all confusing to be loaded into a single day, but she had focused on learning about the priest she was going to meet.

Priest Geoff followed Shellah who was known as a goddess of change and mercy, among other things. He was an army veteran and Cpt. Logan had sent many people who had seen too much to him for help.

Maura was very nervous about what it would be like and how many people had been brought with her for her protection. When she had woken up the morning after the long talk she felt like she had lost her mind and made a huge mistake. Her frantic garbled explanation didn’t sway the Carters one bit, and Amelia was forced to take a little extra time out of their busy day to calm her down and explain that she was right and they were proud of her, which of course just made her feel worse.

She was jumpy and worried and felt like she was walking around naked in the open now that her paranoia had morphed from wilderness only into crowds of strangers. It didn’t help that there were people watching her party moving around. She was almost certain that it was mostly because it was such a large group of armed people with only one obvious girl, but that didn’t mean that there were bad people also watching.

Safety is an illusion.

Walking into the large double doors of the temple into an obvious theatre lobby that was now a receiving room with priests offering services was nice as the city noises were muted and the area was less chaotic. Only Cpt. Logan and the Frozen River people came into the temple with her, and only Eric and the Captain would be following her deeper. She felt like it was too paranoid, but at the same time she felt vulnerable and a bit scared.

Maura followed Cpt. Logan as he wove through the crowd and towards a door. He nodded to an older priest that obviously recognised him as they moved through a few narrow hallways. They went down a set of worn stone steps into the basement or some sort of storage area.

It was cool and quiet down under the thea…er temple. Maura felt herself beginning to relax a little, but she also felt like this was a bit of a dangerous spot. Cpt. Logan moved to a final hallway to a dead end which ratcheted up Maura’s paranoia again.

He turned to her and waved down the hallway and said, “Room on the right, Maura. We’ll stay here until you’re ready to go.”

Her tiny safety blanket of Cpt. Logan and Eric was close, but she was still out of sorts as she looked down the dim hallway with a dead end. Well, there were two doors, but they were pretty obviously rooms. She forced herself to conquer her fear as she nodded to the men and walked down the hallways with her mantra running in her head.

Maura couldn’t use anti-scrying magic here, as she had had to place one on the Carter’s tent so they could coordinate the next changes they wanted to happen, but as she sensed the manasphere she realized that there was either some natural effect or other active privacy wards over the temple. That let her relax a bit as she wasn’t nearly as afraid of letting something slip. Cpt. Logan had guaranteed her that Geoff would keep everything they said under a sacred silence and he was well known as incorruptible.

She walked up to and stood at the door for a few seconds before taking a deep breath and lightly knocking on the wood. To her it sounded almost like a thunderclap in the enveloping silence of the basement, but it really wasn’t that loud.

She heard someone clear their throat and call “Come in!” from inside, so she opened the door and slid through, placing her back against the wall as she closed the door and studied the room.

It was a cozy little space filled with well padded wooden furniture and shelves. It was well lit with quite a few lamps that drove away almost all shadows and the shelves were filled with books and other personal items. Maura almost missed the person she was there to meet as she latched onto all of the books and tried to read the titles.

The room smelled of old books and incense. It had comfy rugs on the floor and even some tapestries on the walls to hold the chill of the stones at bay. All in all, the room looked exactly like she imagined her ideal nook might look if she weren’t constantly being hunted by monsters or looking for signs of life other than her own.

Priest Geoff was sitting at a desk in the corner that was facing the wall. He was an elderly man, probably sixty or seventy years old in comfortable clothes with his priest robes loosely tied. He had been writing in a book with another open before him, possibly copying something? His fingers had ink stains and he looked harmless, yet strong and healthy despite his grey hair moving towards white.

Maura caught herself ogling his books and blushed. She coughed lightly and said, “Um… hello, I’m Maura. Captain Logan said that you could maybe… help me?”

Priest Geoff turned to her which exposed his greyish eyes behind some reading glasses. He raised an eyebrow at her as he quickly studied her. He made a humming noise as he pushed his chair back a little so he could angle himself towards her.

After a moment he spoke with a soft and warm voice, “Well met, Maura. I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t fit the usual mold of people that the good captain sends my way. It’s a bit of a pleasant surprise, though also a bit disturbing judging how young you are. Come! Take a seat over here. No need to be so stiff, there’s nothing here to harm you and no one can hear anything said in this place.”

Maura blushed a little more. She was still confused about her age. Her paperwork said twelve, she thought she was five, but she was technically… old. Probably older than this temple, frankly, though not the theatre it was built from.

Shaking off the silly thoughts she slid around the room and sat in a comfy chair about halfway between the door and Geoff’s desk. The chair back faced the wall, which she thought was probably on purpose, but it was very comfortable or looked that way at any rate. She perched herself on the edge like she almost always sat and looked at Geoff while wringing her hands. She was nervous and didn’t know what to do.

Luckily, Geoff did.

He said, “Maura. That’s a very pretty name, do you know what it means?”

Maura was a little stunned before she said, “Yes. It means knowledge, though the person who told me always thought it was a bit pretentious.”

Geoff chuckled, impressed despite himself, and responded, “Tell me about her?”

Maura’s face fell a little, but she liked the memories. They were a little bitter, but she had always liked her.

She began, “Well, she was old and a bit set in her opinions… she loved very few things other than learning, healing, and music. She was a fan of comfort, but not of money, you know? I always admired that about her.”

As Maura’s voice trailed off Geoff interjected, “Where did she learn to heal? Healers are well renowned, perhaps I’ve heard of it?”

Maura scoffed involuntarily before her face crumpled a little bit more and she looked at her clasped hands. She whispered, “Drend University, Academy of Science and Medicine. She spent her whole life there and cured two types of cancer. She was never the greatest in her field, but she was very persistent. The thing that most people don’t know… or I guess didn’t know… is that she had always wanted to play music, but she was born without the ability to carry a tune. A great mind for healing, but it wasn’t her passion.”

Geoff was thoroughly confused and blindingly curious at the moment, but he was an old hand at keeping the conversation going. He simply asked, “What was her favorite song?”

Maura snapped out of her memories for a moment. Her skin flashed golden for a moment, checking the manasphere for any spells. There were only privacy wards and cold stone. Sound couldn’t even move past the doorway. She looked at Geoff and asked, “You promise not to tell anyone about what happens here?”

Geoff had originally thought he would be seeing another soldier that was in need of help untangling their emotions, but Maura was a mystery to him. He was burning with curiosity but despite that he would never betray the confidence of anyone that came to him.

He simply stated, “I swear on my soul and my god that I shall never tell anyone anything you do not wish me to, Maura. It would be an ultimate violation to come for healing and abuse that trust.”

Maura sniffed a little and said, “Well, it’s not the best oath I’ve heard, but that’s pretty good. Okay. Well, her favorite song was Ode to Fall and Ice by Delitrah Oshani… She was a great Ovoure composer, and this is how it sounds.”

Maura’s skin lit up in a mixture of green and golden lines and runes. There was a sudden swell of strings before a piano and some light brass floated into the music. They played back and forth before the woodwinds began to tell a tale of death. The brass and strings fought back but eventually not even the piano was playing and the song faded out in a melancholy tune with a hint of hope.

It was a song from a thousand years ago that had civilization not collapsed would still be a classic. It drew people into the idea of mortality and the hope that it could never end, but one should appreciate what they have, even if all is dark.

Geoff was stunned. He had never heard something so beautiful and sad in his entire life, and that was saying something. There was a mystery about this girl that he absolutely needed to solve, but he immediately recognized the deep pain and trauma, though he did not yet know where it was from.

Maura was crying golden tears as she heard the song for the first time in five years. The fact that the last time she had played it in her loneliness it had drawn that thing was overwhelmed by the fact that she was safe and she had been thinking about that old healer.

Geoff gave her a few moments before he simply asked, “Maura, if you don’t mind, could you tell me your story? I think I’d love to hear it, and I would also like to help you.”

Maura sniffled a little bit before dredging up the courage to look at the old priest. He was honestly curious and empathetic. She could read it as plain as day from his aura. It was clear to her that he probably didn’t even know how his aura was impacting the manasphere, but it was all the more potent because of that. He might be the first truly honest and selfless person she had ever met.

So Maura simply said, “Okay.”

Several hours later, Priest Geoff and Maura exited his room. Cpt Logan and Eric were looking a little worried at the end of the corridor but they relaxed when they saw them.

Geoff waved and called, “Just relocating. Nothing to worry about, gents.”

They then entered the room across from Geoff’s, which even Cpt. Logan had never been allowed to enter.

As Maura entered the pitch black room, Geoff hummed a quiet tune and golden light slid into his palm, illuminating the darkness. It was a dusty room, but it was almost completely full of strange objects covered in cloth against the elements, despite the preservation runes etched into the walls.

Geoff quietly said, “This way, my dear.” before moving deeper into the labyrinth.

After a few minutes he found what he was looking for. It seemed to be a table, albeit much taller than normal tables were set. It was covered in a dusty cloth.

Geoff turned to her and said, “Wait here for a moment, please.”

Maura nodded sheepishly as she watched the priest move to uncover the object.

He whipped the cloth off of the object, making sure not to rustle it too badly in order to keep the dust from flying.

As the cloth left the object it was revealed. Polished golden wood gleamed in the holy light. It almost looked like a table, certainly, but the shape was all wrong. There was a little stool hidden underneath the object, hiding a series of pedals. The front of wood curved in graceful lines with almost hidden hinges set at specific intervals to allow it to move clear of something it hid. It was a masterpiece of woodcrafting, from the outside, but Maura knew that there was more impressive metalworking involved than anything else.

That was how Maura found her soul healed. She stopped breathing as the joy in her soul spread throughout her entire body. She had seen some flutes and drums, especially around the campfire at night, but this didn’t belong there. This item belonged somewhere grand, and she had lost hope of seeing something like it. It definitely didn’t belong in the dusty basement of a temple, but that was almost the point.

That was how she finally found a piano.