“Here, I’ve got something…” Tobias said as he pored over the latest grimoire with the toxic green energy hanging around it.

At first, Tobias thought he wouldn’t be able to read anything in the room, but it appeared that the old acolyte had placed enchantment on his library so anyone entering the library would find the texts translated to something they could understand. Either that or the Celestial Engines had done it.

“This appears to be a treatise on the Qlippothic Realm itself, its powers, everything,” he said as he brought the book over to a large table and laid it out in front of them. “The Qlippothi were once Asai but Asai of an older order of the universe. They were gods, but then the newer, younger Asai turned up and overthrew them…”

“Out of chaos came light,” Sister Alharrow said darkly. “Just as in every creation myth, but go on.”

“And, well, those original ‘qlippothic Asai’ were all defeated, and it says that their soul-stuff was used to make the Celestial Engines themselves and give the Asai their power!”

“No wonder they’re pretty annoyed…” Alharrow commented.

“Indeed. But not them, as they’re dead—if you can ever really kill a god, I suppose—but that’s the whole point. This qlippothic energy runs through the engines, and so, over the eons, some had tried to use that energy like ju-ju juice,” Tobias said.

“I have no idea what that is.” The Lycan frowned.

“It’s a purple berry we had back on Verda, very sweet and makes you feel so strong and drunk that you usually end up in very stupid situations with fewer of your clothes than you had before,” Tobias said.

“Ah, I see, yes. We Lycans know of—and occasionally use—a mushroom that does something similar.”

“Those Asai and their servants who found this hidden current of qlippothic energy and used it to ascend became Qlippothi themselves, you see. They formed a breakaway faction, hoping to reinstate the original realm of the qlippothic gods with them in charge. But here’s the thing…” Tobias leaned forward. “The qlippothic energy is like that juice in the celestial system. It tears it up, gives it tremendous power, but is likely to explode, eat away at everything it touches. Only the most powerful, or the least wise, would ever dare to use it.”

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“And why Finn had to have enchantments to even travel to the Qlippothic Realm to save his sister.” Alharrow nodded.

Tobias also nodded, but his expression suggested he felt like there was something no one was getting here. “It states here that the qlippothic energy is in the system. It is in the hearts of the Asai. It says that some of our Asai have to be corrupted by it!”

Sister Alharrow snarled at the mere suggestion. Maybe that was why the Celestial Engines were so predicated on struggle and bloodshed.

But what could they do about it? They couldn’t very well go around interrogating and accusing the gods of the system.

What if her own powers were based on the Qlippothi in some way? Was there any way of knowing?

“This is very severe business, and it may change the entire way we think about how we deal with Esther, but for now, I have found this.” She brought forth her own stack of scrolls and unwound the largest one. It appeared to show concentric circles across a large space, stacking to form a strange, wobbled column.

“That looks like the symbol of the engines themselves?” Tobias said, and Alharrow nodded.

“They do not have names, but I believe these to be the Elder Realms. This must be more of a plan than a living document, as a New Zone is surely added to the bottom.” She tapped to the bottom oval. Her finger moved to small squiggles of symbols, some matching, going up and down through the realms. Some were elemental signs.

“I think that the acolyte was mapping out the most powerful elemental shrines, which is why he came to be here in the first place—to steal the soul stuff of the First Vampire.”

Her finger moved from waving lines of water to a spiral of air, a stylized flame, and finally to a solid square.

“Earth,” Tobias and Sister Alharrow said immediately.

She traced her finger up all the Earth Shrines, where they appeared in the different circles.

“Each of these shrines almost form a ladder, you see. And this one…” She tapped one that was several planes above theirs. When Tobias squinted at it, he could see that there was even a little stylized tree.

“This has to be the Oldtree. I believe that if we can make it our Earth Shrine in this New Zone, then there will be a portal or a way to ascend to the next, and the next.” The Lycan walked her finger up the shrines until it got to the Oldtree.

They had found it. The best chance to heal Esther of the qlippothic power.