I stared at the fires at the bottom of the stairs, unsure what to do next. Fortunately for me, it seemed things were happening on their own as I saw a few of the white-robed men and women stare at the blue flames before hurrying inside the temple. I noticed the guards still not moving.

Momentarily, a young white-robed woman with light blonde hair, indiscernible from the other priests, appeared on top of the stairs and slowly walked down. Her eyes were on me, but I couldn’t spot fear in them. In fact, she had a small smile on her lips, which surprised me. At the same time, I lowered myself so Cellestra could step off. She walked up next to me and waited for the priestess to make her way down.

“Welcome,” The priestess said warmly as she took the last few steps. “I am the head priestess of this temple.” She turned her head to one of the roaring flames before turning it back to us.

“I can see the goddess is eager to speak to one of you. I assume you’ve come this way to talk to her, correct?”

I nodded. “As you can see, I have some… questions.”

“Naturally,” She replied before turning around. “If you’ll follow me then. I’ll get preparations on the way right away. I would dislike invoking the goddess’s ire for making her wait, after all.”

This seemed to be going better than I’d expected. No weird questions about what I was, who I was. I wondered what she meant about the goddess’s ire, though. Elysa didn’t seem to be the type to get angry quickly. Then again, I hadn’t seen too much of her to know for certain.

It did sound a bit ominous to invoke her ire…

I looked at Cellestra for a second while the white-robed elf walked back up the stairs. She nodded briefly which was exactly what I needed at the time. We then followed the head priestess as she led us inside the large structure.

I cast a glance at the guards with my spider eyes but noted that they still had not moved. It was almost as if they were statues, even though I knew they weren’t.

The inside of the temple was surprisingly sober. The colorful stained glass windows were about the only thing that seemed to breathe life into this otherwise grey building. Simple wooden benches were placed in rows to either side of a walkway in the middle, facing a stone altar which we were moving towards.

Some of the priests were still sitting on the benches, lost in prayer, but most of them seemed to have disappeared. There was a door to the far right in the wall behind the altar through which I saw some movement. I assumed there was another large room behind there where all the priests had gone.

“Please wait here a second,” The priestess said as we reached the altar. She then walked behind it and pulled up a large golden bowl which she placed on the stone altar. She then walked towards the door and entered the room behind it.

“So far so good, indeed,” Cellestra commented.

“It seems your knowledge about all this is accurate,” I said. “It’s like I am… welcome here.”

Cellestra nodded. “As I said before. It’s extremely rare that Elysa makes it known that she wants to talk to a person. Usually, it’s people requesting the ritual only for it to fail because the goddess does not wish to talk to them.”

“That sounds harsh.”

“Expensive too.”

“Wait, do I have to pay?” I frowned at the elf. “I had not accounted for that.”

Cellestra shook her head. “In your case, no. When the ritual is successful, it’s free.”

“Sounds like a gamble to me.”

“It is, more or less.”

I rubbed my temples as I focused on the questions I wanted to ask the goddess. I wanted to know where my parents were. A way to get rid of Cellestra’s curse, and what the reason was for the curse that was placed on me, and who did it.

That made me think. Even if I knew who did it, what would I do with that information?

My train of thoughts got interrupted as the priestess returned with a woven bowl of all kinds of herbs, leaves, and dried flowers. She carefully placed each one of the items in the large bowl on the altar and then looked at the two of us before her eyes settled on me.

“Elysa wished to speak to you, you mentioned?”

I nodded.

“Alright,” She said as her face turned to a serious expression as she held up her arms above the container of ingredients. “Please hold your head above the ritual bowl.”

Cellestra took a few steps back as I did as instructed. I leaned my head over the plant materials and noted the strong minty scent coming from them. Then, the priestess retracted her hands as I suddenly saw blue flames erupt beneath me. I panicked for a second as they engulfed my face, but… it didn’t burn. Rather, it was pleasantly warm. It made me feel… sleepy.

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The next I knew, I found myself in Elysa’s realm once more. The strange thing about it this time was that I stood there, in front of her desk, with my current body.

I only experienced a brief moment of confusion before my eyes rested on the goddess who smiled at me.

“Kealyna, my child. I’m glad you chose to talk to me. I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”

I shrugged. “Just a few, actually.”

“Doesn’t surprise me, seeing as it’s you. Before you ask anything. I’d like to know how you are doing.”

I wanted to ask where I was first. I somehow had a hard time believing I was back in her realm. I decided I’d answer her question first.

“I’m okay, I guess. Besides a rough start, I think I’ll be fine going forward.”

Elysa sighed. “I’m… relieved to hear that. As I said in my message to you, I’m unable to reverse the curse completely. As you are now is how you’ll stay I’m afraid.”

I nodded. “It’s okay. I can live like this.”

“Now as for your questions, I am sure one of them is where we are right now. You are not actually here with me in my realm, this time. This is just an illusion I’m projecting into your mind, with the help of the ritual, so that we can talk.”

I nodded again.

“I guess you already know the first question I would like to ask.”

“Where you ended up, right? Or rather, where your parents are.”

Elysa took a deep breath and sighed. “I’m afraid there is a bit of an issue in that regard. Before I answer that, I need to make something clear. I have found out who was behind the events when I was about to reincarnate you. As I had suspected, it was Hograd. As for reasons, I do not know… yet. However, in order to protect your parents from his influence, I have not followed them.”

I raised my eyebrows. I didn’t quite know what she was on about.

“What I mean to say is,” Elysa continued. “If I were to track them, I think Hograd would eventually find out. While he cannot interfere in your current world directly, he could still instruct underlings to do something. Do you see what I mean?”

I didn’t know what to say.

“I can tell you where I had initially placed them, but I cannot promise they are still there.”

It seemed this wasn’t going to be easy, after all…

“They are in a small settlement called Thymhil, far away from you in a province called Len Asari.”

“How about their memories of me? Do they know I’m looking for them?”

“They don’t know about you,” Elysa said suddenly, which caused shock to run through me. “At least, not yet. I have placed a memory lock on them… call it a slight curse. As soon as they see you, the curse will be dispelled and their memories of you, at least from before their deaths, will return.”

“So they don’t remember their deaths?”

The goddess shook her head. “No. If you wish to talk to them about that, that’s up to you.”

Elysa stared into my eyes once more. “If you have another question, I suggest you hurry up. This ritual won’t keep up forever. I have to add that you cannot undergo this ritual again for some time due to the stress on your psyche.”

I decided to hurry up as she suggested.

“I’m looking for a way to get rid of a curse on my friend. Do you know anything about how to get rid of it?”

“Cellestra, you mean?”

I nodded.

“That’s not a curse from what I can see. Even if it was, I wouldn’t be able to intervene. As I’ve said before, I cannot interfere in your world directly. I am afraid I haven’t seen anything like it before and as such, there is little I can do to help you get rid of it. For what it’s worth, the magic my blessing grants you, at least the beneficial spells it grants, seems to stop the ailment’s progress dead in its tracks.”

I was relieved to hear that. At least Cellestra’s fears wouldn’t come to pass.

After that, I could see the goddess smile and the world around me started to change shape. The colors of everything I was seeing started to blend together and I knew the time of the ritual had come to an end. I had my most immediate questions answered save for what the reason behind this interference and my curse was. I could see Elysa wave as everything started to become white.