Appo stared at the Lhugal for what seemed an eternity. He had awoken on a stone slab underneath the Lhugal’s presence. He could see the purplish night sky surrounding the black perimeter of the Lhugal. Wherever Appo was, he was outside. Were it not for the creature’s infinitesimally small heaving of its slim chest, Appo would have presumed it to be a statue.

But it was there. Completely unchanged, except it’s one piece of armament: Appo’s necklace, which now lay atop the creature’s breast.

Appo refused to move. He had not known how he had got to the slab, or who brought him here. If the Lhugal did, it had yet to harm him.

“They called it ‘The Blessing of Lowya.’ That was its first name.”

Appo allowed his eyes to follow the voice. Lowya sat at the edge of his periphery, once again taking the form of the golden-haired child. She spoke softly, holding back tears. “It could have saved them.”

Appo’s gaze fell back to the Lhugal. It remained still. He kept testing his luck, readjusting slightly with his fingers and toes. He allowed himself to swallow, clearing his throat ever so slightly.

“My blessing is what destroyed Zartoshta. And if it has escaped… it will destroy the rest of your world as well.”

Appo searched inside himself and found the courage to speak. “Does… it see me?”

Lowya looked up at the Lhugal. “Yes,” she whispered. “But he is not scared.”

“Why?”

“Because… I’m not scared of you.” Lowya rose to her feet, moving ever closer to both Appo and the Lhugal. Lowya placed one pale hand underneath the Lhugal’s claw, which seemed almost twice the size of hers.

Appo steadily rose his body off the slab, not keeping his eyes off the creature. “I thought you said you can’t control the plague.”

Lowya looked up at the Lhugal, her eyes still watering. “Hm. He does seem different. Like I have a say… Maybe that’s because you are here.”

“Why would that make a difference?”

“Well… you’re consecrated to me. You give me strength I haven’t had in a very long time. And since you’re the only one here in this city… that gives me a lot of say.”

Appo’s head began to work. He knew the basic principles of consecration. He knew the power of what uniform worship could give to the Gods. It was a power every civilization craved. Jyväsk thrived off its uniform worship of Atta. Ash itself had paralyzed itself by having two Gods to choose from. Appo had his doubts on how much influence it had, but to see its power demonstrated gave him an idea.

“Lowya, if me being here gives you strength, can you not control the plague as a whole?”

Lowya shook her head. “No, no, no. This place you speak of, Ash is it? Too far away. One consecration would not give me such power, at least not here. There would have to be uniformity, and a ceremony would have to take place.”

“What type of ceremony?”

Lowya reached up to the Lhugal, cradling the farthest tip of the criss-crossed pendant. “Consecrations require a few things: a blessed altar, an element of Godship, and authentic commitment on behalf of the believer. All of these must likewise be present for me to have any say. This necklace is worthy of Godship, and you are a believer, but your city’s altar is far from here. You would need to get there.”

“But if I did,” Appo said, his mind turning. “Say I found a way back and place the necklace it on their holy altar. Would my consecration be enough?”

Lowya sighed. “It would have to be uniform in the city. If anyone were to disagree or refuse, my power would not be enough.”

“What if…” Appo trailed off, thinking of the gravity of his situation. “What if there is no one left to disagree? What if there were only screamers?”

Lowya thought of it for a moment. “Maybe... The infected call to me, in their own way. If you were to guide them, maybe it could work.”

“Could you cure them?” Appo asked, fairly certain he knew the answer before he even asked. “Return them to what they once were?”

Lowya turned again to the Lhugal, cradling its claw. She shook her head.

“But you can influence them. Maybe even send them here, away from Ostior? You wouldn’t need to be alone.”

Lowya pondered the thought, remaining silent.

Appo relaxed himself, feeling as if he could have a say. “There were bad people here. I won’t even lie, there are bad people out there as well. But there is good as well. People who don’t deserve it.” Appo found the courage to stare at the immovable Lhugal. “People like him. That is who your plague is killing the most. Children don’t deserve to die.”

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Lowya turned to him, her eyes watering again. “No. No, they don’t.”

“Then help me, Goddess.”

Appo and Lowya stared in silence for a moment, each redirecting their gaze back to the Lhugal and back to each other. After a moment, Lowya’s tears receded, her face lighting up.

“You need a way back,” Lowya said.

“Yes,” Appo admitted. “I don’t have a way through the wall, either.”

“Ew! No, there’s a faster way. Much, much faster.” Before Lowya could even finish her sentence, she sprinted away, her giddiness returning in full force. “Come on! Follow me!”

Appo turned, keeping his eyes gazed on the Lhugal as it remained still at the edge of the slab. He backed away, keeping his eyes trained on it before putting space between them.

Appo quickly discovered he had been on the top terrace of the middle pyramid. He was almost a hundred meters in the air. Appo felt winded even walking, though he figured it could have just easily been his fear and exhaustion as it was the thin air. He followed Lowya through a spiral staircase and even more corridors, passing degraded statues and untouched murals. He also passed a daisy or two, keeping a far greater distance than he had earlier in the day.

Eventually, Lowya led Appo to a grand hall. Like the terrace, the outer wall of the pyramid was completely open, showing the Eivettä in all its glory. From this height, Appo swore he could even see the dunes of the Rust Waves from here.

But this room was different. At the wall facing the pyramid center was a grand podium, behind which were several hundred metal-plated gears. The gears overlaid each other, forming a mosaic that took up much of the massive wall. Several plated bronze metal pieces extended from the walls, holding interlocked mirrors. It was a magnificent display of engineering; Appo had seen examples of gears forming together to create astrolabes or calendars, but never before had he encountered something so intricate.

On the ground of the grand podium was a relief, with multiple etchings of Shadeonite speech carved into it. After a few seconds of making sense of the sight, Appo realized that it was entire map of the Eivettä. Quickly recognized the western Fincur mountains and the Thorne River, along what the city of what he knew to be Zabukama. The multitude of cities that filled the desert space astounded him, he wondered how many had been buried by time.

“What is this place?” Appo asked.

“The Room of the Jaunt!” Lowya exclaimed. “The Lhugals used this all the time!”

“To do what, exactly?”

“Well, the Zartosht had many cities to go to, right? Their Lhugals had all the power, so they personally had to bless the many Temples. Well, that would take forever and ever, right? Going from one city to the next! That’s all they would ever do!”

Appo continued to look over the massive structure as she spoke, trying to make sense of it all. “I’m listening.”

“Eventually they created the Jaunt! It allowed them to travel from one city to the next in an instant! It could only take one person, but it took a lot of time and energy!”

After everything Appo had seen, he had very little room left for skepticism, but Lowya still managed to find some. “And how did they do that?” he asked.

“They weren’t just engineers!” Lowya said, excitedly. “They had many powerful Magi! All this machine did was focus its energy and redirect it towards somewhere else!”

“Huh. I wish we had that,” Appo said, thinking back to Tomi. She would have been amazed by it all.

“No problem! With my help, I’ll get you there in no time! I always used to sneak the Lhugals away to some of the quieter cities at night. Their families never liked it, always keeping them inside all the time.”

Appo took it all in. The gears were rusted, but nothing made it seem as if the machine was inoperable. He understood little about magic, but wondered what he would uncover if he stayed in this city. Or what discoveries he could have made with time. Even with his few conversations with Lowya, he had to reconsider so much about what he thought he knew about disease. He wished he could sit here and chat with her, answering any questions he could conjure. How many others would have such a privilege?

But now was not the time. For the first time since he left Ash, he had a plan.

“Where will this take me, exactly?” Appo asked.

“No matter what, it always took us inside a Temple. None as nice as this one, but the rooms all looked the same. Lots of statues wherever we went.” Lowya giggled at the memories. “People were always scared when we just showed up!”

The answer concerned Appo. There was no telling who would be at the Temple, or how they would react to his arrival. If screamers were wandering around, they would kill him instantly. And neither had even considered the fact that this machine still worked; what if it killed Appo outright?

“No,” Appo said to himself. “This is the only way.”

Lowya adjusted a jangled mess of gears as Appo peered through the map of the Eivettä. It was difficult to find Ash, for the Thorne had changed significantly in the last few centuries. But after some searching, there was only one city that lay between a cliff face, one that would have been on the north side of the Thorne. At one point, the Temple would have been right along the riverbanks. As Appo pointed it out, Lowya made the necessary adjustments, angling the mirrors right on the center of the massive podium.

Appo looked out over the city one last time. He realized what it was, a truly haunted place smothered by fog he could no longer perceive. He wondered what was real: Zabukama when he arrived, or Zabukama as he now saw it. Regardless of the truth, the effects of the Screaming Plague remained. He could not let that happen to Ostior.

“Hey.” It was Lowya, standing behind Appo. She held Appo’s necklace in her hands. “Don’t forget this. You can’t do the consecration without it.”

“Oh,” Appo said, taking it from her. He wondered how she had gotten it off of the Lhugal. “Thank you.”

“So you never figured out who I was? This isn’t your sister or daughter or anything like that?”

Appo turned, trying his best to recognize the girl. “I’m sorry. I would have remembered hair like that, for sure.”

“Hmph,” Lowya pouted. “I wish I knew. I like how happy she makes me. Even when she’s sad, she’s not really sad, you know?”

Appo smiled, resisting the natural urge to pat the Goddess’s head. “I truly hope so.”

Both Lowya and Appo took their place on the podium. Appo stood back, watching as the massive mirrors angled towards him, placed between him and the iridescent moon above him. Lowya placed her hands on stone columns nearby. As she did, beams of light illuminated her arms, traveling down the columns and into the ground. A great grinding noise echoed through the terrace. Appo’s hair stood up, as did Lowya’s, her golden hair flashing outward in great bursts.

Appo looked at Lowya one last time. As the energy dispersed into the ground, Appo looked ever closer at her face. Her bright blue eyes seemed just slightly younger now. She smiled, and Appo realized that he had never gotten a look at her teeth, still young and crooked. He was unsure why, but right then and there it all clicked.

“Oh,” Appo said. “I remember who you were.”

A great beam of light enveloped Appo and he vanished in an instant.