Dawn’s light shone through his windows, little motes of dust dancing in the air. John made pizza for breakfast. He remembered the sad times he’d had frozen pizza for breakfast in his previous life. To John now, those days seemed like paradise. He didn’t have to worry about demons and monsters and murderers and whatnot, only his next paycheck.

His mind began to play devil's advocate. He had magic in this life. Magic! Things were boring in his previous life. Now, danger and excitement stalked his every footstep. Demons and murderers, he could handle them. Paradise was a state of mind. He just needed to change his thoughts to step into it.

“What’s the matter with you?” Relar asked, collecting a plate of jelly from the food dispenser.

“Nothing,” said John.

“What are you eating?”

“It’s called pizza. Do you want some?” he asked with his mouth full.

“Is this the food the Bright Ones eat?” Relar cautiously took a bite and then spat it out in disgust.

“How can you not like pizza?” Relar’s taste buds must have been spoiled from eating too much jelly. Pizza was the most wonderful thing he'd had in a long time. It was like a slice of heaven, a precious beacon from a past covered by darkness, a cheesy and nutritious ambrosia for the senses.

“Is it really food?” Relar’s eyes began to shine green as he took a call. “Teacher hailed me. There’s been another murder,” he told John. “We have to go.”

“Who died?”

“Another priestess. This time in the temple.”

John grabbed a slice of pizza and followed Relar to the speeder. “I had a weird dream last night. Do you think this could have been done by the goddess herself?” He still felt a little creeped out by the dream. The goddess was definitely not the lovable deity Il Vara had made her out to be. Every mention of her made John's palms sweat. He had no idea why he was feeling this way. Maybe it was just human instinct. Maybe he was psychic. Maybe he had some link with this goddess that had been established after meeting her priestess.

“It can't be Inashta doing this. The goddess is asleep,” Relar shook his head.

“What if she is waking up?” The man in his dream had been sure that the goddess would soon awaken.

“Crossing the veil requires great energy. It creates all sorts of phenomena that can be seen far and wide. We have had no reports of such things. The murderer is probably someone with a grudge against the cult. The second murder makes it clearer.”

“What will you do when you find the murderer?” asked John.

“Capture him of course.”

“Not kill him? Don’t you want revenge for Il Vara?” If the love of his life had been killed, John would want revenge.

“We are carrying out our duty and I will not let personal emotions get in the way.” Relar was a good person, thought John. Perhaps he was too good, which was why Il Vara rejected him.

They reached the temple and examined the body. It was the same as Il Vara’s, multiple stab wounds made by a chu dagger. The stab to her heart had killed her.

“The murderer is getting bolder to kill in the temple,” said Relar. He turned to one of the priestesses, “Did anyone see or hear anything strange last night?”

The priestess shook her head, “Fanta closed the doors to prepare for the ritual. She was all alone. None of us saw or heard her after she left us,” the priestess began to weep.

“To go in and out unseen...He probably used Il Vara’s camouflage bracelet,” said John. He was obsessed with the bracelet. If only he could have one of his own.

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“She struggled to get out of his hold,” said Relar examining the corpse. “What luck! We can finally catch him. There’s flesh under her fingernails and blood on her lips. She must have bitten him.” Relar went to talk to the priestesses and came back with crystal bottles. “You don’t want to know what they use these for.” Relar placed one bottle near her fingers and the other near her mouth. He used his elemental space weaving to move the flesh to one bottle and the blood to another.

“What now?” asked John.

“We’ll go to the medical center and analyze the DNA. After that we just have to match it with the database. Every elf’s DNA is stored in the root way. Yours is too now.”

“You mean it’s all public domain?” That was dangerous. What if someone bio constructed a virus against him.

“You use strange words,” Relar pondered his meaning. “The elven public can view this data storage whenever they wish.”

The DNA was soon analyzed and Relar began to search the root way. In just a few minutes they had their answer to the mystery.

“Fireniel,” said Relar. “Why would he do something like this?”

“Who’s Fireniel?”

“He’s calm and quiet, rarely goes out of his house. Doesn’t make trouble.”

“He sounds just like a serial killer. He raises all the flags. What else does he do?”

“He enjoys reading ancient books and manuscripts. They’re the only things that will get him talking. Let’s go visit his house.” Relar obtained the coordinates of Fireniel’s house and they left in the speeder.

“Fireniel,” Relar shouted while persistently hailing the entrance. “It’s your good friend Relar. I’ve come to talk about a book I found.” There was no answer.

“I’ll just blow open the door,” said John.

“That will alert him.”

“We’ll just have to catch him quickly.”

John summoned a fireball and threw it at the door. It exploded, bits of shrapnel spraying out everywhere.

“You should have used less aura,” Relar complained, his aura shield buzzing as it stopped the spray of metal.

“I’ll remember that next time.”

Relar and John stormed into the house, each checking a room as quickly as they could. No luck. It seemed that their quarry wasn’t at home.

“Come here,” said Relar, staring into one of the rooms. John looked in and saw a library. Books were strewn on the floor in a mess, and there was writing on the walls, blood red. The letters were of various sizes, and each word looked like some lopsided mess. ‘The Sleeping Goddess will soon awaken.’ These were the same words he’d heard in his dream. John knew it! He'd become a psychic. What other powers would he gain? Did it only work with followers of the Sleeping Goddess?

“Who dares defile my temple,” John heard a voice coming from behind him. He tried to dodge but there wasn’t enough time. He felt sharp pain as a dagger pierced his side. He should have phased. John hadn’t thought of using that power during his moment of panic.

“Fireniel,” shouted Relar, “put down the dagger. Let’s talk.”

Fireniel laughed madly as he activated the camouflage bracelet blending into his surroundings.

“Use your perceiver circuit,” Relar shouted. His words were unnecessary. John had activated it as soon as Firaniel used his bracelet. He could see the aura surrounding Firaniel sweeping towards him once more. John kicked at the figure and Relar lunged forward, and pinned Firaniel to the floor. He plucked the bracelet off Firaniel’s arm and threw it away.

John came forward, aura blade at the ready in case Relar lost his hold.

“Why did you do it?” Relar asked.

Firaniel cackled and then suddenly stopped, with a look of reverence on his face, “I have seen the dreams of the Sleeping Goddess. She instructed me through them. No, no, no...I am her loyal servant, loyal, loyal, loyal.” Firaniel cackled again. “She has shown me the true Way. She, she, she… speaks through me, feels feels through me, acts through me, and I feel her. I am, I am a god.” Firaniel laughed madly.

John felt a sudden sense of foreboding. A strange power was welling up inside Firaniel. It wasn’t aura, but something like it. The power was extremely dangerous, larger in magnitude than John's aura reserves by several times, and unstable.

“She comes,” the mad elf screamed.

John cut Firaniel’s throat, the spray of blood splashing his face.

“You!” Relar shouted, glaring at John. “Why did you do that?”

John rubbed his eyes, “He was possessed. Sor Al said to kill the possessed without mercy. He was about to blast us with some new power. I could feel it.”

“He might have been possessed, but not by a demon.”

“Demon, goddess, what’s the difference? He was no longer in control of himself. I told you, some strange power was being channeled through him. He was tricking us into letting down our guard by talking. Don’t fall prey to these little tricks.” He repeated the words Sor Al had spoken to him on the Swift Retribution when she killed Edrach.

“We could have dealt with it. I was ready for anything. There was no need to kill him. Teacher would have wanted to study his mind. If he was only mad he could have been cured.”

John felt no remorse. “The strange power was too much for us to handle. Anyway, it’s too late for that now. Let’s go report to Sor Al and finish this up.”

“We’ll tell her it was self defense,” said Relar. "It will make things less complicated."

Relar was a good person.