Seline crossed her arms, eyes narrowed in thought.
"Think carefully what we want to ask? Was it a warning or an advice?"
Kaelyn rubbed her temples, exhaustion plain on her face.
"Probably testing if we'll ask the right questions."
Fengyu remained silent, staring at the floor.
Mokai just sat there clearly done for the day.
"If the Temple is involved in… whatever this is… what exactly is it?"
He looked at them annoyed at his own incapability to comprehend.
Fengyu finally spoke, his voice quieter than he intended.
"We also need to know what they expect from us now. What they plan to do with us."
Would the Temple decide they knew too much? And then what? A heavy silence settled over them.
"We need to rest," Kaelyn said finally. "Clear our heads. Tomorrow, avoid voicing any suspicion towards the Temple."
No one argued. One by one, they withdrew to their pavilions.
Fengyu stepped into his pavilion.
It wasn't truly his - nothing here belonged to him - but it felt… home.
Servants had already prepared a bath, steam curling gently from the washing room in the corner. A fresh set of temple robes was neatly folded beside it, simple and unadorned.
The quiet efficiency of the Temple was something… grounding.
The bath was steaming.
Fengyu hesitated.
Unsure how to conceal the shimmering mark on his skin. He tried once more to shake it off. To no avail. Just as he glanced around, searching for something to cover it while he bathed, a crawling sensation prickled against his senses and there was a flicker of movement. His eyes snapped to the pile of freshly laid towels, just enough to caught a glimpse of the beast slithering between the folds.
"Guardian Fengyu," somebody called from outside. "I am the temple physician. Guardian Kaelyn said, you developed some kind of a rush. Would you mind me having a look?"
Kaelyn being so thoughtful?
He looked at this right forearm.
Now that the creature had left, there were countless scratch marks visible on his skin. The damn lizard did not protect him from self-harm, but it could easily pass for a rash.
The physician came in and examined his arm, deeming it harmless. It was simply an irritation, easily treated. A salve was applied, cool against his skin, before the man departed without further fuss.
Fengyu sank into the bath.
The herbal scent wrapped around him, soothing but not quite. It lulled his body into relaxation, yet his mind refused to follow. He closed his eyes, willing himself to enjoy the moment.
The high monk's words echoed in his mind.
"Think carefully what you want to ask and how you're going to do this."
He tried to review all the disturbing events that happened since he had been entered the Temple.
First the overheard conversation, then the mysterious mural.
Then, the trip to Pantax and the cosmic collision.
The cursed crimson world. What was its name? Ah, Firme.
And then, they landed in the Magic Guild. Is the Guild in cahoots with the Temple?
And all this abstract knowledge and ancient myths that suddenly became so practical!!! Why?
Noone in the charted worlds paid attention to the incomprehensible theories of the Temple. Maybe except some crazy scholars.
But they are real! He lived through a cosmic collision for the god's sake!
But nobody had seen the cosmic collision in all the recorded history… Why?
And that 16 higher dimensions!
Is there a science behind the magic of the gates travel? This should be taught in schools! Wait, wasn't it? This should not be called MAGIC!!!
Does the Guild really teach it? How much does it cost? Damn private education!
He felt entirely exhausted by the secrets that seemed to have always lain in plain view but yet not attainable - not hidden, not locked away, but cloaked in the mist of complexity so everyone dismissed it as irrelevant noise.
There was a bitter ache in that realization - not just weariness, but shame and regret. It felt like spending life on wrong things and wrong people.
Because who could afford to chase every abstract thought, every complex mechanism? There's only so much one person can study before the world becomes impossible to function in. You draw the line. You focus on what matters. Or what seems to.
And now, it turned out, that line he drew had been so in the wrong place.
He left the bath somewhat resigned to the not-so-relaxing experience.
His body was clean, but his mind remained tangled in knots. He donned the new temple robes - simple, but comfortable – and stepped out of the bathing room.
As the late morning sun rose higher and higher into the sky, the pavilion was bathed in warm, golden light. The shadows cast by its elegantly curved roof had receded, leaving the interior bright and welcoming. The air carried a gentle warmth, touched by the faint aroma of jasmine flowers.
Fengyu looked at the bed and exhaled slowly. For all the exhaustion pressing down on him, he knew sleep wouldn't come easy. Still, he laid down.
His body ached. He laid there, eyes fixed on the ceiling. Taking slow, deliberate breaths, he focused on the rhythm of his chest rising and falling. His eyelids grew heavier, and his breathing deepened. The tension within him ebbed ever so slightly, to allow him to fall asleep.
But it was far from peaceful. His dreams pulled him into a restless haze, vivid yet fragmented. Distant whispers echoed around him, tantalizingly close yet impossible to decipher. Faces appeared, only to melt into the darkness before he could reach them. Though he slept, his body remained taut, his fingers twitching as he fought the demons visiting his dream.
When he finally opened his eyes, the golden light of the setting sun filtered through the pavilion's screens, casting long, wavering shadows across the floor. He stretched, but did not feel refreshed. He sighed deeply and looked around.
He had the feeling that he forgot about something.
All this political ruminating done before annoyed him. He had not involved himself in such things for a long time. His rebellious streak rose up again. He had had enough. He scoffed. He just wanted to return home and forget all about it. What did all that had to do with him?
But the thought kept nagging. He forgot about something. This wasn't just about their adventure - this was about the gates, the artifacts, the mythical beasts, the life force fuelling the magic.
He remembered the feeling he had when he left the gates last time. The Mytharok gates with their alive-like architecture! Who did think up such an idea!
He remembered the strange notion of awareness in there, of suffering…
The nausea came with a mighty strength. He rolled to the edge of the bed and heaved heavily.
And the creature bound to him… The creature?!
Fengyu bolted upright, and jumped out of the bed, running toward the bathing chamber.
It had already been tidied up.
He rummaged through the left-over towels and other utensils. Nothing.
The little beast was nowhere to be found.
His own mythical beast and he had lost it. Stupid!
He paused, surprised by his own thoughts.
Why?
He had tried so hard to get rid of the alien presence on his skin and now he missed it.
That is preposterous! His own inconsequence was absurd!
His mind was a tangled mess of contradictions. He should feel relieved, shouldn't he?
And yet…
How could he be so reckless?
He was restless. His body refused to stay still.
He dragged himself outside into the fading light of the setting sun.
It was dinner time. Suddenly hunger gnawed at him, so he followed the path to the dining room.
The temple servants were already there, waiting silently, no matter whether their guests appear or not.
Mokai was there. With his arms crossed, he had interrogated the attendants, but there were no news about Pantax.
They ate together in silence, each deep in their own thoughts. Seline and Kaelyn did not show up.
Later, with no real purpose, Fengyu found himself watching Mokai practice his sword forms in the courtyard.
It was that kind of practice, that spoke both of control and quiet frustration. The movements were unnaturally slow in an attempt to slow down the racing mind by dragging the body through the motions at an excruciatingly slowly pace.
Fengyu understood the feeling.
It was already dark when he returned to his pavilion. With a sigh, he sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his temple. He was tired, yet his mind was too full.
His eyes narrowed as he caught sight of a strange, colourful glow emanating from the small cabinet tucked away beside his bed. He stepped closer and there it was.
Vaguely lizard-like creature pulsed with a light of its own, shifting hues of silver, gold, and deep cerulean as though it were made of molten metal.
The little beast. As if waiting patiently for him.
"Here you are," Fengyu muttered, his voice a mix of relief and disbelief.
He hesitated, keeping a careful distance. His hands stayed behind him, not daring to reach out. Not yet.
The little beast regarded him with its bead-like little eyes, as if saying, "well, weren't you looking for me?"
He couldn't help the flicker of a smile that tugged at the corner of his lips. Their eyes locked and Fengyu felt mesmerised. There was nothing but the two of them. And against his will, his hand reached out. The little beast stayed there patiently allowing him to pet it.
The liquid metal surface was warm and smooth, shifting gently under his fingers. Slowly, it rose, uncurling slightly, and moved to settle comfortably in his hand. But as the soft weight pressed into his palm, Fengyu jerked back abruptly.
The beast let out a disappointing sound. It regarded him again. Then it curled and moved around in a circle so fast he could not distinguished the shape any more. When the movement stopped, there lay a bracelet on the surface of the cabinet.
Its gleaming, metallic sheen caught the light, and Fengyu stared at it. Its design was sleek, organic, with intricate etchings that coiled and curved in patterns reminiscent of reptilian scales.
As he leaned in closer, his eyes were drawn to something subtle yet extraordinary.
Along the edges of the bracelet, woven into the etchings, were small, fragile wings. They seemed too small, underdeveloped, as if they had been frozen in the earlier stages of growth. The wings were barely there, their outlines faint, their forms so delicate they might have been missed by anyone not looking closely.
A strange unease settled in Fengyu's chest. The wings? He had not noticed any sign of wings before. Those wings - half-formed - felt like an unspoken warning. What was that little creature exactly?
He looked at the bracelet, lying there - nothing more than an ordinary piece of jewellery. Deceptively simple. Could he trust it not to etch itself into his skin again? Would it remain as it was, inert and harmless?
He had done stupider things – even more recently.
Fengyu reached for the bracelet and turned it over in his hands, half-expecting it to shift, to latch onto him. Yet it remained still.
He slipped it onto his left arm and, for a brief second, he admired the way it caught the light, the shimmer like liquid silver.
It felt good.
He felt calmer now, as if the reunion was what he longed for.
He laid down on the bed, exhaling slowly. This time, sleep came easily, and it was dreamless.
The next morning, he woke feeling refreshed. He hadn't expected it, given the exhaustion and restlessness of the night before. Dressed in the same simple, unadorned temple robes, he stepped into the main room of the courtyard. It wasn't long before Mokai, Seline, and Kaelyn joined him.
The priority was the meeting in the library. The most pressing question, what was going on with Pantax. Also, they agreed not to voice their suspicions about the Temple. However, one thing needed to be addressed - the fact that the thugs had directed their gates to the Magic Guild.
They followed Seline through the winding paths of the temple grounds, and soon the library building came into view.
It was unimposing, modest in size, the architecture was simple yet elegant, with clean lines and a sense of balance. The entrance was marked by a pair of tall wooden doors. Above the doors, a stone arch bore an ancient inscription, its meaning unclear but its presence probably significant.
Inside the walls were lined with towering shelves, each one filled with scrolls and tomes after tomes. In the centre of the room stood a large, circular table made of dark wood. Around the table were several high-backed chairs, their cushions worn. The interior was simple and unadorned like the monk's robes.
At the far end of the room, a raised platform held a single, massive tome on a pedestal. The tome was bound in leather that looked ancient but well cared for. Behind the pedestal, a tapestry hung on the wall, its threads depicting a scene of swirling energies and overlapping worlds - a visual representation of the cosmic collision, perhaps.
Fengyu elbowed Mokai gently, his eyes pointing to the tapestry. Mokai followed his gaze, but before they could explore more, Master Gun appeared from the side entrance, they had not noticed.
He wore the same simple temple robes, their fabric a muted grey that seemed to blend seamlessly with the library's austere atmosphere. At his belt swung the jade pendant, the same Resonance Stone they all had received.
"I see you've found interest in the tapestry," Master Gun said. "It is a reflection of the dimensional tides. To those who can read it, it reveals the ebb and flow of the unseen currents that shape the movements of worlds."
He paused and allowed them to inspect it closely. As they had they fill of the unclear, muted scene, he continued. "There will be time for it later. Come! There are pressing matters to discuss."
He gestured toward the circular table at the centre of the library, where a few scrolls and an ancient tome had already been laid out. The group exchanged quick glances, their curiosity about the tapestry momentarily set aside.
They took their seats and Master Gun's gaze swept over them, lingering for a moment on Fengyu.
"Knowledge is a double-edged sword. Are you prepared to wield it?"
Fengyu found himself irritated by the return of unclear, diluted speech, he had had full of it a few days before. He was too tired for riddles, too weary of veiled meanings and lessons wrapped in cryptic words.
"Tell me, what is happening with my world? Where is Pantax?" Mokai was also done with the gibberish and set straight to the point.
Master Gun clearly understood Mokai's impatience.
"Pantax has shifted, but it can be found again. The charted worlds are not moving worlds, but Pantax being forced out of balance can be drifting now. That makes finding it more difficult."
"Moving worlds?" asked Mokai.
"Yes, in ancient times all worlds were constantly moving. Their position in the 16 dimensions was not constant. That is why the gates coordinates are relative – they point in the direction where the world in question should be in relation to your current position. That allowed for faster connection when the world was drifting."
"But the worlds stopped. Why and how?"
"Actually no. This is only a term. The charted worlds do not move in relation to each other, but move together in sync. They coordinates remain relatively constant. Only small changes occasionally appear as you know from the updates of the Guild's maps."
"Fengyu, your theory was right!" whispered Seline, but unfortunately or maybe fortunately her voice was drowned by others' questions.
"But then why this other world did collide with Pantax? Where did it come from?" asked Kaelyn.
"How long will it take to find Pantax again?" asked Mokai.
"That we don't know."
"But can't we deduct it backwards from the position of this other world?," asked Fengyu. "That half-mag said that it limited the area you needed to search through."
"You heard what he was saying?"
"Yes, didn't you?"
"No!"
"How then?"
"You are asking me?"
"Stop, calm down," said Master Gun. "Yes, that is possible to prioritize the search area on that basis, but it still takes time. We do not know exactly in which direction Pantax is drifting after the collision."
"So let's the Magic Guild give us the coordinates. Let's track this Master Brug!" Kaelyn jumped up.
"Calm down, calm down," tried Master Gun.
They settled unwillingly back at the table.
"Why didn't you reveal yourself at the Magic Guild, then?" asked Master Gun.
"We assumed that wherever the gates connected there should be accomplices of the gang," admitted Fengyu. "We landed somewhere in the cellar, some kind of servants' entry or… I do not know. It did look suspicious. And then that mage appeared. It was better to pretend a mistake."
"I see," Master Gun paused. "We have already inquired the Guild. The gate they found you at is not used and not monitored on daily basis. As you severed the connection, they have no means get information about the connection. We recalculated the coordinates, Mokai remembered. Now there is no gate there now."
"Why?"
"It was a moving world. We do not know anything about it. We do not know its drift, neither from before the collision, nor now. Assessing the drift requires more than one probing missile."
"What about that Master Brug? And Attendant Fey?" asked Fengyu. "I assume the gang tried to contact again."
"They just found you in the cellar, during an inspection, caused by the gates activity. That is all."
"So they deny anything about the thugs?"
"Is that a surprise?"
"No, not at all."
"They have illegal business going on. They will not admit it so easily" Master Gun smiled at Fengyu.
"What is that world anyway? Firme. Why is there a gate?" asked Fengyu.
"What did you just say? Firme?" Master Gun was visibly shocked.
"Yes, that was what the half-mage called it," answered Fengyu, again aware that the whole attention was on him.
"Right, you were the only one, who heard him." Master Gun was thoughtful now, while Fengyu automatically touched his left arm, where the metal bracelet was hidden in his sleeve. Was it the little beast again?
"What is Firme?"
Now that he saw Master Gun reaction, Fengyu racked him memory in search of any possibility he had heard it before.
"It is an ancient world. That name shows up in the beginning of the history. The world that was lost centuries ago. It was where the great mage Firme created the very First Gate. Haven't you noticed the similarity of the name. Actually it was the other way around. We do not know the name of the mage so he was named after the world where the first gate was created."
"So was that gate, the Firme's gate?" asked Kaelyn. "The First Gate!?"
"That is probable".
Fengyu felt a sudden bristle of anger - sharp, unbidden, and impossible to ignore. It flared through him like a spark catching dry tinder, too intense to be rational, too sudden to have come from nowhere. His fingers clenched against his robe, against the bracelet.
"What kind of beast did Firme had to kill to create that gate?" he asked.
The silence fell. Kaelyn, Mokai and Seline looked at him horrified.
"I see," started Master Gun. "The experience was unsettling. That is understandable. They are so beautiful, aren't they? But they are animals like livestock, that end on our tables every day. Just their life force is used instead of their body."
He observed Fengyu for a longer while.
"You are not convinced. That is also ok. But you will not stop eating meat and you will not stop using gates."
He paused.
They knew. They all knew. They knew all the time…!!!
"We do not know much about how the First Gates were created, so I cannot answer your question. Maybe you will find it out one day by yourself."
Fengyu became aware, that he draw too much of an attention. He made himself a very interesting person. Soon, there probably would be another discussion with the high monk and Master Gun this time…
He felt sick.
"Why?!" he looked at Master Gun accusingly. "Why all this is not a common knowledge?", he exploded. "All this cosmic stuff, all the truth about the gates functions, and the beasts? Why? What else do you hide?", the words barely seethed through his clenched teeth.
Master Gun regarded him calmly. He let the silence stretch.
"The cosmic stuff, as you call it, is common knowledge. Just nobody believes it. Some crazy scholars study parts of it, but the level of complexity is scary for common folk. So it is used as gibberish to scare children. Some urban legends. But the Temple is not trying to scare anybody into obedience."
"As for Magic Guild. They prefer to keep the knowledge about the gates on the level of magical incantation. All you need to know is to ask the Guild for the incantation. It is business for them. Even internally they do not teach all their mages to calculate the coordinates, only to follow incantations. But it is not magic it is science. And business."
Mokai exhaled deeply. "There is science behind magic."
"Behind this magic there is definitely science," confirmed Master Gun. "We do not go openly against the Guild on that."
"As far as mythical beasts are concerned. This is already the matter of the past. There are no mythical beast in the charted universe. Also, this knowledge proved to be dangerous in the past."
"How dangerous?" asked Fengyu.
Master Gun went silent for a moment. "Centuries ago, somebody got an idea to try using the life force of human beings as a fuel for an artifact." He said slowly.
"So they did try it before" Kaelyn looked horrified.
"How did it go?" asked Fengyu.
"Humans are not livestock. You cannot use them for that!" exclaimed Kaelyn.
"That is true," confirmed Master Gun. "The records do not elaborate how the creation of the artifact went. So we don't know."