"Perhaps it has been worth it to stay here for a while…"

Or at least that's what Tristessa thought as she walked through the Sanctuary's main hall, following that odious girl named Cyela.

It was an attempt at self-convincing, to appease that inner voice that told her that with every passing second, the Mercer-Archeos family was one step closer to falling into the abyss.

As the Coven and Death approached Jin, Lucahn, and Tiara, she was there, safe and bathed. Her hair was combed, shiny, and smelling of the scent of the same flowers she had crushed when she fell asleep in the greenhouse. And her clothes, washed and warm, thanks to the benefits granted by the application of elemental thaumaturgy.

"Ugh, I know, I know! But if Master Caius can help me better understand my Divinities, then I have no doubt they will be useful in achieving my goal!"

"Hurry up, I don't have all day…" Cyela told her, snapping her out of her train of thought and giving her one of those scornful gazes of hers as she momentarily looked over her shoulder.

"How many times do I have to tell you I'm sorry for killing your plants?" Tristessa asked, more exhausted than angry at being at each other's throats with that girl. "We bathed together, and you cleaned my clothes. You shouldn't hate me that much."

"Don't confuse obeying Master Caius's orders with what I might feel about you. If I could, I would have drowned you in the bathtub."

The cold and mean way Cyela confessed this, so casually, made the black-haired girl very uncomfortable.

"And all that hatred because of a few silly flowers…"

She looked away, creeped out by that child. Her attention focusing on all the monks passing through the hall, talking to each other or with visitors seeking the services they could offer. Always half-hidden in the prevailing penumbra.

There was an exorbitant number of power crystals scattered everywhere, from the floor to some statues made specifically for that purpose. The intention was to illuminate the surroundings without any mechanical or electrical device. The windows were deliberately blocked, giving the room a more private atmosphere, where one could rid oneself of one's secrets and seek personal discoveries.

For that was the job of a Mystic Tattooist: to help others discover the essence of their own souls… And Tristessa couldn't help but feel a certain excitement at the premise.

"Maybe... I can recover my memories too," she thought, with newly born hope. "Maybe I won't even have to ask Severus to help me with that, and we can both focus on saving the Mercer-Archeos."

"It's this way."

Cyela led her into a room connected to the great hall, where several monks sat behind worktables, writing on papyrus with the use of thaumaturgical glyphs created for that purpose.

"What are they writing?" Tristessa asked.

"Records of Divinities and their bearers," Cyela replied, without looking back. "It's an ancient practice. When you finish your meeting with the Master, he will pass your information on to the scribes."

"I see… There must be hundreds of thousands of records. Are they all kept here?"

"No: they're taken to the Universitas Library, in [Mortalis]."

"Mortalis?"

Before that question, Cyela stopped suddenly and glared at Tristessa, ignoring the fact that she almost bumped into her.

"Are you joking? How can you not know the name of the [Imperial Capital]?" she asked, her gaze dark and even more eerie in the gloom.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Oh! Of course I knew it, you just caught me off guard," Tristessa tried to justify herself, smiling nervously. "We'd better not keep Caius waiting, am I right?"

"Yes…"

Tristessa swallowed hard. She didn't like the way the little girl agreed to end the conversation and move on. It had been the same as when they had both bathed, or when she had cleaned each of her garments with thaumaturgy using that small wand sticking out of one of her pockets.

Silent, unsmiling, but always looking at her with that expression full of distrust.

"It's like a miniature Tiara... Shit, I don't need another person around suspecting I'm a Stranger."

The two didn't speak again until, leading her down a hallway lit by a single crystal, Cyela stopped in front of a room with a glyph carved on the door that surely represented number nine.

"Inside, go."

Tristessa briefly locked eyes with her as she took a step forward. Gray and black, a riddle she couldn't deduce. She wished that little girl would be just that, a little girl. Someone bothered about her dead flowers.

And not a mastermind who had already discovered she didn't belong in that world...

Taking a deep breath, and unable to do anything about it but let that child be, Tristessa closed her hand around the handle and opened the door wide.

"Ah, come in and sit down! Close the door, child!"

Cyela slammed the door shut behind Tristessa once she crossed the threshold. She found herself inside a small, windowless room dimly lit by glass in the corners, a small wooden table in the center, and two violet pillows on opposite sides. Caius was sitting cross-legged over once of them, and preparing incense in a burner.

"You never told me your name, miss," the old man said once she had settled onto the pillow. Thin wisps of smoke began to rise from the burner, heavy with an aromatic and perfumed scent. "I am Caius Gaoceiros, mystical tattooist of the Shrine here in Entrana since I was the age of that shitty girl who surely gave you trouble."

"No, don't worry, she was…kind, let's say. My name is Tristessa Irandell, by the way." She looked at the corners of the room, finding nothing truly interesting, only the burner in the center of the table and the smile that bulged through the old man's beard. "So… how does the reading of my Divinity work?"

"Very simple. You just must place both hands on top of mine and think about your connection to the divine," he told her, placing his hands face up on either side of the table, separated from the burner by several inches. There were two glyphs etched between the lines of his hands, forming mathematical relationships with them and glowing faintly. "That way, I can know what lurks among so much Discord within your dark soul."

"Alright..."

Tristessa obeyed, hesitating for a second as she felt the warmth of those glyphs meeting her skin, but then she felt those wrinkled hands, and the touch of his nails on her forearms.

The mere contact caused various patterns of spirals, thorns, chains, and black ink diluting in water to flow along her arms, like tattoos taking shape over her skin at a rapid pace.

"Don't worry, that's just a temporal side effect of my thaumaturgy," he explained. "You could have them tattooed for real if you want to. It's your soul speaking, after all."

"N-not yet, thank you."

"As you wish. Now focus."

Closing her eyes, she thought of just the two Divinities she had discovered most deeply on her journey to Entrana. She thought of Viktor Enma's shadow and his immortalized sorrow. She thought of Katriel Strauss's corpse rising from the dead, that black light filling his insides with false life.

She waited a moment, and when nothing happened, she opened her eyes and gave Caius a questioning gaze. The tattooist continued to smile at her in a reassuring way.

"If you want me to see what you see, you must first grant me invitation."

Tristessa nodded, without saying anything, and closed her eyes again. In the darkness of her mind, she knew one thing perfectly well: she could not invite Master Caius to see her [Divinity of Death and Resurrection] under any circumstances.

Just thinking about the consequences filled her fragile heart with evil and terrifying shadows of doom.

"You are not allowed to see the origin of my [Dark Resurrection], Master Caius. But I do allow you to see my other Divinities," she thought, searching within herself and finding the sensations her Divinities left her, flowing from the depths of her soul.

And it was at that moment that Caius let out a roar of victory, causing Tristessa to suddenly open her eyes, miraculously not knocking over the incense burner in fright.

"Three Divinities!" the mystic tattooist exclaimed, overjoyed, causing the girl's insides to burst into flames at the horrifying meaning behind them.

But luckily, he dispelled her fear with what he said next, replacing it with utter surprise:

"Two from the Dark Sun, Kantrus, and one from the Brightest Star, Xiliarra! It's been so long since I've seen two foundational pillars in one single soul!"

"…what?!"

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