The city, up close, was different from both Solima and its demonic version.

However, it didn't mean it wasn't built on very similar hills, had narrow street and a familiar disposition of houses and, while I couldn't see my favorite restaurants, I could swear I could see one of the three most important Temples, from afar.

Then, I scanned the streets as I knew them from my mock-ups and the small scale models I'd made of the city. It seemed like all the older buildings were there, even those where people dined and shopped. The new and modern ones were missing, but a less trained eye might not even notice that.

"Don't you think this looks like the Third Temple?" I asked Roman.

"The New Temple, you mean?" he wondered. 

"One thing not everyone knows about me --- I'm fussy about the details. The New Temple's name is the Third Temple, the Old Temple is called the Holy House and the cool one is the Temple of the Angels."

"The cool one, huh?" Roman mocked me. "I wonder what a temple's got to do to be considered cool by you."

"Probably less than what people would have to do," I shrugged. Roman knew I didn't mean him, and he didn't care either way.

Every time I tried to inflict my wit on boys and girls my words always fell a little flat. Some laughed, others ignored me. Some hated me at first sight, after that, and others tried for a reply that was not necessarily weak, but at the very least not heartfelt.

Roman was the one who always knew what to say, both when he judged me and when he replied in jest. It was because there was a certain energy between us the other conversations had lacked --- we volleyed our words back and forth without missing a beat.

"I imagine you're about to tell me we should go visit the Third Temple now," Roman said uneasily.

"I just think there's not much else we can do. And my instincts aren't always wrong, you know. Like the box of chocolates..."

"Oh please, they were probably soggy or would have crumbled to dust once you opened their packaging," Roman commented.

"That might be true, but now we have nothing to eat and we've been hungry for hours. At least, I know I've been. I'm going to pretend I'm just fasting to get my mind on things. Great men have done it before."

The streets of the city didn't really resemble the Solima I loved at all. Yes, it was historical and it had the traditional architecture just right, but there was something missing --- perhaps the market stalls and the vibrant street life. In fact, I hadn't seen people yet.

Which was why, when our path was blocked by a very familiar looking woman, I couldn't help but take out my rapier and point it at the neck of the stranger.

Even Roman looked surprised, but I had had enough of the demonic beings that populated the Other Side. Lerato had been the only kind person we met, and it was because she was a spirit. Supposedly, Auld Pipes had been one too, but somewhere along his journey in the afterlife he'd become a merciless ferryman.

"I know who you are," I told the woman unflinchingly. "You're Evangeline's demonic double."

The person in front of us was the exact copy of Evangeline, with golden skin, frizzy dark hair and hazel eyes. She was of average height and weight and her face was heart-shaped. She even had the same freckles on her nose.

"I will not go easy on you," I promised the demonic double. I was losing my mind, not being able to tell whether we were dreaming this time around, or if what we were seeing was the truth. And the words I spoke were the wrong ones to say.

'I will not go easy on you,' Athanasios said as he taught me the sword. 'There's no need to. You asked me to teach you how to fence. If you wanted me to go easy on you, you wouldn't have asked. So, I will pretend this is a fight like any other, and I will not back down, even if it means cutting you.'

Thankfully I'd always been good with the blade --- not like Athanasios, who believed himself to be a master of every weapon, but whose fists were his preferred method of fighting.

All things considered, Athanasios had not gone easy on me. I had a few scrapes on my face that were just minor, shallow scars --- they only came out in the right light and only if you knew they were there. However, I had more scars on my body, not all of them from training.

"Jonathan," Roman brought my feet back to earth. "Lower your sword. She's not Evangeline's double. Look at her. Really look at her."

While our doubles had been dressed differently from us, and didn't have the same hairstyle, the first thing I noticed that was off was that this person's hair was short. Then, I realised she looked different from Evangeline because of tiny attributes most wouldn't have noticed. I might have realised it sooner, since I always tried to scan the people I knew, were I feeling less unsettled.

The woman had a certain stubborness in her jaw and a fierce expression in her hazel eyes. Her nose was a little larger than Evangeline's and her mouth a little wider. There was something in her eyes that spoke of the fact that the soul inside was different, and she another person. Truthfully, while they looked alike, they didn't look like the same woman at all.

And then, the woman laughed. It had a short and barking sound, like she wasn't used to it. "As a twin, I've been called many things," she snorted. "But I've never been called Evangeline's demonic double!"

"Terribly sorry, Cora," I tried to make amends. "I had no idea I just insulted a First Eve. Roman, do you think it's too late to flirt myself out of this one yet?"

"After you told her? Certainly so. However, I'd be curious as to what you could possibly come up with to make it any better."

The truth was that there just wasn't a slick way of telling a famous Prophet that you just insulted her and called her a demon because you nearly lost your mind hours --- days? --- before during a demonic induced dream. And there weren't any metaphors or pretty sentences that could string it along until it became a compliment. 

Last but not least, judging from the expression Cora had on her face, she didn't seem like the type to fall for any of it.

"I think what this idiot was really wondering," Roman said. "Is what you're doing here. We thought we were the only ones. We're on a mission to close a seal between our dimension and the demonic one. A Dybbuk slip through. We think the five seals that close off the Chaos Realm are getting loose, and the first one should be here, making it a problem for demons as well as Creatures."

Cora smacked a hand on her forehead. "Of course!" she exclaimed. "I journeyed here, too, trying to understand what was going wrong when I heard of the Dybbuk but I hadn't pieced it all together..."

I refused to give Bertha the satisfaction of being right, so I said something else, that was also the truth. "Back in Solima we recently joined a team of researchers, Minx Morris and his fiance Mira Abas. They were already working on the Creatures and the wards."

"Allies," Cora commented bitterly. "Makes sense. I've always been the lonely twin. I like to work on my own."

"And that is why I find myself in this situation!" she added, passing her fingers through her short hair and pulling at some locks. I exchanged a glance with Roman, and we walked a few steps further from her.

"So, you're fussy about the details, right?" he asked me. "Then how come did you mistake her for her twin?"

However, he must have known how my mind was really going in circles, because he also put a hand on my back, reassuringly. I noticed my sword was still drawn so I put it back in its sheath.

"Don't worry, everyone loses their minds here," he added when he saw I was uncharacteristically silent. "Look at Cora."

Cora looked as desperate as before. "Perhaps we should help her," I suggested.

When we stepped closer, Cora took a look at us from her teary eyes. She looked like she was crying out of frustration instead of sadness.

"I really messed it up," she said. "Not only I didn't find anything of value, but I have no idea how to go back."

"Maybe you should help us find the seal," I suggested while Roman was looking paler by the minute. "It's called the Ark."

"This might not be the most important thing anymore," Roman told me. "Have you noticed that she said she doesn't know how to go back?"

To be honest, we both had been through so much pressure and trauma inducing experiences I never contemplated how we could go back to our realm. In my mind, it was obvious that just walking the same path but backwards and get back to where we came from, the Waters of Okeanos under the Temple, might just be enough. As to how we could be sure the demonic dimension didn't change and that we were walking the same road, I simply gathered that, since the Other Side seemed to move mostly in a straight line, it wasn't necessarily a great effort.

Of course, I'd been wrong, and if I had had time to analyze it I would have figured out sooner. A hellish dimension that was as wicked and perverse couldn't be so easy to walk out from. But Roman and I had got in only because we knew where the ward between dimensions was, and so, unless there was another, then we should really find the Waters of Okeanos again.

Keeping in mind the possible technical difficulties, I tried to explain all of this to Cora.

She wiped her eyes. Her fingers were now stained with black kohl. "If it is the way you came, then it makes sense that you can leave that way too. And so could I, but truthfully, I came through another path. You see, as First Eve, I have an ample access to all my powers and I can do things usual Prophets can't. We can create small portal between the realms, given that the wards are weakened in the first place, big enough for just one person at a time. And this is how I journeyed to the Other Side. However, the demonic dimension is sucking out my energy and now I don't have enough power to portal myself back."

I looked at Roman. A solution came to mind, and it was an obvious one at that. Still, first, I had to make sure he felt up to the task and wasn't too tired. He'd already used his powers to heal me many times, the last being quite recent. But we both wanted to help Cora, so he just nodded.

"I'm not sure it's going to work," he started out, a small frown appearing between his brows. "But I could try to give you part of my powers, so you'd have enough magical fuel to send you back to your dimension. While you're there, you could also pay a visit to our friends, Mira and Minx, and tell them that we're still alive but we haven't found the Ark yet..."

"Oh," he added, his thick lashes downcast, as if he was feeling a little unsure. "And tell my brother Atticus, too, of course, if you see him."

I understood he only added the last part out of a sense of duty and confusion --- it was not easy to stop loving someone just because they hurt you. I, however, had always nurtured doubts about Atticus' ability to always be mild and pleasant and I couldn't exactly forgive him for having changed what I remembered, or for having replaced Roman's memories many times before.

"If this works, I dread to think I might not find a way to pay you back," Cora said.

"You don't have to," I replied. "We would do this for everyone we admire. Well, I am not doing anything, per se, but if I had any strength to give, I'd give it."

"Actually," Cora thought about it for some time. "Since I don't have to use all of my energy to get out of here, I might spare a little of it beforehand to help you find the seal."

"What if using part of your powers to help us make you too weak to cross over?" Roman asked, his face darkening. "We can't risk that. I could give you a huge amount of power, but I imagine it's probably not a lot compared to yours."

"I don't like the idea of not paying back favours," Cora insisted. "It doesn't matter how kind the two of you are about it. And besides, there's something in it for me too. If I can help you find the Ark, then I haven't made this trip for nothing."

She shivered, and there was a flash of pain in her black rimmed eyes. I fought the urge to put a hand on her shoulder. She was one of the few people who knew, besides us, what it was like to be on the Other Side, and I didn't have a doubt she'd seen her share of twisted things.

"So," she added. "You told me this seal is called the Ark. I believe it is enough, not to let me find it, exactly, but to sense its position. I can only give you its whereabouts, and then you'd have to do the rest."

While we didn't have the slightest idea how to close a seal in the first place, Roman and I nodded and declared ourselves eager and excited to do the job.

"Fine," Cora grinned crookedly. "Do not worry, young Prophet, it will not drain me. I simply have to read this place."

"How come I didn't think of it before?" Roman wondered. 

"I could have used Knowledge," I bit my lip. "I should have used Knowledge."

"Fret not," Cora put her hands on the ground. "I doubt any of you would have been powerful enough --- nothing personal, of course."

After a little while, she smiled and stopped the reading. "It wasn't really hard, because the Ark is nearby. I cannot tell you exactly where it is, for I do not know, but it's inside this version of Solima, of this I'm sure."

I looked at Roman, to find him already looking at me. I could tell what he was thinking as if the thoughts were my own. It was horrible that we had to visit yet another demonic version of our city, but, at the same time, since there were no forks in the road, there wasn't another path that we could see. 

Which meant that we would have had to walk through Solima either way, and at least now we knew we were close to what we wanted to find.

"When you get out, contact me first thing and let me know if you found the Ark and what it was," Cora told us.

"I'd love to promise you this, but I'm thinking Mira and Minx will want to publish it in their papers before word gets out," I replied. "In case they don't, however, we'll let you know."

Cora took Roman's hand in hers. I wondered if the Prophet would stiffen, but the First Eve had grabbed him in a bossy and easy way, with no other hidden motive in sight.

At the thought of how Cora seemed completely disinterested, I mused that if I had no one to flirt with, I was about to get rusty. Trust the universe that soon enough I'd be flirting with the Prophet just to spend the time.

It started out as a jest in my mind --- I didn't even like dallying with people that much --- but it made me unable to look at Roman quite the same way. There were a lot of things, truth be told, that one could say about his sneering mouth, delicate features, cold eyes and sharp cheekbones.

I didn't share part of their powers, so I could not tell whether the experiment was working. After some time, though, Roman started to shake ever so slightly and the two Prophets seemed to be engulfed in a pale turquoise light. Cora shimmered, until she disappeared from view completely.

"You made it!" I exclaimed, helping Roman up. The trials we were going through were so difficult that we'd taken a lot of turns into who passed out, those days, and who was the one to carry him. 

"She's back," Roman said, his gaze faraway. "I almost envy her. Of course, it wouldn't be the best to go back to our friends and have nothing to report to them, and if we fail, the Court will simply send someone else to do the job."

"They should go themselves," I offered. "The same way Kings should fight their own wars and people who use pesticide should eat their own vegetables."

Roman looked at me with an amused look in his eyes. I tried not to focus on the color, a cool light blue. "It seems you've given the last one a lot of thought."

"Well, I've given all of them a decent amount of thinking," I replied. "So, here goes nothing. Do you have the slightest idea where the Ark could be in Solima? Perhaps now that Cora has filled us in on the details, we could use Knowledge to see where, exactly, the seal is."

"Don't even think about it," Roman interrupted me. "I'm pretty sure we can recognize a seal the moment we see it... but I've been thinking about something. Why are all the traditional architectures and holy places the same here? This dimension is not sacred in any way."

"There might be a reason like any other, but if you're wondering whether they became places of demonic affiliation, my best guess is I don't know."

"Well, that was helpful, thank you," Roman narrowed his eyes. "Unless I'm making a huge mistake here, and I might be, there is a place I'd like to see. I'm curious to check out if it remained the same..."

"The statue?" I asked. "It if bled in our dimension, what is it going to do here?"

"Help us, hopefully," was the reply. "It helped me many times back home."