The day where we had to leave for the quest arrived too quickly for me to make up my mind about it.

One day, Mister Winter simply told us, "You'll attend lesson this morning, and this afternoon you'll grab your bags and leave."

Where we had to go, we didn't know, but Edgar was confident every hero of the quest spent at least a few days in libraries and important buildings before they found out which trail they had to follow.

That morning, we were studying space-shifting. Alice asked, "In this book, it is said that it takes the union of a Hierophant, an Aeon, a Jurist and an Enlightener to space-shift. Is that true?"

She was holding up a volume I'd never seen before.

"Where did you get that?" Professor Winter asked. "It's not from the library."

"It's one of the books belonging to Edgar Wollstonecraft," she replied.

The Professor huffed. "There is a reason I tell you to stick to the library. You should really focus more on your textbooks. As I already explained to Mister Barnes, we will not attempt space-shifting during the lessons. Nor time-changing."

I tapped my foot nervously and pretended no one was looking at me. The Professor was never going to let his grudge go.

"I don't want to attempt it, but I want to know the whole theory," Alice said. "And it has been attempted before. Here Vitaly Malinov said..."

I almost fell off the chair when I heard the name, but Professor Winter's reaction was worse.

"Vitaly Malinov was not a good person," the Professor said. "Do not mention that name again, am I clear?"

"Was he a criminal?" Lucretia asked, a little thrilled.

"He was a fool, which is worse. I'm sure all of you already know that my own son, Samuel Winter, was stripped off his surname because his madness was considered a source of shame. What you don't know is that he spectacularly failed a mission he embarked on... and it might not have turned out this way if that young, foolish Russian optimist hadn't decided to follow Samuel everywhere, without question."

"But have you seen Vitaly Malinov recently?" Raegan asked. "I mean, where is he?"

"He's dead," the Professor replied. "And if you have never heard of him, it's because no one misses him."

I found his words very harsh, and I had trouble following the rest of the lesson. The Professor called me out a few times, telling me to pay attention, but I stormed out as soon as the lecture was over.

"We should start off by going to London," Edgar said, as soon as we left the school behind us. It wrecked me, to see a place that was becoming to feel like a home, and know I was leaving it so soon.

"I thought Brighton was the magical capital of England, so to speak," I said. "It's where the Senate is."

"But London's part of the Aether Realm is quite big, and many of their buildings are above ground, though the usual tube wouldn't take you there," Edgar told me.

As he was saying this, we took the tube that went through the Aether Realm. It wasn't deeper under the ground than the usual one, but it followed different routes, and it was illegal for humans to board it. Like everything under Brighton (and most things above) it was white and teal.

"I know what you're thinking about," Raegan told me, because, of course, she could read minds. "We shouldn't live this way, but we must, because there's so little of us and so many of them. It's always been this way. Some claim we're a genetic mutation of humans, but I do not agree. I think it was them that were born without powers for some strange reason."

"That's bollocks," Jeff replied. "I think we've always been two different species."

Traveling through the magical tube was a fast way of getting everywhere. I soon noticed it went at a faster speed than the London tube I'd taken once or twice during class trips. I imagined we'd take half an hour, fourty minute tops, to get to the city.

In the meantime, Edgar started asking me questions about who I've been living with before. I didn't really want to reply, but I reluctantly shared a few things about Mister Locksley.

"He tried to keep you from going to school, he hated Enchanters, he had a nasty disposition..." 

Edgar rubbed his chin as if it reminded him of something. The description reminded me half of the humans I'd known.

"Do you have a picture?" he asked.

Now, I usually didn't carry picture of my not-that-beloved stepfather with me everywhere. But I had one with Mom and me, and since we were at the pier, some tourists took the picture and Mister Locksley insisted he had to be in there too.

Edgar made a spell at my phone. The one for showing things as they are. I was about to stop him, when my blood froze in my veins. Little letters that I couldn't read started forming on Mister Locksley's figure, like it was a protective ward.

"You told me you've been living with a human all this time!" Edgar almost bit back a curse. "I should have known nothing about you was normal!"

"Thanks," I said, sarcastically.

"Um..." he continued as if he hadn't heard me. "Considering your powers, and the things Jake said about you, your story is strange. I should have known nothing about it was casual. You see, Mister Locksley is a Sphinx."

"A... what?"

I'd seen sphinxes, in those pictures of Egypt that are on newspapers, posters, books and everywhere on the Internet. Mister Locksley looked nothing like one.

"It's just a name for what creatures like him do," Edgar said softly. "Sphinxes protect people. They keep their powers sealed until someone replies to their riddle. This means your power are partly sealed..."

I found out I was actually too stunned to say anything. I didn't know how to explain to Edgar that Mister Locksley had never protected me. There were also moments I'd never told anyone, where he really scared me...

But the more I thought about those memories, the more they seem to slip away from my mind. Perhaps someone had messed with my mind. Maybe even Locksley himself. Suddenly, it didn't seem so far-fetched to imagine him some kind of creature... a monster, maybe.

"Or since Ryan is a Variation," Jeff commented grimly. "We can only detect the power of the air, so far, because it's his second power that's sealed."

I wanted to protest. There were a milion things I could have said. But that was when the tube stopped, and we finally arrived in London.

"There! The New Faith," Raegan exclaimed, pointing at a large temple in the distance. "While they value their powers, they cannot help but feel guilty that we, apparently, stole them from the gods. That is, I believe, the real reason why they do all that shit like walk around naked."

I looked at the temple Raegan had pointed at. It did not look like a cathedral just like I had expected.

The temple of the New Faith looked like an ancient Greek building, with white pillars in marble.

"I imagine we'll find answers about the quest there," Raegan added. Sure, the most important temple is in Scotland. But while the one in Scotland is the main one, and it's where the High Priest lives, this one is more advanced. It's where they hold most of their liturgical dialogues, things like that."

"How do you know so much?" I asked.

"Come, I'll show you," Raegan replied. "Family business."

She caught my puzzled look, and laughed. "I'm just humoring you. That flyer about the Blasted Tower had the New Faith logo printed upon it, don't you remember?"

We walked inside the Temple. On a wall, there was a large portrait of a magic user. He had red hair, and he looked a lot like Raegan, except for the fact that this man had a round face and looked quite ordinary. He had nothing of her most charming features. There was a caption under the portrait. I got closer to it. It read:

Fletcher McIntosh. Born in Scotland from a Dutch mother, he spent all of his life devoted to the New Faith and working in the Temple. His family has been doing this job for centuries.

We couldn't help but look at Raegan. It was the first time that I saw her look really uneasy.

"Like I said," she commented weakly. "Family business."

It made sense though. If Raegan's father was half Dutch, this might have been the reason why our friend didn't speak with a Scottish accent. And it was understandable, given the poor relationship she seemed to have had with her parents, that she was holding a grudge with the New Faith.

"I think I know where a clue could be," Raegan said.

"Admitted it's even here at all," Jeff bit back. He was looking uneasily at the furniture inside the Temple. Everything was white and primitive, with the exception of the logo of the New Faith, the two palms facing each other, that was sometimes embroidered in silver onto some of their things.

"Guys," Edgar said nervously. "We don't even know if the flyer Morgan McCarthy lost has anything to do with our quest."

"Do you have any better idea?" Raegan asked. "No? I thought so. And you always have an idea. Come, help me look."

"How could you not have known about Raegan's father?" I asked Jeff, while our friends were at the altar's.

"It's just not something I go around saying," Raegan grimaced. "Most people know. Others have never asked, and I had never told them. I do not know which category Mister Winter belongs in."

"My grandfather belongs to the category that is not curious about anything," Jeff said spitefully. "He's the exact opposite of my father."

While I had never been religious, it struck me as profane when Raegan opened a little drawer that was near to the altar and started going through the stuff she found there.

Finally, she let out a yelp. "I found something!"

I was about to run to her, when he heard a roaring sound. I started to smell sulphur in the air, and stopped right in my tracks.

"Look! There!" Edgar exclaimed. Fletcher McIntosh's portrait was catching fire.

"Did you do that, Raegan?" I asked. I knew she had power over the water, but I didn't want to believe the most humiliating hypotheses --- that we were not alone inside the temple.

"No, and it doesn't look natural either," Raegan narrowed her eyes. "The Reapers! They must have found us. Perhaps there is a Fire Hierophant amongst them."

That was exactly what I was trying not to think about.

I wanted to ask how they could have found us, and so quickly, and if this proved that the Temple was important, after all. But Raegan was trying to put out the fire, and no one else was speaking.

So I decided to keep to myself some of my daily idiotic questions.

The painting burned down completely. Under it, there was a very abstract painting of a landscape. Humans might have called it psychedelic, but I was pretty sure LSD and The Beatles weren't two things Enchanters were acquainted with.

Raegan pointed at something in the painting. It was a priest-like figure, with a closed book in one hand and a lock in the other. "That's the High Priest!"

"I thought the card was the High Priestess," I replied.

"In our pack it's called The Gate of the Sanctuary! But..." Raegan furrowed her eyebrows. "The High Priest is the name of the head of the New Faith. I don't understand... this seems to be no clue at all."

"Maybe the Temple really wasn't part of the quest," Jeff pointed out.

The fire died down a little after that, mostly because Raegan had been able to put it out. Jeff went out to check if the rest of the street was on fire, too, but talking to civilians he got the confirmation that other, nearby places had been on fire briefly, but that it never spread so much as to cause mass panic.

As we were sitting there, eating our packed lunch and planning our next move, I tried striking up a conversation with Edgar.

"So, you lent Alice your books? Why don't you lend one to me?"

Edgar was about to reply, but he swallowed a mouthful of ham and cheese toast first. Figures. He didn't eat with his mouth full.

"He probably thinks you can't read," Jeff offered, playfully.

"Excuse me?"

"So..." Raegan wrung her hands. "Since this quest is also about defeating the Reapers, I think Edgar should tell us more information. Like, who is leading them?"

"The people in the Reapers have aliases and a blurring feature that covers up their faces," Edgar replied. "You won't find them in any book. Not even the Hand-List of Enchanters You Should Not Cross Paths With.

"How could anyone not come up with a shorter title?" I asked.

"It's a famous book. We call it the Hand-List," Jeff said.

Raegan grinned. "I've always wondered whether I was going to be featured there, in the future."

It was hard to tell if she was joking.

"I think their leader is a polite man, thin and of diminutive height," Edgar said after a while. "I haven't seen him up close, but he must be a few inches shorter than Ryan."

He said that as if this made this man extremely short. I tried not to scowl.

"I can't imagine taking the Empty Mirror away from them," Jeff finally revealed, as if it had been paining him. "I mean, I know that Lucretia said those words too, and my grandfather said she was wrong. But Set... He killed my parents!"

I wondered if Jeff was right --- perhaps we were on the wrong side of this war. But Edgar shook his head. "It's wrong to think like that. We were issued a quest, and besides the Reapers have no qualms attacking humans or innocents, either."

"Erm... guys..." Raegan said. "How would you feel if I told you that the fire's coming back again?"

We all looked at her, horrified.

It was true. The smoke-y smell was back again, and the room seemed to be getting warmer. This time, the fire was coming from the floor. Jeff yelped.

"It's a strange fire," he said. "You can't tell where it starts, and we put it out already, but it's back again. Raegan is right. It must be of magical nature, because Hierophants can use the elements telekinetically, even when they're not there!"

I was about to comment that, thankfully, the air was always all around us, but no one seemed in mood for jokes. I couldn't use my powers either, for fear that moving the air particles in the fire wouldn't smother it like I intended, but that wind would help spread it.

"We are done for," Raegan commented, more to complain than anything else. Edgar was trying to think of a plan, but I could see he was under pressure. I'd never seen him stopped in his tracks before, but the fire seemed to have paralysed him.

In the meantime, however, Raegan had summoned water again and she was trying to undo most of the damage.

"Guys, there's something you should know," I said, knowing full well that I wasn't helping anyone --- if anything, I risked distracting them. "There's a word under the picture of the High Priest... At first I didn't think much of it, I hadn't even seen it, because it's almost faded in the background. But this word was one of the recurring ones, other than Jono Mitchell, on Morgan McCarthy's file, too."

"Just say it," Edgar replied, as if I was being unreasonable and wasting everyone's time.

"Arcane," I read. "It says Arcane."

None of my friends stopped doing what they were doing, which in Edgar's case was mostly panicking. It seemed the word hadn't rang a bell for either of us, and we were back at the start.

But Edgar said what I was too nervous to realise. "Well, at least this means that there is a real correlation, other than the New Faith, between the file and the Temple. I wager it wasn't a mistake that Morgan had dropped it, and it is no mistake that we are here now."

"It also means..." he added, his dark blue eyes narrowing. "That the fire is very much intentional, and whomever's controlling us wants to attack us. But the question is, where are they hiding?"

It was a very good question, and something we should have been thinking about. But at the moment, something else happened. The door of the Temple opened and the first thing I saw was the fire being engulfed by a mound of dirt. And then, when I turned around, I saw that there was a Earth Hierophant I knew... Jake.

He smiled at us, his grin too infectious for any of us to complain he was storming our quest.

But I couldn't let my doubts dissipate so soon. I walked up to Jake and looked at him as if I was sizing him up, even though he was taller.

"Did you come all the way here because you didn't trust me?" I whispered. I didn't really want the others --- Edgar, especially --- to hear.

Jake seemed incredibly puzzled, and I felt guilty.

"I happened to be nearby, because I go to London from time to time to visit a family member," he said, his tone becoming just that slightly colder, as if to warn me I couldn't pressure him about it. Not that I wanted to. "And when I saw the fire... Well, I saw you entering the Temple, before, but I didn't want to distract you."

He shrugged. "The fire could have done a lot more damage if the Circle hadn't taken care of it before it spread. They are in the area too, you know, and I imagine they'll want to talk to you about the quest."

Edgar's lips pursed. He didn't seem very happy of the idea. Raegan visibly rolled her eyes. Jeff sighed and passed a hand through his hair, trying to look presentable.

"Who is the Circle?" I asked, feeling a little stupid.

"We are the Circle," a dark-skinned woman said, entering the Temple with a redheaded colleague. 

"And," she pointed her finger at the psychedelic background with the drawing of the High Priest and the word 'Arcane' written under it. "We need to take this very valuable item away, to examine it."