We wound up in a place I wasn't expecting. It looked like a desert.

"Do you think Set..." Jeff started saying. I wanted him to shut up, because I was getting anxious, but he was right. The god had attacked with sandy storms and jackals before --- both of them his symbols.

"Duck!" I shouted at Jeff. A shoot of fire was about to blast him in the chest --- someone else's spell.

"This doesn't look like something Set might do," Raegan said. "But only the heroes of the quest have magic here..."

"Not if you're like us," a cold, female voice said. We turned around and saw an old grey-haired lady. "We came here to talk to you. We're very similar to the Circle, but a secret organisation and we follow our own rules. We can move between the worlds at will."

"And what would your name be?" Raegan asked.

"The Awakened," she replied. And then, a young woman behind her, with long hair and sad eyes, snapped her fingers.

The next thing I knew was that we were inside some sort of building.

"Is it normal?" I asked. "Why are we inside a room?"

The Awakened were five in total, and they were looking at us. They looked ethereal, as if they weren't even there, and they were all older than us.

Maybe I was dead. Maybe that young woman had had killed us with the snap of her fingers. Maybe they were there to weigh my heart to decide if I did wrong or right, like they believed in Ancient Egypt.

"Why did you come all this way? What are you trying to tell us?" Jeff asked.

"This is a better question," the older woman replied. "To congratulate you. Even though we have a few heads up — Raegan, don't drink alcohol while on our quest. And Ryan, I understand you wanting to taunt the Arcane, but don't do that anymore. It was too risky."

I wanted to protest, but Jeff beat me to it.

"Excuse me?" Jeff asked in a rebellious tone. "This is our quest. Not yours. It was my grandfather who assigned it to us."

"But we are the ones who made sure you saw the Blasted Tower," a woman in her thirties with long brown hair replied to Jeff. "We made a spell on the flyer so that it would remain on the ground until you picked it up. Obviously, it goes without saying that the man from the Odd Oddities circus wasn't at the Academy to congratulate Jake --- he was there to deliver the flyer, and make sure it got into your hands. There's more of us —- we are only the leaders. My name is Eileen Gardner and before joining this clan, I was a pirate. I also am an Enlightener."

I wondered if I had correctly heard the pirate part, but I didn't dare ask.

"She's Aimee Adams," she continued, pointing to the older woman. "The man standing to my left is Luther Graves, the new High Priest of the New Faith, they're both Jurists, and the one to my right is Morgan McCarthy, the founder of the Odd Oddities circus. He's a Earth Hierophant."

"The New Faith?" Raegan laughed. "Not what I'd call an awakening."

The monk walked towards her.

"I understand if you don't have the Faith," he said. "And I can't erase the damage that the believers of the New Faith might have done to you. But I can ask you to understand that sometimes behind great power hides great knowledge."

Raegan must have agreed, because she kept her mouth shut. I was not what I'd call a believer either, but I thought Raegan not biting back must have been proof that miracles existed.

"You know better than everyone that the New Faith worships the gods," the monk added. "I am very sorry I can't make my followers understand the truth of this universe. It is too risky, to change what hasn't been changed for years. But we Awakened worship another kind of God, not a minor one, but a capital G one. The God of time, the father of all the minor gods. The one they get their powers from."

"We're all priests, in a way," Eileen added. "I can see your skeptical faces. But how else can you explain us moving through time as if it was a sea we are swimming in? It is because we worship the right God, and we learn the correct spells."

None of us felt like contradicting them, though I could see Raegan was about to try.

"Now that we've completed the first part of our quest and you decided to show yourself to us, can you tell us where is the Mirror?" I asked hopefully.

They looked doubtful. I understood I should have begged even more pathetically to get them to speak. But I found out I didn't want to.

"I don't think you should know," Morgan said. "It could change the course of the quest."

"You're the ones that the riddle mentioned!" Edgar realised. "The people who believe no one should know the truth..."

"...But who are going to tell us the truth all the same," Raegan pointed out smartly.

"Now, now, you understand why we don't want to give you all the clues," Morgan replied. "The last time somebody went to this dimension looking for the Empty Mirror... Of course it wasn't an official quest, and to succeed would have been dumb luck."

"Stop talking about my father like that!" Jeff blurted out. "Everyone acts like they despise him, instead of honouring his memory. He might have gone mad, but he fought 'till he died. He was right about the Empty Mirror, and no one even told me! They let him be ridiculed, stripped of his surname. Why don't you tell me good things about him, instead?"

When they heard this, the Awakened didn't have anything to say. But Luther spoke up, "There is so much you could learn from us, if you asked the right questions."

"Okay, I'll start," I accepted gladly. "Are they an Aeon?"

I pointed my finger at the person who snapped their fingers, the one whom I believed was a young woman at first.

Now, they were completely white — hair, skin, clothes. And with white I mean white as paper.

I couldn't see the colour of their eyes because they were standing in a corner of the room with their eyes closed.

"Yes," Morgan replied. "Their name is Jo Murphy."

"I asked, because I recognise it," I said, beginning to understand. "This is the void." I gestured at the room we were in.

"I thought that Vitaly was the only Aeon," Jeff frowned. "And that the void looked like a bubble."

"Aeons are extremely rare, and most would have you believe Jophiel is the only one, but our very own Jo has similar powers, being on the non-binary spectrum and having learned from the God of Time himself," Morgan replied. "As to what the Void looks like, it could look like anything. Open a window."

Jeff did, and when he opened it he immediately jerked away. Out of the window there was only static.

"Listen," Raegan said in a bored tone. "Can we go back to where the portal was supposed to take us?"

Eileen looked angry. "That portal was supposed to take you to your second destination. If we are holding you hostage, it's because we believe that you are not ready to go on with your quest. It won't take long. If you cooperate."

"We've done everything perfectly," I growled. "The only thing we don't have are the answers to the secrets everyone around us is keeping."

A light shone in Morgan's eyes. For a moment, he looked a little mad.

I felt something pushing me to my knees.

I looked around. Raegan, Jeff, Edgar and I were tied up to four chairs.

"I don't understand," I complained. "Are you the good guys or the bad guys?"

"We are neither," Aimee said. "But we're on your side, if that's what you mean. And who knows which side it is? You believe you're doing good, but you're using dark powers for your mission. Nevertheless, you are our heroes. We chose you. You'll get answers — there's so much that Vitaly would like to say to you. But we made him swear he would keep his mouth shut."

"Why?" I screamed.

"Because not knowing can be better than knowing. Knowing might change the course of your actions. This is why we know everything but we usually never tell."

They put duct tape on our mouths.

Before they could bind him too, Edgar spoke up.

"Wait, I know time doesn't pass," he said. "But it passes for us. We don't have much energy left, and it's imperative we go on with our quest. Whatever you want to say, say it. For example, are you the ones who hid the strange painting under Fletcher McIntosh's picture in London?"

"Yes, we did," Eileen replied. "We left easy clues everywhere."

Jeff tore the duct tape off. "The clues weren't easy."

"I am able to sense that now you know the truth of the Reapers --- how they're on Set's side," Eileen said. "This quest means a lot to many people because, with it, you can stop the Reapers. True, people had failed during the quest countless times. But first things first. The Reapers are the people who attacked first Brighton, and then Scotland, on Set's orders, but it was them who committed the murders.

The Empty Mirror might be the only way to stop the god, and to stop them. That is why Samuel Winter was obsessed with it.

When his own personal quest failed, we were wondering what to do to make his idea even better, in fact nobody had known how to find the Mirror for centuries. He is the one who stumbled upon the directions to KI and perfectioned the spell on how to get there.

We decided to use our knowledge for good, for once. We designed the clues and asked some people, like the Blasted Tower you already met, to help us keep the quest easy and accessible to a new generation. Out of curiosity — do you know who the Tower was?"

"Jono Mitchell," Jeff replied. I sensed the Awakened wanted to tell us something more about him. They didn't.

"Let's go back to the heart of the matter," Eileen said. "We have been waiting since Jeff's father left us to embark him on this quest, to let him finish his father's work. Obviously, his grandfather didn't agree. But it seems that, with the Reapers coming back for the third time, he came around.

Of course, maybe it was because a new kid arrived at the Academy... One who changed things."

I tried to speak. Eileen removed the duct tape from my mouth, and not too kindly.

"Have you always kept an eye on all of us? Have you kept an eye on me? You said it, in a way. You said I changed things... Why? Why am I this important?"

"This we can tell you," Aimee said. "You might be someone we thought was dead."

She tried to shut me up again, but I put up a fight. I promised her that if she untied us, we'd behave better.

"So, did you help my father space-shift?" Jeff asked.

"We lent him our Aeon," Morgan explained, "But the idea that the Enemy Mirror might be found on KI was his. He contacted us to help him understand where it was and how to find it. We couldn't.

We teamed up. We saw that there were some... weird elements about this quest. Arcanes, for example. There was one who helped them back there, and one who helped you. But when Arcanes complete their purpose, their souls go to the afterlife, just like other humans' and Enchanters'."

Raegan looked a little sad. "What does the New Faith have to do with this?"

"You'll find it out eventually. This is also one of the reasons it's lucky that you're here."

Raegan snorted. "I am not my father's achievements or failures. I have nothing to do with the New Faith."

Beneath her contemptuous tone, I could feel her hurt.

"Before," Morgan said thoughtfully. "You asked us to tell you something nice about your father, Jeff. But we didn't know him very well."

He exchanged a look with the other Enchanters, who nodded.

"But we know Vitaly. And I can tell you you're doing something great. You're making sure his friend didn't die in vain."

Jeff was pale, for this was another reference to his father that seemed to reduce Samuel as a casualty instead of a person. But he nodded sternly.

"Vitaly never wanted to be one of them," Morgan added. "As soon as he met you, and understood who Jeff was, he left them and contacted you to go on this quest. The only purpose of his life."

Thinking about it, it made sense. Vitaly had always hinted that the reason he became Jophiel was because he loved Sam. He might have thought the best way to honour his memory would have been completing the quest.

But if things were so easy to understand, why couldn't Vitaly just tell us about it?

"Now I finally understand," Jeff said. "The members of the Circle were so nice to us because they knew of the quest even before we did."

"That's right," Luther dismissed the conversation. "Do you feel ready to go on with your quest?"

There was something off. Something didn't make sense, I knew it. But I couldn't point my finger on it.

But as soon as I figured it out, it seemed impossible to me that my friends hadn't noticed it before.

"You lied to us," I implied.

I thought all hell would break loose, but it didn't. Not yet, at least.

Morgan raised an eyebrow, doubtful.

"What?" he asked, pretending to be polite.

"You lied to us," I repeated. "On one thing. Let's hope it was one thing only, and this is not a habit."

"Is that so?" he asked his clan. "And what did we lie about?"

The other Awakened looked furious.

It might have been better not to unnerve someone who had drawn us from space and time and got us tied and gagged, but I really couldn't control my mouth when faced with something unjust.

"You said this quest was the only way to stop the Reapers, and that's why Samuel was obsessed with finding the Mirror," I explained. "But it's not true. Samuel wanted the Mirror for himself, not to save the world. That's why he went down in history as a madman and not as a hero — sorry, Jeff.

The Reapers weren't even formed back then, they formed just in time to kill Samuel when they decided they wanted to take the Empty Mirror for themselves. But he had already started the quest for his own personal gain. Everything I've been told so far leads to this conclusion. I don't know how you could have expected us to believe your lies.

Now, what I think really happened is that Samuel wanted the Empty Mirror because he wanted a way to deprive the gods of their powers, but when he came to you, you helped him nevertheless. Because he was the one who found out about KI and you wanted to look into it.

The Reapers, who were barely formed back then, reached him and killed him.

They are still looking for the Mirror in case someone else, maybe Jeff, wants to follow his father's footsteps. Am I right?"

I was so furious, I didn't notice I was losing control. My voice had started to shake. I just noticed it when Edgar put one of his hands on mine.

"You're right," Aimee admitted, clearly annoyed.

"Then why did you lie to us?"

"We didn't lie," she hissed. "We simply decided not to tell you everything. Which is something we do very often, by the way. We stand by the rule that you should never know too much. We simply told you about the first quest, not what it was for."

And she finally put duct tape on my mouth again.

But I knew there was something wrong. They had decided to leave out that information on purpose.

I was already beginning to analyse the situation in my head.

I had many hypotheses.

One – Maybe the quest was bound to drive you crazy.

Two – Maybe the Empty Mirror was one of those objects that you desired so much it could kill you and they didn't want us to know about it.

Three – Maybe we had zero chances of completing our quest without being murdered by the Reapers and they didn't want to tell us that they had already spied on Jeff's father, reached him while he was on the mission and killed him.

Four – Or maybe there was something more to this story, the same thing Vitaly wanted to tell us but couldn't.

The Awakened were still looking at me, like they were deciding how to punish me for the way I'd behaved.

Luther moved closer to me.

"Don't hurt him!" Raegan screamed.

"We won't," Eileen confirmed.

"Take it easy, Luther," she added. "Vitaly won't be too happy if any of them comes to harm. And then, they're supposed to be our saviours. Let's treat them as if they were. Even though this guy..."

I never heard the rest of the sentence. The monk performed a Mudra and I felt a shock, like electricity shaking my body. I think I might have passed out.

When I woke up, I didn't know how long I had been down. Maybe in that room time really didn't pass, but it surely felt like it did when they were hurting me.

"Luther," Eileen hissed. "Never again! The boy might have been disrespectful, but your ways reminded me of Declan Simon's. We swore none of the Awakened would have ever been like him again. And then..."

They didn't like to complete their sentences, apparently. Maybe they were afraid they'd let information slip out. But I was getting smarter and I understood what she meant.

"And then the boy is going to start wondering why what he said was so wrong that you started hurting him," I completed the sentence.

"Stop arguing! Let us go!" Jeff whimpered.

"And the more we stay," I added, "the more secrets you can spill by mistake."

Morgan slapped me in the face.

Raegan pointed her fingers at him, getting ready for a hurting spell. Jeff made her lower her arm.

"There's no need," he whispered. The Awakened set me free and I limped towards my friends. Raegan patted me on the back.

"You're the one who went crazy, this time," she congratulated me. "Thank you for lifting the weight off my shoulders."

I grinned at her.

"If you really are ready to go," Aimee said, "we won't bother you anymore. I hope what we could tell you, and what you were able to find out on your own, is enough to guide you."

"So," Raegan replied smugly. "You admit that knowing things can be helpful."

"Sometimes."

"Wait," Jo said. "For having hurt the boy, we need to give something in exchange. Mister Barnes, you owe us one more question."

"Really?" Morgan muttered. "Out of all the favours?"

"I'll use it wisely," I promised my friends. "I cannot seem to understand the realm of KI. It's not a place of Enchanters, nor humans. What kind of place is it, exactly?"

"It's a fairytale world," Jo replied. "The world that exists because of the fictionalised legends that have been told about the god Set and his siblings."