"Where are we going today?" Gemini asked as she and Aries walked down the bustling streets of Eden. It was her second trial and the country was buzzing with news of her first trial from the day before.

He didn't answer as they approached a large white and gold structure. His blood was still simmering from the stunt that Gemini had pulled earlier. At least she didn't fight and immediately went to bed to get a good five hours of sleep.

Oblivious to her mentor's anger, Gemini stared up in awe at the Museum at the heart of the Maze of Temples. No matter how many times she had seen it, it never failed to impress her.

Every time a new god was crowned, the people built a temple in his or her honour to celebrate their ascension as a god. The people designed the temple and built it themselves, creating a maze of intricate temples. And at the centre of the "maze" was the Museum of Eden, the most iconic and important building in the whole of Eden. If Eden was to go into war, the Museum must be protected at all costs-that was the number one rule in The Council Handbook.

As she walked up the grand marble staircase, Gemini could the see temples of the eldest gods such as Nyx and Pisces. The eldest gods were the first gods of every council and had to go through the trials without a mentor, fighting and struggling through them on their own. That itself showed true bravery, courage and perseverance. Thus they all have grander temples that were closer towards the heart of the maze where the Museum was.

She turned to Aries and asked, "What are we doing here?"

Aries didn't even glance at her as he pushed through the grand double doors made out of dark wood with elaborate gold handles. "We're going to your second trial."

Gemini rolled her eyes. Typical. "Wow, I totally did not know that."

Aries just huffed and stormed through the grand foyer towards the Zodiac wing. You might think how on earth do you keep adding new wings dedicated to each council of gods, but the Museum is magical like many things in Eden.

Rumour says that the Museum was once a god on the very first council, but was killed in battle. The rest of the council were grief-stricken as they surrounded his dead body and decided to preserve his spirit in a magical Museum dedicated to history in remembrance of his passion for the subject. Engraved on the grand double doors of the Museum was one of his most iconic quotes.

History is not just boring records,
but stories of people and their struggles.
It tells of the rise and fall of nations
so that we can learn from the past
and do better in the future.

They stopped in the circular foyer of the Zodiac Council wing. Below her was a polished wooden floor and above her was a gold dome ceiling. The foyer was shaped to look like the actual throne room in the Council building with the thrones and statues and all. Each god was meticulously carved out, not a single detail was spared. The sculptures were so life-like that if they weren't white, Gemini would've thought they were the actual gods sitting there.

In the middle of the foyer stood Pictor, the caretaker of the Museum, and Caelum, the sculptor who made all the sculptures in Eden. Pictor looked at Gemini and said, "You look old enough to look around the wing yourself. You have an hour before the trial begins."

"And what sort of trial would take place in a museum?" Gemini sassed.

Pictor regarded her with an unimpressed look. "One that takes place in a museum."

Caelum and Aries covered up their laughter as best as they could while Gemini rolled her eyes. She moved on to one of the exhibition halls. The floor there was carpeted in the richest red she had ever seen and there were sculptures, paintings and texts that told the history of the Zodiac Council.

There was the account of the Dark Ages where the first three gods of the current council — Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio fought what most thought would be an impossible war that lasted for almost seven years. Some of the ancient gods were still angry that they had to step down and did not approve of the new gods. So they decided to form a group called the Darkness to revolt against them.

Although Pisces may be the first god to join the Council, Scorpio was the eldest of the three with Cancer being the youngest. And all three of them were the only gods to be born in the same century. Although many starlings with the potential to be a god had given their shot over the centuries, Pisces, Scorpio and Cancer were the only ones to have passed the trials so close together.

Gemini continued walking, reading up about the various dates, wars, events etc. She felt nervous as she had a feeling that the trial was going to be about history, which wasn't her strong suit. And if she failed...she shuddered just thinking about it.

"It isn't going to be that bad," Aries commented, appearing beside her. That startled Gemini and she almost screamed in fright.

Aries burst out laughing when he saw the startled look on her face. "Did I scare you?" he mocked. "Do you need a little tissue? Or do you want your mummy?"

"Shut up," Gemini growled and pressed on. Just when she was starting to warm up to him, he just had to go and ruin that.

"Well, I came to escort you back to the foyer. Your hour's up."

Just. Great, Gemini thought. If only I had more time. Luckily I was up last night brushing up on my history though. Hopefully, it pays off.

Back at the foyer, Pictor held a papyrus scroll sealed with a formal red wax seal. He grinned when he saw Gemini. "Let's see how well you know your history."

He held out his hand to Caelum who handed him a letter opener. With an exaggerated flick of his wrist, Pictor broke the seal and opened the scroll. He cleared his throat and read out the first question. "What is the order of Zodiac Council?"

Gemini knew this by heart. In fact, every starling in Eden can list the order of all the councils with their eyes closed. "Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio, Capricorn, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Sagittarius, Taurus, Aries and Aquarius."

"Very good," Pictor said flatly and handed the scroll to Caelum.

Caelum looked at the scroll and then motioned for all of them to follow him. He stopped at the Dark War section and pointed to a sculpture of Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio fighting back to back. "What exactly is the significance of this statue?" Caelum asked.

Gemini gulped. The significance? It is just a sculpture to show the three gods fighting against the threat of the ancient gods. Does it have a deeper meaning? Gemini wracked her brain for anything she might have learnt during history lessons back in school. She vaguely recalled coming here for a school trip. What was it her teacher said? Fighting...teamwork...back to back...Got it! But how was she supposed to answer the question? Hmm...let's just treat it like the history picture source question that they used to test when she was a student.

"That sculpture shows the three gods working together to defeat a common enemy. This shows the importance of teamwork, because if the gods had not worked together, they wouldn't have been able to defeat the enemy and Eden would not be what it is today. The sculpture also shows the three gods standing back to back. They had each other's backs in the war, showing the level of trust they had in one another to protect them. Thus the sculpture represents the importance of teamwork and trust in your teammates."

Caelum and Pictor looked at each other, impressed. "What did the Roman Council do during the Dark Ages?" Pictor asked.

Shit. Gemini knew that all the councils were involved in the war in some way or another, but it was rarely talked about and she didn't remember much. All she knew was that her parents had taken the Zodiacs' side, but she wasn't too sure about the rest.

"Uh a handful of them joined the Darkness while others joined the Zodiacs?"

"Can you give us some examples?" Caelum prompted as Pictor lay out his collection of sculpting picks. He picked out one and started sharpening it, the light glinting menacingly off the silver tool.

Gemini twisted the hair tie on her wrist, desperately looking around the room for any possible answers. If she didn't say anything soon, she would have one sharp pick buried in her flesh. Take a deep breath, Gemini reminded herself. Breathe in...1...2...3...Breathe out...1...2...3...

"Everyone except Mars and Ceres joined the Zodiacs' side. Ceres was angry that she was the least recognised god and was sometimes mocked as the most useless god. Meanwhile, Mars just wanted to cause trouble. However, Juno and Venus joined the Zodiacs' side because they didn't want to get on Jupiter's bad side."

Caelum nodded, much to Gemini's relief, then read out the next question, "What exactly is the colour of Pictor's underwear? Wait what?"

Pictor turned bright red while Caelum and Aries burst out laughing. Even Gemini could not stop herself from letting out a much needed laugh. "That...that is...definitely Scorpio!" Aries choked out, tears running down his face.

"Is that a legit question?" Gemini giggled, the tension and stress from the previous question dissolving away.

Aries looked at Pictor, amused. "Well, it is written down so Gemini will have to answer it."

Pictor grumbled something under his breath then he grinned at Gemini. "You'll never guess what colour my underwear is."

"Hm..." Gemini looked at his white tunic, his white pants, his white socks and his white shoes. Could it be a trick? Or could his underwear really be white? She decided to go with it. "White?"

"Damn it," Pictor cursed loudly as Aries and Caelum burst into laughter again. "What gave it away?" Gemini didn't know if she wanted to answer that.

Once everyone had calmed down, Caelum cleared his throat and handed the scroll to Pictor. He glanced at it then at Gemini with a twisted smile. At that moment, Gemini knew that the real questions were coming.

・‥...━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━...‥・

If you were the one setting this trial, what questions would you ask Gemini?

If you were a god, how would you like your temple to look like?