The main room of the sanctuary was a tall, vast hall, illuminated by a soft golden glow that seemed to come from the walls themselves rather than any visible source.
Along the sides, paintings of previous priestesses lined the walls, their gazes calm and distant, as if watching over the present from another time. Between each painting stood elegant columns of pale stone, reinforcing the sense of both structure and reverence.
The floor was covered in alternating blue and azure tiles, arranged in a precise checkered pattern that reflected the golden light in subtle, shifting tones. At the center, a long blue carpet stretched forward toward the altar, decorated along its edges with intricate golden ornaments, like fine embroidered lines that framed its length and guided the eye ahead.
Opposite the massive mahogany entrance stood the altar. It was a rectangular stone pedestal placed before a throne-like structure, which was raised on a small elevation. Three steps led up to it, marking a clear transition from the lower hall to the sacred space above.
Behind the throne, the wall opened into layered hollow forms, echoing the sanctuary's defining geometry: a series of elongated isosceles triangles with slightly curved upper edges, stacked and repeated like a sacred architectural motif. Within these hollow recesses lay a vast collection of treasures, predominantly golden in appearance, their surfaces catching and scattering the ambient light in faint, shimmering reflections.
On both the left and right sides of the hall, just before the steps leading up to the altar, stood two doors embedded into the walls, their presence subtle but deliberate, suggesting passages deeper into the sanctuary.
Looking upward, the ceiling revealed the true complexity of the structure. The sanctuary was not built as a single chamber, but as a system of nested hollow pyramid-like layers, each one fitting into the next. The golden light filtered through these geometric recesses, creating depth and shadow that shifted as one moved through the hall.
The entire room felt less like a constructed space and more like something grown into shape, carefully designed to guide attention toward the altar, and upward toward the layered architecture above.
At the center of the hall stood a low table. Steam rose gently from two cups of tea.
Reema sat on one side. Across from her sat Ahjer, while Hero remained behind his mistress, silent as a statue.
The room was quiet.
«Feeling better?» - Reema asked, breaking the silence.
Ahjer lowered the cup from her rose-pink lips and placed it on the table. - «A little.»
Reema nodded. - «Tell me more about it.»
Ahjer took another deep breath, and then started.
«As you already know, the split in the sky caused a few changes. The Xer energy flow around Bhavalia weakened, as if something was draining it. At first, everyone thought the split itself was responsible, but after the return of the expedition group led by Xyana, the council reached a different conclusion.»
Ahjer glanced around the room before placing a gem onto the table.
Reema's gaze dropped to it. The crystal had a precise octagonal dipyramid shape, flawless and untouched, with not a single scratch visible. Its yellow reflection made it resemble topaz.
«It's one of the champion's core power»
Champions are specific Xherns from Vornyx, a city in the southern desert. They represent the peak of Xhernians. It is said that the crystals bestow immense power upon their bearers. To be selected as one, a candidate must win a deadly tournament. There are also other conditions required to be accepted as a new bearer, but Reema couldn't recall them in that moment.
«How did you get one?»
«I didn't. That's the problem.» - Ahjer fidgeted with her long hair before continuing.
«Xyana found it while fighting a crazed Roheline. It was very difficult. They could interfere with vision, sensation, voices… everything.»
There was a brief silence.
«Reema.» - Ahjer placed her hand on the crystal. - «They've discovered an irregular use of Xer.»
«So you're saying that after 181 years, a new crystal was discovered near us, among the other anomalies, and the lack of Xer was due to this phenomenon?»
Reema drifted into thought for a moment.
«And the cause was the anomaly that's surveilling us from above? …Shit.
If that's the case, the Federation of Hate won't stand still, they probably are-»
«Sit down, Reema.» - Ahjer's voice carried a calm weight that settled over Reema. The girl, now quietly sipping from her cup, looked at Reema, who was still half-standing.
Reema complied, though reluctantly.
«I haven't finished yet.» - After placing the cup on the table and resting her hands on her lap, she continued. - «The problem with Xer is present only here. While the scar is hard to see from the plains, the council declared that there is nothing to do; the scar is just temporary, caused by the manifestation of the crystal.»
Reema listened silently, her attention was not on the speaker, but on the cup of teas.
«Temporary?» - Reema repeated once - «Are you sure about that?»
«Yes.»
Reema's gaze stayed on the cup of tea for a moment longer than necessary. Then shifted back to Ahjer.
«You, the future priestess, expect me to accept that conclusion?»
«That's what the council concluded. We have to accept it.»
«The expedition finished this afternoon, right?»
«Correct.»
«And you're telling me the council reached a unified conclusion in a few hours.»
«They didn't start from nothing. There were prior observations. They aligned with them.»
Reema exhaled slightly through her nose.
«Prior observations,» - she repeated. - «Convenient.»
Her fingers tapped once against the table.
«Tell me something instead.» - her eyes lifted again. - «The Xer around here… it's not just low, is it?»
Ahjer didn't answer immediately.
Reema continued, slower.
«It's still there. It doesn't vanish. It just… drops. Slightly. Every minute.»
Silence stretched for a moment longer than necessary.
«It behaves like normal fluctuation. Nothing more than environmental variance near the city. You know... the season is changing.»
Reema held her gaze for a beat.
Then looked away first.
«Right.»
Reema already knew what that was supposed to mean.
During season changes, Xer shifted in movement and density. Some Xhernian got stronger, others slightly weaker depending on how their bodies processed it through their nodes.
Most had only two active ones. A lung to draw Xer in through breathing (skin can also absorb Xer), and a kidney to filter and process it. In some cases, the liver also took part, acting as the main storage for excess Xer.
In more developed bodies, the bloodstream itself adapted, forming modified points inside the vessels that could circulate Xer directly. When that happened, the kidney slowly lost its connection to it.
On average, a Xhernian had two working Xergans.
Advanced ones had three: lung, kidney, and liver.
Superior ones stabilized all three, plus the modified blood vessels.
Anything beyond that usually caused the body to collapse under the load.
And then there were the rare cases—an additional structure forming along the spine, but it's function is still unknown.
Reema didn't react. She already knew all of it.
What didn't sit right wasn't the system, it was the fact that Xer still wasn't behaving like a fluctuation at all.
Reema took her cup and, in a single gulp, finished the rest of her tea. She set it down, got up, and without a single glance at Ahjer said:
«Goodnight.»
Without waiting for a reply, or anything that might follow it, she walked straight into her room, her steps a little faster than usual.
The main room remained in silence.
Ahjer looked back and smiled, her right hand resting on Hero's unconscious head as she gently ran her fingers through his fur. Then she stopped.
Her gaze settled on the fading steam rising from the cup in front of her. As it dissolved into the air, so did her smile.
«At last… nothing will change.»
Reema dropped onto her bed, face first.
It couldn't be like that. She knew it. Still, there was nothing to act on.
Even when praised, even when she delivered results that stood out, she would still be seen as a kid. Among her course, it was the opposite: strongest, unquestioned, as if that settled everything.
It was inefficient. Asking people her age led nowhere; they would only feel inferior. Asking older ones wasn't much better, they simply wouldn't listen.
Nothing useful came from either direction.
She was about to scream, but suddenly her spine jolted, for an instant, something felt wrong.
She stopped, then moved to the window to look outside.