The river of stars hung inverted in the sky, its reflection mirrored on the crystal-clear surface of the lake. It was a fine night, with no clouds to obscure the heavens, revealing the majestic galaxy in all its glory to the mortals below. The celestial tracks, intertwined and connected, were said to be the very traces of gods and fate. In the art of divination, it was believed that a starry night was the perfect ti to scry the future, for it was the mont mortals drew closest to destiny.
As Jenkins mulled over this knowledge, he suddenly felt the cat on his shoulder stir restlessly. It let out a soft ow, then anxiously lowered its head. Its hind claws dug into his clothes for purchase while its front paws kneaded his shoulder with urgent, alternating pressure.
Jenkins was puzzled, and just then, his eyes caught sothing amiss. The dim candlelight beneath the water's surface in the center of the lake had begun to flicker erratically.
"What's wrong?"
The question flashed through his mind, and without a mont's hesitation, he strode forward into the ritual circle by the lake. Simultaneously, a powerful gust of wind swept in from the west. It sent a great rustle through the sea of trees and, to his astonishnt, extinguished more than half of the 365 candles that ford the base of the ritual.
This was far from normal. Once a ritual was underway, the candles beca imbued with mystical properties; their flas should not have been so easily snuffed out by the wind.
Jenkins was stunned, but there was no ti to assess the situation. He scrambled toward the lake's edge. Just then, the light in the center of the lake wavered violently a few tis and then vanished completely. The ritual had failed catastrophically. Audrey was in trouble.
With no ti to even take off his shoes, Jenkins tossed his cat and overcoat onto the grass, waded unevenly through the muddy shallows, and plunged headfirst into the water.
The water was unnaturally cold, instantly leaching the heat from his skin. Not being a strong swimr, Jenkins flailed for a few monts before finding his rhythm. He broke the surface, took a breath, and swam forward, his Eye of Reality ceaselessly scanning the depths for Audrey's spiritual glow.
Once he reached the center of the lake, he took a deep breath and plunged beneath the surface. With his physical eyes closed, he activated his Eye of Reality, and the surrounding auras grew sharper, more bizarre. He could no longer see just a pinpoint of light for Audrey; a hazy glow now outlined her entire form, and he could even faintly discern her expression.
Audrey was at the very bottom, in the lake's center. Her hands were stretched toward the surface, her long hair floating around her, both swaying in the deep, eerie currents as if she were trying to touch the starlight that could never penetrate these depths.
Jenkins felt his lungs burning, the need for air becoming desperate. The lake was much deeper than he had imagined.
"But do I really need to breathe?"
He swam deeper, and as the thought crossed his mind, the explosive pressure in his lungs simply vanished. The spirit coursing through his veins supplied all the vital necessities for his physical form. He was an incarnation of life itself.
He pressed onward, finally reaching her. He touched her icy fingertips, then grasped her hand, pulling hard to lift her. But she wouldn't budge. Sothing was holding her from below. Left with no other choice, Jenkins released her hand and swam deeper, discovering that her ankles were ensnared by thick weeds.
"Damn it."
He cursed inwardly. Grabbing Audrey's leg, he gave it a gentle shake to confirm she was unconscious. Then, he simply reached out and touched the entangling weeds. As a surge of his life spirit flowed into them, the plants, as if alive, recoiled and released her ankles.
Jenkins imdiately kicked off from the sloped lakebed, cradling his teacher as he swam toward the surface. With her heavy robes gone, Audrey wore only a simple sumr tunic. She was light, and carrying her upward was no strain for him.
But the water-divination ritual, it seed, was not yet over. Jenkins had only just begun his ascent when a strange surge of spirit flowed from Audrey's hand into his own body. At that sa mont, dark clouds eclipsed the red moon, leaving only the blue moon to bathe the lake in its mysterious light.
The 365 extinguished candles reacted strangely to the blue moonlight. As Chocolate watched from the shore, the ritual formation seed to warp, rewritten by an unseen hand. Beneath the water, both Jenkins and Audrey lost consciousness.
(Finney, praying...)
Cold... Shivering...
The mont consciousness returned, Jenkins didn't bolt upright. Instead, he kept his eyes shut and scanned his surroundings with the Eye of Reality. His eyeballs twitched subtly beneath his eyelids, and his fingers trembled in a faint, rhythmic pattern. Only after he had a clear grasp of the situation did he let out a groan and slowly push himself into a sitting position, feigning the disorientation of soone just waking up.
"Not bad. You're the most promising one in this batch."
He was in a stone chamber. The walls were windowless, with only a single open door admitting any light. The chamber itself was dark, and the light streaming in from the doorway silhouetted the speaker, a middle-aged woman, making her appear to glow:
"Alright, you can go wait outside."
The woman declared. Jenkins gave a hesitant nod, saying nothing. He deliberately feigned dizziness, which gave him the opportunity to survey his surroundings as he braced a hand against the wall to slowly get to his feet. The dark chamber was filled with the unconscious forms of young n and won, a few of whom were already beginning to stir.
Among them, Jenkins spotted Audrey. Or rather, a much younger version of Audrey. The woman he knew looked to be in her mid-twenties, but the girl lying here was, without a doubt, a genuine fifteen or sixteen.
He hesitated for a mont but decided against trying to rouse his teacher. Instead, he walked straight past the woman in the doorway and stepped outside.
He found himself in a forest, an environnt that imdiately put him more at ease. He took a deep breath, and the feedback from the spirits of nature confird it instantly: this was not the Evergreen Forest.
Looking back, he saw the solitary stone house standing amidst the trees, a narrow path leading away from it into the distance.
After a short wait, others began to file out. Jenkins used the ti to confirm that this wasn't a dream, though he couldn't rule out an illusion. He was certain, however, that his body was still his own, that of Jenkins Williams; he had not de-aged like Audrey.
He glanced quizzically at the younger version of his teacher, who was now standing beside him. The young woman simply shook her head, signaling for him to remain silent.
"Alright. It looks like you are the ones who passed this ti."
The woman in the doorway announced, glancing at a pocket watch. At her words, several figures in grey ceremonial robes, who had been waiting nearby, entered the stone house with flasks of water, apparently to forcibly awaken the rest.
"To beco a true diviner, one needs more than just the talent to touch destiny. You must also possess imnse ntal fortitude, because we can never know what we will 'see' during our next divination."
The woman's voice was soft. She wore a pale pink blouse and a black skirt—a combination that would have seed odd on anyone else, but it perfectly suited her enigmatic aura.
"You have passed the penultimate trial. All that remains is one final test, and you will earn the right to touch destiny.
Co with , young ones."
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