By the time we neared the temple, we’d fought almost a dozen other spirits. Most of them we’d killed, although some had apparently been smart enough to realize when they were outmatched and fled. I hadn’t personally killed any of the others, who weren’t as strong, anyway. That was probably a good thing.

The spirit’s qi roiled inside of me, integrating into my own and giving me a feeling of growing strength, but also agitating it. I wasn’t a true spirit, after all, and however they absorbed qi, it clearly didn’t quite work for me. Combined with the almost static feeling in the air and the pressure of the spiritual qi around me, it made me feel a little queasy. Of course, I settled my stomach down with a burst of focus, but it wasn’t a biological problem.

“My lady,” Aston murmured, “we are getting close to the source of the disturbance. It would be a good time for further information or a plan.”

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow, but nodded. “Right. I can still sense Jideia everywhere. So he probably isn’t in any particular spot here at all. If he is, I guess we’re probably screwed. Otherwise …” I trailed off, frowning at the temple and the clouds of qi in front of us. “Definitely still a few spirits, and a remarkable lack of priests. I feel like we should approach. There’s no point in wasting time bumbling around out here. We’re not going to learn more fighting the rest of those spirits.”

“As you will,” he agreed. “Form up and forward.”

The gathered soldiers, guards and elites, followed his command, and we advanced in good order. Probably. There was definitely a logic to how the people were positioned, but since I didn’t know the details of everyone’s skill set, it wasn’t obvious.

“Can you sense anything else that could help us?” Elia asked quietly, lengthening her stride to walk beside me.

I glanced at her. “No, I don’t think so. Do you?”

She frowned. “Not really. I can tell that the Sun, or whatever remnant or connection to her I have, doesn’t … like what’s going on there. But I don’t get the feeling she’s particularly fond of Jideia on their best day, anyway.” She sighed and shook her head. “I wish Elis were here. He’s more perceptive about things like that.”

I smiled at her, deliberately projecting calm assurance. “Don’t worry about it. And you know your brother, he’ll be fine.”

The temple reminded me of the one the priests had blown up, though it was both more compact and grander in scale. No other building in the city that I’d seen had been built from the same white stone, which seemed to reflect the churning clouds oddly. Shadows danced inside it, more sensed than seen, but everything was quiet. There weren’t even any spirits close to it. We’d probably dealt with all of them covering this approach to the temple.

The ambient qi lying in the air thickened as we drew closer, and it felt like the ground beneath our feet was slowly but surely drifting away. I ignored the sensation. It was far less intense than some others I’d felt when I went to talk to spirits. No one in my group commented on it, and it didn’t feel like anyone else was unnerved enough that they wanted to slow down, either.

Walking forward suddenly got harder. It felt like there was a veil of qi laid around the temple, or maybe another layer of it, just around the walls. It wasn’t a clearly defined line, just a scattered area. I channeled a bit of my own qi, trying to draw from my connection to the Moon, and stepped forward. The guards slowed enough that I was the first one to step right up to the walls. I closed my eyes, following an impulse, and cycled my qi harder. Then I took another step forward.

I opened my eyes again and blinked against the sight. The wall had been faded out enough by the spell of the place that it wasn’t entirely physical anymore. I found myself standing surrounded by a view of worked stone, fading in and out of sight wherever I focused my eyes. They struggled to understand it, and after a moment, I just walked forward, passing beyond the wall.

Elia followed me through after a few seconds. The rest of our party seemed to have more trouble with it. I frowned and looked more closely. Once again, Kajare had stayed behind to coordinate with the rest of the army and help the soldiers deal with their own objectives, but Tenira and Yarani had insisted on coming along. No one had wanted to allow Ceion to come, and I’d agreed to leave him behind, partly because I wasn’t sure how much we had really severed him from his father’s influence. Taking him into a contested temple of the Storm would probably be a bad idea. Now, I watched my consorts struggling through the boundary around the temple along with the Imperial guards and soldiers accompanying us.

I exhaled deeply and tried to push some of my own qi out and into the space around us. It was hard to tell how much purchase it found in the already qi-saturated location, but it actually seemed to help a little. At least, a short while later Aston pushed through the wall, followed by the rest of them.

“Please, my lady, stay where we can protect you,” he grumbled, his eyes already darting watchfully around our new location.

“Of course, don’t worry,” I replied without looking at him.

The inside of the temple looked much like it had from the outside, except that it felt like the space had expanded. There was still the actual white-walled temple building in the center, but somehow it seemed smaller, the spaces between larger.

“It’s a safe bet our presence has been noticed,” I said, glancing at everyone. “Be careful, but don’t attack anything until you’re sure we’re actually under attack. Let’s go.”

Then I slung my spear over my shoulder and started walking. All of the ambient qi might interfere with my storage ring, so I’d rather have my weapon ready at hand. Here, Fides seemed to give off the faintest of light, illuminating my surroundings, but letting them swallow its light before it could reach far. I heard the others following me, but didn’t turn around to look at them. Elia closed the gap to walk beside me, while Aston claimed the spot at my right shoulder.

We didn’t actually move directly towards the temple, but I wasn’t worried about that. I could tell that the local geography had also been affected by this phenomenon, whatever it was.

Actually, now that I was here, I started to get a better idea of that. It wasn’t something I had seen before, but I still got a feeling for it. The temple was the focus of a larger working. One focus. The place hadn’t been cut off from the rest of the city to take it out of it, not primarily. That struck me more as a side effect, although it would make it harder for anyone to interfere. Not that interference seemed possible, right now.

I paused, chasing that thought. Yeah, I’m afraid that rings true. Whatever was going on here, it was largely done. Now the question remained, what and why. I frowned to myself and quickened my steps. I couldn’t help the feeling that I was chasing snowflakes here while Jideia was bringing a blizzard somewhere. Except it wouldn’t be something as contained as an actual storm.

Finally, we did reach the main temple building, though we were at a side entrance. I checked the door, but it was locked and warded. The wards seemed to have fared poorly in this environment, and a little judicious application of darkness affinity qi convinced them not to trouble us. Then I repeated my old trick and formed lockpicks made out of horn from my fingers, molding them into the old steel lock and quickly levering it open. The door swung inward without a sound.

The inside of the temple was empty. We emerged into a side chamber with an open doorway leading into what had to be the main hall. There was a stone bench bulging out of the wall circling the room and a glowstone in the ceiling, though it was dark and the only illumination came from outside. I glanced around, then stepped forward. The main room was about as empty as the first one. Indentations and the patterns in a faint covering of dust showed where benches and heavier objects had stood, though they’d been removed what looked like some time ago. The tall, narrow windows let in some light, and the room smelled empty. Not even like dust or abandonment or sterile like a hospital, just like nothing. It was almost unnerving, given the qi in the room.

There was another open doorway leading out of the hall at its head, but the qi in the air seemed to swallow up whatever lay beyond it. I walked forward slowly, cautiously, holding my spear tight in my hand and keeping my eyes moving. It felt like the range of my senses had shrunk, the deeper we went into the temple, but I still felt something from ahead. No priests, and I couldn’t quite recall when I’d stopped feeling any humans except for the people with me. Something else, vaguely reminiscent of the temple they’d blown up on our way to this city.

The place swallowed the sound of our steps as we crossed the room. Beyond, there was a square space, too big for an antechamber, but still empty, and one entire wall was mostly missing, just formed by a few pillars to the sides. It gave us a good look at where the sensation came from.

A number of weapons lay there, arranged in a strange display. Swords, spears, a few shields. All of them were of good make, I could see that at a glance, most of them were enchanted or had been. Some of them bore a symbol I recognized as the sign of the new templars. The rest probably came from them, too. A sight like this shouldn’t surprise me, when I think about it. Jideia is something like a warrior god.

“Nari,” Elia said, her voice quiet, but it still seemed to cut through the place. “We need to be very careful here. Maybe we should go.”

I frowned, but didn’t argue. Carefully, I stepped closer, scrutinizing the scene closely.

“Maybe we shouldn’t disturb whatever ritual piece that is,” Tenira commented.

I rolled my eyes. “Hey, I’m not stupid. I’m not going to mess with something like that without any idea what we’re doing. Even if it does allow Jideia to anchor his presence here more strongly.” I paused, frowning. I did feel like this thing was doing that. Well, thanks, father.

“By anchoring his presence,” Yarani asked, “do you mean …”

The place around us rumbled. It was very slight, something you could easily fail to notice in other circumstances. But by the way everyone tensed up, they certainly did notice. A low hum started to rise just on the edge of hearing.

“You mean maybe we shouldn’t bring two spirit-children, one from his enemy, right here in the middle of it?” Elia finished. “I’m starting to think so.”

I backed up, clutching my spear. The soldiers drew tighter around us, positioning themselves so they could fight effectively. A light flickered somewhere on the pile of weapons.

“Let’s retreat some ways, carefully,” I said. Suiting words to actions, I continued backing away, stepping softly and stretching out my senses. The others followed suit.

I was starting to think we might have been too hasty. Clearly, the Storm had known the Imperials were coming. It probably wouldn’t have taken a genius to figure out this might happen. And even if we’d managed to stop this ritual at this temple, it was only a small piece. I was starting to figure that out. Jideia had laid his groundwork well, starting some time in advance. The sacrifice he’d had performed in that one temple was only another part of it. Presumably, a large part of what he did was supposed to help with the other spirits, perhaps covering his back so they couldn’t as easily attack him when he put his presence into the material world.

Well, now I knew about it, and I could find a way to stop it. Or, failing that - and it did seem like stopping it wouldn’t be in the cards - take advantage and find a way to exploit it. Whatever else was going on, Jideia was making himself more vulnerable as well, I knew that. Still need to deal with this first, though.

We were just passing through the doorway of the room beside the improvised ritual chamber when the qi in the air changed yet again. I gasped, my knees buckling for a moment before I could straighten myself up again. A presence had suddenly coalesced in the temple, one new to me and yet darkly familiar.

The weapons melted, and where they’d lain, a figure appeared, made of roiling qi and yet with clear definition and detail. It formed a long-haired, bearded man in archaic armor, his spear crackling with the electricity of a whole season of storms.

I didn’t take any time to think about it. I didn’t need to. As soon as I caught a glimpse, I bolted. My qi immediately reached out to my companions, and I ran.

Laughter followed me. ‘And so we meet. Not eager to face me, are you, girl?’

My people in tow, I fled, pelting out of the temple in moments. The qi around us was suddenly viscous like tar, dragging against us. In the back of my mind, I knew this couldn’t be Jideia’s full presence, or anywhere close to his full strength, but probably just a projection. He could still swat me like a dust mote, if my father didn’t intervene and pour power into me. Rijoko’s connection was active in my mind, almost humming with tension, but he didn’t send me anything. Except perhaps this drive to run, I didn’t know. It all happened in a moment, my thoughts simply racing frantically at speeds far beyond the human norm.

The spirit took a step, crossing the room at once. A fraction of a second later, we burst out of the building, crashing right through the wooden entrance doors into the courtyard. The qi around us shuddered, and still we ran.

Then suddenly, I felt a new arrival, and another person appeared. She materialized in front of us, but as we ran, she got between us and the Storm right away. I felt my thoughts crash to a halt for an instant as I parsed what my eyes and qi senses were telling me.

“Mother?!”

The woman in the white stage sent out a pulse of qi. It seemed to cut right through the molasses holding us, and at the same time throw up a wall in front of the Greater Spirit’s form, impeding him.

I’d slowed and come to a stop, somehow ending up closest to her, while the others had kept running for a bit longer. Mother was beside me in an instant, her eyes lighting up, even though they appeared to be mostly made of qi, like the rest of her, before she turned.

’Come,’ she said simply. ‘We need to go.’

A gale of qi crashed out from Jideia, but Mother’s power slowed it, and it never reached us.

Then Mother grabbed my hand, even though it didn’t feel like it physically touched anything, and pulled. It felt like someone had set a hook into the core of my body.

And then we were elsewhere.

I blinked, adjusting to another landscape of qi. In the back of my mind, I sensed the others had come as well. Of course, she was in the white stage, taking people along would be trivial.

But I just stared at Mother, struggling against a tide of emotions at seeing her again. Then she was before me again, right there, and we had our arms around each other, her form inconsequential. I hugged her like I wanted to break her.