I have to believe that counts for something.
This time, Zan and I reach the doors at the same time and exchange a weighted look.
Here it is.
My second chance.
Am I ready?
I swallow; nod.
And together we open the doors one more time.
This time, I’m not alone.
This time, there are no priests trying to kill me or make me kill anyone.
This time, there is a meadow in bloom, and a lush forest and warmth against my skin and the sun in the sky.
And... a cottage?
Thatdefinitely wasn’t here when I came to Celestial Sanctuary Temple half a millennium ago.
Still getting used to that.
It’s an odd cottage, too. Not that I’m exactly a connoisseur, but I’ve always taken note of the shapes of people’s homes I passed on assignments, never entering, speculating on what their exteriors might say about the experience of living inside.
This one is a little lopsided, with pieces that don’t appear to match.
But it also looks lived-in, well-loved. Welcoming.
I swallow and manage to choke out, “Is that your house?”
Zan has been watching me closely. “No,” he finally says. “It’s yours.”
I tear my eyes away from the cottage. “What?”
“Shortly after you created the Quiet, a magical null who happened to be living in Crystal Hollow at the time decided to build that here, with parts from buildings that had collapsed when magic was suppressed. I brought the first sage I took from the Order here, and the two of them made it into a sanctuary for any future sages who needed it. There’s a guest room I use, but the house is here for you.”
I gape. “What—I mean, how—”
Zan’s eyes seem to soften, somehow. “Come on. I’ll show it to you.”
“That’s not what I was going to ask.”
“I know, but come look anyway.”
In something like a daze, I start moving again.
Grass beneath my bare feet.
The smell of flowers blooming.
Bees buzzing, making sound, and movement, and I’m glad there is no one here to see me because I’m honestly overwhelmed by all the sensory input.
Then Zan’s voice; an anchor.
“The null’s name was Tasa,” he says. “She was the only one who could come up the mountain to see what had happened. It’s also why she could handle the broken magic—she singlehandedly rebuilt Crystal Hollow, and even though everything has had to be rebuilt over time, her stamp is still everywhere. But this was her first, and her refuge.”
