The Temple

In theory, it would have been a smart idea for John not to immediately pull the temple key reward from his Inventory in the presence of inquisitive pictsies and a member of the Order. Indeed, it would have been wise to hide it, given the sudden arrival of a suspiciously well put together shrine, but for whatever reason John’s eighteen points of Wisdom were apparently not enough in the face of Quest-complete excitement.

Temporarily ignoring Rebecca’s intrigued expression and a snort from Not-So-Wee Jimmy, John turned his newest acquisition over in his hands. The god specific reward, experience and skill points could wait for another time - those at least he wanted to go over in the privacy of his own room with Malal to offer suggestions and guidance. The temple key on the other hand… it was exactly what it sounded like. A big, heavy metal key with a simple set of teeth on one end to work a lock, and an attractive if basic hoop of metal twisted like rope on the other end to act as a handle (or a convenient place to attach it to a belt - John was pretty sure that no keyring would fit on something that size).

“Okay… so I’ve gotten a big key. Now what. Do I need to find a door or…?” John mumbled to himself, trying to see if there were any markings that might indicate where he was supposed to use the thing - there were certainly no keyholes on his shrine.

“Ach, lad, dunnae ye be tryin’ tae use that in here. There’s nae doors around, and without one as a frame, yon key’ll mess up the nice wee bubble we got going an’ no mistake. Get off with yer lassie and try it ootside, alright? Any old door should do, ya try one of them wee dead-folk’s houses in the cemetery there.” The voice of Not-So-Wee Jimmy cut neatly across John’s train of thought, and he turned to face the pictsie - only to notice as he did so that Rebecca had done exactly the same thing.

“What do you mean, he needs a door to use it?” Rebecca said, frowning at the two tiny figures. “Also, is nobody but me going to comment on the fact that an entire shrine to the Lady just appeared out of thin air?!”

The pictsie sighed and gestured towards the shrine. “Yon shrine appeared on account of the Lady being sweet on yer wee laddie there, as did the key he’s a-holding. As tae why she did that, who can say? But I can feel the magic on that hunk of iron from all the way over here. It’s as clear as day it’ll open a way for ye to someplace else, and doin’ that without a frame is nae’r a good idea.” As Rebecca’s mouth fell open, Jimmy turned to the younger pictsie and hooked a thumb in the direction of the interior of the church. “Go on, lass, get back inside. I’ll finish talking with the unnaturally large folk and be right behind ye.”

The instant they’d left the barrier, Rebecca rounded on John, gesticulating wildly. “What in her name did he mean that the Lady is sweet on you?! And… and… what even is that key? Where did you get it? How did you get it? And how did you really make that shrine so fast and…” She paused, breathing heavily before forcing herself to calm down. “Alright. We really, really need to go and see the Warden, she’ll know what to make of all this. Umm… when I reported everything from the other day, she said she wanted to talk to you at your earliest convenience at the estate and…”

John thought frantically. He really wasn’t sure after all of Malal’s warnings that visiting ‘the estate’ would be a good idea. It sounded suspiciously like the Order’s base of operations by the way Rebecca was describing the place, but he didn’t really see any options to get out of it unless he could distract her and he didn’t have any easy way to do that except… He held up the key. “That’s fine, but before we go - since the Lady gave this to me, perhaps we should see where it leads first?”

Rebecca frowned, clearly torn between wanting to see what the key did and her orders to bring him to the estate, then nodded slowly. “You truly received that as a gift from the Lady? I mean, not that I’m doubting you but…” She swallowed, then shook her head. “No, no, you’re right - if it is a gift, it would be the right thing to find out what it unlocks first. We should put the Lady’s will above everything else.” Despite her words, John noted that she’d shifted her grip on her backpack - enough to put at least one of the daggers inside within drawing distance. He guessed that the unexpected appearance of both shrine and key had done a lot to break whatever trust had been building between them, and was suddenly very aware of the fact that she still significantly out-levelled him and was fully focused into combat.

Swallowing hard, he gestured to the mausoleum closest to them. “So… should I try it there, or should we find a different door?” he asked, rather hoping that despite Jimmy’s suggestion, Rebecca would recommend they look elsewhere than someone’s grave for this experiment. Unfortunately, she just shrugged and waved him forward.

The lock on the mausoleum door was far too small. John saw that the instant he got closer, but he didn’t want to back down with pale blue eyes boring into his back and so hesitantly moved the key towards the lock. To his shock, as the key drew closer, the keyhole expanded - until the metal slid smoothly in and turned with a click. Pulling the key out and frowning at it, John turned the handle, pushed the door open, and stepped through with Rebecca close on his heels.

The far side of the door should have been a cool, small marble room - probably with a coffin or something in the middle, if all the TV mausoleums John had ever seen were anything to go by. It definitely shouldn’t have opened into a vast chamber with great gothic arches around the walls and a mural of a woman holding the world between her hands on the ceiling. For a moment, John and Rebecca just stood and stared, speechless at the vast space before glancing back at the door they’d entered by. The now very much closed door.

“Did… did you close that behind you?” John asked, feeling an icy sense of dread when his companion shook her head. Crossing quickly, he tried the handle, dragging the door open to reveal… the graveyard and the back wall of the church. Exhaling, he turned back to Rebecca and the inside of the - well, the temple, he guessed, shrugging as he did so. “At least we’ve got a way out from the looks of things. Shall we take a look around?”

At a hesitant nod from Rebecca, John took the time to fully appreciate the room they were standing in. It appeared to be some kind of entry way or rotunda, now that he actually focused on it, with passageways leading off on three of the four sides. The remaining side had the door they had entered by, along with two high arches that a quick peer through appeared to open into yet another passageway - this time one that connected up behind the wall containing the entrance. Opting to take that route first to make sure his guess was right, John realised that this linking corridor had another door set in it - although when he approached and tried the handle to this new portal, he was surprised to hear an error chime.

Opting to add that to the list of things he’d need to discuss with Malal later, he turned back the way he’d come. “The door’s locked, and I don’t want to try the key that got us here on it just in case it breaks our way home,” he said by way of explanation when Rebecca raised an eyebrow at the change of track. Retracing their steps, John glanced up at the mural once more, and then tried the other passageways from the main rotunda one after another.

The first led to a room containing a fountain ringed by plinths lining the walls, although only the centre-most plinth (the one opposite the entrance) was filled. Rebecca bowed her head the instant she saw the statue standing on it, her hands pressed together in a gesture of devotion. The novice’s actions rather clearly answered John's unspoken question about who the woman on the plinth must be. Inclining his head to the statue of Gaia before leaving that tranquil space, he found that Rebecca hadn’t followed him when he returned to the central room. For a moment, he debated going back to get her, before deciding against it. She had seemed happy in quiet prayer or reflection or whatever she’d been doing, and leaving her to it would let him finish exploring on his own.