In the soft, bright light of the setting blue star, the Guild members were found hiking up the backside of the hill, out of sight of the town. They couldn’t be sure if there  any beings would be on watch or not, but it was better to be cautious. They reached the temple not long after the second star had set and darkness fell quickly. Hannah pulled out her electric torch and Ari drew a line on his arm to create a beam of light from the palm of his hand.

“How did you do that?” Hannah whispered.

“Completed a circuit. Now quiet,” he responded, slipping his silver pen back in its sheath and folding two of his fingers down to diminish the luminosity.

Ari lead the way in, Spades and Hannah taking up the rear. There was another exterior door that they could enter through and they used that one after Ari did a quick scan to check for alarms. Thankfully there were none.

As softly as possible, they stole across the tile floor to the stairway. The building, gorgeous by day, now felt like it was filled with watching eyes. The starlight cast faint shadows through the stained glass ceiling and seemed to cling to them as they moved. Weapons drawn, they walked down the stairs. In the quiet they could hear faint voices coming from the other side of the door.

Nadir motioned for them to wait a moment and he concentrated on the air flow through the small keyhole, manipulating it to flow faster, carrying the sound out with it. The atmosphere here was not too different from his home, so it was only a brief wait before they could hear the voices.

“And we told you that it is nowhere to be found,” a voice screeched. They drew back slightly at the harsh sound.

“We’ve not yet looked everywhere in this place.” A lower voice with a rough accent now.

“Yeah, you’ve only searched below ground. Who’s to say it’s not up above somewhere?” another male voice asked.

“Because it can’t be!” two high voices yelled back in unison.

“It belongs on the altar, they would not have removed it,” one finished. “And you told us you had searched upstairs. Are you lying to us?”

The male voices reassured the others that they had not.

“You should hope not, lest you become the key players in the Alignment ritual.”

Kalath’ka decided she had heard enough. She motioned for Spades to unlock the door and then yanked it open. She leapt into the room, bo staff held in a ready position, and challenged the inhabitants. “In the name of the Guild and the good people of this planet, we command you to leave this holy place and never return!”

The rest of the adventurers took up stances behind her as the beings inside looked up. In the flickering light of the fire and the twin beams of light from Hannah and Ari, they could see who they faced. Three men, low lifes who were probably scavengers and treasure hunters, and with them two elderly women with sallow faces and horribly crooked backs. All five turned to face them and after a shocked moment started to laugh. The crones let out a mad cackle.

“You want to challenge us?” one of them asked.

“Yeah, you and whose army?” the man on the right asked, twirling a knife on his finger.

“Shut your trap,” the man next to him said as he slapped the knife.

“We don’t need an army, just your cooperation.”

Hidden in the back of the group, Nadir rolled his eyes at Kalath’ka. There was no way that could work.

The crones exchanged glances. “Your cooperation you say? How about a trade?”

“What sort of trade?” Kalath’ka asked, lowering her staff slightly.

“We will give you something you want in exchange for a small token from each of you.” The scavengers looked confused, but a glance from the elder crone told them to remain silent.

“What could you give us that we want?” Kalath’ka demanded.

“For you, it is simple. You want us to leave in peace. You have no wish to fight. You only wish to seek knowledge and experience.”

“Don’t listen to them,” Ari said sharply.

“But they are right,” she replied, not taking her eyes off of them. “I really don’t want to fight. I know I am rubbish at it.”

“No, stop it. I’m ordering you to stop this madness.”

“Who made you the leader?” she challenged. “I will do as I damn well please.”

“And you, elemental, we can give you knowledge that will lend you great prestige on your world. With this knowledge you could even become one of the Council.”

Nadir’s eyes widened, his arms falling to his side in shock. Being on the Council was one of his dreams, but it was a dream for a reason. And these women were offering him a path to make that reality?

“Our sister sorcerous, you could hold the key to a prince’s heart if you wanted.”

“He already fancies me, I made sure of that,” Spades replied proudly.

“But yet his fate has been tied to another. We could reverse that for you. No one would ever need to know of your disgrace and the king would have no other option.”

Spades weighed the outcomes. She wasn’t sure she really had wanted to marry the prince, but if everyone forgot, she would be able to return home to her garden, her kitchen, her family in the castle. No more need for wandering the universe until everyone forgot who she was.

“And the Earthling! How rare you are!”

Hannah fought back a shudder, but the light from her torch was beginning to waver.

“You don’t know your own potential yet. You do not know that the only barrier to returning home is yourself.”

“What do you mean?”

“We can teach you the secret of the portals. You could make your own way back home.”

“Create my own portals?” she asked. “Like the old masters?”

“You have the potential to be among the greatest if you would let us teach you, guide you.”

“Hannah, don’t listen to them,” Ari pleaded.

“But I would be able to go home. Ari you can’t understand how much that would mean to me. I don’t belong here. What do you want in return?”

The crones looked at each other and grinned. It was a grin that showcased their yellowing teeth, pointed teeth, and sickly breath. “You have already given us what we want.”

Years later, Hannah would never quite be able to describe how it felt to not be in control of her body. She was trapped as she felt her hands loosen their grip on her torch, saw the electric light flicker out, heard the clatter of all their weapons hitting the stone floor. Her body walked forward to stand before the crones and she could do nothing to stop it.

Only Ari was not standing to attention before the hags, for that is what they truly were.

She couldn’t turn her head to watch, but Hannah heard him cross blades with the scavengers. She heard the cries of pain and wet thuds as their bodies crumpled to the ground.

She could only scream in her mind as she was commanded to defend the hags against Ari. Her right arm grabbed the dagger on her belt and held it out before her. Thankfully even the magic of the hags could not make her a good fighter and Ari immediately knocked it across the cavern. The part of her that was trapped was even more distantly amazed at the ease with which Ari disarmed them all and swerved past to leap at the hags.

Unprepared for the death machine Ari was, the hags were too slow in their chanting to provide any defense. Quick, brutal stabs through their chests relieved them off their life. Being the dark creatures that they were, they disintegrated in a howling storm of dust, returning to the chaos of the universe from whence they came.

When the last echoes of their howls faded, Hannah felt herself regain control of her body. She stumbled as her brain underwent the transition of power. Around her the others were doing the same.

Ari wiped down his blades and returned them to the sheath on his back. He picked up Spade’s spoon and returned it to her. “I think you dropped this,” he said gently. “Wouldn’t want this to get lost.”

“Thank you,” she said and accepted his helping hand to pull her to her feet.

“What were those things?” Kalath’ka asked.

“They are hags,” he replied. “They offer you what you want, and once you start to listen, you have allowed them inside your mind. After that, well, you experienced what happens next.”

“How come you weren’t affected?” Hannah asked. “Did they not have anything to offer you?”

Ari tapped the side of his head. “My brain might not be completely a computer, but being augmented does change your brain slightly. I have a firewall, for lack of a better term, around my thoughts. I could feel them trying to break through, but I fought them off.”

“I feel I must thank you for saving us,” Spades acknowledged. “And apologize for acting like a horrible person earlier. You don’t deserve that.”

Ari nodded. “Apology accepted.”

“I wonder if this is the stone they were looking for.” Trust Nadir to interrupt the moment of reconciliation. They turned to see him pointing at an emerald coloured stone on a ledge on the cave wall.

“Bring it over here,” Ari said.

“It’s too heavy for me to lift.”

“What?”

“Elemental. Too heavy and my hand goes right through it. See?” Sure enough, he curled his fingers around the small stone but when he lifted up his hands, they phased directly through the rock.

Ari walked over and grabbed the stone in one hand, illuminating it better with the other. The stone seemed to glow with a tiny spark of light from within. Even when Ari closed his fist it was difficult to see the illumination. He placed it in his pocket.

Together they decided to clean up the room and remove any sign of the hags and the scavengers’s poisonous influence. Nadir manipulated the air to clean up the dust and cobwebs that had gathered. The women worked together to replace the statues and chalices on the shelves in the walls and fix the tapestries and other decorations. Ari took care of the body disposal and no one asked questions.

When he returned, the others had just uncovered a large statue wrapped in dirty rags and trapped in a chest. They unbound the figure and hauled it to the altar. It explained the slightly darker mark on the wood where neither light nor dust had touched for many years. They lifted it into place and stepped back in surprise as the statue began to glow.

“Is that a good kind of glowing,” Hannah asked, “or the bad kind?”

“I don’t know but I can tell you which one I am hoping for,” Nadir said as he backed away a little more when the light intensified.

Ari took the stone out of his pocket when he noticed it growing warm. It seemed almost joyful, but he could not say how he knew.

“I hope that you agree with me that it is a good kind of glow.” A new voice suddenly spoke and it seemed to come from everywhere at once, and with many different pitches, though on the whole it sounded more feminine.

“Where are you?” Nadir asked as he spun in a circle, trying to figure out from which direction the sound waves were emanating.

“It’s the statue.” Spades had heard stories where things like this happened, but she never expected it to happen to her. “You are the Goddess of this temple, right?”

“I am. You were expecting me?” As they focused on the statue, the light faded to show the statue again, only instead of being carved from marble, it now looked to be flesh and blood. It was the Goddess herself before them taking the form of her statue.

“Not you exactly, but some higher power sent me the message to join the Guild and I had hoped to meet whoever it was. It’s not everyday one gets a message from a deity.”

The goddess smiled. “It wasn’t me but I know who did summon you. I, however, am the goddess of this temple and of engineering. You may call me Kim.

“Kim?” Hannah asked incredulously. The others were shocked at her rude behaviour.

“I know it sounds like an ordinary name to you, Hannah, but no one has been called by that name in millenia. Aphrodite is a more common name now, and there are not many of that name either.”

It was strange to watch the goddess as she explained how she could only take the form of the small statue in order to not overwhelm them with her godly presence. She moved her lips, moved her hands, yet her feet were firmly planted in place, like an animatronic bolted to a stage. She apparently also did not have enough power at this time to simply create a projection of herself in a more human sized form.

“I will not regain my full powers until the Alignment.”

“We heard the hags mentioning something about alignment,” Kalath’ka said. “What is it?”

“The alignment occurrs when all six planets in the star system are at perigee with all the others. The view from Bayswater will be breathtaking as all the other planets come together in a line. This natural alignment is a cosmic recharging. The six planets with two stars will make it a particularly powerful burst of energy.

“I have a mission for you five. You have impressed us so far and we’ve seen great potential within each of you. Would you accept?”

"I don’t want to speak for all of us, but what does this mission entail?" Ari asked.

"You a wise leader to ask. It involves the stone you hold in your hand."

He opened his fist to look at the stone again.

"There are five more like that one. Each belongs to a prime temple. They have all been displaced and I need you to restore them to their rightful place."

"At the risk of sounding rude again, why do you need us to do this?" Hannah asked, arms crossed over her chest. “You’re a god, surely it would not be beyond you to put some stones back in their rightful place.”

“Despite what stories may portray, there are very strict rules on how we may interfere in the material plane. I am bending a few by even talking to you now, but directly influencing something as big as the stones is strictly forbidden, as is manifesting in another god’s temple. I can only do this now because I am bestowing a quest. If you do accept, that is.”

“All you are asking us to do is replace some stones in some temples?” Spades questioned. Kim nodded. “Then I’m in. I’m always up for more travel.”

“I’m glad to hear that, Spades.”

After a few more points of clarification, the others also agreed to embark upon this quest. “Fantastic. To officially begin, Ari, you must place the stone into the inset at the centre of the clock face on the wall behind me.”

Hannah hadn’t noticed the clock when they were cleaning earlier because it didn’t resemble a familiar clock face of earth. Instead it was a complex arrangement of interlocking gears mounted on the wall. Rather like what the inside of a watch might look like. Yet not all the gears were circular. Some were rounded triangles, some were octagonal, and others ovular. She could see why it was above the altar to the goddess of engineering.

Ari placed the stone in the centre of the centre gear; small arms clamped around the stone to hold it in place. Now restored to its home, the stone’s inner spark quickly grew. The light travelled beyond the stone, following the engravings in the metal and illuminating runes as it passed. In no time at all, the emerald light had reached the edges of the system and completed a glowing circle around the large clock. A click was heard and the gears began moving.

The goddess smiled as she felt her power grow slightly. She was proud of the hard work she knew the citizens had put into creating this marvel for her temple. She could see that the mortals appreciated it as well. Yet she also knew it was nearly time for her to depart.

“Before I go, there are some things I must give you to aid in your quest.” They turned their attention back to the small goddess on the altar. “First, the stones themselves.” She waved a hand and five stones appeared in the silver bowl on the altar. “Guard them well. Next you need the coordinates of each temple.” A scroll materialised next to the bowl. “Then I have a small gift for each of you. Hold out your left hands.”

“But I only have one,” Nadir joked.

Spades’s right hand slapped him.

Another wave of Kim’s hand and small trinkets were suddenly in their palms. They all studied their gifts as they each heard the goddess in their mind explaining the gift. Although her explanation didn’t help some of them.

“I don’t understand,” Kalath’ka and Hannah both said when the goddess had finished.

“You don’t? Then you will learn,” the goddess replied aloud with a smile as her form became more statuesque. “I wish you well on your quest.” And with that, the goddess was gone.

“Did the gift the rest of you got make sense?” Kalath’ka asked as she looked at the window cling in her hand. “Because I’m not seeing why I need an x-ray emitting window cling.” She held up a clear sheet stuck to a white sheet of paper.

“I got a small bag of seeds,” Spades said. “I’m not sure how they would be useful on this mission, but I can always just plant them in some gardens. Find out what they grow.”

“Ari?” Kalath’ka asked.

“Something to help me find what I lost.” The others were clearly expecting more detail. “I doubt it is relevant to the mission. What was your gift, Nadir?”

“A pan flute. What am I supposed to do with that? I suppose it can be fun to play.” He brought it up to his lips and blew across the top of a few holes.”

“What if you use your powers to play it?” Spades asked. He lit up at the idea. Suddenly the instrument was suspended in the air and Nadir concentrated to direct air very specifically through the holes he wanted.

Getting the hang of it, he played a little tune Hannah recognised from the music lessons she had taken as a child. Evidently hot cross buns was another universal thing. It was probably going to be a source of annoyance later, but for now it was fun.

“What did you get?” Kalath’ka asked Hannah when they were done requesting simple songs for Nadir to play.

“A pen. Apparently it can write on any surface and in zero gravity, and while that’s cool, I’m not sure why I need it. But she said it would be invaluable. I’ve got to be missing something.” The others tried throwing out suggestions, but nothing seemed right. They instead decided they had better get started on the walk back to civilization before it was light out.

Next Chapter: Chapter 11