52 Temple of love

The day after the party, while one Emp was dismantling the gluttonek in the village, the other was walking down the streets of Artefine. He had kept in mind what the woman working at the bar suggested and decided to go to Love's temple after the classes where over for the day.

Nothing really special happened during those classes except about Zoran, Brenia and Mable.

Zoran was really embarrassed about how he was carried back to school by him and apologised many times in a row to him. Truly, it didn't matter at all to Emp and the constant apologies were much more annoying to deal with. He could understand that Zoran felt like being carried around in the arms of another guy was unsightly but why was he the one apologising? He wasn't even conscious at that point.

The other troublesome one was Brenia who failed to remember most of the things she did in the tavern. Everyone was acting way more friendly than usual with her, or at least, that was what she complained about to Emp in between classes.

"That's freaking me out, no one wants to tell me what I said. You're the most honest here if we exclude Zoran who passed out right in the beginning so tell me. What the hell did I say?"

"Most of it didn't make any sense." Emp answered her. "You told us a story about scraglings then you told us you couldn't get drunk and that you almost got stabbed once but you cut something in half with your axe instead."

"What?"

She seemed shocked by what she had said herself.

"Or at least I think that was what you meant to say. Then you started singing while standing on top of the table."

Her face paled at the mention of singing.

"What did I sing?"

"Something about jumping fences and chopping wood I think. It really made no sense at all."

"I see..."

She seemed really distraught about it.

"Oh, you also said you could kick with a thumb up your nose."

There was a short pause between that and her answer. She seemed defeated.

"Thank you Emp for telling me."

She left the subject at that and spent the rest of the day with her head slammed over her desk.

Mable too didn't seem well that day, and rested on her desk the whole time, complaining about stomach ache.

"I had warned you to not eat so much cake." Pitied Aglaya as she rubbed the back of her friend.

The conclusion of it all being that nothing of note happened until they were released for the day. Like that, he made his way out of the school.

His two slaves were with him too, they had insisted to come when he told them were he intended to go. Like that, with Celtine on his shoulders and Harriett just behind him, he made his way to the temple.

The place was occupying the center of a flower garden that must have been of the size of Dark-glint village. They had all sort of flowers planted here but all of them were in tints of red or pink.

The temple itself had a pyramidal shape. The entrance was at ground's height and was protected by a wide stone roof sculpted to look like open arms.

Every stage of the pyramid had more flowers growing onto it all the way up to the very top where instead of flowers, a basin filled with crystalline water overlooked the sea of flowers. That water had many channels to flow downward from. They were supported by tall pillars each crowned by the sculpture of a heart holding the water channel in its crease. Like that, the water was send everywhere in the garden and bordered the white stone alley leading to the main entrance.

In that garden, an army of girls wearing pure white dresses were tending to the flowers. There were no paths leading into the garden, unless you were one of the caretakers, you could only admire its beauty from the white stone road.

It did not mean that the citizens couldn't enjoy the flower sea though as not only was it impressive to look at even from the outside, there were many girls handing out flowers to the passerby and those seeking one for a lover.

As Emp walked by them all, he understood from their discussions that if one gave a flower from Love's garden to the one they liked, it would bring happiness to them both until it withered. It was a charm of sorts that the caretakers gave freely to everyone.

He walked past the girls handing out flowers and stepped on the stone path, anyone could walk inside the temple. Neither of his slaves said anything about the garden but they both looked enraptured by its beauty. Maybe they'd like some souvenir?

At the end of the path, there was no door, the roof said it all, the temple welcomed everyone with open arms, at any time. Love was meant for all.

He stepped in between the two clear waterfalls flowing around the arms and discovered the inside of the temple. The place was luminous and warm, it felt peaceful and welcoming. In the center of the vast room, rows of small burners spread a sweet and gentle smell across the temple. Still more flowers were hung from the ceiling and a large amount of petals were covering the floor.

Five large harps stood tall on a circular stage where more woman dressed in white played a music that seemed to be always changing, sometimes sounding happy and lighthearted while other times calm and sweet or passionate.

Lining the walls on either side, yet more girls wearing white blindfolds were wielding large red feathers and writing on tiny pieces of paper. All these messages were then thrown into a large basin at the foot of the stage, filled with nothing else than those papers. A wide range of people walked around, going to the stairs in the back or walking up to the stage and basin.

In front of it all, a tall woman sat with a leg crossing over the other. Her dress was overly long and flowed around her seat and spread in a large circle on the floor. She could have been described as bright, with shining hair and sparkling eyes, skin almost as white as her dress. She was sat on a large seat filled with red pillows and rested her elbows and her head on what appeared to be the large end of a hollow horn. The lower, thinner, part of the horn made the base of her seat before disappearing into the floor.

She was the one welcoming visitors, giving a few well intentioned words to everyone who came in. (1)

"Welcome to Love's temple young man. Are you here for a prayer or a counselling?" She asked in a voice of velvet.

Emp wasn't sure himself, he came here to seek help for his problem, how was he to proceed?

"What is the counselling about?" He decided to ask.

"By giving us a gold coin, you will be granted the right to pick one of the papers in the pool. On each and every one of those, a message is written that will help you on any love related problems you may have."

Could it be that good? How did they know which message to give to each person, how did they know if it would help or not and more importantly, weren't they the ones writing each of these?

"Are a few words written by someone that helpful?"

"Child listen and look at our love counselors. It is said that true love is blind and so we gathered many a blind girl to write the message. They did not know how to write and cannot see the message entrusted to their pieces of paper but still, it is always clear. Those words come down to us from the divine Love herself to help us poor mortals with our troubled hearts. Sometimes, they are cryptic, yes, and sometimes they are outright wrong but never does a message ends in the wrong hands."

So, that thing was a bit like the book of answers but even more inaccurate, highly priced and only relating to love problems. Maybe that would be fun but he would rather talk to his creator directly if he could.

"Maybe later, for now, I would like to pray, how does it work?"

The woman nodded in understanding and unfolded her arms to point towards two identical staircases leading upstairs.

"Take either of the staircases beside the stage, the prayer room is the next floor. Once there, place your hands over your heart and silently tell the idol what lies in your heart. Do not say a word out loud, only the words in your heart matters."

"I understand, thank you."

He understood but if what she said was true, It may prove difficult to have himself heard. The whole reason for his presence was because he couldn't read his own heart and desires after all.

Emp stepped around her flowing dress and walked up the white steps to the second floor. The stairs lined the back wall but had to twist around the inside because of the shape of the structure, ending up hanging above the stage and the musicians.

The next floor was clearly smaller than the first but just as serene. The music could still be feebly heard, adding some life to this otherwise silent room. The sun shined through wide openings in the walls, bringing it's warmth and the scent of the flowers growing outside with it.

The place was filled with people, both standing and kneeling, all turned towards a tall statue obviously representing his creator.

"Master saw the true goddess right? Is the statue on point?" Asked Harriett in a voice low enough to not disturb the rest, curious.

"Yes, she really looks like that."

They clearly knew what she looked like since the representation was very lifelike. Still, Emp felt that stone could not bring justice to the true goddess, he had seen her after all, with her floating hair and the warmth of her eyes.

At the statue side, two more girls stood straight, with their hands held over their hearts, leading the crowd by example.

By respect, Emp got Celtine off from his shoulder and placed her on his side before he tried praying himself. Both Celtine and Harriett on his left and right knelt and took a praying posture as well. Emp chose to remain standing because it was easier to look at the statue over the rest of the crowd that way.

With his hands over his heart, he fixed his gaze unto the face of the statue. This was the hard part, what was he supposed to say, or rather feel, to call her? Maybe he didn't really need to call her. He just needed to find what he wanted, what he lacked. He could surely find it if he thought about it hard enough right?

"Darling, you grew up a bit since last time we met. You feel more manly, I like it."

Emp blinked as he recognized the voice and in the time he did, Love, the real one, was in front of him.

Her skin pale as moonlight, covered by the same long red dress she wore last time. Her hair flowing freely around her, dancing above the heads of the praying crowd. Her black eyes shining purple from the love they poured unto him. The entire world around her seemed to fade, it's colors washed out by her brilliance.

"We can speak freely, I yanked you out of reality, that's why everything looks washed out."

That didn't really make sense but no one seemed to notice her at all.

"Harriett?" He called to test it out but she did not remove her eyes from the statue. Love was right.

"See, no one will notice, tell your mother what is wrong darling, I'll do my best to help."

That was a very practical ability to have. happy to be able to ask her about it directly, he went straight to the point.

"The others always ask me about my desires but I can't think of anything I want. I do not understand love."

Love made a worried frown and lowered her floating form closer to the ground and him. She was supposedly Love itself after all, him not understanding her was a problem.

"Let me take a look in there." She said as she placed a hand on his chest and another over his forehead. Her fingers radiated warmth even through his clothes, heating up his brain and heart.

"Is it an error from Sage when we made you? Some unexpected roadblock? Maybe it's soul deterioration?"

"What is soul deterioration?"

"Don't worry about that yet, it may not be it. I can see you understand what you lack, I can see you can feel the emotions emitted by those around you as well. Sage went a bit too far with your sense of logic but the problem doesn't lie there. I think I see what is wrong."

After that, she removed her hands and told him what the problem was. She held up her hand in front of his eyes and raised one finger at a time to express her short enumeration.

"Humans are made of three things, a body, a mind and a soul. It isn't that hard to create a new life for us but we needed you to be ready from the get go which is much harder."

Emp had some difficulty picturing what could possibly be hard for a group of gods to accomplish but Love kindly explained everything.

"We can make a body easily, once given life, it will naturally develop its own mind and its own soul. Our problem was that it takes way too much time to grow. Instead, we built your mind from the ground up too. The thing is, a newborn soul cannot sustain a grown body and a filled mind on its own. We would have made one but we don't know how, only the immortal can make a soul out of nothing. We had to use the next best solution, we grafted a leftover soul from the forest into you."

...

...

They did what?

"We took what was left of the soul from some dead guy and glued it to your own soul. The old one should have decayed and left on its own as yours grew to take its place but apparently, it didn't."

"So I have two souls?"

"That is not the most accurate way to put it but yes. The soul is what makes you yourself when connected with the right memories and knowledge stored in your mind. The old one isn't working properly since the memories that should go with it are missing and the new one can't drive it out and grow its own desires."

That was way more complicated than he had thought. How was he supposed to fix it? Could he just leave it like that? It wasn't really hindering him anyway.

"You can't leave it like that darling. First I want my cute son to feel the love across the world and second this situation could actually kill you."

"What?"

"The soul is like the body, it grows until it reaches its true size."

She placed her palm upwards and in between the two of them, a transparent ball appeared. Emp wondered what she was doing as she filled it with light.

"The body isn't an indication of how large a space the soul has to grow. Even though a newborn soul can't fill a grown body and mind doesn't mean that the space you have to house a soul will grow with you. Look at that balloon, that is representing the space you have for a soul and the light inside represent your soul. See what happens as the soul grows?"

The ball, or balloon, was swelling and expending, stretching itself to keep the large amount of light that was filling it. It stopped once it had become very large and bouncy.

"Just one soul grows a lot over the life of someone, and like that, it fills up all the space it can. But you have two of those, double the quantity. Here is what happens."

The balloon started swelling again and Emp quickly saw the strain applied on it. It couldn't fit all the light in but it kept receiving more. It wasn't long before a loud bang was heard, the balloon ruptured into a dozen pieces and the light scattered.

"It won't be that sudden but close. We have to fix yours before this happens." Concluded Love with a smile.

The message was very clear. Then, what did they need to do to stop this from happening.

"We have two choices. We can remove the old soul, since it was only there to support you while your form was stabilizing, there should be no real consequences. It's not even supposed to be there in the first place. The other solution is to completely fuse the two souls into one. That one is harder to do and I don't know what would happen when it's done. It will fix the problem since the soul will stop itself from growing out of hand but it would be like accepting living with a parasite inside you. I don't want you to chose this option."

"If it is worse in every way, why are you giving me the choice?"

"Choice is important in life darling, choices are what makes yourself you and not someone else. Speaking of which, most choices you do are driven by the soul. Since this whole thing is related to your own, it is natural that I let you choose. Plus, You need to know there is a second way in case the first fails."

"Alright then, could you remove the old one please." Asked Emp.

He had no reason to hesitate after all. The quicker this was over, the quicker he would understand what everyone was trying to tell him. Sadly, Love shook her head in denial.

"I can but I won't."

"Why not?"

"We told you already when we made you. We aren't supposed to intervene. We can talk and I can tell you what to do but I won't deal with your problems for you."

But wasn't that problem there because of them? Why did he have to take care of it if he had nothing to do with it?

"Down frown like that darling. You're my son, of course I care, I Love you. I'm even preparing a gift for you for when you'll decide to show up in my trial room. Anyway, dealing with that soul shouldn't be that hard, you need a fwan, a soul crystal from deep underground and a competent mage to overview the transfer process."

Emp had heard of fwans before in a class but he didn't know where to find one and had no idea of what was a soul crystal. How would he deal with all that?

"Do not worry darling, you already have everything within your reach. I may not reach to you often but I do keep an eye on you. A man named Heinrich, dwelling in the place you call a school, he has everything you need."

Heinrich the teacher of magic? That was more than convenient.

"Yes, it is convenient indeed, if he had not been there, I would have had to do it myself because your case cannot wait, you need that thing removed today."

The way she said it sounded like something horrible would happen if he didn't take care of it right away but he didn't feel bad at all right now.

"Why must we hurry?"

"You may not feel anything but there are no nerves leading to the soul or its boundaries. You haven't noticed because of your state but you learned a lot and your soul grew a lot too since you were made. I suspect it grew so fast because of how you kept yourself split for so long. You had twice the emotional growth you should have had."

That would be reasonable to think so. He had made a lot of friends in both the school and the village after all.

"Next time I see Space he'll get a few words from me I can tell you that. You're lucky to have come here when you did."

If he had not been to the tavern the day before, he would have never even have the idea of coming here, that was lucky indeed.

"You are at a tipping point, the balloon is about to burst. Any more emotional stimulation could make the whole thing collapse."

Knowing the situation was so dire was scary, did this mean that he could have just collapsed and died without even noticing why? Just dying like that without prior warning was very unsettling. At least for him.

"My advice to you my son is to go straight to that mage and request the ablation of the support soul. Do not dawdle and do not stop on the way for anything else than the following."

What was the thing that was so important he had to stop on his way? He wondered curiously.

"You have to give two gold coins to the lady down there and get a paper for each of those two." The goddess told him pointing at his two slaves. "I have a message for them, this one in particular as a very cute wish, I like her." She said about Celtine. "Very unusual thing to ask."

Was that really it? Could it not wait?

"Love matters are the most important matters." She insisted. "Now go, stop wasting time here. And don't peek at those, these messages are personal."

"But I still had more questions, can you fix her wings? What about her voice?"

"You do not have time for this and no, not here. You'll have to get to a trial chamber for that."

That was a bit disappointing, Celtine would sulk.

"Id' like you to come to mine but Life might be better for the retrieval of her wings."

"What about her voice." Insisted Emp.

"Go to Truth and stop wasting time!" She yelled in annoyance.

The moment Love said her last word, she blinked out of existence and the room regained its colors and life. Emp looked around again and like he expected, no one had heard her yell.

Knowing he shouldn't linger, he crouched between the two girls and placed a hand on their shoulders.

"I had my answer, we are leaving now." He said in a low voice to not disturb the others.

Celtine nodded and climbed on his shoulder while Harriett questioned him about the result.

"What did master learn?"

He almost said he learned he was about to die. They didn't need to know that, he didn't want them to worry over something that would be fixed by the end of the day. Harriett was the kind of person to worry too much, she was always stressed about small things so telling her he could die was out of the question. He would end up loosing more time because of her.

"I learned that we need to go see the teacher of magic."

"What has the magic teacher to do with this?"

"There is a problem with my soul." He answered her as he stepped onto the stairs.

"What kind of problem? Is it serious? How does master know there is something wrong with his soul?"

"No need to worry, it will be fixed before tomorrow. We just need to get to Heinrich. I will say everything once there."

That answer didn't seem to please her very much but having her make a fuss in the temple of Love didn't seem like the fastest way to get what he needed.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he went straight towards the tall lady.

"Welcome back, did your prayer go well?" She told him when he arrived in front of her.

Emp answered as he fetched two crowns from his bag.

"It did, I would like two of those papers please, one for each of those two."

"Why of course! Let the two missus throw the coins in the horn's opening there and fetch a paper for themselves."

She tapped her seat to get his attention to the horn. So in the end, It didn't just look like a horn, it was one, and it was made to receive the coins.

Emp nodded in understanding and placed a coin in the palm of each.

"Master, is that really okay to spend a gold coin like this?" Asked Harriett a bit perplexed. She didn't want to waste the money of her master.

"It is, go on and give it a try." There was no way he was saying that Love herself told him to buy one for each right in front of the priestess.

The two girls nodded with an excited smile and gave their coins to the temple. The two crowns rolled and spun inside the horn before sliding down further into it and disappearing form their view.

Afterward, Harriett got a paper for herself in the vast pool and Emp let Celtine down to get one as well. It took her a long time to step forward, pick a paper and get back up because of her usual balance problems but she had greatly improved since he had met her. It was a good thing.

Once they were done, Emp left the temple with them the same way he had entered.

Leaving the flower garden behind him, Emp asked himself if he should recall the other him for now. Love told him that anything could make him break from now on so maybe it was safer to just bring him back for now. If he did though, Marcellia would complain a lot afterwards and also, he was probably busy with the dismantling right now. In the end, he chose to let the other him be. He didn't think it would make any difference.

Even though Love told him clearly that his life was in danger, he didn't feel threatened at all. He couldn't feel the tension like he had with the monsters he fought up until now. Everything just felt normal.

He still wanted to do as she had asked him anyway. He walked as swiftly as he could without losing Harriett to his speed.

As he moved back towards the school, he heard the girls unfold their messages to take a look at them. Both Celtine and the two messages they read were out of his sight. The only thing he saw was the perplexed face of Harriett and the legs of Celtine squeeze his head. He was really curious about what the messages said but since he had been specially told to not look, he did not ask them.

Neither of them said a word about the messages either and they reached Wren's desk in silence.

"Welcome back!" Called the receptionist.

"Hi, I need to see Heinrich right now. Could you tell me where to find him?"

"Sure."

Apparently, the rule about not handing out the rooms location didn't apply to teachers. She gave him a rough explanation based on places he already knew and he left the entrance hall right away.

"What do we need the teacher for exactly?" Asked Harriett on the way. "Is he knowledgeable about souls?"

They were about halfway there, the sun was going down

"I don't know, Love just told me he had everything I needed. We need a..."

Why did the hallway seem so dim suddenly? Did the sun set faster than he thought? He blinked once to adjust his vision and tried to finish his sentence.

"... a fwan and a..."

"Master?"

There was something wrong, he felt like the world's cohesion was collapsing around him. Everything started to spin and melt into darkness, he stumbled a few steps more. He was stricken by confusion, what was happening?

Celtine was heavy, he fell against the soft wall. He would have slid along it and collapsed on the ceiling like that if Hariana had not been there to try and punch him.

"Master!"

What was the question again? Grass made out of shadow grew across his field of vision. He blinked again but nothing was there anymore when he opened his eyes back up. His fingers touched something hard, or were they his toes?

He fell through the floor and deep into the bowels of the earth. He could not see but he felt everything pulsating in and around himself.

"Hamster." A far away voice said.

A hamster wasn't what he needed though, was it? No, it was a fwan and a soul crystal. That was right, he needed to tell them.

"...crys..."

***

That same day, In Red-water city.

Galana was at the market to buy the least amount of food with which she could live. She came across a temporary stall manned by two priestesses.

"Miss, here!" One of them called.

Galana wasn't in the mood to waste time with some love priestesses. What's more, she didn't have any money.

"No thanks, I don't have a leaf."

"But miss, its free today!"

Free? Now that was a word she liked to hear. She stopped in her tracks to look at what they were 'selling'.

"To celebrate the count Staedler's son first marriage, the temple decided to send us here in Red-water to gift all those predictions to the crowds while they enjoy the festivities."

Ha yes, the festivities... Galana did notice that the nobles were riled up about something. They would organize feasts upon feasts for a few weeks and laugh with each other while she struggled to find dinner.

The Steadlers weren't as bad as the fat Balpoisson but she'd rather eat dirt than cheer for them. She didn't really want to take part in whatever the rest did to celebrate.

There was also the obvious fact that she didn't trust those predictions at all. Wasn't it obvious that something written at random on a piece of paper wouldn't be worth anything? She transcribed Important documents all the time and no one wanted to pay for it, why did people waste their hard earned money on those stupid predictions?

"Can you read?" Asked the girl in white.

"Of course I can read!" She almost said 'What do I look like?' but held herself in time to escape the shame.

"Then take a prediction from the basket! I'm sure that whatever troubles your heart, Love can show you the way. It's usually a gold coin each so today is truly a special occasion!"

Even for two copper leaves she wouldn't have bought one of those but for free? Taking one couldn't hurt her. Then she would be rid of the priestesses pestering too. She plunged her hand into the wicker basket and got a paper out of it. The two priestesses wished her a good evening and she left back to her store.

There, she discovered a letter waiting for her.

"Idiot!" Was later heard all the way across the street.

That day, three persons Emp knew received a small piece of paper.

The first read: Can the queen of spades also be a queen of heart? (2)

The second read: From the union of sky and land was born the world.

The last one simply said: Apologise.

What does it even mean? Wondered Galana. Apologise to who? What for? I haven't done anything, I shouldn't be the one to apologise. They keep stealing from me, even today, and 'I' have to apologise? What nonsense. (3)

She scrunched the paper and threw it out the window.

***

(1) The corrector tells me that intentioned isn't a word. How would you phrase that kind of thing in English then? Let me know, I'm curious.

(2) that message only works in English, in French, the spades cards are called pikes (pique) instead.

(3) No, not apologise to Emp, that would be silly. She insulted someone way more dangerous.

I thought Valentines day was on the 17 for some reason, now my valentines chapter is late. I hope you all had a good Valentines day.