“Be a doll and get me a drink.” Ishta waves at Art as she sits down on the couch, crosses her legs, and gets comfortable. Art rolls his eyes, but does as requested.

  “Is this a party or are you going to just get to the point?” I ask, sitting on the couch opposite of Ishta. Gem chooses to sit on the arm of the couch next to Ishta rather than sit comfortably.

  “I clearly missed something.” Prisha says confused as she stares on at the two members of the Zodiac standing in our presence.

  “Well Hermit, me and the dolt here have a goal in common with you. That about sums it up.” Ishta responds just in time for Art to return with a cocktail in hand. Ishta immediately perks up as he hands it to her.

  How would Ishta know that Prisha is the Hermit? My eyes slowly drift towards Gem who is watching me, ah that’s how. Mr. Ancient of Duplication must have given Ishta the rundown prior to coming here. Though I’m surprised they have made their move so quickly after just announcing their wish to help us. Though, I’m still not convinced. Let’s just get it over with.

  “Can we just get on with the exposition so I can go about my life.” I say impatiently. Every time I’m in their presence I can just feel my blood pressure go through the roof. I would like to remain calm, but in their presence, it’s just impossible.

  “To put it bluntly, we want your help to rejoin the two worlds.” Gem says softly, never once breaking his gaze from me. Why does he keep staring at me? It’s giving me the wiggins. I know he had a thing for Herc, and god I hope that he doesn’t have a big oh for the title of The Magician. That would be weird.

  “I’m sorry, you want to rejoin the worlds?” Prisha asks, taking a seat next to me and opposite of our Zodiac guests.

  “That would be correct my dear.” Ishta responds. “Godrick and his sycophants attempted to eradicate the world of the Ancients by literally pushing them out of existence. Some unknown figure counteracted that spell by using the power of The World to duplicate the planet, and boom the Ancients went there. Plus a bunch of other powerless people swept up in the chaos, but that’s neither here nor there.”

  “Neither here nor there?” I ask through gritted teeth. Do these people just have no sympathy for anyone other than each other? The world was cracked in two and people who only knew magic were left to a magic less world and she’s just like whatever about it. Prisha gently places her hand on my leg, signaling me to calm down.

  I take a deep breath as I turn to Prisha who simply just nods at me. Well, it appears that she isn’t mad at me anymore, or at least, less mad at me.

  “Well, I suppose it proves serendipitous that I am here for this little tale.” Dmitri says Art hands him a cocktail as well. Somehow our host has turned into our server. Fucking Zodiac.

  “Well, we were aware that it was Godrick’s magic that caused the world to be sundered, but what does that have to do with you. Why do you care?” Dardania asks. She as pulled her legs into a crossed position underneath it. It seems to be the way she sits when she is thinking. It doesn’t look very comfortable though.

  “I am the Ancient of Duplication.” Gem responds simply.

  “Yeah, how and why are you here?” I ask bluntly. He slowly turns towards me, cocks his head slightly.

  “I created a duplicate of myself and my consciousness and implanted it into this body. My goal is to rejoin my bodies and regain my full power.”

  “And what pray tell do you have to do with this?” I turn towards Ishta. I can see why Gem would want his power back, but she clearly doesn’t lack for power. So why would she have any interest in returning the world to it’s original state.

  “The current Zodiac is a mockery of what it once was. Many of the heads of the twelve houses were held by Ancients, hell Zodiac was the seat of the Ancients. Look to my sister for example, she is the weaker between the two of us and yet she holds the throne. Does that make sense to you?” Ishta sips at her drink pretending as thought her blight is one to even be concerned with.

  Is her motivation truly that she isn’t the head of her house? That’s extremely childish and she’s willing to throw the world into chaos to correct this so call injustice. Does the think that she has the kind of power to be an Ancient and so she feels that she should be the natural leader?

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  I mean, girl please. There are people murdering each other for the chance to sit alongside you and you’re concerned that you don’t have enough power. Ugh, rich assholes gonna be rich assholes.

  “How do you expect us to help with this? Eventually I will have the knowledge of what occurred then, but as of this moment, I am just as ignorant as everyone else.” Prisha stares at the floor as she speaks, she responded but looks lost in thought.

  “One of your altars.” Gem says softly. “It’s different than the one in my temple. We have reason to believe it contains the answer we are searching for.”

  “What makes this one different than the others?” Dardania asks.

  “The mark of the Zodiac is bestowed upon it. Yet, we have no access to the magics within. It, like the others, was designed for the Major Arcana.” Ishta responds.

  “I see.” Dardania furrows her brow as she contemplates the information. “The previous altars have detailed Lucias’s journey to Tabathia in hopes that others could be inspired by it. He didn’t have the power to create them on his own, as far as we can tell they were the creations of Herc and Hitha. If this somehow contains information about the splitting of the world, I’m not sure why they would have created an altar for it. Besides, we were there when it happened.”

  “I’m sorry, come again? You were there?”

  “Correct. Nabu and Herc cast a spell that allowed us to meet him, and led to the discovery that Godrick was the Saint. Additionally, we were present when the world duplicated.”

  “I see,” Gem lowers his head as his face falls, “then perhaps this is not what we are looking for.”

  “Nonetheless Gem, it’s our only lead. So, let’s snap to it!” Ishta claps her hands.

  “Now?” My mouth falls open. “Yes, now.”

  “The city is in chaos and you wanna go on a jaunt through history now?” Again, I can’t believe this woman.

  “That makes it the perfect time. So hop to, I don’t want to have to force you.” Ishta smiles as she stands and begins walking towards the door. Ugh, I let out a loud sigh. Ooh I hate the Zodiac.

  * * * * *

  “This plot twist better be worth it.” I sigh, exhausted with all of this. Like, burnout is real and it’s starting to smack me in the face. I suppose even in this world I still suffer the tragic fate of every modern person, never ending work with no reward.

  “Have something else to attend to?” Ishta says sarcastically as we descend a set of stairs beneath a Zodiac temple in the center of the city.

  “This stairwell recently appeared, luckily we got to it before they had a chance to investigate.” Gem says.

  “Yeah Law would have had her dirty paws all over it if she knew of it’s existence, but I got here first so hmph.” Ishta smirks as she adds her two cents.

  “Is she always like this?” Prisha leans over and whispers as we continue to descend the stairs.

  “She’s basically this world’s version of a socialite, so I’m gonna say yeah.” I whisper in return. Prisha nods, seemingly understanding what I’m putting down.

  I miss having Madison around, especially since she gets my references, but at least Prisha has some idea of our world. Though, no modern references will work in her case since she’s been here since 2001.

  “Here we are.” Gem pushes through a giant metal door, and into a blank room.

  The room consists of stone walls, identical stone floors, and a matching stone ceiling to boot. In the center of the room was a solid white marble pedestal, similar to the others we have seen, but not exactly the same.

  Rather than a simple design like the others, this one was much more ornate. The base of the pedestal had ridges, and the top held a similar design to a Corinthian column. On the flat surface, glowing text was written across the pedestal.

  When the Arcane is Reborn

  They shall face the Ancients’ scorn

  Through time, the trial awaits

  Written in stone we tempt the fates

  The ground begins to shake, and the entire pedestal glows in unison with the quake. In the midst of the chaos, no one noticed that the door at the top of the stairs had been opened and several individuals descended the stairs.

  The moment I heard the footsteps, I spun around and immediately saw about a dozen acolytes. Without missing a beat, the acolytes attempt to apprehend Avis and Dardania.

  “Gust.” A massive gust of wind slams half the acolytes into the wall, immediately disabling them. Avis reaches for his knives, but the world begins to become blurry at this point and the quaking in the room had grown exponentially.

  “Run!” I scream at them, as the world beings to disappear before me. Avis kicks the acolyte that stands before him and immediately starts to reach for me, but his hand phases right through my body.

  “Be safe.” He says softly as an acolyte grabs him, but Avis swiftly elbows the man in the face.

  “Run. Get out of here.” I say, urging them to abandon me in the moment. Avis nods, and he and Dardania immediately make their way toward the exit at the top of the stairs.

  Well, the show must go on. I suppose it’s time for the party to split up and solve the problem. It only happens tends to happen at a time when things are getting extremely bad and the good guys are about to lose, and perhaps someone even dies. Oh god, please don’t let this play out like some bad trope in a Hollywood remake. This needs to get better than that and I need to have a rom-com ending where I get the guy and live happily ever after.

  I look to my side to see Prisha standing beside me, a look of concern on her face. Ishta had disappeared with the Avis and Dardania, and only Gem and Prisha stood alongside me.

  “I’m sorry.” I lower my head before Prisha. I don’t want there to be any bad blood between the two of us before this journey, whatever it is.

  “It’s fine. I understand entirely what you’re going through. I know it was not intentional.”

  “That’s not the point.” I pause, taking a deep breath, “I let my anger get the best of me. You didn’t deserve it.”

  Prisha smiles, grabbing a hold of my hand and giving it a squeeze just as the world falls apart and this new trial begins.