Adelyn had woken up early, and she had been reading through her library books. She needed time to get through all of them before they embarked on their mission. On one hand, she had a dense book with a lot of information. On the other hand, she had the ritual that Ed had given them.

  She knew there was something missing with it, but she just didn’t know what. That piece of intuition ate at her, even if she didn’t really have any substantiated evidence for such a claim. The problem was that this ritual is not appearing in any of her books. It was never written down, so she doesn’t even know how Ed’s source figured this out.

  She supposed it made sense. If the royal family was consistently divine, then their rule would be challenged if everyone could suddenly gain divinity. But, it did make information searching needlessly complicated.

  This needed to go smoothly, or else Rumia would be kept waiting for even longer. She hoped Grimace was going to deliver that message.

  “Morning, Adelyn,” a familiar soft voice spoke behind her.

  “Hey, Teddie,” Adelyn responded. “Are the others up too?”

  “Yeah,” Teddie nodded. “We’re getting ready. How about you?”

  “I’m just thinking. It’s probably weird of me to just get so up in arms over a hunch, but this thing that Ed said… it feels like there’s something more to it.”

  “I see. Well, uh… what do you have so far?”

  “Nothing. That’s the issue.”

  “Well. Let’s think. When Cozy got sent to the moon, she touched Midnas’ tears and that kind of like… sent her consciousness far away. When I touched it, nothing happened for me. Can you think of why that might be?”

  Adelyn stopped to think about Teddie’s recounting of events. It was odd that only Cozy got affected and not Teddie. Maybe there was something about Cozy that triggered the event? She wasn’t sure, maybe she should ask her about it later.

  “Anyways… I think we’re going to have a lot to think about, maybe we should eat first? Then we ask Luan, and we try to do this ritual thing,” Teddie suggested.

  “I guess, yeah,” Adelyn agreed. “Maybe I’ll think better on a full stomach.”

  “The inn has a small restaurant, let's eat there and begin to go,” Teddie said. “Ed got a lot of money from his quest, after all.”

  Breakfast was great. The food of Lune was a lot of flowers and meat. Sacred beasts that were said to be close to Midnas. Adelyn wondered if that would boost their divinity, but considering that this seemed to be a normal diet, it seemed unlikely.

  Shortly after, the four of them took to the streets. They were going to try and find Governor Luan and ask for a space and materials to try out the ritual. There were quite a few claimed holy pigments on sale, which could potentially work.

  “Maybe we should buy some?” Ed suggested. “We need holy material to draw this after all.”

  “I disagree. If a private business is selling it, then you only have their word. If divinity is truly so rare, then I doubt that a simple merchant would have the answer,” Cozy responded. “I don’t like the Church, but Luan probably would know best.”

  “I see… so that’s the deal with the commercialization of this place…” Teddie said. They quietly walked through the streets, ignoring anything that might get in their way.

  Adelyn walked to Cozy in the meantime, because she wanted to ask her a few things.

  “Do you know why you got the vision, and not Teddie?” Adelyn said.

  “I’m not so sure. It happened very suddenly,” Cozy answered. “Teddie thought that putting the water on my head would help.”

  “And it didn’t affect him?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “So there must be something special about you in particular. Do you know anything about that?”

  “It’s… I dunno,” Cozy said, awkwardly. It was an unusual reaction from her, considering how confident she usually was. “I guess it could be something about me.”

  “Well, it might be important. Especially if the rest of us lack…”

  Adelyn paused for a moment. She thought for a second, and then she realized something. “Cozy. You weren’t with us when we first took the divinity test, right?”

  “Huh? I mean, I was selling the meat, so I wasn’t. I don’t think my blood would’ve helped in any particular way,” Cozy responded, a little bit defensively.

  “Uh-huh. Alright, no problem. I think we’ll figure it out once we set everything up.”

  Adelyn didn’t press further, because it looked like Cozy was getting a little bit uncomfortable, but the thought still lingered in her mind. Shortly thereafter, the group approached the fountain, where they once again found the governor giving out blessings.

  “Are we going to have to wait in line again?” Teddie asked.

  Cozy rolled her eyes and just walked straight to the governor, bypassing the large line of people. Adelyn and Ed shrugged and walked with her as well, with Teddie following shortly behind them.

  “Hey. I brought my friends. I’d like to go back to that chamber now, if possible,” Cozy said, straightforwardly.

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  “Back so soon? I suppose I could put my usual blessings on hold to help you out,” Luan smiled back at her. “Please, give me a moment.”

  Without much fuss, she called off her usual blessings and the line. She cited a higher power, and the crowd dissipated pretty quickly.

  “Now,” Luan said. “Let me take you back to the Holy Chamber, and we shall see what your next move is.”

  The chamber that they entered surpassed Adelyn’s expectations a thousandfold. The glowing light and water was so pretty. The crystalline architecture and pillars made the place feel like an entirely different world.

  The five of them entered the room, eventually walking to the middle of the chamber. Ed took out the drawing of the ritual he was given, before looking to Luan.

  “Do you have a true holy material? A real deal, that we could make our mark with?” Ed asked.

  “Of course. I sign all of my works in mooncrystal,” Luan said, taking a crystalline object out of her robe. “This will be my only assistance, your journey to divinity is your own.”

  Ed shrugged and took the crystal. He began to replicate the drawing on the ground while the remaining three watched.

  “Have you seen anything like this before?” Adelyn asked.

  “No, not in this design. Generally rituals to reach the moon do not tend to work, so I am not necessarily expecting results from this one,” Luan answered.

  “I’m sure this one will work,” Ed said. “That girl had something special going on.”

  After a moment, a large drawing was on the floor. It glowed ever so slightly, as most things in this city did, but for that moment there didn’t seem to be a reaction.

  “So…” Teddie asked. “What do we do now?”

  “Stand on it, maybe?” Ed suggested. All four of them walked onto the ritual and waited. Nothing happened. No reaction, no anything.

  “What if we added the water?” Teddie suggested, going to the sides of the chamber and cupping some water in his hand. He spilled it onto the center of the ritual. Nothing happened.

  “When I perform rituals, I tend to need a trigger. Though, it’s not impossible that you got scammed,” Luan suggested.

  “No, no. There’s no way I would’ve been tricked like this, especially after that entire mess. Maybe Adelyn was right, there’s something missing,” Ed thought. “Just… what.”

  It all circled back to Adelyn’s hunch. She was right, there was no way the ritual was that simple. It needed something more than a drawing. They were in the most divine space, in the most divine city in the world… yet nothing was happening.

  Adelyn turned to Cozy. What made her go through her reaction, yet they can’t get it to work now?

  “Perhaps… even if this is the most divine place, that doesn’t necessarily give us connection…” Teddie suggested. “My animal friends and Mr. Bear once suggested this back in the woods. Just because the world gives to us, doesn’t mean we give back to the world. A connection is formed through mutual understanding… so…”

  “What, so us just doing all of this is the god’s favor, and we’re not doing anything for him? That’s kind of weird, we already went through a lot of trouble just to get here in the first place,” Ed complained.

  “No, I think he’s onto something,” Adelyn said. “Think about it, if we want to reach god… we can’t just simply ask. We need an explicit connection. This chamber, the materials… They're gifts from God to us. So, what do we have to offer in return?”

  “I don’t know,” Ed crossed his arms. “Maybe someone who can represent us. Put a good word in…?”

  “Well, I wonder who could do that,” Cozy muttered.

  Adelyn looked at the people surrounding them, but eventually her eyes settled on Governor Luan. She was the Governor of Lune, the City of the Moon. If there was anyone with a divine connection, it would be her.

  “Governor, can you use the ritual… or some part of your divine essence to commune with Midnas for us, please?” Adelyn asked.

  Luan stopped for a moment, before shaking her head. “I have already interfered enough on your divine journey. If you are to reach divinity, then you shall do so by your own hands.”

  “Are you serious?” Ed said. “This might not even work. Just, come on, give us a chance!”

  “Divinity is not something to be blessed by a mere governor. One must look in themselves, and understand Midnas’ calling in order to achieve such a state. It would be wrong if I asked him using my own authority—”

  “Well,” Ed cut her off. “If you’re not going to give us it. We’ll just find a different priest, and we’ll find one that will give us the ability to commune.”

  “Uh, Ed…” Teddie said, awkwardly. “I think the others will just be as restrictive as her… when Cozy and I asked around… they were similarly… difficult.”

  “Really? Then what else are we supposed to do?”

  As the two of them argued, Adelyn was busy thinking of her own solution. If the city itself refused to help them, then who could help them commune with God? While she was watching Ed and Teddie discuss their plans, she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

  Cozy was walking towards the center of the ritual, looking at her own hands. She was taking deep breaths, one after the other. The girl touched the center, before nodding to herself.

  “Cozy, what do you think?” Adelyn turned to ask her.

  Cozy didn’t respond however. The girl, with her back turned, put her hand close to her mouth. Then, suddenly, she bit down on the back of her hand, blood gushing out of it.

  “Huh?!” Adelyn stepped back in surprise. That caused Ed and Teddie to turn towards her too.

  “Wait, Cozy! You’re bleeding!” Teddie said. “Let me heal you—”

  The blood from Cozy’s hands dripped onto the floor, and onto the ritual. Her blood on the ground began to glow white, and so did the drawing. Luan smiled, and took a step back.

  “It seems like you have figured out a solution. I’ll see you when you are done,” the governor said, walking back up the stairs. Adelyn, Ed, and Teddie began to step back from the ritual as well, though staying close to it. Cozy stood in the center, looking at the moon.

  “If your blessing birthed me with this blood, then I suppose I can’t hide from you anymore,” Cozy said, pointing her bloodied hand at the moon. “You said to bring my friends. Here they are! I hope you see that! My blood is mine, and I don’t need anything else!”

  It felt like their entire world was shaking, and suddenly… an odd feeling encompassed Adelyn. The world around them began to distort, and her body felt… free. Like her consciousness was being warped to somewhere she had never been before. Colors filled her eyes. Every single color imaginable came to her head as she felt her mind dragged across an endless expanse.

  After both a brief moment and an eternity, Adelyn felt her bearings begin to come around her again. An endless glowing white expanse surrounded her, as the dark night sky contrasted the glimmering ground. She looked around briefly, Ed, Teddie, and Cozy were all standing next to her. Ed and Teddie seemed to be similarly disoriented as her, but they also seemed to be different. Translucent and sparkling.

  Adelyn looked at her own hands, they were the same. She could see through them, and they sparkled in a way that she had never seen before. It felt odd, like she was in herself, but not in her body at the same time.

  Then, they all saw a man in green robes in the distance. He seemed to be smiling at the four of them, walking closer.

  “Welcome back, Cosette. I’m happy to see you again so soon.”