Takeshi arrived at the shrine ten minutes earlier than planned.
He had left the apartnt earlier than usual because he hadn’t slept well, and walking slowly hadn’t changed the outco. By the ti he reached the entrance, the gate was already open. One of the workers recognized him without saying anything and simply nodded toward the inside.
He waited in the front courtyard. At that hour, the shrine had a kind of calm that wasn’t threatening at all, just silence lit by the morning sun. The trees along the side stood still, and there was no wind.
Ophélia appeared right on ti through the side door, wearing her school uniform with a small bag hanging from her shoulder. She stopped for a second when she saw him.
"You got here early."
She comnted.
"Yeah, I was ready ahead of ti..."
"I wanted to leave early too."
She walked over and greeted him with a brief bow, as always.
"Shall we go?"
They started walking toward the high school. The street was still quiet. So shops had their shutters halfway open, and there weren’t many people on the sidewalks.
Takeshi waited until they were a block away from the shrine before asking.
"Hey, can I ask you sothing about the shrine?"
Ophélia glanced at him from the side.
"Of course."
"The goddess you worship there. What’s her na?"
"Tot."
She answered without hesitation.
"And what do you know about her?"
Ophélia took a mont. Not because she didn’t know the answer, but because she seed to be organizing where to begin. After a few seconds, she asked,
"Do you want the full story?"
"Yeah."
She nodded.
"Before Tot appeared..."
Ophélia began.
"The world was at war. Not just one war, but many happening at the sa ti, in different places, for different reasons. Most of those reasons were territory, resources, or power. The result was always the sa: destruction."
She paused briefly.
"The shrine’s texts say that during that period, the world ca close to becoming uninhabitable because of too many wars lasting for too long."
Takeshi listened without interrupting.
"Tot wasn’t born..."
Ophélia continued.
"That’s the first thing they teach. She wasn’t created by anyone, nor did she erge from any process. She simply descended."
Her tone was direct, as though she were explaining a verifiable fact.
"The sky opened for nine days and nine nights. The texts describe it differently depending on the era they were written in, but the one detail that always repeats is that it lasted exactly nine days and nine nights."
"And what happened when it ended?"
"All the wars stopped at the sa ti."
Takeshi processed that.
"At the sa ti?"
"That’s what the texts say."
Ophélia lowered her voice slightly.
"There wasn’t an agreent or negotiation. There wasn’t an army that won and forced everyone else to surrender either. They all simply stopped at the sa ti."
"And that was Tot’s doing?"
"That’s what people believe. The texts don’t explain the chanism. They only recorded the result."
They kept walking. Takeshi had more questions, but he let her continue.
"After that, Tot stayed..."
Ophélia went on.
"She didn’t disappear or return to wherever she had co from. She remained there and began to teach..."
She stopped for a second before continuing.
"Before Tot, magic existed, but it was unstable. People could have internal energy, they could try to use it, but without a system to organize it, the results were unpredictable. Sotis it worked and sotis it didn’t. Sotis it even hard the person trying to use it."
That caught Takeshi’s attention.
"Did Tot create the magic system?"
"Tot taught people how to stabilize it..."
Ophélia corrected.
"The energy was already there, but what didn’t exist was a way to channel it consistently. Tot introduced the rules: elental affinities, the difference between elental magic and impregnation, the limits of what the body can sustain. All of that cos from what she taught."
Takeshi thought about the book he had borrowed from the library weeks ago. About the exercises for perceiving flow. About what Nyx had explained to him regarding affinities.
All of it had an origin, and that origin wasn’t the god who had brought him into this world.
"Has the shrine been devoted to her for a long ti?"
He asked.
"For centuries."
Ophélia said naturally.
"The shrine where I grew up isn’t the only one. There are others in different parts of the continent, and they all worship Tot. The rituals vary depending on the region, but the foundation is the sa."
"And you grew up knowing all of that since you were little?"
"Since as far back as I can rember."
She lifted her shoulders slightly.
"To , it’s normal, but I guess to an outsider it might sound strange."
"It doesn’t sound strange."
Takeshi said.
Ophélia looked at him briefly.
"Can I ask why you’re asking about Tot?"
Takeshi chose his words carefully.
"I’m curious about the shrine. I spent ti there and never asked."
Ophélia nodded and seed to accept that.
"If you want to know more..."
She continued.
"There are texts at the shrine I can show you. So are very old and written in a language that isn’t used anymore, but there are translated copies."
"I’d be interested in seeing them."
That made her stop for a second. Not dramatically, just one shorter step than the others. Then she continued walking normally.
"No one’s ever asked that before..."
She admitted.
Takeshi wasn’t entirely sure how to respond.
Ophélia continued.
"Most people who visit the shrine co for healing services or ceremonies. Very few ask about the history."
"Do you think it’s weird that I’m asking?"
"No."
She thought about it for a mont.
"I think it’s different."
Takeshi had more questions. He wanted to know whether the texts described Tot with any specific form, whether there were records of other appearances after the original descent, and whether the shrine had information about what happened whenever she directly intervened in the world.
He opened his mouth to ask about all of that.
And at that mont, he heard his na.
"Takeshi."
It was Aoi’s voice. She was standing at the entrance to the high school, backpack over her shoulder and an expression that was almost angry. Nyx stood a step behind her with a book tucked under one arm, coldly watching the two of them.
Takeshi closed his mouth.
Ophélia raised a hand to greet them.
"Good morning."
Aoi returned the greeting, but her eyes were on Takeshi. Nyx did the sa: she answered politely and then waited.
"Let’s go inside."
Aoi said, and it wasn’t a question.
Takeshi looked at Ophélia. She was already walking toward the entrance completely normally, reading nothing into the situation, because to her it was simply a group of acquaintances arriving at school at the sa ti.
Takeshi went in with the others.
The questions he still hadn’t asked remained outside.
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