We were riding hard at the pace Seika set for almost four hours before we took our first break and recalled our summoned steeds in order to have some well-deserved late lunch. Seika wanted to get out of the jungle before nightfall and even though the sun hadn’t yet set, we were already seeing far fewer trees around us. This short rest proved to be the perfect opportunity for her to explain to us exactly what the monastery really was.

“Apostles of the Holy Order and preachers of The Divine have traveled to all known lands,” Seika started. “Whenever they found a place that they took an interest in, they built monasteries in the name of The Divine and placed powerful protections on them. None of the locals liked this of course, but since these monasteries were backed by the Holy Order, there was little they could do about them.”

“What is the purpose of these monasteries?” I asked, immediately agitated by the expansive tactics of the church.

“The monasteries served multiple purposes,” she replied. “Spreading the religion of The Divine was one of the most popular ones, or at least that was the front they promoted. However, many monasteries also served as research facilities or laboratories for experiments that the Order wouldn’t allow to be carried out in Elysia.”

“Do you mean like creating weapons?” Kard asked, surprised.

“No, not weapons,” Seika replied with a smile. “There are some subjects, such as polytheism, that are considered taboo in Elysia. Topics like this, or the origin of The Divine and Its relationship with the wider Apocosmos multiverse were my favorites at the university but they aren’t very popular, and were frowned upon, thus the need for them to be studied elsewhere.”

“So…” started Krysha, looking confused, “in order to escape the censorship of the church, they went away to study these topics outside Elysia? But still having the backing of the church?”

“The church wanted to keep these studies away from people,” Seika replied. “Something far away from you can’t hurt you. Over the years, however, these monasteries became refuges for spellcasters who still worshipped The Divine, but simply wanted to live away from the church. The monasteries turned from secluded research branches into proper monasteries of The Divine’s religion. They’re no longer controlled directly by the Order.”

“How many monasteries are there, Seika?” I asked.

“I would guess more than a score,” she replied. “Some are bigger than others but none are larger than the monastery at the End of the World. And it really is at the end of the known world. The only thing south of it is the Mana Tree, which is where all of our maps end.”

“How can our maps end?” asked a confused Krysha. “What’s the Mana Tree and how do we know nothing comes after it?”

“The Mana Tree is believed to be the only two-way connection between our world and the realm of The Divine,” Seika explained. “While there are many portals leading to other planes of the Apocosmos, the Tree is used by The Divine to come down into our world. It’s located in the mountains south of the monastery and is locked in a bubble of perpetual spring amid fierce snowstorms. The mountain towers yet higher, but it is not possible for anybody to continue climbing it because of the magical ice-storms that exist beyond that point. Hence, the end of the world. The distance we will have to cover is immense, even once we get into Fjalhun itself.”

“You said this is the biggest monastery,” I said. “Do they still carry out their research there? And what were they studying?”

“Seeing as the Mana Tree is extremely close and enhances their magical abilities,” she replied, “people there still study the origin of The Divine, divine mana, and perhaps even the nature of Dark Energy. That’s is why I believe there’s still a great repository of books and knowledge there. And I’m sure the book Myriam is looking for is there too.”

“So… if there is a book that contains information on how to extract The Divine Essence and restore It…” I said, voicing what everyone was thinking, “it would be there.”

“It makes sense,” said Man as he stood up. “But we have a long way to go before we even reach the land of Fjalhun, much less the monastery. We should push harder for as long as the day lasts.”

Nobody had any objections to this, and since we were done having our late lunch, we each summoned our horses and began riding anew.

***

Hours later, we were still racing behind the setting sun. The strong odor of lush greenery and trapped humidity was now slowly blown away by a gentle breeze. The trees were fewer and further apart from each other while all light was almost gone.

We had traveled a long way and had it not been for our fatigue, our horses would have gladly galloped at full speed through the night as well. However, Man informed us we would soon be reaching a crossroad and we would need to reach a decision as a group about the way we would travel onward—after he provided us with the alternatives of course.

For this reason, we made camp on the side of the road, which was now almost void of trees. Having spent countless hours with Man and his people, we were now experts at setting up tents, preparing a small hearth, and lighting it on fire. Once everything was set up, we sat around the fire and watched Man draw a crude map on the ground using a long thin stick.

“This here is the Endless Sea,” he said, and pointed at the top of his dirt drawing. “Just below it is Leka An. Now Leka An spans over the whole coastal line from the deserts east of Zakara, our capital, to the west end where the jungle city of Yubna is. The merchant-nation is the single exit to the sea for all nations on its south side.”

Just below the wavy lines signifying the Endless Sea, Man had drawn a reverse triangle and had split it into three parts with horizontal lines. The top chunk, being directly below the sea, was supposed to be Leka An.

“South of us are two neighboring nations,” he said, and split the middle chunk in half. “To the southeast of Leka An we have Guldan, a land of engineers, completely free of magic. Its capital, Tankara, is a pretty hostile place for spellcasters to be. To the southwest is the nation of Fenira. Fenirans are peaceful people who love their evergreen land and even their capital, Helian, looks more like a collection of farming settlements than an actual city.”

I noticed the land was getting narrower the closer it got to the southernmost point of Man’s representation of a map.

“And right here,” Man said, pointing to the smallest and lowest part of the larger triangle of countries, which was also a small triangle itself, “is Fjalhun. The monastery is down here, south of its capital, Snjokomu.”

His stick was now pointing at the bottom point of the triangle. It looked like we had an awfully long trip ahead of us and I was pretty sure I could make out the choices Man would present us with. However, I had a question I wanted to ask before he went on with explaining the specifics of the two nations to the south of us.