Upon entering, the group paused as they absorbed the sight in front of them. Ada would call this a forest and not a temple. Aside from a small well-maintained stone trail and the door they just walked through, there was nothing else which indicated to her that they were not in a forest. Even the walls were covered almost entirely by glowing green vines with tall trees situated next to them acting as sentinels. Looking ahead, she saw the trail was surrounded by a near infinite variety of lush foliage. Ada was no gardener but she did recognize some of the bushes as azaleas, lilacs, camellias, hydrangeas and roses. Most of the plants were completely foreign to her though.

If the flora was incredible, the fauna was no less so. She could only see a few of the birds through the thick tree leaves but she could hear all of their joyous chirpings. Squirrels, rabbits and odd creatures that looked like skunks with horns darted around the base of the trees. There were also a herd of deer in the distance calmly eating grass. These creatures completely ignored their presence. Not even the presence of Kayu affected them and some of the more curious ones even drew closer on seeing them. None of them approached too close though with Kayu pacing around the humans staring at the creatures. The priestess stood patiently waiting for Ada to finish her thoughts.

"Wow, this is incredible," Ada finally said.

"Yes, we have one of the greatest gardens in all of Exicoz," Shutana said proudly.

Ruciella scoffed. "I'm pretty sure that Oseta's Grand Botanical Garden is a lot larger from what I have seen. Actually, I think even the smallest botanical garden in Oseta is larger than this one."

"That cannot be true. Ayula's temples are known for their gardens, some of which are larger than even a Tesian nobleman's estate."

Ruciella was about to retort but Shutana answered for her. "This young lady is not wrong. Oseta's botanical gardens are much larger. However, we do have the most variety of flora. Of course, all of them are equally beautiful."

Ruciella looked quite smug for a moment. She was caught off guard by the next question though. "I am sorry but I did not catch your name, young one?"

"My name is Aur...Ruciella."

"Your name is Aureciella?"

Ruciella's face contorted in frustration. "No, it's just Ruciella. I messed up. I was going to say my nickname instead of my actual name. By the way, I have noticed that you're speaking the Divine Tongue perfectly. I hypothesize it's because of the blessing by Ayula? Is that right?"

"You are correct. I was temporarily blessed by our goddess, blessed be her name, of the Divine Tongue once she recognized who we have here. Once my role here is concluded, my ability with the Divine Tongue will be relinquished."

"Hmm, well, if you weren't blessed I would have asked you to join the Galacia Club if you're interested."

The priestess smiled. "My service is to a higher power."

"So who do we have here?"

"Divine one, I will explain as our goddess, blessed be her name, reveals her thoughts to this humble servant. Let us walk and talk," Shutana said.

As they started walking on the stone trail, Ada noticed that the sunlight inside appeared a shade brighter than what it was like outside. This was very strange since there were massive amounts of shade from the canopy overhead. It was either a trick of the eyes or perhaps the atmosphere was different here. Also, she could not hear the sounds from outside the temple at all. There was not a peep of wagons rolling or hawkers yelling to indicate that they were in a metropolitan city with a beehive of activity. Light illumination and sound damping. Sound damping could be achieved by having a combination of geometry, insulating trees and a wave generator for out-of-phase waves. Light illumination was a harder problem to solve though.

Ada felt a stir of excitement. Regardless of whether it's physiology or physics, this phenomenon is definitely fascinating, Ada thought. The capability to influence the environment to this degree was beyond her at this moment for anywhere that's not at her palace. However, perhaps she could do something similar in the future? How would she go about carving her own temple grounds? Her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle prodding from the priestess Shutana. "Divine one, I am sorry to interrupt again but my goddess, blessed be her name, would like you to be made aware."

"Uh, how many times did you ask that question?"

"Divine one, only twice. My apologies for my rudeness in interrupting your thoughts but our goddess would like you to be informed before your test here."

Leanne stopped and froze. "Test? What test? I was not informed of this earlier."

Everyone else stopped moving. Ada looked at the priestess sharply, her eyes wide with anger. "Priestess Shutana, what is going on? This is really not what I signed up for based on what Leanne told me. There's an artifact and I'll retrieve it for your goddess. It's that simple."

Ruciella snorted. "I wish I could say I wasn't expecting it since I carried just a bit of hope in the sanctity of divine promises but I take all of that back for yours."

Shutana shook her head. "Divine one, I apologize for the misunderstanding. Our divine goddess, blessed be her name, have not lied. We do kindly request your assistance in retrieving the artifact. As far as what artifact it is, our divine goddess, blessed be her name, will reveal to you in person."

"Then what is this test nonsense you just said?"

"Divine one, for our goddess, blessed be her name, to have faith in your capability, she would need to know what you are capable of."

"If she wants me to demonstrate my powers and do a few parlor tricks, I can do that."

Ruciella shook her head in disbelief. "How divine is Ayula if she doesn't even have the ability to tell what Ada is capable of?"

Ignoring Ruciella's insult at her goddess, the priestess answered. "As a mortal, I am unable to gauge the full capabilities of our goddess, blessed be her name. I can tell you that our divine goddess Ayula has been dormant for a very long time and is unaware of the capabilities of many of the younger divine ones. I assure you that the test would be simple for a divine one to accomplish."

"Simple for a deity but hard for a mortal?" Ada questioned.

"Divine one, indeed that is the case. If your divine one do not mind, can we continue to walk and talk? Our goddess, blessed be her name, is waiting."

Ada nodded and all of them continued their journey deeper into the temple. There were not many changes to the scenery except for cute small wooden bridges crossing over three creeks one after another that they went over. The three bridges were much too small for Kayu but with his powerful legs, he simply leapt over the creek and landed gracefully on the other side. Seeing Kayu standing proud and strong, Ada could no longer see him as the same dirty mutt. Perhaps this direwolf could become a worthy ally as well in the future, she thought. She glanced at the dog's master and saw him drooling with glazed eyes. Ada wondered if she should release the Compulsion but even if she did, would he truly be an asset? These were questions to be answered later. She turned back to the priestess. "How long has she been asleep exactly?"

"The last record of our divine goddess Ayula's awakening was the disappearance of the artifact."

"And when was that? Tell me your answer in sidereal year if possible. But tropical year is fine too."

Shutana looked confused. "Divine one, this ignorant mortal do not understand these divine words for time."

"That's fine. The difference is only about 20 minutes. Just tell me with the local calendar."

"According to the Exicozan calendar, she awoke 357 years ago."

Leanne gasped. "Oh no, I think I know."

"Finally, she actually knows something," Ruciella muttered to herself.

Ada asked, "What do you know?"

"When I was but a young acolyte, I heard stories of our of our former esteemed priests. Apparently, his father was on the elite team that tried to track down the missing artifact 357 years ago."

"What did you hear?"

"From what I understand, a powerful artifact from the Temple of Ayula of Pedra suddenly went missing in the winter of that year. The goddess Ayula sent some of her most elite trackers and powerful priests to track it down but to no avail. Seeing that no mortal could have done this, she eventually confronted the younger gods as potential culprits but none of them would admit they were responsible. Finally, tired of squabbling with the younger gods, she returned to her sleep."

Shutana nodded her head. "Our divine goddess Ayula confirms that everything her former follower Priestess Leanne said did transpire. Now ..."

Ruciella interjected. "Seer Leanne of Goddess Ada is what you mean right?"

If Ada was human, she would have blushed. Ruciella was trying so hard to defend Ada's dignity. The girl was correct in that there was no need to bring up Leanne's past allegiance though. Ada would rather not want Leanne to have any temptation to go back to her former goddess. "That's right. Leanne is not just a priestess but she's my seer. She's the Seer of the Goddess of Computation."

Leanne blushed. Shutana nodded again in understanding. "Divine one, our goddess apologizes for her rudeness. Your Seer Leanne is correct. There is much to be said about the younger gods and none of them are truly considered good in our divine goddess Ayula's eyes. They are short-sighted fools who follow their own selfish interests without any regard for mortal lives."

"Does she think that one of the younger gods stole the artifact?"

"For a long time, our divine goddess, blessed be her name, suspected that it was Edayth, the God fo Thieves, and now the suspicion is over."

Ruciella asked. "You mean you guys know now?"

"Ruciella, we do know now and the answer was surprising."

"How come everyone else gets an honorific except me?" Ruciella muttered under her breathe.

Shutana smiled. "That is because you are not a goddess, priestess, seer, noble woman, or anyone who holds a public office or has been given a title."

"What?! You heard me?"

"Our divine goddess Ayula hears everything in her realm."

"Aren't I glad that I didn't say everything on my mind then!"

Ada chuckled. Turning back to the topic, she spoke. "So it's not Edayth? Hmm, does your goddess mind if I take a guess?"

Shutana nodded for her to go ahead. Ada scratched her head and said. "It has to be one of the least suspected gods who would steal. This is fun. Let's cross out the ones who likely have motivation to steal. Alula might be one since she cares for beauty and I'm sure your goddess has many beautiful artifacts. Mara might since she's a goddess of healing and I saw firsthand how powerful your goddess is at healing. You may have an artifact Mara wants. Thuro is the god of war and he might take something which he might find useful in battle. Yuano is the god of wealth and no doubt he covets what you have. This leaves behind the God of Wisdom, Goddess of Truth, God of Fools, God of Farmers and Goddess of Sky."

"Divine one, our divine goddess Ayula is impressed. Your insight is not far from the truth. However, it is not my place as a messenger to tell you the whole story. Luckily, we have just arrived." Shutana stopped and gestured at the scene in front of them.

Ada looked carefully and saw that the forest had cleared out to a large circular field. In the middle of the field was a circular ring of huge oak trees surrounding a small wooden circular platform in the center. The platform looked to be finely made but it was tiny and could only fit a dozen people with standing room. There were six other priests dressed in similar garb as Shutana gathered around the edges of the platform. She was not that impressed if this was what was at the center of the forest. "Um, is this it?"

Shutana bowed her head apologetically. "Divine one, we did not have time to prepare a larger teleportation stand. I hope you and your companions would be able to bear the discomfort in the journey."

Ruciella leapt in the air a full foot. "Holy mackerel! She's not meeting us here? We're being invited to her palace?"