Linea and her older sister Tarina sat across each other in a closed carriage, which was pulled rather slowly by two white horses. Linea nervously fidgeted with her fingers and occasionally looked onto the streets of Luna’sindranar. The blinds of the carriage were enchanted to be transparent from the inside.

“Explain to me again; why the hell would you drag me out of bed in the middle of the day?” Tarina asked and yawned loudly. “You know I hate it, when I don’t get a full day of sleep.”

“I know and I’m sorry, but you are the only one who was at home today. Except for mother, but there is no way I would ask her to accompany me to this.” Linea answered avoiding the actual question.

“Why wouldn’t you want her to?” Tarina asked with increased curiosity. “And be so kind and tell me, where we are going.”

Linea sighed and continued to look outside. The occasional giant silver oaks that grew all around the city framed white glowing houses. She thought about how to explain her problem best.

While she herself was the youngest princess of Elven queendom of Luna’sindra, her sister Tarina was the oldest princess and therefore the heir apparent to the throne. Tarina didn’t have the same authority as Queen Arania but for what Linea had planned, it should be enough.

“I want to perform a ritual at the great temple today,” Linea mumbled.

“And what kind of ritual are we talking about?” Tarina asked increasingly annoyed. “Come on, Linea. Don’t let me pull everything out of your mouth.”

“The Ritual of Acceptance,” Linea said barely audible, but caused a surprised gasp from her sister, nonetheless.

“Are you mad?” Tarina asked more out of shock than anger. “Mother will kill you!”

Both girls were silent for a short time.

“You know what? No. She will kill me, if I help you with this. What are you thinking?”

“I want to do it to show that I’m worth something. Ever since my training as a void hunter was denied, because of my weakness, I thought about what I wanted to do with my life. I have finally decided that I want to become a healer. For that training, I must be accepted by the goddess as a priestess. Therefore, the Ritual of Acceptance is required. It’s just a logical step,” Linea explained with a passion.

After hearing all the stories about her late aunt and uncle and their adventures as Void Hunters, Linea wanted to train herself and become one of the venerated hunters. Their task was to hunt and kill monsters of the Void which were the enemy of everything that existed. Wherever they appeared, death and destruction followed and in Linea’s mind, there was no nobler cause and occupation worth following.

However, her dreams were shattered, when she applied to the Academy of Luna’sindranar. In the examination, she was found ‘unable to achieve the levels of strength necessary for Void Hunters’ regardless of how much training she would put into it. It was the same examination, which found her to be exceptionally gifted with magic, but that mattered little as she had to pass both tests. The fact, that she failed to gain acceptance to the Academy, was not only a crushing blow for Linea personally, it was also a disgrace to the royal family. The nobles had a field day when it was made public.

“Linea…” Tarina started with a soft voice. “I understand how you feel, but you can’t just go and become a priestess. If you do that, the nobles will see it as a sign of weakness from mother. They would probably think, she arranged it for you, so she could get rid of you. They would probably even assume we bribed the temple for you to be accepted.”

“I don’t care what some idiotic nobles think of me!” Linea countered angrily. “What do you expect me to do with my life, if I can’t even become a healer?”

“I don’t know. You could become an enchantress or something like that.”

“Yeah, right. That’d be helpful, sitting in a workshop all day tinkering with some artifacts,” Linea replied sarcastically. “No. If I can’t be a void hunter, I will be a healer. So, are you going to help me?”

Linea made it clear with her question that any further discussion would be futile. She was nothing if not stubborn.

“What makes you think, I will go along with your plan? Especially, when I’m going to get yelled at by mother?” Tarina asked.

“Because I’m your cute little sister and you can’t deny me any wish I have?” Linea argued and tried to influence her sister with her puppy eyes.

“Yeah, sure. Try that again, dunce,” Tarina answered and rolled her eyes. “I would be a pretty bad future queen, if I’d be so easily swayed.”

Linea crossed her arms and pouted a bit.

“When we were younger, you’d do everything I wanted.”

“We were children back then. I’m twenty-three years old now and the future queen. So, try to convince me as if you were a simple noble, and I were the queen. Make your case!” Tarina demanded with a slight smile on her lips.

“Urgh! Fine, have it your way!” Linea gave up. She paused for a minute to think about it.

“I would say the most important point is, that it is my life and I should be able to decide for myself what I want to do with it?” She said but turned it into a doubtful question in the end.

“Is that a question or an argument?” Tarina asked with a raised eyebrow. “Not very convincing. Despite the fact that no one in our family has ever gotten their dream occupation in life…”

“If you leave out our dearest sister Senia, who was accepted to the Hunter’s Academy like we always dreamt about,” Linea interjected sourly.

“Yeah, lucky girl, isn’t she?”

“See? That’s the point. I already can’t do what I wanted. You know probably better than anyone else how frustrating that is.”

“Yes, I do, but I also had all my life to come to terms with it. I will rule this nation one day and I will do so happily.”

“And that’s exactly what I want to do as well. Not the ruling part of course but coming to terms with my future. If someone would give me a task, some expectation I could meet, then I could probably focus myself on it. But because I’m the third princess, I’m expected to be of use to society in some way, but still be able to rule the country if need be. No matter how unlikely that is. So instead I’m floating in limbo and the only things I’m allowed to do with my magic is enchanting or healing. And enchanting is just plain boring. I will not dedicate my life to something that bores me!”

Linea had argued herself into a fury. Tarina on the other hand looked calmly into her eyes and thought about what had been said.

“I understand your points and I’m sure even our mother would understand them, but what you wish and what you feel doesn’t change the facts. You are her daughter and therefore important to the succession. This isn’t something to gloss over,” Tarina tried to explain.

“And my feelings are something to gloss over then?” Linea fired back in anger. But that anger quickly turned into sobbing. “You have no idea how humiliating it was, when they told me about my inability in front of all the other applicants. All my dreams were crushed just because my body isn’t strong enough. All the whispers. Don’t think I can’t hear what the nobles and even my own family say about me. I heard you and Tovandir talking last night after lunch.”

“You shouldn’t eavesdrop on me or our brother!” Tarina scolded her.

“Not the point, dammit!”

“Linea! Language!”

“Argh!”

Frustrated Linea fell back in her seat and crossed her arms again. Her eye wandered over the stalls on the market, which they were just crossing.

“Just tell the coachman to head back then,” she finally said in defeat without looking at her sister.

“No, I won’t do that.”

“What?” Linea asked surprised and slightly confused. She looked at her sister again as if she hoped to read from her faces why she had changed her mind.

“To be frank, you made a terrible case as a noble woman,” Tarina answered and a caring smile appeared on her faces. “But it was a perfect case from sister to sister. Of course, I will help you. I just wanted to see how strong your conviction was.”

“But I gave up on arguing…” Linea pointed out.

“True, but certainly not, because you had given up,” her sister pointed out. “I know you, sister dearest. You just would have found some other way to get what you want. Perhaps even something dangerous or illegal!”

“Well, probably nothing illegal…”

Both girls chuckled. Tarina carefully stood up and sat down again beside her sister. She laid her arm around Linea and pulled her into a hug.

“So, what did you have in mind? I mean, you can’t expect to just walk in there, ask some random priestess to perform the ritual and hope that my presence would be enough to hold questions at bay.”

“Of course not!” Linea confirmed it strongly.

Then silence set in.

After a few moments Tarina spoke up again.

“That was your plan, wasn’t it?”

“Yes…” Linea admitted with a barely audible voice, while she fixated the carriage floor.

“Well, that’s not good. We have to think of something better,” Tarina stated. “Perhaps we could ask a friend of mine, who lives and works at the temple as a priestess.”

“You know a priestess?” Linea asked in surprise.

“Yeah, but only by chance. She is the fifth daughter of the duke of Tora. Her father caught her with a peasant boy. And you know, how he can be. Promptly disowned her and threw her out of the family. You should have heard about that. It was quite the scandal a few years back.”

“You are right, I remember the story. I didn’t know she became a priestess in our queendom though.”

“Well, she didn’t have much options. Scorned by her own country, she had the choice between here and Sera’sindra. As a Moon Elf, she naturally came here. But on the flip-side, I can talk to her on occasion after I pray at the temple. I think, she would be willing to help, if we explain your situation. She has a weak spot for those who can’t have what they want the most.” Tarina explained.

“Thank you! You’re the best sister ever, you know that?” Linea stated and hugged her sister affectionally.

“Keep that in mind next time Shandir needs to tell all his exploits with the army to someone,” Tarina said while caressing Linea’s head.

“Urgh, can’t I just help you with a project or something?”

Tarina just laughed.

A few minutes later, the carriage stopped at the feet of a huge building. It was an impressive construction that had an entrance arch with a diameter of more than thirty meters. The arch was supported on both sides by statues of Moon Elves in robes, who seemed to hold a part of the structure upright. In reality, the sculptures had nothing to do with the static of the arch at all. They just symbolized the creed of the Sisterhood of Luna to serve and support.

The body of the temple was nearly two-hundred meters long and topped by a barrel vault with a radius of roughly forty meters. On both sides were attachment buildings, which served as living quarters for the clergy and as stabilizers for the main building.

Like the rest of the city, the temple was built of moonstone. The Moon Elves of Luna’sindra were masters of architecture due to their ability to infuse granite with lunar essence thus creating moonstone. Not only was the resulting product more durable and could be merged with adjacent stones to create seamless walls, it also let the stone glow faintly, what lit up the city at night. Due to being nocturnal, Moon Elves mostly did their businesses at night even with the other races. For those races, the city was glowing in the silver-white light of moonstones.

In the midst of day as Linea and her sister arrived at the temple, most inhabitants of Luna’sindranar were still asleep and the square in front of the temple was empty aside from some Sun Elven guards. They were part of the city guard and worked only at daytime while the Moon Elven guards worked at night.

“We have arrived, Your Royal Highnesses!” A voice from outside the carriage sounded and the door was opened shortly after. Linea and Tarina mounted their veils on the clasps of their head garments. Those veils were not a religious tradition, but a necessity for the light-sensitive Moon Elves. While all men and most low born women wore simple half transparent blindfolds, high-born women wore veils mounted on intricate head garments not unlike tiaras. Those veils were enchanted to give an almost unobstructed view on the face behind it, but still blocking out part of the sun light.

When they exited the carriage, they were greeted by their guards, who had just dismounted from their horses.

“Your Royal Highness, shall we call for the high priestess?” Captain Evira of the Royal Moon Guard asked and bowed before her liege.

“It won’t be necessary to wake her up for this. But please get one of the acolytes and let her search for priestess Aruna. Submit her the following message. ‘The curious crow needs the help of the fiery firebird’.” Tarina said while keeping a straight face. Linea on the other hand chuckled lightly.

“What’s up with that strange talk?” she asked interested.

Tarina smiled as well and answered, “We meet the first time at the University of Tali’sindra. That was before she went to become a priestess. She studied water and nature magic at the agriculture department. I had a few topics in common with her in my second year when I studied agriculture as part of my statecraft studies.”

“And that was a code sentence you used to… do what?” Linea probed deeper.

“Nothing I will explain to you, little sister. In a few years perhaps,” Tarina answered and smiled.

“Oh, come on! Spoil sport!”

The inside of the temple was even more beautiful than the outside. Even though its beauty was at its peak at midnight when the moonlight lightened up the giant windows on the sides. The glass mosaics told the story of the Moon Elves from the Great Cataclysm to the last war between the Moon Elves and the humans. The more recent history was missing, simply because nothing of great importance had happened in the last decades. On the ceiling was a long row of paintings depicting all the high priestesses that had ever served the temple, including their name and achievements. It’s was one of the greatest honors any Moon Elf could gain.

Linea studied the paintings while they waited for Tarina’s priestess-friend to arrive. They had to wait quite some time since it was nearly midday and Aruna most likely had to make herself presentable.

She finally appeared looking dead tired. Her fiery red mane was not really tamed, and she only wore a very basic robe. Probably the first one she had in arm's reach. Her hair color explained the nickname ‘fiery firebird’ at least.

“Tarina, you old crow. Why are you waking me up so late at day?” She asked slightly annoyed. Captain Evira wrinkled her nose in displeasure to the informal and highly impolite greeting.

“And why did you bring the little crow along?” Aruna added while she looked Linea over.

“Please, by the goddess, don’t call her that,” Tarina replied pleadingly. “It’s inappropriate on so many levels.”

Aruna chuckled and nodded.

“You’re right. But the question still stands.”

Tarina pointed at Linea.

“She wants something, and you can probably provide,” she explained and looked at Linea. “Go on, sister. Explain what you need.”

“I want to go through the Ritual of Acceptance!” Linea stated boldly, which earned her quite a few gasps from their guards. Evira even saw herself forced to interject.

“Your Royal Highness, does the queen know about this?” She asked more to Tarina than Linea. In fact, she didn’t even look at Linea.

“She does not, and she will only learn of this, if my sister is accepted by the goddess,” Tarina explained firmly. “Is that clear?”

“Yes, Your Royal Highness. But…”

“No contradiction, Captain!” Tarina interrupted her. “This is something between my sister and our goddess. Even mother has no right to interfere if my sister is accepted by the goddess. If her plea is declined then nothing of importance happened today.”

Captain Evira just bowed and pulled back. Aruna on the other hand smiled brightly.

“I see where this is going,” she said and finally took a close look at Linea. “And you are sure about this? Once accepted to the Sisterhood of Luna, there will be no going back. Once you serve the goddess, you will do so for the rest of your life.”

“Yes, I’m sure!” Linea stated with all the conviction she could muster.

“Alright. Let’s get to it, shall we?” Aruna asked rhetorically as she turned around and started to walk towards the altar at the end of the temple.

The altar was a round moonstone with a diameter of five meters embedded in a pond of glowing water. Two liquids fell down from two ten-meter-high statues standing at the sides of the pool. Those statues depicted Moon Elves, one male in armor and one female in robes. The armored statue held a jug from which water was flowing down into the pond. It wasn’t falling, but instead it was enchanted to float downwards slowly. The robed female on the other side held a shallow basin from which liquid lunar essence flowed down into the pond.

Both statues were a gift from the goddess and absolutely unique. The liquid created by them was called Luna’cala in the old Elven tongue. It had many properties like healing and strengthening. But more importantly, it allowed anyone who drank it to converse with the goddess.

“Strip naked, please,” Aruna requested while she walked to a side chamber to fetch something.

Captain Evira ordered the two male guards of their group to turn around. When they had complied, Linea started to do as she was ordered. Aruna returned with a cup and a white robe.

“Put this on and sit down on the altar. Doesn’t matter in which position, but you should make yourself comfortable. It could take a while,” she explained and held out the robe to Linea.

Linea slipped into the robe and walked to the pond. When she reached the edge, little step stones rose from the bottom of the pond, so that she could reach the altar without getting wet feet. She sat down cross-legged and waited.

A few moments later Aruna joined her and sat down in front of her. She gave Linea the cup filled with the Luna’cala.

“I will start to chant as it is required for the ritual. That will most likely wake up some priestesses. When they see, what happens here, they will wake up the high priestess. She knows not to interrupt the ritual, but you can never know. Just keep everyone away until we’re finished,” Aruna explained to Tarina and then looked at Linea again. “And you just have to drink the Luna’cala as soon as I start to sing. Close your eyes and let yourself be taken away as soon as you feel it.”

“Feel what?” Linea asked nervously.

“You will know it, when you feel it,” Aruna said smiling. “And if you don’t feel it until I’m finished chanting, it means the goddess has declined your offer to serve her. Are you ready?”

Linea simply nodded as she didn’t trust her voice anymore.

Aruna started her chant and Linea drank the Luna’cala. When she closed her eyes, she immediately felt a tug at her soul. It was very gentle, and Linea just let herself go. Everything became light and for a second Linea feared something had gone wrong. But soon after the world around her took the form of a strange kind of temple. The building was circular with stands all around her and pillars hold up something akin to a moon way up in the sky. She couldn’t even see the end of it.

Then she heard a voice.

“Oh, there she is!”

Linea looked down and saw how an ethereal body formed around her and she was dressed in a simple white tunic. She noticed a human woman and someone, who looked human, but was much more beautiful than anyone Linea had ever seen.

However, both women definitely didn’t look like her goddess.

“Where am I?” She finally asked.