The power flowing through Wally was intense, and stressing, without being painful. He instinctively closed his eyes, as if his body wanted him to concentrate on the feeling and not his surroundings. It surged and pulsated in no particular direction, making his heart beat so fast, it might as well have been popping out of his chest.

And then nothing.

There was no feeling here. No pulsating power. No stress. Nothing.

And then a slight breeze blew across his face.

"Are you quite ready to join me now?" a familiar voice asked.

Wally realized he still had his eyes closed, and decided that this would be as good a time as any to open them. He and Roderick were not in the temple anymore. It was a much more tranquil place, a large field that stretched to the horizon uninterrupted with tall grass and red daffodils. Roderick himself was standing more upright than Wally had ever seen before.

"Join you in what?"

"Conscious thought," Roderick responded. "That shouldn't be too hard now, hm?"

Wally shook his head. "Wait, wait, wait, where are we?"

Roderick took a few steps over to him. "My people called it the valley of Mercury. It is an area where our minds may mingle together without dangerously melding."

"So this is kind of like telepathy?"

Roderick sighed. "In only the most simplistic of terms."

"Alright, so how does this work? I mean, am I learning at a faster pace? Is all the lore going to be imprinted on my brain? Am I just going to be smarter?"

"You are going to be experiencing the events that we only have sparse records of." He turned around. "Quite a leg up, if I do say so myself." Roderick waved his arm and the land before them became sea, rushing underfoot, until a series of islands came into view. The horizon slowed and a single island in particular took up the landscape. "This is the Isle of Sovinos. This is where it all started."