To MiraculousReader: Sabrina, obviously. Beyond that… we'll find out!

"This place is really cool!" Nawal paused just outside of the Malian Miraculous Temple's portal room, standing and staring around her at the elaborately decorated hallway. Embedded into the stone floor were several multicolored lines of pebbles, all of which moved in a straight line down the hallway. Images of animals and people had been worked into the walls using similar colored stones, showing caravans traveling across the Saharan dunes, men shaking hands, a group gathered around a table while overseen by a small parrot. Nawal's eyes widened, examining the mosaic images in awe. "Why does Mali get all of this when we just have hewn rock walls?"

Standing behind her, Shadya giggled. "Everything in the temple has a purpose," she explained, taking Nawal's hand and giving her a gentle nudge to follow her to the right. As they walked, the images along the walls altered. A garden, the trees and bushes beautiful even in miniature. Three figures standing against an angry horde while a group of people huddled behind them. Two men sitting at a table with daggers held behind their backs while a third person held a javelin between them. Glancing down at the floor, Nawal was surprised to see a fifth line of colored pebbles, this one midnight purple, emerge from a side hallway and follow the other four.

"I don't remember the last time I was here!" Minii squeaked, lifting off of Nawal's shoulder to hover between them, looking around excitedly.

Nawal raised an eyebrow at the Kwami. "More often than I've been here," she pointed out. Nawal glanced over at Shadya, who was watching her with eager anticipation. "So what does it all mean?"

Shadya smirked. "I could tell you…" she began. "But wouldn't it be more fun to figure it out on your own?"

Nawal gave her an annoyed look. "I think you're enjoying this a little too much, mahbub."

"Only a little." Shadya nodded toward the large vestibule that opened up to their right, where their hallway joined in with a second hallway. Along the floors of those halls, Nawal spotted more of the colored lines, most in different colors. Walking along the five lines from their hallway, Nawal followed them until they met up with the other lines, all of which turned sharply and ran parallel across the vestibule, finally stopping at the stone double doors. Pausing in the middle of the vestibule, Nawal looked up at the walls, taking in the images that had been carved into the walls in bas relief. A pair of oblong, stepped pyramids flanked an enormous bird. Looking closer, Nawal could just make out the symbol of the African Miraculous Set, five sets of diamond-shaped heads and forelegs emerging from a central circle, worked into the bird's feathers. Below the pyramids, a large group of people stood hand in hand, looking up toward the bird. Shadya grinned. "Of course, letting you guess what it means is also sort of a test for what Master Thomas told me. So…?"

Nawal hummed, furrowing her brows. "The bird is a parrot, right?" she began hesitantly, glancing back at Shadya for confirmation.

"Naturally."

"So this structure–" Nawal pointed to the pyramid shapes "–is supposed to be the temple?"

Shadya nodded. "Apparently the original temple had the two pyramids worked into the outside, though they removed them centuries ago."

Nawal hummed. "I don't get the people, though…"

Minii giggled shrilly. "I bet you do…" she teased in a singsong voice. "What do you think of their attitude?"

Nawal shrugged. "They look… happy? Like they're happy to be together? Like they aren't fighting?"

"And what have the mosaics in the hallway shown?" prompted Shadya, raising her eyebrows.

"People?" Nawal tried. "Happy people agreeing on things. Or bad people being stopped." Her lips parted, and she nodded slowly in realization. "The heroes helping people and stopping anyone who tries to hurt innocent people." Shadya beamed brightly. Nawal grinned back at her for a moment, though her grin turned into a frown. "But what about these floors?" she demanded. "These lines just don't make sense!"

Shadya hummed.

"How would you find the dining hall?" squeaked Minii, flitting over to the temple's front door.

"How should I know?" Nawal retorted, throwing her hands out wide. "I've never been to this temple before!"

"Come on, give it a try," Shadya wheedled.

Minii let out a shrill giggle. "Come over to the door and… look around."

Sighing in annoyance, Nawal followed the Kwami over to the temple door and shrugged, looking up and down the wall on either side of the doorway. "What am I looking for? How am I supposed to–" She glanced down at the floor and froze, her eyes widening in surprise. "Oh." Near the beginning of the various colored lines, she could see a series of symbols: a person lying down, a piece of bread, a table, a parrot, even a spurting fountain. Nawal facepalmed. "I take I would follow the… red line?" she asked.

Smiling, Shadya nodded. "That's correct!" pointing down toward the lines, she added, "The dark purple is for guest quarters. Navy blue leads to the temple members' rooms. Gold is Hakɛto's office. Green is for the conference room. And the light blue line goes to my favorite spot in the whole temple! Want to see it?"

Nawal nodded curiously, taking Shadya's outstretched hand and letting her lead the way down the middle of the three hallways, past a couple of smaller side rooms. A maroon line on the floor turned aside to stop at a room that had to be a library; a light-yellow line led into a room with a few cushions set against the wall. Shadya didn't pause, following the light blue until it was the only guideline remaining. Finally, the hallway hit a dead end at a single wide gate, through which Nawal could hear the sound of bubbling water. "What is this place?"

Throwing the gate open, Shadya held out her hand and smiled brightly. "This is the heart of the Malian Temple!"

Cautiously, Nawal stepped outside, into a lush bed of grass that bounced slightly beneath her feet. They were in a large enclosed garden, bordered on all sides by the walls of the temple, with a handful of berry-laden vines climbing up the walls. Three streets stood fairly close together around the central pool that formed the centerpiece of the garden, their branches shading most of the area from the bright overhead sun. The soft chirping of birds merged in with the burbling spring, giving the garden a tranquil feel. Looking around in amazement, Nawal walked right up to the edge of the pool and flopped down in the grass, folding her hands behind her head and closing her eyes. "I can see why you like this place so much!"

Shadya sat down next to her, bracing herself with her hands. "Sometimes I come in here to study – or even just to relax. This is absolutely the most peaceful place in the temple – even more than the garden or the meditation hall."

Nawal hummed, watching as Minii flitted up into the trees after one of the birds nesting above them. "This reminds me a lot of the pool at the base of our temple's waterfall – though that's so much louder."

Shadya nodded in agreement, dipping her hand in the pool and taking a small sip of the water. "Master Thomas says that the Malian Temple was placed here to protect the oasis, to keep it from falling into the hands of someone who would abuse the resource and use it for power rather than to help people in need."

"Okay…" Nawal furrowed her brows. "So I get that the temple's layout is worked into the stones, and that it was built around the oasis, and all of that. But why? Why the elaborate system of lines on the floor?"

Shadya stifled a giggle. "Isn't it obvious?" Nawal quirked an eyebrow at her. Shadya rolled her eyes. "Right – our temple almost never has visitors. But this temple was built with visitors in mind. The Malian Guardians offered the oasis' water to anyone in need, regardless of the circumstances, and they kept the temple doors open to anyone who came. But because so many people spoke so many different languages, they needed some means of communicating nonverbally with their visitors – hence the images on the walls and the lines to guide people wherever the needed to go. And thanks to Polly, whenever people did need to speak those of a different language group, the Parrot holder could act as a mediator and help to broker peace treaties and trade agreements. So, in a way, the area around the temple became a meeting place for all different groups of people, a neutral ground for all."

Nawal rolled onto her side to look up at Shadya. "Huh. You know, when you put it like that…"

Shadya laughed. "It took me a while to wrap my head around the idea, too, when I first got here," she admitted. "It's so different from what we expect."

Nawal nodded slowly. "A miraculous temple that didn't hide away from the world? That seems kind of hard to believe. I mean, our temple has never been known to outsiders – or at least not very many." She frowned. "And the one time and outsider did find out about it, he tried to find its location to take its miraculous for himself."

"That may be true of the Somali Temple," Minii squeaked, drifting downward out of the tree to land between them in the grass. "But the miraculous don't always have to be hidden away. Look at our friends in Paris – they are known as miraculous users. And everyone knew where Atlantis was; wise men and sages came from all over to learn there – its university and sorcerer college were world famous. Representatives from Atlantis traveled to all the corners of the world to share Atlantis' wealth and knowledge." Her face fell. "That's what happened to Growll… when Atlantis fell."

Nawal rubbed the top of the Kwami's head sympathetically. "I promise it won't happen to you."

Minii nuzzled against Nawal's wrist. "I know."

"And I doubly promise not to let anything like that happen," Shadya added. "Guardian's honor!"

Nawal frowned. "Have they ever had any problems here, being known to the outside world?"

Shadya shrugged. "Not that I've read – or at least not for the first thousand years. Thanks to Thutt, they could see any serious dangers before they happened and prepare for them – and Rushh's user could strike any enemies long before they reached the temple. But eventually the caravans stopped traveling as regularly, and the Guardians made the decision to close their doors and only provide water to those who became lost in the desert. Over time, the Temple just… faded into legend as nothing more than a fabled refuge for weary travelers, until even that passed out of people's memory." She let out a breath. "But enough of that history. How is the new guy doing back home?"

Nawal pursed her lips. "It's… nice? James is friendly enough – maybe too friendly sometimes? He was being a little too friendly toward me when he first arrived." Shadya's nostrils flared. Nawal waved a hand dismissively. "Nothing I couldn't handle. It sounds like the Madagascar Temple is a lot different from ours, though, so there's a lot he's used to that just doesn't work in Somalia. He'd only been at the temple for two days when started trying to tell Aisha how to meditate, and Master Said almost immediately put him in his place, saying he's here to learn, and his years of experience in Madagascar do not mean he knows more than an Initiate of the temple he is visiting." She stifled a laugh. "It was pretty great."

Shadya giggled. "It sounds like it!"

Nawal raised an eyebrow at Shadya. "So which temple do you like better? This one, or ours?"

Shadya stretched out next to her and wrapped an arm around her, smiling warmly. "I mean, I enjoy being here… but everyone I love is in Somalia."

AN: The symbol for the African Miraculous Set is adapted from an Adinkra (West African) symbol for unity.

Tomorrow look for the first chapter of "A Matter of Trust."