When Mizki pulled him aside to talk to him, Yuma was slightly surprised to learn that his guess on what she had been thinking was wrong. That didn't happen too often. "How would the Auren Database be her home?" the mage hissed as Ia braided wildflowers out of hearing distance.

He hadn't even thought of that. "Maybe she lives near the database?" he offered the first thought that came to his mind.

His partner immediately dismissed that theory. "There aren't any residents near enough for an image of this detail," Mizki reminded him. "Besides, she's ten. You've been to the Database Headquarters, you know children are the rarest sights to see there."

That was also something he hadn't thought about, but now that he did he remembered Duchess Sonika wistfully talking about how the youth never cared about knowledge until it was almost too late. The green-haired woman had been widowed very soon after her marriage and instead of remarrying like most noblewomen would have done, she had chosen to stay in her deceased husband's family to continue the work they had been doing for as long as they could remember.

Her lack of children and her high position as one of the Royal Librarians of Meredin had led her to help children with potential in them get a high-quality education. Mizki had been one of her beneficiaries, and neither woman could understand just why so many youths didn't consider education as a high priority. Personally, Yuma could relate, but he had seen fit to leave them ignorant of the reason why most children didn't want to learn twenty four hours a day.

"Another thing bugging me," she whispered. "The retini stone reflects the exact image of what the holder thinks. At her age this kind of detail is impossible. I've seen kids her age use these and the best images we can hope for are basic shapes, size and colour. Even then there are certain elements wrong because the human memory can't recall all features perfectly and that's not even taking into account the sidetracked thoughts. Look at this! This could easily be a magic portrait of the Auren Database."

She was indirectly telling him with her long lecture that Ia had a perfect memory or something just as special. He looked at Ia again and all he saw was a sweet young girl trying to make her chain of flowers a longer length. "What do you want to do?"

Mizki hummed to herself, a habit she got into when she was thinking deeply. "I want to go to the temple district," she said at last. "Seek some guidance from the goddess of visions and dreams."

"Then let's go."

Near the border of Meredin the temple district was rather fancy for one belonging to a small city. That was because the people of Amerys had no desire to be slighted by any passerby from the center kingdom. All cities near borders were given care to best represent the kingdom in a positive way – even if the country was suffering from whatever ailed the land or their people.

It wasn't just Amerys that did this. All the other countries made sure that the areas around their borders were beautified. It was one way of showing prosperity and strength to the other four kingdoms. Pointless, since heroes from Auren like him and Mizki just crossed borders and went far beyond the beautified regions on a pretty regular basis.

Still, they received good service in hopes that they'd spread good word on their country. He wasn't going to complain about that.

Ia seemed to love the temple district. She darted around excitedly, flitting around certain temples and smiling widely at the incense-scented air and the holy men and women walking around. All the holy people smiled or laughed at the enthusiastic child. No one seemed to mind her running around, something Yuma was grateful for.

"Make sure she doesn't break anything or get into trouble," Mizki warned him before slipping off into the temple of Lady Mew. To get guidance from the patron goddess of the Metallin Tribe she would have to go into a deep slumber and dream. The initial sleeping phase took roughly ten minutes and receiving the visions could take anywhere between thirty minutes to an hour.

That was a lot of time for a child to either break something or get into trouble. Yuma turned around and found Ia slipping into the temple dedicated to the goddess of life. He followed inside, beseeching to whichever god listening and feeling particularly generous that the girl would not cause trouble or break something expensive.

His prayers seemed to be granted for the time. Ia was kneeling in front of the goddess's statue with her eyes closed.

He leaned back near the doorway. Most of his prayers – when he made them – were dedicated to Lady Cul, goddess of war and bravery. He did, however, know the basics about Lady SeeU, courtesy of Mizki. She was the goddess of life and health, and also acted as the patron of omnicats. As the patron of the mysterious creatures with riddling words and cat-like features, she took on the form of an omnicat herself, which meant that she looked human in every aspect except for the cat ears, the star-filled eyes and the tail.

Not a bad goddess for a child to go to. Omnicats, despite their odd ways and strange talk, adored children of every race. If someone hurt a child, that person was automatically marked as the lowest of the low for the feline human race.

Come to think of it, with the statue in front of him to compare, Ia kind of looked like SeeU. Similar face, similar shaped eyes, similar features . . . .

Not counting, of course, the obvious cat ears and tail. But maybe the similar appearance was the reason why Ia had entered this temple out of all the ones.

His attention was diverted from stray musings when the priestess with pink-tinted hair came to greet him.

The priestess was, like everyone else, charmed by the shy little girl and immediately coughed up any treasures – sweets – she had. "Most children don't like temples," she marvelled as Ia nibbled on honeyed nuts. "If she ever wants to take the spiritual path, I'll be sure to help."

Provided, of course, that Ia followed the path of Lady SeeU. Making polite excuses, Yuma somehow managed to get himself out of there. Ia, the smart, blessed child she was, followed out silently. "Until Mizki finds her answer, how about we hang around some other temples?" he suggested.

Ia shrugged her agreement and the two of them spent the next hour visiting multiple temples. At each one she entered Ia prayed with a seriousness that made all of the caretakers of the temples smile. Some of them offered her the same help like the ones she had gotten from Lady SeeU's priestess. They left as soon as they could when they were offered that kind of help.

Not that Yuma had anything against Ia being a priestess . . . it was just that Mizki wouldn't be happy if they accidently ended up swearing on something extremely holy to do something. Not after the incident a few years ago when he had promised to clean out the dragon stables of one temple district. Mizki had simply blasted the entire building clean with her magic and the priests had been happy at the sparkling stables, enough to release him from his accidental oath, but he himself had had to suffer an hour-long lecture. If he managed to get Ia into something Mizki simply couldn't blast through, she'd probably blast him as a surrogate.

Ia seemed to understand his anxiousness when the nice holy people offered to take her in as a disciple and left with him without any protest when that happened. She always prayed, though. He didn't know what for, but he thought that she had a right to keep that to herself because it was likely that she was silently asking for help with her lost memories. Yuma himself prayed when they dropped in by Lady Cul's temple. He asked for courage in the future, the strength to face whatever may come and specifically asked for peace, not war.

After Lady Cul's temple, Ia smiled at him as they left, like she had heard his silent prayers and approved of them. For some reason, despite the impossibilities of that, he was grateful for her assumed approval. Most people assumed that heroes, especially warriors like him, wanted war more than anything in the world. They often expected it and begged for tales of fierce battles and earthshaking duels.

They always focused on the glory of the war, the encouraged thoughts that many backed with the image of Lady Cul. While the red goddess did indeed symbolize such things, she herself didn't encourage it. All the priests under the patron of the loup-garous always repeated their statements, that she was someone who fought only to protect her own like a mother bear would for her cubs, who gave those wanting to protect their beloved ones the strength and courage to face down whatever awaited them. The glory of the battle was for the true-hearted ones who had given their all for the sake of others.

The statements of the priests never shook the common and misguided opinions of the public enough to make a large enough impact, and while Yuma knew it was a stupid belief he still was affected by what people thought of him. Tricking himself into believing that Ia did approve of his wish for peace was a way for him to pretend that someone did believe that warriors were capable of yearning for harmony.

Ia tugged on his hand and lead him into the temple in between Lady Mew and Lady SeeU's; they had circled around the temple district. Yuma looked at the small temple. Two stone dragons at the entrance and the runes carved into the walls with magic told him all he needed to know about the deity here. "Lady Aria?"

Ia nodded and pulled him in. It was of a similar size to all of the other ones, and to him it was just a usual temple. Granted, the usual statue was replaced with a large silk scroll painting hanging on the far wall, but there was really nothing different about it. Nothing special to really set it aside from all the other ones he had visited that hour.

His ward went up to the alter to pray anyways. The portrait in front of her was one where the goddess had one hand on the head of a large dragon. The painting wasn't large enough to show the dragon's full body, but judging from the size of the head the dragon would have been the size of a siege tower.

Ridiculous, of course. Everyone knew that dragons didn't grow much larger than a two-story house at the most. The myths about them breathing fire and flying was also untrue. Yes, there were songs sung by bards and fairytales spun to excite or scare children. No, those dragons did not exist in Terrestria and if they had, they were long gone.

The image of the goddess herself was a shock, however. She was a beautiful woman, for sure, much like every other deity, but Ia bore an uncanny resemblance to her. Forget looking like Lady SeeU, Ia would look exactly like the goddess of wisdom and knowledge when she was an adult with longer, pink-edged hair.

This time, before the priest or priestess of this temple could make his or her way towards them, Ia brushed the dirt off her palms and walked out.

"I never did get why the goddess of wisdom and knowledge chose to be the patron for dragons," he commented as they waited outside the temple where Mizki was. Ia apparently didn't want to go in any more temples and both of them were happy with waiting. "Despite what stories say about their endless wisdom they've never shown much mental capacities. Not more than a farm animal, anyways."

Ia shrugged. They all have their reasons, she seemed to say with that small gesture.

"You're right," he agreed, not feeling particularly foolish as he technically answered his own question. "The gods have their reasons for their choices." Just as humans did for their actions. They all had their reasons, even if they didn't make any sense to others . . . .

Ia pointed to the temple entrance where Mizki was coming out. Not just coming out, he saw as he walked briskly to her side. Staggering out. Her hair, instead of being in its usual neat pinned state, was loose and around her shoulders in pink waves. She looked dazed, like she had just woken up.

. . . Wait, that was exactly what she'd done. "You alright?" he asked, still concerned for his partner. Her eyes were like the ones belonging to a drugged person.

Mizki shook him off. "We need to get to Meredin," she croaked. "Now."

They all had their reasons, even if they didn't make any sense to others . . . .