"They're gone. Did you really prepare a late-night snack?"
"Of course. We have the generous Baron Priyell to thank for providing fresh ingredients that haven't been cooked with any local oddities." Kraft dusted the dirt from his robe, once again glad he'd made a habit of carrying gloves.
They said dust was time's snowfall. If so, this place must belong to Wenden Port, deep in time's domain. Any farther and it would fall off the edge of the civilized world, buried in snow.
In the space of a single generation, the sturdy nest humanity had once painstakingly built had become a haunted place that filled them with dread.
"Quick, see if there's anything unusual. Let's finish early. I'm getting a little hungry, too."
The room was about the size of an ordinary bedroom, and the small odds and ends had long since been cleared out. If they finished their search quickly, they might still make it back in time for hot soup.
"What do you think we're looking for?" Brother Raymond glanced down the now-silent corridor.
"I'm not sure. It'd be best if it had already left, or simply vanished. But if it hasn't, when you see it, you might suddenly understand—like solving a difficult puzzle or reading a passage in a language you don't know."
"I take it you mean words like 'illumination,' 'revelation,' or 'enlightenment.' There are ready-made terms for those in Holy Scripture."
"Thanks for the reminder. There is a difference, though. Unlike something you figure out for yourself, you can't accurately describe that feeling to someone afterward." Kraft set down the ledger and tugged hard at the Reliquary Cabinet's drawer with both hands. Something in its mechanism seemed to have rusted shut.
"There's another possibility, too. You might feel nothing at all, and only connect it