After dealing with that little interruption, Douglas lifted the door curtain and entered the shop first.
The shop was brightly lit. Sunlight streamed through several windows fitted with clear glass, then reflected off specially placed white stones, illuminating every corner.
Amid all that brightness, a sturdy, bare-chested middle-aged man from Arabia stood watching them coldly. Patterns like rays of sunlight had been painted or tattooed across his body.
"This is a doorway of the Lantern, apostle of the Forge. You are not welcome here!" he said in a voice that sounded almost like a chant.
Natalia stepped forward before Douglas could lose his temper. A brilliant light flared in her eyes. Though it lasted only an instant, it seemed brighter than the sunlight streaming through the windows.
"I, too, walk the Lantern Path," she said. "As a fellow traveler, I would like to pay my respects to His Holiness the Pope. Would you be willing to introduce me?"
At the sight of the light in her eyes, the man's expression softened at once. He even smiled faintly.
"Of course. His Holiness the Pope will surely be glad to meet a fellow traveler who has come from afar."
To practitioners of the Invisible Arts, those who cultivated the same Aspect were "fellow travelers." They might have conflicts and compete with one another, but more often, they exchanged knowledge and worked together.
After all, the most precious resource in cultivating the Invisible Arts was knowledge, and knowledge could be copied.
Besides, the other valuable resources generally came from the Mansus. Unless someone walked the same path, why would they help you obtain resources that were useless to them?
Exploring the Mansus was no easy task!
And the resources found in the Mansus followed certain patterns. Practitioners of the same Aspect could share