Contents
Chapter Twenty-Five
Overview
Sora and her companions enter the Khitan Temple of Knowledge and find it desecrated. The scroll archive is awash in blood, the records shredded, and every priest murdered. The massacre turns the temple from sanctuary to crime scene, escalating danger and signaling a deliberate strike against knowledge and their quest.
Summary
Sora enters the Khitan Temple of Knowledge in awe of its domed grandeur, recalling her sister Daysum’s love of reading and feeling a sharp grief. The sanctity of the place feels wrong in its silence. Sora and Royo genuflect; Aeri belatedly kneels, while Euyn and Mikail do not.
The group surveys the great hall with its fountain, mosaics, and towering shelves, noticing a troubling red smear in the distance. From the central altar, two side rooms are visible. Sora senses danger but chooses the scroll room on the right, deciding they must move toward what she fears.
Weapons drawn—Mikail and Euyn readying blades, Royo gripping his axe—they advance over mosaic tile until the floor turns dark red. The stain is revealed as pooled blood. Inside, scrolls are soaked and slashed, the archive deliberately ruined.
At the room’s end they find the priests of the temple, all dead. The discovery confirms a targeted massacre: the temple’s keepers have been murdered and its knowledge gutted, transforming the party’s search into an investigation within hostile ground.
Who Appears
- SoraNarrator; reveres the temple, senses danger, leads the group to the scroll room and discovers the massacre.
- RoyoCompanion who genuflects with Sora and advances armed into the scroll archive.
- MikailDemigod companion; does not pray; readies his weapon while entering the blood-soaked archive.
- EuynDemon companion; remains alert and armed as the group discovers the slaughtered priests.
- AeriCompanion who kneels belatedly; follows Sora into the archive, witnessing the desecration.
- Temple priestsKeepers of the Temple of Knowledge; all found murdered amid shredded, bloodied scrolls.