Artifact From a Different Era

They both walked inside the inn in silence. James was still there behind the counter, probably waiting for them to come back.

He looked a bit relieved seeing Veronica unharmed, but noticing the mood he quickly asked what was wrong.

Alex went down to the basement without saying anything, which meant it was her job to bring James up to speed. She quickly told what they found at the brothel and spoke a bit about what she learnt about Alex's past, James didn't seem surprised.

"So he told you about that... That means he trust's you and you should feel honored, there are very few people who know anything about his past..."

He was about to say more, but he seemed to realized that he shouldn't gossip about his friend's life. Instead he would let Alex open up about it further.

"Anyway... *yawn* I'm dead tired so I'm off to bed. Good night!"

She soon went to her room and after a quick garment change she was already lying below the covers.

The day was long and she was dead tired, but no matter how hard she tried the sweet land of dreams eluded her. She just simply couldn't stop thinking about Alex and his sad story.

Eventually after spending nearly an hour turning from one side to the other, she decided to do something productive instead. If she couldn't sleep, she might as well tried to learn something new.

It took her way less time to get back into the Theater, even though it still looked awful on the outside since her imagination seemed to be lacking, or maybe her power and control over the place wasn't strong enough yet.

Venturing inside she got to the stage in seconds, but there she stopped to think for a few minutes.

There were loads of ideas inside her head. She wanted to learn more about her watch for instance. This ability to tell who was ascended wasn't available before, so she was interested to learn more about it.

Another subject she wanted to try and divine were the murders. Whatever happened, she had a feeling that Madam Sierra had more to do with it. At this point Veronica had already decided on her guilt, she just needed evidence.

The third important fact she didn't divine before, was the second book's location. It would be a great help even, if she could just learn which city it was located in.

For the first round of divination she went with the third option since that seemed to be the easiest and least dangerous.

The music inside the Theater became a bit more slow, like the whole building was bored with her knowledge seeking.

As a perfect Dancer, Veronica tweaked the form and pace of the ritual dance's movements so it would be perfect for the slower more monotone music.

While moving she began telling herself the question she was seeking answers to, "Is the second book located in Vindra or Luros?"

She decided to ask the question in this format. For some reason she felt that a too open question would lead to ineffective divination. Asking like this had also provided an answer to the previous riddle, which probably helped if the book had some anti-divination defenses.

The world around her darkened and she woke up on a train, at least that's what Veronica thought it was.

Her vision was still blurry, but below her she could feel the rumbling of the rails. She also heard the typical clacking sound as the wheels rolled. Suddenly a horn sounded at the front of the locomotive and just as her vision cleared a male voice spoke.

Looking through the window she saw a giant city illuminated in the dark. The train was moving along a hill's ridge which gave a perfect vantage to the wide river running through it.

Next to her a train worker spoke loudly so everyone could hear him.

"Ladies and Gentleman, we are approaching our final destination! If you look out to your left you can clearly see Vindra, the capitol of the Free Cities! We will soon reach the city border, then enter the station shortly after! In the meantime everyone can start getting ready for disembarkment. Thank you for travelling with us and we hope you have a wonderful time in the heart of our nation!"

The vision ended soon after the conductor finished speaking. The last scene Veronica saw was a panoramic picture of one of the largest cities in the world.

It took her quite a long time to actually process what she saw.

"Seems like the second book is in Vindra... At least I will be able to see that beautiful city some time... Anyway, I should probably divine about my watch next."

With a bit of absentminded thought, she reached down and tried to take out her pocket watch. What was truly surprising though is that she actually managed to pull it out.

She opened it and looked at the watch face, which read five minutes past 1 am. It took her an embarrassingly long time to actually realize what she had just done.

With a quick glance she looked down at herself and she realized that her clothes were different. She should've been in her usual nightgown, but instead she was in one of her work dresses.

For a long while she thought what this could mean.

"Can I bring items in here?... That doesn't make sense though. I wasn't in this dress so how would I be able to bring it inside?"

After a few minutes she decided to do a little test. She pulled of her dress and every other clothing which appeared on her, then placed the watch right on top.

Standing in the middle of a well lit stage without any clothing gave her a bit of embarrassment, even though nobody would ever see her here.

Luckily she didn't have to endure it for long since the next part of the test was leaving the Theater and remaking it.

After a few attempts she managed to make it acceptable again and headed inside. She teleported back onto the stage, but the pile of clothes had disappeared, also she was wearing a new dress.

The one item that stayed was the pink pocket watch. With a bit of tremble in her hand, Veronica reached down and picked it up off of the ground.

"Just, what are you?... And what can you do?" Her curiosity was truly piqued now.

Whatever secrets this watch held, she would definitely find out. Even that mystery author spoke about its importance and its hidden power.

After a second she began dancing again and for some reason the music picked up this time becoming faster, like the Theater itself was urging her to move more and learn more.

It increased her excitement even further.

She didn't know why, but her heart told her that whatever she would see next, it will alter her current view of this strange magical world.

As she moved she said the same sentence over and over again, "What power does the Dancer's Rose has?"

After a lot of time her vision finally darkened.

...

 Above her the Sun shone with not a single cloud in sight. In front of her the most magnificent sight spread, a city of pure amazement.

She watched the buildings which were painted in many different colors, non were the same. Even the individual cobblestones were painted differently, but what was truly breathtaking were the people.

Each wore some different kind of dress or suit. There was no similarity between them and even their styles differed by a lot as well. Some wore short skirts, some wore ones that reached their ankles. Some wore long sleeves, others had their shoulder's showing.

What was most bewildering though were the people's expressions. Walking down a street in Hammon, people would look kind of gloomy, but here everyone seemed happy and content. Like they were drugged or something.

Looking at this picture one word came to her mind... Utopia...

"Isn't this amazing? I worked really hard to reach this point."

The voice originating from next to her sounded strange. It was muffled, but also crystal clear. Loud, but also quite as a whisper. Old, but also a child's. Male, but also female.

Currently Veronica was sitting on a bench and when she turned to her right there was someone or something sitting next to her.

The form was weird, humanoid and everchanging... Formless.

The individual's mouth moved when They spoke, but the sound just appeared inside her mind.

"It's lovely to meet you Veronica Navarro! My name is... Just call me The Artist. Learning about my real name would only cause you corruption, and it is one of the biggest secrets that your time's churches keep."

Veronica's brain went blank. There were so many layers to digest in that one moment, that she had no way of actually understand anything before The Artist continued.

"There is a lot you need to learn before it's too late, but most of the information would be too dangerous for you right now... Don't worry, when you reach the 3rd Order I will finally be able to give you my knowledge... I will be waiting for you!"

The formless creature stood up and was about to walk away when Veronica finally remembered how to talk again.

"WAIT!... How?! How can I talk to you?... I thought you... The Artist was alive in the 3rd Era!... I'm living in the 5th!... I don't understand!"

She stared at the creature for a long time, she got the feeling that They were smiling at her, but she could've misinterpreted it entirely. Eventually They moved back and sat back down.

"It isn't easy to explain... You already know about divination correct?" She gave a small nod, but the formless creature continued before she even made it.

"You are currently divining into the past, which is why you can see me!" The confused expression only deepened on Veronica's face.

"That somewhat explains how I'm here, but you shouldn't be able to see me. That would break time wouldn't it?!... And also, how can I travel this far into the past? If it would be so easy we would know way more about the first three eras, but we don't!"

The creature seemed to sigh, then think for a moment.

"Your vision is so small, that will change as you grow... First things first, divining anything about this far into the past is basically impossible, but you have one of the five Primordial Structures, which gives you more power than you could possibly imagine!"

It took Veronica a moment to realize that They were talking about the Theater.

"The other important fact that you ignored is that divination doesn't work only into the past, but the present and future as well. You currently think that we are having a conversation, but in reality I'm sitting alone on this bench, talking to myself and responding to the exact questions you will be asking thousands of years into the future!"

The pure amazement on Veronica's face couldn't be described with regular words. The implications of what this entity was doing is just insanity.

They divined thousands of years into the future to know what she will be asking at that exact moment. Then They proceeded to formulate exact responses, which made everything seamless, like an actual conversation.

Her brain couldn't even begin to think of answers of the amount questions that popped up in her head in that exact moment. There was only one thing she knew for sure...

This being was extremely powerful...

"Okay, let's get this over with. I still have to prepare for a war that leads to my death!"

Her brain entirely skipped through what They said. She was currently swimming in vertigo, while desperately trying to find a way to concentrate on what They were talking about.

"You came here to know about the Dancer's Rose. You already know about the luck enhancing and anti-divination part. It also provides anti-tracking and it increases your perception of your surroundings, meaning you can know who is an ascended. Later it will be able to tell you there path and order, but you have to become much more powerful for that..."

"You can also attach a relic to it, which causes them to merge. The relic will keep all its power, but loses its drawbacks. This process can be reversed, but the relic gets destroyed."

Veronica was writing down everything in her mind quickly. From the corner of her eyes she saw that reality started to break down. The last word she heard before everything went black was...

"Only come back when you reach the 3rd Order, then you can learn more!"