The Hierophant’s Grail

She was asleep in a recessed pool when we found her. No sleep-inducing effect from the fog had afflicted me. By conscious choice, I had never considered sleeping, or a force beyond my comprehension had imposed upon the fog to not lull me into a sleepy state.

All that remained was to wake Marisa up and find the divine object. Upon seeing our sleeping High Priestess, Luna prickled my shoulder with her nails. It would be best to wake her up quickly and gracefully—in a manner that befits her status. Since my words couldn’t reach her, I gave her a violent shake, causing Luna to dig her nails further in.

Marisa blinked a few times, looking around in a daze as she tried to understand what had happened. She then wore a distraught and embarrassed looked and shot up, straightening her dress and fixing her hair. Her mouth moved but no sound came from it. Colour drained from her face and she stammered some unheard words, pointing behind me. I turned and looked at the doll, pointed to it, turned back to Marisa, and made a thumbs up gesture. In between these moments, Luna had hopped off my shoulder. She joined me in reassuring Marisa that the doll was not dangerous, waving her paws in a manner only an undine could decipher.

Our actions calmed her down. Fear had turned to curiosity as Marisa circled around the doll, examining and prodding it. She continued to speak throughout her experiment, unaware that we couldn’t hear her. I had parted the fog before, so I figured I could do it again but nothing happened. There was an inconsistency to how the fog acted or maybe the fault lay with me. Regardless, my actions were enough to get Marisa’s attention. Through a series of signals with my free hand, I tried to convey that we couldn’t hear each other. She gave me a look that said ‘I understand’, but I’m sure it was to shield my ego. Looking to Luna for reassurance, the cat’s nodding head gave her the clarity of the situation she needed. As if to say ‘what do we do now’ with her pantomime, Marisa looked to Luna for guidance, but she shrugged as that was the only response she had.

The High Priestess’ eyes searched through the fog for a non-existent clue, while aimlessly pacing around us. It took her a minute to give up on doing this. I considered stopping her earlier but my pride got in the way. If she wouldn’t look to me for help, I’d wait until she did. Exasperated, she gave a heavy sigh and crossed her arms, defeated. She said, ‘fine, can you help me,’ with her face. I gladly obliged. I held out the torch for her to take, having to shake it so she understood what I wanted. I then turned to the doll. I drew a circle in the air, clasped my hands together in prayer, and then held my hand to my forehead as I scanned the horizon.

The doll ran calculations in its head as it searched for the divine object—that was my interpretation for the lag between my charades act and the doll’s response. How else was I to reduce the concept of a divine object to mere hand symbols? I redid my hand symbols, pointing to the sky in an attempt to invoke the idea of heaven and holding my hands together in prayer. Instead of a circle I tried drawing an invisible rectangle and then cupping my hands to hold it. A cat’s paw struck my hand when I tried to look under the doll’s robe. I returned to scanning the cave to symbolize searching for the object.

My message reached the doll. It pointed in a new direction. I looked over the group: how do we get to the destination without getting separated again? I bent down and gestured for Luna to get on my shoulder again which she did. I then took hold of the doll with my right hand. When I focused on Marisa, she started to back away and hold her hand up in protest. I strode toward her and grabbed her hand. Her face was first one of shock and blueish horror, then turning bright red around the cheeks and ears as she tried in vain to wrestle her hand free. Her reaction was odd. If we wanted to complete the trial, we needed to stay together as a group so as to not get separated. Perhaps, I thought, I had broken an undine taboo by holding a clergy member’s hand. At least the fog ensured silence.

Today, I found myself in front of a temple, housed inside a cave; but at last, we had reached our destination. Staggered brick walls from centuries ago stood standing, licked by wisps of mystic fog. A golden door greeted us. Ancient scripts adorned its panels. A bitter earthy smell that time forgot loitered in the air. We ventured forth, passing under the doorway into the sacrosanct interior as waves of fog spewed forth and lapped at our feet. Immediately, I was struck with an eerie sense of déjà vu. In the centre of the temple’s lobby was a lone stone water basin. Fog lumbered over the lips of the basin, crashing to the floor with unconventional uniformity. It was mesmerizing.

The wellspring of fog was a grail set on top of a small elevated platform at the bottom of the basin. Snatching it out of the basin, I held up the grail to examine it. I had seen it before. Yes! It was the same grail that I found at the barrier. But how did it get here? I remembered picking it up in the confusion of it all, but after passing out it must have gotten lost. A strange reunion.

“What do we do next? This is the divine object, no?” I said.

No one responded to my question. The silencing effect of the fog was still active. I held up the grail to examine it, thinking there was an off switch underneath. Holding it upside down, I gave it a shake trying to expel the source of the fog, but this didn’t do anything. With the grail right side up, I focused on what could be done and covered the top of it with my hand. No more fog came out though it tickled my palm. The residual fog in the temple crept away.

“Can you hear me?” I said to Marisa and Luna.

“Oh! Yes, I find my ears can hear once again. Luna, how wonderful this is!”

“Indeed, your Ladyship.”

“Well, that was quite the trial. What an odd thing this unworldly double is. Yet found our divine object it has.”

“Not just the doll, your ladyship.”

“Yes, one could say Ferdinand did fine work too, so I shall forgive you for grabbing my hand—but only this one time!”

“I didn’t want us to get separated again. Especially when we can’t talk to each other because of this fog. What else was I supposed to do?”

“Fool! I am not against holding hands if its with—. See here, to hold my hand you must forewarn me of the coming action. Touching a human is a very powerful experience for us elemental beings. I... I need time to ready my mind for such an act."

“Anyway, I assume the trial is complete now, no? This cup must be the divine object,” I said, holding up the grail. “There’s probably still lots of fog outside, so getting out of here might be difficult.”

“We are just as unfamiliar with this as you are,” Luna said.

Visions of video game logic popped into my head: teleporters and fast-travel. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility in this world; after all, they used a magical equivalent of one to bring me here in the first place.

“Let’s have a look around this place for a teleporter or some thing that will get us out of here.”

“Teleporter? Luna, do you know of which he speaks?”

Luna shook her head. I guess this concept came with too many assumptions.

I thought for a moment and then said, “A teleporter is like the rainbow bridge you used to bring me here. It gets us from one location to another instantly, but instead of going from my world to yours, it takes us out of the trial.”

“To travel so easily between two steads would require a powerful spirit to perform the rite. I foresee no way in which such means are wrought,” Marisa said.

“Sounds like too many rules for a simple mechanism. There’s probably one hidden here. Let’s take a look around the temple.”

The fog had dissipated and more of the temple was visible. Past the rows of pews was an elevated stage with a kingly throne, empty. Such striking similarity to the temple I was in before. These two temples had to be related in someway because it would explain why the grail was here. If the first temple had an occupant for its throne...

“There! There! The throne!” I cried, my words and feet tripping over each other.

I rushed to the throne, dragging the doll and the two of them with me. I stood between the throne and the doll, pointing at the throne and commanding the doll to sit. When it sat on the throne, a wave of cosmic energy ripped through the temple and out into the cave. Then, after but a moment, the ground trembled, dust from two millennia prior snowed down on us, and the entire temple heaved with weakening breaths.

“Quick, we must fly at once!” said Marisa, as she started for the exit.

“Wait!”

“Fool! Shall this be your grave? For it shan’t be mine!”

“No—wait, just listen to me, Marisa,” I said, holding out my hand.

She hesitated. Loose stones fell around us. A fossilized beam fell from the rafters, crashing on the water basin, smashing off a chunk of it. Marisa closed her eyes and took my hand.

“Get us out of here. Send us to the entrance. Now.” I commanded.

Warmth flowed over my body, like it was being submerged in a warm bath as white light surrounded us, growing stronger with each moment. The collapsing temple around us became harder and harder to see past the white light. I had to close my eyes, but I took one last peek at the doll. Though the light was too intense to see anything clearly, I swore the doll gave a parting wink.

Darkness. Complete darkness. The concept of light was incomprehensible. Until it wasn’t. The world around us gradually grew brighter and we reemerged from the depths of death to find ourselves in a familiar space, minus one torch. We had successfully traversed the trial and returned to the entrance. I threw up my arms in triumph—Marisa’s hand and the grail included.