Cozy and her friends woke up. All of them had been lying down on the ground in the holy chamber, surrounded by the ritual materials that they had used to traverse to the moon. The wound on Cozy’s hand had been completely healed, leaving them surrounded by the moonlight and the glowing water.

  “Ugh…” Ed got up shortly after, so did Adelyn and Teddie.

  “Hey guys,” Cozy said. “How are you all feeling?”

  “Both… tired and… better?” Teddie said. “It’s like I have a whole new kind of energy flowing through my body.”

  “I guess that means we’re divine now, chosen by God," Ed said. “I wonder if that has any adverse effects on our body.”

  “Well… it seems like my magic is still working so…” Adelyn said, pulling her books to her with telekinesis.

  “We’ll have to see if his divinity actually worked.” Cozy got up from the ground and dusted her dress off. “Though, it’s nice that we all have this blood flowing through our veins now. Not just me.”

  “Does that make us bound by blood? Doesn’t that sound cool?” Adelyn said, with a smile on her face. “It’s like we’re siblings! But not really.”

  “I guess you can view it that way,” Ed said. “Where’s Governor Luan? I think she just stepped out before the ritual took place.”

  “I am here.”

  The governor stood atop the grand stairs that lead into the holy chamber, with that same smile on her face that she always had. Even despite the divine miracle that was in front of her, her expression hadn’t changed one bit.

  “Luan!” Cozy pointed at her. “We’re ready to take your test!”

  “So you are. I’ve been waiting for this moment. While I have communed with God multiple times, never in my life have I seen one come this close to speaking to the man on the moon himself. Your blood shall be truly interesting.”

  The lady walked down the stairs, with a cup in her hand and her magic calling forth Midnas’ tears that surrounded them. The four adventurers stood strong, ready, and certain. They had touched God, and they knew they would pass.

  With a careful procedure, Luan cut open their fingers one by one, and placed each of their bloods into the water. After sixty seconds, the blood remained. After ninety, their blood still remained. After one hundred and twenty, it still persisted.

  “Amazing. So you really did speak to God, then,” Luan said.

  “Are you planning on doing anything with this information?” Cozy asked, a little bit suspicious.

  “Only if Midnas tells me to, which he has not given any signs yet. Divinity is something that you must find yourself, and you all found this ritual through your own trials and tribulations,” Luan answered. “I cannot take that away from you, so this will be our secret for God to observe.”

  “I see,” Cozy said, her arms crossed. She wasn’t exactly in the mood to be challenging anything right now. The only thing she felt was satisfaction, at herself, and her friends.

  Ed spoke up behind her. “By the way, I think we should figure out where we’re going next. After we, like, get our approval and all.”

  Luan paused for a moment to think, before nodding. “Let us do so.”

  All four of them had become familiar with the process by now. Cozy stuck out her hand first, and Luan gently touched it. A glowing white light manifested onto her hand, as the symbol of the moon was brandished onto her body.

  Cozy looked at it, then at the moon. She supposed she was marked again, but this time, it wasn’t her destiny, it was her own soul.

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  Ed followed suit, and so did Teddie. The last one to get marked was Adelyn, who stuck her hand out and received her branding of the moon. Shortly after, Grimace’s encyclopedia glowed once again. With a flick of her hands to flip the book open, it turned to a page on Midnas. The man himself glowed in her book.

  “Woah… what does that mean?” Teddie asked.

  “Maybe I can summon him?” Adelyn said. “Probably not like, the full him but like… a story of him, right?”

  “Well, his story involves pushing the land together right? Do you think you can do that?” Ed asked.

  “I dunno…” Adelyn thought aloud. “I probably can’t do anything too crazy, but this projection of him is probably really strong.”

  Luan gave a small smile. “While you may not be able to grasp God’s full power, he is within your hands. Perhaps you can use him in peril, though be wary of using up all of your spiritual energy.”

  It was once again a bit of a cryptic message, but Cozy had gotten used to that at this point. With a snap of her fingers, she brought attention to herself. “Governor, you’re going to give us a ride, yes?”

  “To your next location?” Luan asked. “It would be remiss of me to deny the children blessed by god my assistance, after all.”

  “Right, then where do we wanna go next?” Cozy pondered.

  “How about… you girls think on it and I go and rest, I’m pooped,” Ed said. “I’m fine with whatever you’re fine with.”

  “I’m… fine too…” Teddie said. “I kind of just want to have a bath and then rest…”

  “Tell me when you’re done, then. I will be at the fountain tomorrow, if you need me,” Luan said. The governor walked back up the stairs, leaving them alone to contemplate their next move.

  The baths of Lune were still spectacular, and this was the last day that they would get to enjoy them. Cozy and Adelyn were both resting inside of the pools, enjoying the water that would make their skin divinely pure.

  “Ahhh… this is the one thing I’ll miss,” Cozy said.

  “Yeah… though the other cities don’t have bad baths either,” Adelyn responded.

  “It’s not the same. There is a reason why this city has the best water in all of Lunasa.”

  Adelyn shrugged. The girl brought out Grimace’s book, protecting it from any water damage with her telekinesis, and flipped it in front of Cozy. “So, according to this encyclopedia, our two closest cities are either Asana or Loura. The boys put us in charge, so I wanted to run both of them by you. You brought up Asana before but…”

  “I wouldn’t mind either. I’ve never actually been to Asana before, though I have for Loura,” Cozy responded. “I was mostly pushing for it as a way to get out of going here.”

  “Oh, so you’ve been to Loura before?”

  “Absolutely. Where do you think I learned love magic from? It’s one of the things I’m most proud of, really.”

  “Oh, that’s so cool! Do you know anyone there?”

  Cozy thought for a moment. It had been around a year and a half since she had been there on her own. She wondered if anything had changed since then. Probably not. “Mostly just some merchanting people, I dunno if they have any special connection with the governor. Or the big bird that chooses the governor.”

  “Big bird?” Adelyn asked, a bit confused.

  “Should be in your encyclopedia,” Cozy said. “The governor isn’t picked through elections or whatever like most other cities.”

  Adelyn flipped through her pages, and eventually landed on one depicting a plump, pink bird that was singing hearts into the sky. “This one?”

  “Yeah,” Cozy said. “That’s the one. Apparently it can sense who has the most love in their heart, and then it will decide on the governor via that. The governor there seemed pretty nice for my visit, though I barely got to talk to him.”

  “Well, I suppose that bodes well for us. I was always curious about your love magic as well, since you were so secretive about it before.”

  Cozy sighed. “I already told you that I ran. I had powerful magic, but I just wanted something of my own. Loura was the first city I came across so…” She snapped her fingers in the air, creating puffs of pink smoke. “A bit of this, and a bit of that later, I had mastered my own magic. Plus, it was super helpful for a lot of… sneaky situations.”

  “I see…” Adelyn asked. “Did you have fun in Loura, at least?”

  “It was better than what I had previously. I just knew I couldn’t stay there if I wanted to truly become the best merchant in the world. They’re nice, but love isn’t always logical, you know? I’d like to visit again, sometime.”

  “Well, that sometime is now!” Adelyn said. “We’re going to be going to Loura, the City of Love. With your prior knowledge, I think this is going to be a breeze!”

  Cozy smiled calmly. It seemed like things were going her way, and she was very grateful for that. Helping her friends made her feel satisfied. There was a saying that she always held: A person’s bonds can be just as strong as a person themselves. And that was what mattered now.