Cozy had woken up early, as she usually did. Her internal clock was set far before her teammates, because a merchant always knew that early was better than late. She spent the moonlit morning on the balcony, staring up at the symbol of the city’s faith that looked down upon her.

  The god of the moon stared back at her, or at least, she felt like it. It frustrated her, since he was keeping her here for far longer than she’d want to. A refusal to let her take the easy route out of this place, and move onto the next.

  So she would have to fight it. At least, in some way. Both to help her friends, but to help herself from this city. No matter how hard it was for her, or anyone, to accept that.

  “Good morning, Cozy,” Teddie’s voice appeared behind her. Cozy turned around and saw the boy holding his stuffed bear. He had a soft smile on his face, as she did so.

  “You’re up early. I’d normally expect Adelyn to be the second one awake,” Cozy responded.

  “She’s probably tired from all of that reading,” Teddie said. “I was hoping I could talk to some of the bugs in this town, but since you’re here…”

  “You wanna talk to me instead?” Cozy finished his sentence.

  “Yeah, that would be nice.” Teddie walked up to the balcony and looked up at the sky alongside Cozy. The city itself sparkled around them, making for a stunning sight across the skyline. “I think this is really pretty, but I don’t know how you feel about that.”

  “It’s… alright,” Cozy answered. “My eyes are biased, after all.”

  “You don’t need them to be unbiased, your own thoughts are your own. Something can be both beautiful and scary, like how nature often is.”

  After Teddie finished speaking, Cozy looked around. She did see the beauty in this city. The glitter, the massive curling architecture, and the people’s words from the moon. It would just take someone else to appreciate it, and that was fine.

  “You’re right, my perspective is just… it’s just different, that’s all,” Cozy muttered. The words didn’t seem to fully convince herself, but it was something she needed to distract her mind for now. “Regardless, we still need to find divinity for you guys, right? I think we all need to get divine blood, or else that governor lady wouldn’t accept us.”

  “Mhm,” Teddie nodded. “You said you wanted to search around the church right? And not just like… a tiny chapel like the one we went to…”

  “Look at that,” Cozy pointed to the massive building in the distance. It stood tall, even above City Hall itself. The massive bell rang every hour, to signify a change in the common hour. The moon itself was painted into a glass window. “That’s the main church of the city, if there is anything that could give us divinity… it’s that.”

  “It looks super crowded though, especially with the religious festival stuff…” Teddie said. “I dunno if you could sneak into there so easily.”

  “A good point, I’d need to think about that,” Cozy said. She stopped to think, and had to consider a lot of factors. The crowds, the potential security, it was tough. However, she did think of an idea, drawing back from her childhood memories.

  “There’s going to be a mass sermon in the church,” she began to explain. “Everyone is going to be there, and presumably they all will be enraptured by it. This will give us enough opportunity to sneak around outside and…” Cozy’s wings popped out in front of Teddie, they glowed pink and lifted herself slightly up into the air. “Use these to try and find an entrance from the top.”

  “Ohhh, I see. And if everyone’s inside then they won’t notice us flying up into the skies. That works,” Teddie said.

  “Yup, us,” Cozy nodded.

  “Wait, did I say us?” Teddie stepped back a bit.

  “Yeah, you did. You’re coming with me, no takesies-backsies!”

  Teddie let out a nervous laugh. He clutches his bear a bit, but then he relaxes a bit.

  “You know what? I’ll come with you, Cozy. You shouldn’t do this alone,” Teddie said. He still looked visibly nervous, but it seemed like he was trying to hold that nervousness back at the very least.

  “Let's go now, then! The early customers get the best sales!” Cozy said, before heading off of the balcony, and off to complete their mission.

  “Thank you all for attending the festival and this sermon today, where we are truly blessed once again that the moon has given us all a life to appreciate…”

  Cozy listened from the outside as the sermon finally began. They had arrived just at the perfect time, as the speech was just about to start.

  “Alright, Teddie, we’re going to sneak around the back,” Cozy explained. “Follow my lead.”

  Teddie nodded as the two of them walked around the side of the church, an empty side of the wall. There was a security guard standing around the back, so they stayed just out of his sight.

  Cozy grabbed Teddie by the arms and then called forth her wings. The glowing constructs lit up before the two of them took off into the skies. It took only a short few seconds, but they reached the roof of the cathedral.

  “It’s so high up,” Teddie said, trying to maintain his balance on the tips of the roof. It was slanted downwards, so they had to maneuver carefully. Cozy figured that she could just catch him if he ever fell though.

  “Well,” Cozy said. “I think our entrance is by the bell.” Cozy pointed towards the massive church bell that stood at the front of the building. “Someone needs to do maintenance on it eventually. So…”

  Cozy walked over the roof and next to the bell tower, Teddie followed just behind her. The two of them climbed just a little bit before landing inside of the tower.

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  “See! There’s a set of stairs here,” Cozy said.

  “Do you think we could get down there… faster?” Teddie asked. “It’d be better.”

  Cozy crossed her arms. “We can, but… I’m going to need you to handle a little bit of a ride, first.”

  “MMMFFFFF—”

  Cozy had to cover Teddie’s mouth so he wouldn’t scream as they plummeted head first into the church tower. This drop was a fair bit longer than either of them expected, as it felt like they had been falling for forever.

  To get down faster, they just dropped directly through the center of the spiraling stairwell, letting gravity do the trick for them. This would normally be a bad idea for everyone else, but not with Cozy’s wings to help.

  Still, they were falling at a very fast speed. If she wasn’t careful then it could go very poorly for her, Teddie, and Mr. Bear. But luckily…

  Cozy flipped over, gently gliding the remaining distance down to the end, landing on the ground. She would never fail such a simple task. She released Teddie, who fell into his knees and clutched his bear.

  “Oh my god…” Teddie panted. “That was so… ah…”

  “I told you, you’d be fine,” Cozy said. “I wouldn’t screw this up.”

  “Yeah… yeah… let’s just… let’s just start.”

  Cozy helped Teddie onto his feet and to maintain his balance, as the two of them headed into the church. The first step outside of the stairwell was into a pristine, crystal-like area that had light reflected back onto them.

  The color was of the moon, and it was so impressively built for a hallway that only staff would see. Their footsteps tapped quietly against the reflective floor. The two of them kept walking past various rooms, seemingly for worship or other recreational activities.

  “Cozy, there’s a map over there,” Teddie pointed out. Cozy turned and saw a framed image with labeling for every room. It covered the entirety of the church, multiple floors.

  “Sweet. This should make our jobs a lot easier,” Cozy said, looking at it. She scanned over the entire thing. There were a few points of interest, but she pinpointed a specific location on the map. “Lets head to the staff room. There’s probably something holy in there.”

  “What if there’s people in there?” Teddie asked.

  “Well, then we can deal with them. Though I think they’re distracted with the sermon outside anyways, come on, let's go.”

  The two of them snuck down the hallways of the building, keeping their guard up. With no further obstacles however, they managed to make it to the staff room. The door was closed on them, with a window that allowed a look inside.

  A peek inside, there seemed to be a female security guard lazily lounging and taking a break inside of the room.

  “Are we just going to wait until she leaves?” Teddie asked.

  “Nah,” Cozy smiled. “I’m sure just a little bit of love magic won’t hurt.”

  Cozy walked towards the back of the guard, before touching her head. A pink glow overtook her as the girl fell into a peaceful sleep. She was snoring on the couch, a perfect cover for the two.

  “Are you sure that’s okay?” Teddie said, walking into the room.

  “She’ll be fine. It’s just a nap.”

  “I see… you know, ever since you called your magic love magic… I thought you would be from Loura… because… y’know… City of Love…?”

  “Yeah, that’s actually convenient for me. But I just picked this up because I figured it might be a little bit helpful if I had to do a merchant’s deal… and I guess it could be helpful in other scenarios, like this one.”

  “I guess…”

  The two of them had temporary free reign over this staff room. It was quite well-equipped. The smell of a muffin was on the countertop, which Cozy decided to reward herself with, and other cooking appliances were also around them. There was also a couch, and a bookshelf. Cozy decided to walk towards the bookshelf and glance through the titles.

  There were a few fiction books, which she wasn’t particularly interested in. The nonfiction shelf was what interested her. She looked for any specific books on rituals or divinity, and she still couldn’t find anything. She was about to dig in deeper until…

  “Cozy, I think I found something!” Teddie said, interrupting her thought process. Cozy turned around and saw Teddie had lifted up the carpet that was on the floor near the couch, a wooden trapdoor.

  “Ohhh, good work, Teddie,” Cozy said and walked towards the trapdoor. “If this is hidden then there’s definitely something in there.”

  “Hopefully it’s not something too scary… or something we have to fight…” Teddie said.

  “Well, only one way to find out,” Cozy said. With a pull on the latch, the door opened and the pitch black awaited them. Cozy, without hesitation, immediately jumped down, and Teddie slowly followed her after.

  The very limited light was coming in from the open trapdoor, so they couldn’t close it lest they be unable to see. It was hard to navigate in this darkness however.

  “Shoot, this would be so much easier if we had Ed with us,” Cozy complained, groping around in the dark. Teddie stayed quietly next to her.

  “Maybe there’s a bug in here that could help us… they generally have good night vision…” Teddie said. “I’m not hearing anyone here now though…”

  “Ugh,” Cozy groaned. The two stumbled around in the darkness for a while, until eventually.

  “Cozy… I just came up with an idea, your wings do glow, right?” Teddie asked. “If you use them, maybe we can see better?”

  It was at that moment, Cozy realized that she had never used her wings in that way before. But, that was a good idea. With a stretch of her glowing pink wings, a small glow came from Cozy’s back, giving them a bit of vision.

  From what they could see, this place seemed to be mostly miscellaneous storage. Barrels, crates, and old items were all organized neatly but dustily around them. However, their attention was brought to a wooden door at one side of the room.

  “There, I think we might find something,” Cozy pointed at it. The two of them walked towards the door and both took a deep breath. Cozy put her hand on the handle, and pushed the door open.

  And it was like entering a brand new world.

  There was a staircase downwards, into a massive room. It was like a giant ballroom, with paintings of Midnas scattered all over the walls. It was lit beautifully from one window on the other side of the room, which provided the glitter that they had gotten used to within Lune for the entire area. Large quartz pillars rise against the aqua architecture, depicting carvings in the wall built in Midnas’ form. Glowing water dripped around the edge of the room, creating a small river that circled the entire perimeter and provided light to the entire place.

  Cozy, upon entering, clutched her head a little bit. It felt like she just stepped into an onslaught of divinity upon entering this room, and she didn’t know whether it was her body or her mindset that rejected this notion automatically. Regardless, despite her reluctance, the two of them stepped down the stone steps to get a closer look.

  “I think… there might be something here,” Cozy said, a little bit strained, but she tried to hide it.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it, even in Lune…” Teddie looked around in awe. However, just before they reached the bottom of the stairs, they heard a voice.

  “Welcome to the most divine place in the world,” the soft, coddling voice spoke behind them. The two of them turned back, and at the top of the stairway, they saw the familiar cloak and face of Governor Luan. Her smile presented herself towards them, as she looked down on the duo.

  “What are children like you doing in such a holy place?”