Preface
A Gathering of Spirits

The late spring air rustled lightly through the huddled oaks. Against the dark of the moonless night, three willowy sisters made their way through the maze of trees, their long flowing robes making them appear as ghosts.

The night was starting to give way to the dawn when the forest gave way to a clearing containing a temple. The temple was much as they had remembered it, although its facade was slowly giving in to time and the elements. It had long since been abandoned, a sign of the ever-changing faith of the area.

'A shame', Aurora, the eldest sister, thought. 'It was a beautiful place, even if its occupants had been rather simple.'

The sisters had expected to find the vandalism and ruin that came with modern society, but were amazed that no one ever discovered such a large temple hidden deep within this forest.

At the top of the grand steps, they found the first goal of their journey. The Ancalites, like so many ancient cultures, had worshiped the sun, and so this temple, the last testament to their glorious culture, had been built with the sun in mind. This monolith, several feet from the temple's entrance, had once played an important role in the Ancalites’ ritual practices.

The sisters formed a circle around it. They reached up over their heads, their arms parallel to the gently sloping sides of the monolith. Then they opened their arms, a breathing flower, and joined hands. Their silent prayer offered, they entered the main temple.

Without the vigilant caretakers, ivy had crawled up the columns that only served to hold up the roof. Vines covered much of the floor and ceiling, leaving the sisters to wonder if they had indeed left the forest behind them. Selene, a woman so pale she rivaled the silvery moon, made a vain attempt to clear a path through the living carpet, but soon she gave up and the sisters stepped across as much as they could on their way through the temple.

At the back of the temple, solid walls sheltered the three doors that led to the back areas of the temple. The doors were separated by a relief, and framed with sculpted archways whose simple ornateness seemed out of place. Those who had served in this temple knew what existed beyond those doors. Few others did, but the sisters knew that the ancient temple's secret would not be hidden much longer.

Aurora, rosy as the dawn, beckoned her mystical siblings to follow her through one of the three doorways. The three glided through a series of dark, smaller rooms until they arrived at a room with only one way out. Aurora lit candles within the room

The sun-kissed middle sister held her nose. “This place is so musty!”

“Phoebe, this place has remained undisturbed for thousands of years,” Selene, the youngest replied, trying not to follow her golden sister’s lead.

“Quiet,” Aurora intoned. She closed her eyes as she brought her hands together, centering herself before focusing on the task that had brought the three of them to the old temple. Slowly, she opened her eyes, “It is time.”

Phoebe watched her as Aurora inscribed a circle in footsteps around the pedestal in the center of the chamber. “Are you certain?”

The woman continued walking her path, unaware that her sister had spoken.

Resting a delicate porcelain hand on her sister’s shoulder, gentle Selene watched Aurora complete a third circuit about the room, “Is everything in place?”

The darkest-haired sister, whose hair color amounted to a light cinnamon, looked about the chamber. Her path changed to move against the outside wall of the circular chamber, and she ran her fingertips ran lightly along six alcoved shelves, placed evenly about the room. Finally,she stopped and traced the base of a statue, careful not to move it. “If it is not, then trouble will surely follow quickly.” Phoebe and Selene paled, but Aurora continued, “A champion has been chosen, one we can guide.”

“But we are not allowed to interfere, Aurora!” exclaimed Selene, her nearly-white hair shifting gracefully behind her as she approached her sister.

"We cannot directly interfere,” the older woman corrected. She winked at Phoebe, “but we can offer our…guidance.” Phoebe laughed.

“Guidance? Is not that interference?” Selene asked. The youngest sister did not have enough eons behind her to understand the subtle difference between the two.

Deciding that the best response was silence, Aurora stepped back to the door at one end of the chamber and began an incantation in a long-forgotten language. Her sisters joined her, their voices blended in a beautiful harmony.

The three returned to the temple's Great Hall. Selene looked toward another door, the one farthest from the one they had protected, “And what if our champion takes too long to understand, or makes a mistake?”

Aurora took a deep breath, “I do not know, and I hope we never find out.”

Phoebe nodded. “This is why we will guide her, help her so that when she reaches here, she will not make a mistake.”

“Sister, that sounds very much like interference,” Selene warned.

Aurora smiled lightly.

With one last glance about the Great Hall, the three departed through the great columns that marked the temple’s entrance and returned to the stairs. There, they formed a circle about the obelisk and spoke one last incantation before making their way down the stairs and back through the woods.