Kenny insisted on trying to reproduce the healing at the temple. But since we knew the 'Western Temple' was already busy, we settled on its twin across the street. The Eastern Temple, as we jokingly called it.

  Thankfully it was vacant when we arrived. Many people were present at the square, of course. Most, in fact, never left it.

  Some worked near the Pillar, and others were hanging around doing nothing, but it didn't seem that this particular building was of any interest to anyone at that moment.

  "So, how are you so accepting of all of it?" I asked Kenny. "It's not that you believe any ridiculous claim you hear, but you think everything through. You never dismiss anything out of hand."

  Kenny nodded along with the question.

  "I guess I just came to terms with it," he said. "I don't think you paid any mind to it, but when we were in the mist, outside the city, it came as a real shock to me," he gave a weak smile. "It was like a scene from a horror movie or a bad dream. Wandering alone in the mist, visiting places I was not supposed to reach yet," he shuddered.

  I didn't know it affected him so much.

  "It's worse than just the monsters or being stuck underground," Kenny continued. "If you squint hard enough, you can come up with an explanation for it," he looked up. "But being moved around like that, things disappearing on their own... that was impossible, and I guess the idea that everything here is somehow less than real stuck with me. I can't shake it. Even if some Goddess is involved, or any other impossible explanation, if there is a pattern to it, if there are rules we need to know to understand what's going on, we have to know them," he finished with a defeated sigh.

  I understood what he was talking about. Our world was shaken right under our feet. And for Kenny, it was even more literal. He was looking for something to grab onto, to regain-

  "You are looking for control," I concluded. "Even if it means you must disregard things you think you already know or accept explanations that would have made you look insane."

  He nodded at that.

  "I'm with you, Kenny," I said. "I'm all open mind right now. We are going to crack this healing business and anything else. So you can say anything that comes to mind, anything you suspect. I promise I will not make fun of you or dismiss you."

  He nodded again, looking relieved.

  Whatever it was—witchcraft or prayers this place was running on, we would find out. We were going to understand it and use it to our advantage.

  ***

  We started by going through everything we knew about Victor's miraculous healing again.

  There were several things that we couldn't precisely reproduce. Things we would try to approximate. We couldn't use the Western Temple, and we didn't have a witch on hand. The wording of the actual prayer or spell was unknown, and we still didn't know if her claim to need a ghoul's body had any truth to it.

  But some things we could follow to the letter. For example, we'll ask for consent to receive "a blessing to heal the mind and body." And we could draw the Ankh symbol with spit and blood and place it either on the chest or near a wound. We would not forgo the slightest detail Victor was able to supply us.

  "Okay, let's do it," I said, scratching at a scab on one of the many minor cuts my hands collected yesterday.

  I pressed around the wound so more drops of blood would squeeze through and held my hand out for Kenny to do his magic.

  "Do you accept this blessing to heal your body and mind?" Kenny asked awkwardly.

  "Yes," I kept a straight face, not willing to do anything to discourage him.

  Kenny took some spit and traced the blood into a small misshapen Ankh under the cut. I felt like we were kids playing a disgusting game that went too far.

  "Heal," he whispered, bowed over the wound.

  We waited for a minute, but nothing happened.

  "Try the other spells," I suggested.

  We knew it wouldn't work on the first try.

  Kenny went through them one by one. The prayers, the spells, and the commands.

  "Heal, Heal, Heal," "In the name of the goddess, I command you to heal," "Goddess, I pray to you to close this wound," "Ankh," "Episkeu," "By the power of this temple, heal"...

  Nothing worked. There wasn't the slightest change.

  "What's with the Ankh, anyway?" I asked, trying to hold back the disappointment. "Everything here is Greek, and she uses an Egyptian symbol?"

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  Kenny thought it over.

  "Well, they are connected. I think Greece conquered Egypt for some time," he said. "Or maybe it was Rome," he sounded less sure.

  I understood the confusion. I couldn't come up with one difference between the ancient countries with a gun to my head.

  "Okay, what about the symbol itself? What's its story?" I asked. All I knew about it was that it was used as jewelry and may have some significance in new-age mumbo jumbo.

  "Ahem... I'm not sure. I think pharaohs had them, maybe as a talisman. Or maybe they were only illustrated with them as a symbol."

  "And it stands for... What? Healing?" I asked.

  "I think life in general," Kenny hedged uncertainly.

  "Okay, so a symbol that represents life, that fits at least," I said. "What about witches? What makes someone a witch?"

  "Maybe they need to be born to a witch?" Kenny asked. "Or to a person and a demon or something supernatural?"

  It was too late for me to be born as anything other than a common pleb, so I needed a different option.

  "What about making a deal with the Devil?" I asked. "That's a thing, right? Some kind of Contract?"

  "Ahh... I am not sure I want to try that one," he said.

  "Yeah, we are not jumping into anything here, but we needed to go over every little thing we could think of."

  Kenny looked thoughtful.

  "In video games, you can just choose to be a mage or maybe do some quest to unlock it," he said.

  "What kind of quest?" I asked. I played several games, but I could only remember choosing a class at the start. What if those requirements that Kenny mentioned were based on real-life lore?

  "Defeat someone strong so the order or school accepts you," he started listing. "Or getting all the needed items to do some ritual like a book, a stuff, or something magical."

  "Signing your name in some book," I tried to recall a half-remembered story. "But that's probably connected to the deal with the Devil stuff."

  Another dead end, it seemed.

  "What about the spells themselves? What do they require?" I asked. "I know you can use a spell repeatedly in some games, with only the cooldown stopping you from spamming it. And in some, you need mana. What's the equivalent to mana in real life?" I asked.

  "I don't think there is one," Kenny replied excitedly. "But, in some games, you can use stamina or health to cast, and we do have that."

  "What else? How do you use a ghoul in a spell?" I asked.

  "I don't know anything about ghouls specifically," He said. "Maybe a sacrifice in a ritual, or like in tabletops, you have a material cost to some spells, but Victor said she didn't use the ghoul."

  "He didn't see her use it," I countered. "What if she used it before he came?"

  "We don't have a ghoul anyway," Kenny reminded.

  Kenny stopped in thought.

  "A cost to the spell-" he mumbled. "Here, let me try again," He called louder.

  I extended my hand again.

  He didn't ask me to receive a blessing or redraw the symbol again. Instead, he stared intently at the little cut and the sign, took a big breath, and forcefully whispered a command.

  "Close!"

  I jerked my hand away from him. It wasn't painful, but I felt a strong tug at the skin surrounding the cut.

  I looked at my hand. The cut was still there. In fact, it didn't look any different, but there was a palpable sensation. So he managed to do something, even if it wasn't to heal me.

  ***

  "I felt it!" I exclaimed. "It didn't heal, but I felt it! What did you do differently? It looked the same to me," I tried to hold my excitement down.

  Kenny breathed deeper and exhaled slowly, his shoulder slumping a little. It looked like the action tired him.

  "Two things," He replied with a happy smile. "I visualized the cut closing in as much detail as possible, the skin coming together, the blood vessels connecting. And I tried to use my stamina to do it," he thought how to better put it. "Like having my body exert itself to make it happen. Sacrifice some of my stamina for the spell to happen."

  I thought it over. "It felt like someone was physically tugging at my skin, trying to push it closed, but it didn't actually heal."

  "I think I know why," Kenny said. "Let's try again from the top."

  I considered holding him back, letting him catch his breath. But the breakthrough got me so excited that I went along.

  "We are on holy ground, inside the temple," he proclaimed to the empty air.

  Again, he took my hand.

  "Will you receive this blessing to heal your body and mind?" He asked.

  This time it didn't strike me as childish or theatrical. It felt real.

  "Yes," I agreed without reservation.

  "This Ankh drawn with your blood and my saliva represents life," He announced, pointing at the symbol.

  I dumbly nodded.

  "I use my life to bless you," he continued. "Heal and be restored."

  He took a big breath and blew forcefully at the symbol and the cut.

  Immediately, I felt all my aches lifting. My tiredness from the missed night's sleep, all the cuts and bruises I had on me, and everything that was not ideal for my sense of comfort just melted away.

  In a matter of seconds, I felt better than I did in recent memory. I was so overflowing with energy that I could take a run, just for fun, to feel the air on my face. The last time I felt so physically charged was when I ran away from the squid.

  "No way!" I cried out. "No fucking way it worked!"

  Kenny dropped to the ground, breathing hard.

  "We did it," he looked up, exhausted.

  "You did it," I beamed at him. "You're a witch now, Kenny."