When Justin woke up the next morning, he carefully sounded out in their head.

  ‘Is anybody else awake?’

  As had happened the last few days, nobody answered, so he carefully crawled out of the tent, careful to make no sudden movements in order to avoid waking the others.

  On getting outside, Justin saw that it was still well before dawn, and listening, he didn’t think anyone else had risen yet. A bout of nostalgia hit him, as he’d done that through nearly all teenage summers, camping across the country.

  Justin walked over and sat beneath one of the trees around the oasis, careful not to make too much sound and wake the other campers.

  Settling in, Justin dived into his soul. He had done preliminary inspections yesterday, but it was far larger than any engine he had worked on, closer to the size of a city block than anything.

  Now, where was I? He mused to himself. The inside of his soul was a great clash of spiritual noise, overwhelming his senses. In truth, while he’d told Tae that it was fully functioning when he asked, he hadn’t been able to explore it to nearly the degree that would be required to determine if everything worked.

  Mentally drifting over, he checked more of the cylinders, finding them all moving the same as he’d find in any car from Earth. Floating out of them, he searched the levers and arms they were attached to.

  Justin floated along the arms, finding gears, pulleys, belts, and more pistons hidden in the walls, but not a single clue as to what they were meant to accomplish.

  Does this engine not do anything? It certainly had no connections to the outside, which was unsurprising since it was ultimately an expression of his soul. It would have been more concerning if it had outside connections.

  Still, it kind of hurts that my soul has no purpose to its work. I hope that isn’t a reflection of me as an individual. Perhaps it’s just waiting for it’s purpose to be found. At least everything is working. No smoke or fire or anything.

  Something about that thought niggled in the back of his mind, and he mentally frowned. What am I missing?

  He thought about it for a few more minutes as he continued checking the parts of the engine. Then it hit him. ‘Shit! The smoking tower.’

  He jumped back into their body, then jumped up from his prone position and quickly stumbled over to the cooking area.

  ‘What are you doing?’ He heard Dev groan out in their head.

  ‘I need to build the smoking tower! I forgot!’

  ‘You have a serious procrastination problem,’ he heard Dev say before falling silent with a feeling like he had rolled over and fallen back asleep.

  That was odd. Justin thought to himself. I wonder if he knows he can send something like that?

  Getting to the cooking area, he quickly grabbed his backpack, retrieving a large number of sticks that Elluvian had gathered from the jungle.

  Taking out his knife, he quickly got to work denuding the branches of bark. Elluvian had had good selection, but the sticks were a bit thicker than he needed, and the bark was useful for other purposes.

  Again digging into the bag, Justin found the rope that had been provided to the contestants. It was a rather generous offering from the empire, but he doubted most contestants knew how to make proper use of it. Carefully measuring out two eight-foot sections, Justin cut them off and tied them to two of the sticks.

  He quickly assembled something resembling a wooden cage, three and a half feet tall and around a foot and a half wide. Every couple of branches there was a missing bar to allow access to the inside, and more branches forming porous platforms inside. Towards the end, he found himself running out of jungle branches, so started roaming to find appropriate branches.

  When he got back from his second run, he found the fire lit and June preparing the remaining food from last night.

  “That the smoke tower?” she asked, gesturing to his half-completed structure.

  “Yeah,” Justin said. “It should allow us to smoke a lot of the fruit at once. Our main issue is that we will struggle to smoke large amounts at once. Hopefully, the platforms inside will allow us to bypass that.

  “Aren’t you concerned that it will catch fire?” she asked. “This is a bit much.”

  “I think it will be fine,” Justin said. “These are relatively fresh branches, and if we keep the smoke fire at a low enough temperature, this should survive just fine.”

  ‘Is that food?’ he heard Tae blearily ask in his mind.

  ‘Yeah, it will be ready in just a few minutes.’

  ‘Cool.’

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  Justin quickly finished the smoking tower, just in time for Will’s shouting.

  “Everybody wake up! We have places to be! Food to eat! Techniques to learn!”

  ‘I’m awake,’ Elluvian said. ‘Could someone stop that awful racket?’

  ‘I’m awake, too,’ Dev said, ‘He enjoys waking everyone up way too much.’

  ‘Time to eat?’ Tae asked.

  ‘I think it is.’

  Justin repeated the question to June, saying, “Is it time for breakfast?”

  “If you want some, you can have it. You can also help sample some of the fruit, so we know what to preserve.”

  Justin grabbed a portion, then a few of the fruits from the bags on the ground. He sat to the side and watched as the camp slowly woke up. People emerged from different tents, slowly trickling over to the fire and getting their own portion of last night’s leftovers.

  By the time everyone was up, the eastern horizon was starting to light up. Will had let them stay much longer than he had the last time he was here.

  “Everyone get moving! We don’t want to be late!” Will cajoled them, practically dragging them out of the camp. As they left, he set a grueling pace, as if trying to make up for the delayed start.

  Justin made his way over to Will, dodging around people intil he was at his side.

  “Oh, hey, Dev,” Will said in a normal tone of voice. “What are you planning on doing today?”

  “I think I’ll be trying the entrance trials again,” Justin said. “I was all out of sorts the first time.”

  “Good idea,” Will said, clapping him on the shoulder. “You can also show the people you brought their way around. Good luck.”

  “Thanks,” Justin said. He scanned the crowd for the other three, eventually finding them hanging around the leftmost edge.

  Walking to them, he said, “Looks like I’ll be showing you around. Should be an easy day, though. No stress on the tests, you can always retry them, and it will be a good look at what Apollo has to offer.”

  “Thanks,” Terra said. “How much further to the inheritance?”

  “Only a few more minutes. We should arrive around sunrise. Any final questions?”

  “How do they know where they’re going?” Ethan asked.

  ‘Dev?’

  ‘I have no idea. I can’t tell hardly anything apart in the sands. Perhaps with the stars.’

  “I don’t know,” Justin relayed to them. “You’d have to ask Will.”

  After answering their questions, they walked in silence as the world lit up around them. Suddenly, the ground began to rumble beneath them.

  ‘What is that?’ Justin asked.

  ‘That would be the temple complex rising out of the ground,’ Dev answered. ‘It must be just over this dune.’

  Justin picked up his pace, arriving at the top of the dune just in time to see the temple grind to a halt.

  ‘Wow.’

  As he approached, he was treated to the sight of the giant statue in front of the building.

  ‘You know, I never thought about it before, but how do you have Apollo here?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Dev asked.

  ‘We have stories of Apollo on Earth. They date back a few thousand years before I was even born. How could we know of him if we aren’t even in contact with your empire?’

  ‘That is an excellent question, and I have no idea how to even begin finding an answer. Maybe if we encounter the dreaming prince again, he can tell us, but I wouldn’t count on it. Anyone else have any ideas?’

  ‘Not sure yet,’ Tae said. ‘Let me think on it.’

  ‘The simplest answer is likely correct,’ Elluvian said. ‘He probably visited your world at some point and stories persisted on.’

  ‘That might mean that we can find Earth,' Justin said.

  ‘Not for a very long time,’ Dev said. ‘We need a way to ask without ending up captured, exposed, or otherwise placed on the operating table.’

  The other three caught up to him, and he was treated to their own gasps as they saw the temple complex before them.

  "Yeah. The temple complex is a bit over the top," Justin said, trying to pretend it wasn't his first time seeing it as well.

  "You don't say," Terra said dryly.

  'lt's even better on the inside,' Dev remarked.

  Everyone split up, Justin leading Ethan, Terra, and Clair to the main building.

  Pausing by the giant statue out front, Justin gave a mental whistle. 'Not bad, not bad.'

  Continuing, Justin led the way to the temple doors, where he was confronted with a wall of greenery.

  'You didn't mention the plants,' he said to Dev.

  'I didn't think they were important.'.

  'They could have been,’ Justin said

  'If they have all these plants in here,’ Tae asked, ‘Why did we need to bring them fruit?'

  'Putting aside the obvious risks involved in stealing from a temple,’ Dev said, ‘The plants aren't real. Use your essence sight.’

  Justin checked, and Dev was correct. While a few smaller plants were green with life, the vast majority were filled only with earth essence.

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘You could use your eyes,’ Dev groused. ‘Past the plants, down the path, and to the desk at the end of the room.’

  Justin led the way down the path, looking curiously down the side paths around them.

  ‘Remember, you’re supposed to have been here before,’ Dev said. ‘You’ll see it all in the tests anyway.’

  ‘Fine, fine.’

  Stopping at the end, he gestured to the table, saying, “You can see the orb on the table? Touch it and it will bring you through registration.”

  To demonstrate, Justin placed his hand on the orb.

  ‘Please state your first and last name.’

  He froze.