Southwestern Pritt, outskirts of Glamorne.
Beneath the dark night sky, Lake Starbind shimmered with a faint silver luster beneath the moonlight. On the vast, grassy lakeside meadows, groups of citizens strolled along the lakeside paths in twos and threes, enjoying the breeze drifting from the water as they took their post-dinner walks. Street lamps along the path cast a dim amber glow, illuminating the lakeshore.
On a bench beside the path, Dorothy sat silently, gazing across the lake using her spiritual vision, observing the faint spiritual mist that was beginning to rise once more. She couldn’t help but sigh internally.
“Here it comes again… Right on schedule. They’re locking down the entire lake every night—looks like they’re dead set on not letting anyone disrupt their search.”
She watched as the faint mist of blood spread silently across the lake. This near-invisible veil had blocked Dorothy’s nighttime investigation of Lake Starbind for several days now. So far, she still hadn’t found a way to bypass it and proceed with her exploration. All she could do was watch helplessly each night as the Eight-Spired Nest monopolized the lake, slowly advancing their own search while she remained powerless.
“From all the clues I’ve gathered so far… the secret of the Mirror Moon Goddess’s temple is most likely hidden within Lake Starbind. But the Eight-Spired Nest has seized control of the lake at night, making it impossible for me to investigate during the very time frame most crucial to the Mirror Moon faith. Under the cover of their blood mist, any attempt to scout the lake will be immediately discovered. I can’t enter the lake without completely avoiding detection—and that’s just not feasible. If I try, the Crimson will detect it, just like what happened at Duke Barrett’s estate.”
Faced with this blockade, Dorothy felt deeply troubled. Although her reconnaissance skills were strong, they couldn’t be recklessly used against Crimson-rank Beyonders, who might have a range of countermeasures. Rather than discovering the enemy’s movements, she’d more likely end up exposing her corpse marionettes—or even her own location.
Her past successful intel-gathering efforts against Crimsons had relied heavily on special circumstances—like the protective barrier of the Temple of Revelation Runes in Yadith, or the dream-diving abilities of the little fox in Moncarlo, which allowed Dorothy to steal memories from the Crimsons’ subordinates without detection. But neither of those methods were available now.
First, the little fox wasn’t in Pritt. Whether she would even be willing to come help was unknown. And even if she were, a cross-border trip would take too long. Also, while the Temple of the Moon might contain an inner realm barrier, Dorothy would need to find the temple first in order to access it—and with the lake sealed, that wasn’t happening.
“This is getting a bit troublesome…”
Rubbing her chin, Dorothy looked up at the crescent moon in the sky with a troubled sigh. After a long stretch of fruitless thinking, another idea began to take shape in her mind.
“Maybe… I need to change my approach. Instead of focusing entirely on how to break through the Eight-Spired Nest’s blockade to reach the lake, I should shift my attention back to solving the riddle. There’s still much in that prayer that hasn’t been deciphered. Maybe I don’t need to reach the lake right now—maybe there’s another entrance elsewhere. Didn’t the prayer mention several gates into the temple?”
Still seated on the bench by the lake, Dorothy realigned her thoughts, pulling her attention back from infiltration tactics to the puzzle embedded in the riddle-prayer. She began carefully studying the lines that had yet to be decoded.
“Among the remaining lines, the most important elements are those gates—the Crescent-Blade Gate, the Longbow Gate, the Abundance Gate… What do these gates signify? Are they some sort of symbolic mysticism unique to the Mirror Moon Church? Or are they metaphors that can only be deciphered with deep knowledge of their doctrine?”
She began to mentally place herself in the shoes of a Mirror Moon believer, trying to interpret the prayer from the cult’s perspective—a worldview grounded in devotion to night and moon. As she gazed at the incomplete moon overhead, an idea struck her.
“Crescent-Blade… Could the names of these gates actually refer to the moon’s phases? More precisely—to the moon’s shapes over time.”
“In this world, the moon seems to function the same way as in mine. It doesn’t emit light itself—it reflects sunlight, illuminating the night sky. This aligns perfectly with the Mirror Moon Goddess’s symbolism: the mirror as the reflection of divine radiance. That also explains her association with the moon as the Queen of the Night Sky. And if the moon’s light is reflected sunlight, then naturally its phases—caused by its changing position relative to the sun—would be significant. Maybe these phases are directly tied to the ‘gates’ mentioned in the prayer.”
“Right now, the moon overhead is a crescent. Its curved shape resembles a crescent-blade—so the ‘Crescent-Blade Gate’ could refer to the crescent moon. Following that logic, the ‘Longbow Gate’ would be the half moon, shaped like a taut, unstrung bow. The ‘Abundance Gate,’ with its slightly fuller state, corresponds to a waxing gibbous. And the final ‘Jade Wheel Gate’ would then represent the full moon.”
The more Dorothy thought about it, the more invigorated she became. The idea that the phases of the moon corresponded to the "gates" in the prayer aligned neatly with the imagery.
“The riddle says: ‘Glahomir’s Mirror reflects the Divine Realm of the Night Sky—it is also the gate to the Sanctum.’ If the Mirror refers to Lake Starbind, and the gates correspond to the moon’s phases, then the ‘Divine Realm of the Night Sky’ must be the moon itself. That means the gate lies in the moon’s reflection on the surface of the lake.”
“If I combine that with the ‘Silver Summit’ referenced in the prayer… then the full meaning would be: ‘Standing atop a mountain where silver is mined, gaze down upon Lake Starbind. The moon’s reflection on the lake is the gate that leads to the Temple of the Moon.’ Depending on the moon phase, the shape and position of the reflection changes. According to the prayer, there are four gates—each one corresponding to a different moon phase.”
“That means I just need to go to the top of Mount Lakeview and observe the lake during the four peak moon phases. By recording the position of the moon’s reflection on the water each time, I may discover a critical clue for entering the temple.”
Staring up at the incomplete moon in the sky, Dorothy felt her deductions grow more solid. The correlation between moon phases and the "gates" matched the prayer perfectly. If all of this proved correct, then she had just about cracked the riddle.
Excited, she rose from the bench and looked toward the crescent moon’s reflection on the lake’s surface. But after staring for a while, her eyes narrowed with doubt.
“Wait… if the moon’s reflection is the gate into the temple, doesn’t that mean I still need to get onto the lake to reach it? But the entire lake is locked down at night by the Eight-Spired Nest. I can’t even risk sending a mosquito-sized corpse marionette in. So how am I supposed to reach the location of that reflection?”
Although deciphering the Mirror Moon Church’s prayer gave Dorothy a surge of inspiration, her expression soon darkened again when she realized that, in the end, she still had to find a way to reach the surface of the lake. Her mood turned especially grim.
This conclusion was undoubtedly bad news for her. She had hoped that by deciphering the prayer, she could find a method to enter the temple without stepping onto the lake. But as it turned out, she would have to go there anyway.
If her interpretation was correct, then the gates into the temple were located precisely at the points on Lake Starbind—viewed from the summit of Mount Lakeview—where each major lunar phase was reflected. And the moon only appeared at night. That meant she could only approach the gate when it was dark, on the surface of the lake, and in the correct position.
But that was far too dangerous.
Just as she had glimpsed a path forward, she ran into yet another impasse. For a moment, Dorothy felt deeply troubled. Staring at the crescent moon in the sky and its reflection on the water, she fell into intense contemplation.
“Moon phases… night… reflections… the lake’s surface… the sky… wait—”
As she thought, a faint idea began to rise in her heart. And as she followed that train of thought, her eyes slowly widened.
…
Several days later… Southwestern of Pritt, Glamorne.
Daytime, in the outskirts of Glamorne. On the western side of Lake Starbind, atop Mount Lakeview, many townsfolk once again gathered on the observation platform to enjoy the view. One of Dorothy’s corpse marionettes had once again blended in with the crowd.
On a grassy patch near a grove by the lakeshore, Dorothy—dressed in a pale-colored sundress and wearing a wide-brimmed hat—sat beside one of her corpse marionettes, slowly nibbling on toast from a picnic basket. She looked just like an ordinary girl out on a family picnic with her father.
As she ate, Dorothy used the vision of her marionette on Mount Lakeview to observe the tranquil surface of Lake Starbind, watching the small boats drifting across it, along with the reflections of the surrounding mountains and the sun. She seemed to be searching for something.
“Now then… let’s see. Where might it be… O shadow of the moon upon the lake…”
Taking another bite of toast, Dorothy murmured softly. She was searching for the reflection of the moon on the lake—trying to locate the gate to the temple by way of the moon’s mirrored image.
Even though it was still daytime, the lake’s surface was fully illuminated by direct sunlight, reflecting nothing but the surrounding landscape and a clear blue sky. There wasn’t a trace of moonlight anywhere. In the heavens, the radiant sun shone bright and brilliant, and there was no sign of the moon at all.
This was obviously not the time to look for the moon’s reflection. Any ordinary person would say she should wait until nightfall. If she wanted the moon and its reflection, surely she should wait for the moon to rise.
But that was a view held by most people. For Dorothy, things looked different.
From her current perspective, the moon’s reflection was present on the lake’s surface—just nearly imperceptible. This was the “invisible moonshadow” mentioned in the prayer: the reflection that pointed the way to the Shadowless Gate.
“If each gate in the prayer corresponds to a different lunar phase, then what does the Shadowless Gate stand for? The Full Moon is the Jade Wheel Gate, the ¾ moon is the Abundance Gate, the half-moon is the Longbow Gate, and the crescent is the Crescent-Blade Gate… Then the only one left… is the New Moon. The so-called ‘Shadowless Gate’ must represent the New Moon.”
“The New Moon—or more precisely, the conjunction moon—is the moon’s hidden phase. On the night of a new moon, not even the faintest sliver can be seen. That’s because the moon is positioned directly between the Earth and the sun. The night side of Earth faces away from the moon entirely, leaving nothing visible.”
“But… just because the moon can’t be seen doesn’t mean it isn’t there. On the day of conjunction, the moon resides in the daylight sky, between the Earth and the sun. The people on the day side of the planet can’t see it because the sun’s light is too blinding—it drowns out the moon completely. Only when the sun and moon align precisely—during a solar eclipse—can the moon’s silhouette be perceived during the day.”
That was what Dorothy now thought.
She tugged down the brim of her sun hat slightly to shield her eyes, squinting up at the sky as if trying to spot something that was present, yet hidden. The divine domain of the Queen of the Night Sky had been swallowed by the radiant blaze of the supreme lantern overhead.
“Just because something can’t be seen doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. That which is without form or shadow doesn’t equal nonexistence. During the moment of conjunction, the absence of moonlight in the night sky doesn’t mean the moon is gone—it simply exists in the day. It is the overwhelming brilliance of the sun that hides it.”
“Likewise, the moon’s reflection during a New Moon isn’t absent from Lake Starbind—it’s simply obscured by sunlight too dazzling to see through. The invisible phase casts an invisible shadow… and that shadow points the way to the Shadowless Gate. Through that, I, too, may cross the mirror.”
Lowering her head, Dorothy gazed at the shimmering lake and whispered softly.
She was ready to begin searching—amid the lake’s brightest reflections—for the gate hidden within the moon’s invisible trace.