"Of course. This is what I asked. I should hope to learn the mystic ways you practice now, if you have a teacher. Learning the magics of another culture is learning their soul... and I should dearly need to know the soul of my own people.

As for purity, there is no shame in loss. A hole is to be filled, and if it is always filled with the same? Then why make the hole in the first place. There is something fascinating about that, don't you think?" Msonus says. He seems to have been distracted from his initial goal... but that was the god's standard procedure anyway.

"Ah," said the high priest. "You mean magic, Lord. I have not practiced.. and neither has my father. Magic has been scarce in these lands, replaced by the comfort and warmth of the mystic's position. I cannot help you there."

There was a small silence.

The guide spoke up.

"Actually, Lord.. there is a Temple which practices the Way of Seeing.."

The high priest gave the guide a vile look.

Msonus smiles, but says nothing for a moment. He takes a deep breath, before saying cheerfully, "Well then, thank you to you both, and whatever wishes are appropriate, I wish upon you.

Where may I find this temple, then?"

"It is said to be far to the East, hidden amongst the taller hills that rest there, forever to look upon the Field of Statues," said the guide.

A silence.

"I suppose not so much 'forever' then, perhaps.."

Msonus laughs.

"I suppose. Well then, I shall be traveling alone this time. Some things are alone-things, and there are errands to be done as well, you know. Keep well, friends, and see with your eyes. Closer or open, I leave to you.

And with that, he walks out. His eyes preceding him, he begins to head to the East.

To the east, softer scrub-land, occasionally marred with red stone or colder sand, covered in browner, stronger flora. There were no villages, no temples, only the occasional stream - and the Door. Great, as large as a modest temple, crafted into a great seal within the ground. No obvious lock - or key, for that matter. The black iron mocked Msonus, the curious text - ALL WELL IN HELLWELL - engraved in the center.

Msonus does what he tends to do, and starts talking to himself. "All well indeed, all well... How familiar. It seems the sort of thing we would say, past me and me.

He decides to try to use the same time ritual he had used many times before, to look at what had been here in the past.

Msonus caught a glimpse of a great, powerful machine, forged of electronics just as much as it was forged with magic, and the subsequent attempts at creating a new universe. The machine went mad. He saw the Architects build this great seal as they buried the machine..

That was all. More ideas than images. It was being blocked by powerful magic.

"A mystery to be solved later. First, I find myself an older mystery to be solved," Msonus says, taking the objects he had prepared for the earlier time ritual. "But first I meddle further, for the future needs it to have been the past, if knowing is to be known. "

He finds a location more central to his realm than his current one, and then settles down. He begins the ritual as he knows it to be done, and concentrates on his goal. From the time he headed, a book of information. From the time he came, a symbol. From himself, the realm, central and sole recipient of his multifacted attention.

All three eyes close at once.

Msonus felt nothing. Extremely sleepy. He felt his perception widening, becoming a tunnel..

He knew now that he should command exactly what point in time he wished to enter. Sharply, strongly.

Msonus declares, aloud and in his mind, "The Age of Ascendancy, the breaking of the Sword. I go, I must."

Msonus feels reality around him slip.. and then return. It was all so sudden.. so simple. Such power!

(Continue in the RP BROKEN PAST: AGE OF ASCENDANCY)

Msonus' Paradox returns, and he is gone to his destination and here at once.

"I suppose, now, I resume the hunt. "

Msonus reads the omens, first regarding this door, and next regarding the sect he was searching for.

The messages were unclear, fuzzy, with no clear-cut meaning. Msonus was exhausted - he could not conjure efficiently.. such a spectacular attempt at Time magic, that most disastrous of sorcery, pulled almost - as far as he could tell - to perfection. Msonus felt himself fall, exhausted beyond belief.

Msonus falls in exhaustion, and lets himself rest. He scolds himself mentally for the overexertion, but he knows that he would have it no other way.

Time passes. Slowly, Msonus feels himself stir from his slumber. He did not even remember falling asleep..

It was dark. The moon was high. Msonus unravels; he feels much better. Relaxed.

Msonus checks the eyes he has about the realm, to see if anything of note has happened during his rest. He was in no hurry to gett hings done, and this was a low-exertion task anyways.

Nothing of particular note has occurred during his rest, Msonus learned. Som is in a state of peace.

More rested now, and ready to begin again, Msonus sits himself down. "We try again, I suppose. "

He tries to read the omens once more regarding this hidden sect. Rather than reading more generally, he decides to attempt a simple experiment. An eye appears in front of him, and he draws a small circle around it. He adds small points spaced around, and tries to let the eye and the spell work with each other: Which way should the eye point, to find this sect?

(Forgive me. Which sect, exactly, are you looking for?)

(ATM I believe it's the one that "practices the Way of Seeing". )

(Sorry and cheers.)

The eye points to the west, where the Lake of the Hierophant lay.

Msonus creates a few more eyes with a wave of his hand, though they quickly depart to find new destinations.  He begins to walk back to the west, heading to the Lake of the Hierophant. There were quite some memories still about this place from his last adventure here, and Msonus was not unhappy that he had no one elses safety to worry about.

When he arrives at the lake, he sends out more eyes, scanning for signs of life or civilization.

There was no one at the lake. It seemed the locals were suspicious of this place. For good reason; it had not been so long ago that the Creature of the Lake had devoured all that it had seen. Such a dramatic shift would cause fear in all that would have heard of it.

It was a marvelous, sunny day, and the water sparkled under the light.

Msonus shouts, at no one in particular:

"I seek to see with the Way of the Seeing,"

Knowing that that was not particularly likely to succeed, he also tries to narrow the direction he needs to search by using further divinations.