Precious Memories Temple Novels & Stories

Then, Meran said, "Peak Institute is a big mansion with three entrances and three exits, covering twenty acres. We have six 300-year-old ancient trees and 19 stone tablets engraved by famous people. My price is the same as his!" Cloth Alley and Peak Institute were the two largest of the seven sites that could not be demolished. They were also the second most important properties on Temple Road, after Channel Temple. Joe laughed in embarrassment. He turned to Grayson and said, "Yours is too big for me, and I can't afford it. How about this, Uncle—" Grayson glanced at him and ignored him. Joe finally looked at Chad and said, "Chad, why won't you sell the Hall of Herbs to me?"

Not just similar, exactly mine. I froze, the breath caught in my chest. The woman stood. Slowly, she turned. And even though she looked nothing like me, it felt like I was staring at myself. Her face was older, wiser, and more regal, but it was still me. The same curve of the lips, the same jaw, the same heart-shaped face. The same soul. My throat went dry. “What is this?” The woman smiled sadly. “It is remembrance.” Then the world rippled. The temple trembled around us, and everything shifted like a tide pulling back the years. The air thickened, heavy with scent and memory. The stones beneath my feet became soft grass. The altar dissolved into moonlit mist.

At its peak stood an old stone building, worn but proud, shaped like a temple from some forgotten time. Joseph came to a stop near the edge and let her dismount. He shifted back to his human form in one smooth motion and quickly dressed. "What is this place?" Tasha asked, staring at the structure. Joseph offered her a hand. "Come. I'll show you." Inside, the temple opened into something far larger than it seemed. It had cathedral ceilings, walls lined with gold, ruby-studded carvings, and glowing lanterns all around the room. Tasha's eyes widened. "This is..."

Yet he doesn’t love me. Why does that sting so much? Without realizing it, my feet carry me to a massive white structure, elegant and ancient. The Temple of the Moon. Stories of its splendor were whispered back in my home pack, and now that I see it, I’m breathless. Twin towers stretch to the skies, and colored glass windows glow under the sun. Each pane bears a depiction of the Moon Goddess, her gentle face aglow with ethereal light. Inside, silence wraps around me like a blanket. I sink into a bench and close my eyes, letting my thoughts drift. I whisper a silent prayer for clarity, for strength... just anything to help me make sense of it all.

“Truth is a burden, and the path forward is paved with the past.” Elior exhaled. “Then show us.” The chamber darkened. Shadows surged, twisting, coalescing. The floor beneath them seemed to vanish, and suddenly, they were falling, not through air, but through memory. The city was whole once more. The temple stood in its prime, its walls gleaming with gold and sapphire inlays. The statues were not stone but flesh and blood, robed figures moving with purpose. The air thrummed with incantations, magic woven into every breath. A great gathering was taking place at the altar, where the woman from Elior’s vision stood, her white and gold robes shimmering like starlight.

“Sure. The battle with Denis alone cost a staggering amount, to say nothing of the parties you insist on throwing every other week.” I thought about it while I chewed on some prosciutto-wrapped melon balls. “I think we need to do a bit of work on the Palace Temple.” Elroy frowned absently. “That temple is perfect.” “The building, yes, but the grounds could use some work. I want to add a meditation walk and a labyrinth.” “A maze?”

Rhea’s voice is soft behind me. I nod. "She didn’t speak. She just... looked at me." Rhea’s gaze is solemn. "The dead speak in ways we forget how to hear. The Temple is close. And she’s trying to prepare you." We leave at dawn. The forest shifts again, the trees growing thinner, the air sharper. The moment we step into the last clearing, I feel it. Power. The Temple of Moons stands carved into the side of a jagged hill, the stone glowing faintly with blue runes. Massive double doors sit at the top of a worn staircase, their surface etched with the phases of the moon.

Lerder said, voice low, “we don’t know what they’ll cost.” She turned to him, staring too long. “I do.” The journey through the Shardlands took three days. Each night, the visions returned. Lerder dying The King laughed, his fire choking on ash. But Elara didn’t falter. Not even when the spirits of the discarded rose from the stones and clawed at her memories. She kept moving until they reached it. __The Temple of Echoes.__ A ruin swallowed by time and silence. Its stone doors glowed with faded runes—only visible when Elara pressed her hand to them. The door hissed open, and the walls behind it screamed.

By the third morning, the Temple’s ruins rose from the mist like teeth, jagged marble and ivy-twisted towers etched with runes long buried by time. Cassia stepped from the wagon the moment they arrived. Her eyes widened. “It feels like a memory,” she whispered. Kael stepped forward. “This place remembers every drop of blood that ever spilled for it.” Nova knelt beside her daughter. “Be brave.” Cassia took her hand. “I’m not afraid. She’s here. I can feel her.” They entered the temple together. Inside, the halls pulsed with quiet power. At the center stood a pedestal, and on it, a frozen flame.

He gestured at the space around him. "The Half World?" "The Temple," he said. "It acts as a halfway point to the realm of the dead, just as the Stanwood Vault and the Manser's Altar acted as a halfway point to this world." "So, you can't leave the Temple? At all?" Poe gave me a sad smile. "Correct." I turned away, leaning my elbows on my knees to bury my head in my hands. "I'm glad we came out here then, and not just for John."