The Moment That Lasted Forever

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Prologue

Amelia Watson, niece of the renowned Dr. John H. Watson. A seemingly ordinary girl from an extraordinary family.

You lived under the shadow of your illustrious uncle and your heart yearned for adventure - your own moment in the sun. Little did you know that you carried immense potential that many mortal beings could only dream of!

The Cover Corporation from the parallel world saw that potential.

As did we.

Ancient Ones like myself may be restrained to the void, but we have many eyes in the mortal world. The Lord of Death and his Grim Reapers are our allies. They share their information from the afterlife with us in exchange for powers of forbidden knowledge. Likewise, the High Patriarch of the Esoteric Order of True Sight is our finger on the pulse of the affairs in the land of the living.

You may be familiar with him.

A certain Mr. Steven Lowry.

His Occidental College for Young Ladies is a fledgeling educational institution, but it is also the proving grounds for the candidates of Priestess of the Ancient Ones. The majority of its board are members of the Esoteric Order, of course. Only Dr. Watson and a handful of the academics are outsiders, but the prestige they carry attracts the best and the brightest to the college. That is their purpose.

From that crop of talented ladies, three candidates were eventually chosen. Ina'nis Ninomae, Ophelia Lowry and yourself.

Ina'nis was the most talented candidate who was already attuned to the whispers of the Ancient Ones. Ophelia Lowry was chosen because her father, the High Patriarch, wished to have a Priestess in his clan in order to fulfill his political ambitions. You, on the other hand, were a placebo - a Canard if you will - to compare against the real candidates.

All three of you were invited to study at the College so that the Esoteric Order could test your mettle. You lived your lives interacting with your fellow students, a run-of-the-mill college campus life, while our proxies observed you with keen interest.

We were meaning to manifest in the Occidental College in order to give the three of you a true ordeal. Expelling Ina'nis Ninomae from the College, after spending so much time with you as her best friend, would have created the emotional turbulence we needed in order to shatter reality. However, you and Ina'nis came up with a better idea.

The Great Phoenix Expedition!

Mr. Lowry relayed the plans to us, and we coordinated with the Lord of Death in order to prepare a most wonderful reception for our Priestess candidates. Only one would arise from the ordeal, while the others would be buried at sea by the Sea Serpent. We hoped that the two Expeditions would turn against each other, but you chose to shake hands with your rival Ophelia. You even embraced the washed-up Atlantean and cheered her on through her darkest hour!

The Lord of Death relayed the news to us, so we revised our plans once more. Our proxies planted a blank-slate grimoire in the basement of the Bordeaux Municipal Library. It was enchanted to bind itself to the first candidate to touch it, so it turned into a race that Ina'nis eventually won.

Unfortunately, for a brief moment, you touched the grimoire while it was still binding itself to Ina'nis. The grimoire slipped from her hands. You placed it back in her grasp while you were carrying her out of the basement, but that was enough to stir the still waters of your soul - tiny ripples that would become great waves.

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