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Chapter Fifty One: House Number 666

Once everyone has lit their candle, we leave the temple again. It's time to find the special address that we received yesterday. The first thing we do is split up and ask the priests and priestesses about it.
I walk up to a young priestess.
"Hi, can I ask you a question?"
"Of course. How can I help you?"
"We are searching for a house with the house number 666."
"House number 666? I have never seen a house with this number in my entire life. Are you sure this address exist?"
"Well someone told us yesterday that we should meet them at this address, temple street 666."
"Well the temple street only has five houses and none of them have this address."
"Hmm. Okay, thank you."
"Have a good day."
I ask two other people but get basically the same response.
We meet in front of the temple to see what information we have gathered or more like we didn't gather because everyone seems to have gotten the same response. Yeosang who stayed silent the whole time suddenly speaks up.
"T-to be honest, I was too shy to speak to anyone but I looked around. Like Hongjoong says the streets ends shortly behind the temple but there is a trail that leads further into the forest."
"Isn't the spring of the second river nearby. Maybe it leads to there.", Jongho argues.
Seonghwa taps him on the shoulder and points to a sign that points to the left and says "Spring Trail ~1,5 hours", on it.
"The trail behind the temple goes into a completely different direction, so I doubt that it's also leading to the spring.", Yeosang tells
"I would love to see the spring.", San comments.
"We don't have time for that. It takes one and a half hours to get there, then we are probably going to be at least a half hour there and then the same amount of time back, plus we would need two more people and two guards again to guide us there.", Hongjoong says.
It's really a pity that we don't have time to go there. Hongjoong said that the spring is enchantingly beautiful.
"Should we explore that path then?", Yunho asks.
"I guess it is our only option.", Hongjoong answers.
"A-are we going there without guards? Isn't that dangerous.", Mingi notes.
"It's not an official path, so the guards aren't responsible for it. But it's not like it's illegal, we are just entering the forest at our own risk."

Yeosang leads us to the dirt track. It is actually quite noticeable and decently broad. The trees are quite thick and close to each other, so not much sunlight reaches the ground and we have to be careful to not stumble over something. Fortunately the path isn't that long. After only twenty minutes we reach a dead end. The track ends at a thick tree. Boards have been nailed into the trunk and build a very unsafe looking staircase. It leads to something in the treetop but it's hard to tell what it is from down here. There is a also a number carved into the trunk: 666.
Is this what we were looking for?
"Number 666. Does this lead to her house?", Seonghwa wonders.
"Do we have to go up there? It looks scary, I don't want to fall to death." Mingi shivers while examining the rustic staircase.
"You can hold onto my arm.", Yunho offers.
Jongho bravely takes the first step forward. I take Sannie's hand and follow after him. The steps are very steep and it doesn't take long until my muscles start to burn. The woman from yesterday must hide very muscular legs under her skirt. San is cursing behind me because of it as well as shivering in fear because of the height that we reached. One wrong move and it's over.
"Is it some kind if rule that the houses of clairvoyants must be built very high up and have an unbearably long staircase?", Hongjoong jokingly asks while panting heavily.

We finally reach the top and all of us collapse on the hardwood floor. I am almost hyperventilating and my legs hurt like hell. I hope we never need to get up here again. You would think that the view is at least nice but the two houses that the staircase led to is build in between the tree tops. All you can see is leaves but at least the sky can be seen from here. The two houses are connected by a rope bridge. We lay directly in front of the bigger one of the two, a big two floor building. The other one is just a small hut. A woman comes out of the hut. I am sure I have seen her before. Where was it?
"The grand priestess!?", Hongjoong exclaims.
"Good early afternoon. My mom is waiting for you."
The girl shyly smiles and waves at us.
"Your mom?!", we all shout in disbelief.
The woman we met yesterday is her mom? She doesn't look a day older than the priestess. How can that be?
We follow the priestess inside the house. We leave our shoes at the entrance and enter the corridor. I notice a family portrait at the wall. It shows the clairvoyant with the first grand priestess and a dark blonde man. They all look the same age and why isn't their daughter in this painting? This looks like a family portrait though, they look close and the priestess looks like both of them. And wait, didn't the first grand priestess live more than 2000 years ago? The current priestess also kind of looks like her. Or is the woman in the picture actually her? I don't know all of the grand priestesses looked very similar. The more I think about it, the more confused I get.
"Mom, you're guests are here!"
"Tell them to sit down, I am making some tea for us."
The girl shows us the way to the living room before we can enter she briefly stops us in front of the door.
She slowly opens the door and peaks in.
"Dad we have guests."
"Mhm."
"They are... young man in their twenties."
"You're boyfriend and friends? They aren't here to ask your mom out, are they?"
"No, it's the guys that mom talked about?"
"The boyband from Soul City?"
What's a boyband? And I have never heard about Soul City. The others look just as confused as me.
"Daaad!! They are clients!! From Wolkmaar!!"
"Oh!"
The priestess shakes her head and finally lets us enter. The man from the painting sits in an armchair next to a window. He musters us while we sit down at a round table that is fully laid out with cookies, pancakes and eleven plates and cups. The girl leaves to go somewhere else and leaves us alone with her dad who is looking out of the window now.

The woman from yesterday brings us tea and sits down at the table.
"Please take some."
She points at the pancakes and cookies.
"Your daughter is the grand priestess?", San asks.
"Yeah. We're really proud of her."
"Is your daughter the first grand priestess or the current great priestess or are they the same person and you're daughter can shape-shift like the clairvoyant in Vretefokl?", I interrogate her.
"What makes you think that we're associated with the first grand priestess?"
"There's a family portrait of you in the hallway.", Yeosang explains.
"Well, I think you already know the answer then."
So if my theory is true, then how old is she? Is the other clairvoyant also that old? Are they aliens like described in some novels? So many questions...
"But you're not here for my family history, are you? You're here for the key."
"Yes, do you know where it is?", Hongjoong asks.
"Of course. My daughter can show you the way. She is preparing for it in the meditation room right now."
"... meditation room?", San asks.
"Yes, you will need to use your inner power to get it."
We look at each other puzzled.
I know that Tongcheok is a spiritual country, but how are supposed to obtain a physical object through meditation? On the other hand, we are possibly speaking with a woman that is who knows how many thousand years old.
"My daughter will explain the details to you. Do you have any other questions?"
"We found a letter some time ago. It spoke about magicals. Do you know anything about them?", Jongho asks.
"You will find out more about them when you find the treasure. Any other questions?"
"Where is Soul City?", Yeosang asks.
"It's rude to listen to other people's private discussions.", her husband chimes in.
"What's a boyband?", Mingi asks.
"It's a small group of boys who sing together and sometimes dance at the same time."
"So like a choir?"
"No, they don't sing at the same time most of the time. For example one person will sing half of the verse and another one the other half, then one person sing the first two lines of the chorus, another the next two lines and another one the next four lines."
Sounds complicated. I also never heard of something like that. It would be interesting to hear it.
"If you're done with questions and all clarity is gone, then I would bring you to my daughter."

Author's Note:
Hello, it has been a while since I updated this story. I was unfortunately ill two times and had some personal troubles that kept me busy. Hopefully I will be able to complete the next chapter a bit quicker.