After walking through the Vault of the 8th — where silence had taught him to speak — Alcarion found himself called higher. But it wasn’t a climb. It was a current. Like a river lifting him from within.

He followed its pull until he reached the Temple of Flowing Light: a radiant structure carved from seashells and starlight, perched on a cliff that looked out over the entire world.

And above its arch — burned in silver — was a single name:

Sirius.

Inside, the temple was alive — not with words, but with remembrance. The walls shimmered with languages he had never learned, yet always known. Chants, star maps, prayers written in tides. It was the library of every soul who had ever searched for more.

And waiting at its center: a woman cloaked in white fire, holding a chalice of water that shimmered like the cosmos.

“You’ve walked the dark,” she said.

“Now you must carry light — not as truth, but as a question.”

She was the Priestess of Sirius. A guide of guides.

She had no name. Or perhaps… she was every name Alcarion had ever spoken with reverence.

She showed him visions:

– Of his own students one day becoming healers, writers, rebels

– Of his words printed in books he hadn’t yet written

– Of a school beneath the stars, where no one was punished for dreaming

And then she gave him his final task in the temple:

“You are not here to preach, Alcarion.

You are here to wonder out loud —

to walk the world with questions like lanterns.”

This was the essence of the 9th House with Sirius:

A devotion not to dogma, but to divine curiosity.

Alcarion left the temple not with a sermon —

but with a scroll of questions:

– What does it mean to remember?

– How many lifetimes does it take to forgive?

– Can love be taught through rhythm?

And as he wandered, he found others who carried their own questions. Together, they walked, learned, laughed, wept. They created a living school — one with no walls, only fire circles and river songs.

Because Alcarion had become what Sirius had always whispered:

A teacher not of answers —

but of the sacred quest itself.

PART XIX: The Crown of the Quiet King