The treasure hunt was set for the first week of August. No one knew how long it would last; no one said.
Word was going around that it would be played outside the temporal dimension, in "places purified from time". These are inaccessible and frightening places where time is banished, stops completely, and spaces expand.
This means that at any point in these purified places, one can find an access to other spatial dimensions, some of which are unknown to most wizards, sometimes entirely unexplored and always very dangerous.
"In purified places, it is as if, once time is removed, space explodes and produces something like a cluster of 'spatial excrescences' that hide behind, inside, under, or above the space itself"—this is how Professor Palladium had explained it to us during one of our last lessons. He then added: "Do not be troubled if you have not grasped the meaning of the phrase. It remains a difficult thing to understand until one experiences it firsthand".
To access the purified places of Magix, a written and countersigned permit from a wizard, a witch, or a third-level fairy is required—someone who has already passed the first two stages of Standard Magical Training. We Winx would receive the required permission from CUSAM from Miss Faragonda herself, who is a third-level fairy.