The Spiritual Practice Order, because of its unique heritage of Circle Sorcerers, is eligible to don Silver Crown Eyepatches, enabling the nuns to perceive spiritualities invisible to the naked eye. Thus, even though the Church and the Academy are unable to detect the one-way interstitial gateways that have appeared in Midshire Fort City, the Spiritual Practice Order can.
That is why they have been able to rescue people who have mistakenly wandered into them, while the Church was unable to immediately rescue Priest Augustus.
The Order needed some time to locate a usable entrance within the city, secure it, and then allow a single person to enter.
All Shard had to do was provide 3,000 pounds for the ritual materials, enabling the "Spiritual Practice Order" to perform the ritual using methods resembling "Necromancy," allowing Shard to enter that ambiguous area between life and death as well.
