Chapter 35: The Temple of Hecate
The journey to said Temple of Hecate took longer than they had anticipated. Pit having to carry Vinnia on his back was a hindrance. Zephynn carried her lance It seemed as though Zephynn was the only one who had taken notice of her hair. The others didn't think much of it. He squeezed the hair band in his hand and cursed himself for letting her push him out of the way.
Like Raven, though he didn't know it, he had grown close to Vinnia. He looked at her not just as a friend, but as a sister. It all seemed that way anyways. Ever since the conversation in Aria's home, he had felt so much closer to her. He almost wished that they were truly siblings. That said, she still scared him some. He also found it odd how he looked up to her when he was really much older.
It was that way for all of the party members. Vinnia, despite her overly cruel and demanding personality, was really the glue that held the team together. If she weren't there, there would be no doubt that the team would fall apart pretty quickly. She was the connecting line between the other three. Despite her nature, the others were grateful that she was around. And for these reasons they were headed for this temple.
They arrived at the temple as the moon was taking its rise. As they walked into it, they saw typical things for a temple. There were altars lining the walls and pillars to hold it up. In a way, it looked sort of like the North Wind Temple. However, bookshelves lined the walls between altars, covered with books of all sorts. Books also floated in the air from shelf to shelf. At the back of the temple, a large glowing sphere with inconceivable words circling it sat upon a pedestal. As they walked further into the temple, a voice suddenly rang out.
"Halt! Who goes there?" it called. Pit almost dropped Vinnia in surprise. In front of them materialized a transparent bluish glowing figure. The figure took shape and they saw that it was female and didn't have legs; however, she wore a dress. The figure squinted at them through narrow glasses and her hair was tied up into a huge bun. She held a book under her right arm.
"Who are you all?" she asked. There was a moment of silence before Zephynn stepped forward.
"I am Zephynn, son of Phyra," he said. He gestured to Raven and Pit, "This is Raven, daughter of Poseidon, and that's Pit, an angel in service to the light goddess. And the girl on Pit's back is Vinnia, daughter of Viridi." The glowing ghost woman squinted at them even harder.
"Three demigods and an angel..." she said, "What brings you here?"
"We're looking for a cure to the river water," Pit spoke up, "The girl on my back fell in." The ghost woman's eyes receded to normal size and she shook her head.
"I'm afraid I've lost the antidote recipe somewhere in the shelves," she said, "Ever since Lady Hecate vanished, the books have been going haywire. You can look for it if you want, but it might require a bit of reorganizing." Ladon floated from the sack at Pit's side instinctively and spun around the room, staring at all of the books. If there was one thing in his memory that he knew for a fact, it was the fact that in his past life, he had absolutely loved books. As he stared at one of the bookshelves, one of the books came up to him and froze in place. The bindings rose and shut as it made some sort of chattering noise. Ladon could somehow understand.
"Lord!" it cried, "What has brought you here?"
"Lord?" Ladon questioned, "How do you mean?" The book chattered again.
"The goddess's blood runs through you!" the book cried, "I can feel it!" Ladon's eye stared at the book in shock. "The goddess's blood runs through me..." he thought. Then he realized and asked the book, "Am I... a demigod? Son of Hecate?"
"I can see it within you!" the book cried. The book's chatter rose throughout the temple and all of the books stopped to stare at Ladon.
"Well, it appears your staff has some affiliation with the goddess," said the ghost woman, "Stupid books and all their chattering..."
"Lord! Lord! What is your command lord?" the books all chanted. Ladon, while hearing the book's words, was quite shaken by the news given to him by the book. If he was the son of Hecate... and Lilia was also a child of Hecate... that made them half-siblings.
The thirst for vengeance once again rose in him, this time even stronger than ever before. He had felt it many times since that last battle against Dark Pit. However, he quelled the fire in his heart quickly, once again managing to convince himself that it was wrong, and responded to the books' chanting.
"Is one of you the antidote to cure the spell of the river water?" he asked loudly and clearly. A book with red binding flew up to him.
"Yes lord, I am here!" it said gleefully, "What shall I do for you?"
"I would like you to give the recipe to that ghost woman down there," said Ladon.
"My name is Fauna," the ghost woman said in annoyance, "One of the spirits of the magical world." The book flew down to her and rested in her ghostly hand.
"Oh, here it is!" she said, a smile spreading across her face for the first time, "I'll get right on it for you!" She floated to the back of the room where there was a cauldron next to the large ball. She patted a bed nearby the cauldron and Pit took Vinnia over to it and laid her down. She was shuddering. Fauna then moved over to another shelf, this one holding many different mixtures and ingredients. The book was open, floating near where she could read it as she threw in seemingly random ingredients.
Zephynn, Raven, and Pit stared at her in disturbance.
"Uh... are you sure this is safe?" asked Zephynn trying to get a look in the cauldron. Fauna pushed him away.
"It's perfectly safe!" she exclaimed. A huge explosion of smoke burst from the cauldron as she threw another random ingredient in. There was a pause and then she continued, taking a glance at the recipe a few times. The others just stared in terror.
After about fifteen minutes, she shut the book and sent it floating back to the shelf. Then she grabbed a bottle from the shelf and scooped some of the drink into it. It was constantly changing colors. She looked at it closely and then went to the shelf one last time, grabbing the sugar and dumping the whole container in. The bottle released an explosion of smoke.
"Okay, seriously, is this safe?" asked Zephynn anxiously.
"Of course it is," said Fauna, "I put in the sugar to neutralize the poison." Raven suddenly looked sick and Zephynn had to support her to keep her on her feet. Pit, on the inside, was terrified, but on the outside, he just stared as Fauna brought the bottle over to Vinnia and spawned a spoon out of nowhere and stirred it before taking a spoonful and putting it up to Vinnia's mouth. She forced it down her throat.
Vinnia choked and sputtered before sitting up, her eyes opened wide.
"What happened!?" she cried out, "Where am I?" She looked around the temple and everyone stared at her. Raven then shot at her and hugged her tightly.
"I was so worried!" she cried. Zephynn could only smile. Pit breathed a sigh of relief. Fauna pulled a ladle from nowhere.
"Excellent!" she exclaimed, "It worked! Now, I'll just make the stew and you can all stay the night!" She began throwing more ingredients into the cauldron and then stirred it with the ladle. The four party members stared at Fauna blankly, seeing as how she had not bothered to even dump out or wash the cauldron. Needless to say, none of them had stew that night.