Friday 14 July 2017, Glastonbury, England
After the burns championship, where Amanda spent a good few days telling her friends how her team won, especially in relation to Diana, showing off that trophy in the bedroom, where even Hellene paid little attention to that victory, letting her friends from the green team enjoy themselves. It was practically the whole week enduring O'Neill's excitement, but also the girls were organizing themselves to do something else that week, well towards the end of it. Much because of the events that happened the week before, they decide to return to the abandoned sites of Luna Nova.
00:10
The dawn for Saturday had arrived, they had already organized themselves in the green team's room, just waiting for the time to start going out to the back of Luna Nova, as usual having the same organization as always, even improvising a way of immobilizing chests and going out through the windows.
Still in the green team's room, they get a bit nervous, a bit anxious for what's ahead.
" Let's not be careless this time, we need to get these things, to know what happened, at least before Croix and Ursula find out," Akko said.
" And my book too, it must be there, which is quite strange... How did Annabel know anything would happen? Do Croix and Ursula know that we do these exploits? " Lotte asks.
" Of course they know, but they play dumb, somehow they'll only tell us they know when they put us up against the wall and take the information from us, when they catch us in the act.
" Anyway, let's take the necessary care, it can't be that all that was a dream, even if afterwards there was a part that was too fanciful," Diana said.
" It must be because it's real... I'm sure we're messing with magic and witchcraft like that " Hellene said.
" Let's not start a discussion about this, we will only know when the time comes," replies the older sister.
The eight of them touch the hands, then they start to leave their room, making the same way that they had made in the previous week, they go walking slowly until arriving at the library, as usual avoiding to be noticed by the Roombas that are watching the corridors, until arriving at the window.
From there they first make a point of leaving a sleeping pill to make Arcas sleepy and then sleep, with the dog out of question the girls begin to rappel down the walls of Luna Nova, until reaching the ground, using the rope, they go walking until reaching the bottom without leaving any trace.
When they arrive at the old entrance of the camp they notice that everything was as before, exactly the same, they were already trying to lift the false bottom, but nothing happened, it seemed that that part was glued in the ground, even with all the force that they did.
" Damn it! It feels like this thing is stuck to the floor, no use pushing! " Said Akko a little frustrated, as Constanze pulled out of Jasminka's bags some crowbars.
This time they were trying again with the equipment, but nothing worked, they were pulling up as much as they could, but the crowbar was still stuck, there were five of them, even so with all of them pushing together it seemed that the false bottom didn't want to lift for nothing, so much so that they took a short break.
" This is very strange, before we could lift this lid with the strength of our arms, even by ourselves we could lift this thing " said Kagari.
" I wonder if Croix and Ursula sealed it with some magic? " Marianne asks and at that the girls around put their hands to their faces except the Japanese girl and Hellene.
" A magic so powerful that we can't even lift it with the maximum strength we try to do, might be a good one " Answers the younger Cavendish with her hand on her chin.
" Enough of this fantasy, they must have put in some nail or cement, there's no point in pulling, now this hole is completely sealed, unless we bring something to break the floor, only that will wake everyone up.
" And what is your solution then you know everything? " Amanda asks.
" We can still try to make the light of the symbol appear, that's the way it was revealed, we have the cons that can generate it with a torch, it could be a good one " Diana said and the girls agree with their heads.
At this time in a way that nobody knew, Constanze had a portable projector stored in her bag, where she was pointing it in the same direction as the light did, she was putting it on the image she had of the symbol, which was reflected on the ceiling, which was even moving something, starting to reveal the device that opened the door, only that it would only last for a while, so much that Constanze wrote in a notebook for the girls.
"Be quick, that thing only has half an hour load, go who knows the code and then come back"
" I'm going, who's coming with me? " Akko said.
" I know the code, they need five of us, remember the lights need to be turned on at once " Marianne said.
" Then it's the same group as last week," Amanda said.
Akko, Diana, Marianne, Hellene and Amanda go down the corridor, where they start aiming the torches right where the colours are, opening the passage and running they go the same way as the previous week, trying to see if there was anything, arriving at the infamous corridor, where some things start to appear in the quintet's heads.
" What is it? Voices? People, places... " Diana said with her hand on her head.
" It's just illusions Cavendish, we're about to get Lotte's book, we'll find out what's in it, in the dream I remembered there was something being written " O'Neill said trying to endure the illusions too.
They kept going anyway, walking down that corridor, where the visions they were having were very strange, as if they were seeing the past, witches, magic, the same things they had seen in their dreams.
When they arrived at the end of the corridor, the book was not on the pedestal, where they made a point of trying by all means to look for the book, but nothing of that thing.
" Damn it! They took the book, we won't be able to find it this way " said Atsuko.
" I think we'd better go back, before we run out of time, we'll just take pictures to confirm " said the American, who started to take some pictures with her mobile phone.
The others did the same and then ran back to the exit, where Constanze took the projector away from them, making the door close automatically, in a strange way it worked and with all their curiosity the girls were already trying to know something, but the frustrated expression of the girls already showed that they were feeling very upset.
" Nothing? " Lotte asks.
" Croix and Ursula must have taken the book " Answers the Japanese woman.
" The room was the same as before, it was very strange to have nothing, as if they knew we were coming back," Diana said.
" But we had strange visions, the same thing I had dreamt, magic, witches, the past, as if this place hid a greater secret, as if all this was real, the walls showing it, the voices... " Marianne said.
" I'm sure this isn't just an orphanage and summer camp, Luna Nova was a witchcraft school," Kagari said, which made the girls laugh out loud, including Amanda, while Diana kept her hand on her head.
" You can laugh, this is the theory that makes the most sense, I'm sure that this place hides this secret, so much that I remember that my mothers used to say that this was a boarding school in their time, so it could be that this was a witchcraft school.
" A boarding school Hellene, I can't believe you believe this crap, we have to remember that it's Croix, she is intelligent, she knows more about technology than Constanze, all this must have been film projections, or even staged, they just want to scare us so we don't go deeper here, they hide a whole scheme " Answers the older Cavendish.
" You say that, but it doesn't look like filming, I remember very well seeing our mothers with wands in their hands, it didn't look like staging, it looked too real to be true," said the younger girl.
" Anyway we have to think logically, now let's go back " The one with platinum blonde hair simply walks away.
The three girls who believed in magic were sure of what they had seen, the others, on the other hand, were in the most logical reason, but still without discussing it among themselves, they just kept going along the path, arriving at the window where as always they made the climb back, arriving at the library and from there Akko had an idea.
" Hey, since we are in the library, why don't we try to find the story of Luna Nova, to know what happened, I am sure we can find these books and also Lotte's book, it must be in the restricted part, where the book depository is " said Kagari.
" Since it's less worse to be caught in the library than outside then I don't see why not " Said the larger Scot.
" I never thought of that, now that it's night time we can find forbidden information from Luna Nova, I find this place boring," said Amanda.
With that the girls walked to the book warehouse, where there were different books, some torn, others very dusty, but what really caught their attention was a specific row, where they had years in a row, up to 1999, as if it was a yearbook.
" These books are outside, but I never saw them before 2000, as if they were hiding what came before," Lotte said.
" I noticed that too, the yearbooks here are mostly pictures of girls who were orphans, the oldest one is from 2000, and the appearance of the book is very different, this one seems to be more rustic, very strange " Marianne said, while Diana and Hellene went to get specific books.
" It's because this used to be a boarding school, my mothers studied here, as Hellene had said, so much so that there are many places here that remind us of school, even here in the library " Diana answered, taking one of the books.
The two sisters took four yearbooks off the shelves, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, where they had a sense of what they were doing, practically leafing through trying to find someone, the younger one was leafing through the '87, where she managed to find her mothers, Laura McLaren and also Bernadette Cavendish in there.
" The mothers... They really studied here, but it's weird, look at all the awards... " Hellene said.
Underneath the name of the two had some awards, some with very strange names, like winner of the broomstick race, Salem award, Woodward numerology award, moonlight witch, Lukic Brewing award, Lilith moon goddess award, Blight summoning award, Beatrix healing award, Noceda Gliph award, these names already made the younger girl's eyebrow raise.
" Mothers never talked about such things " Hellene said.
" You two could stop seeing what your mothers looked like and help us find some more important books," said Akko, charging the two sisters.
" Akko, these yearbooks are no nonsense, our mothers are witches, they have awards with witches' names, awards that indicate that they worked with magic and that is no small thing, here there is a huge variety, our theory is... " Hellene was about to finish her sentence when Diana interrupted her.
" It could be that these are just titles with interesting names, you know mothers like a witchcraft, so you'll see they were from a witchcraft club, you'll know, they might be fond of RPGs " At this point Hellene, Akko and Marianne look at the older Cavendish looking rather disbelieving at the information.
" Diana RPG? Really? 1987, our mothers would know. " Said the younger one.
" Yes, it's an option, they must still have a game, maybe that's what they hide from us, they call their friends to play this RPG and that's why they don't tell us, because I think it must be interesting " The older one just shrugged.
" Whatever, let's keep finding the books, we have to find something " said Atsuko, while the sisters were taking pictures of the pages where their mothers appeared, somewhat surprised.
The other group kept trying to find somehow some more important book, without success when trying to find Lotte's, they only found some destroyed books, and when Akko and Marianne got together they were already noticing that they didn't look like that, seeing that the cover said some interesting things.
" This here is a book of magic " said Kagari leafing through a book with the title "basic spells".
" I can see that this one is also " said the Frenchwoman leafing through another one written "Brewing"
" Girls I'm going on what Diana said, we must be getting books from some RPG club, there's no point in magic existing, you're all too fantasy, gee " Amanda said rummaging through the shelves.
Atsuko and Leclerc kept looking and noticing the magic books, in a very strange way, taking some good pictures of the content of the pages, which interested them a lot, but O'Neill's group found nothing, they were even more confused.
" Look I don't know who was the crazy girl who started this RPG, but I swear she is making me angry, this nerd wrote all this, I don't want spell books, I don't have the bag to stay in a RPG table " Said the furious American.
" This seems to make too much sense in our theory to be an RPG, it seems that we are right " Atsuko said with a giggle.
" Nah! This here is just exaggeration of you, Nerd always writes too much, it's even the face of Marianne to play these RPG's full of stuff " said the salmon"colored hair.
" I don't know how to play RPGs, but it would be cool to try it sometime, I wanted to learn, only this only confirms our theory " Marianne said shrugging and then making a play here with Akko.
Amanda simply snorted, ignoring the two, continuing to look for more books, Akko and Marianne, taking pictures of the books, kind of amazed with what they had, some containing glyphs, different things of invocations, wands, a whole world for the duo to travel in magic.
The O'Neill's group was trying, a few minutes went by and nothing, the books were still only about magic and none telling about what had happened in Luna Nova in that time, they only had the yearbooks, magic books, some good books torn or quite damaged.
The Cavendish sisters were practically delighted to see the yearbooks with the pictures of their mothers passing the time and becoming more adult.
" Sis you have to be really stupid to think this is an RPG, our mothers are not the only ones with these awards, there are other students with the same titles, how can this be an RPG with several students? Sis I am really believing in this possibility, why think it is so bad that it can be real? Try to think with me " Hellene said while Diana snorted closing the 1990 book.
" Look, after all, even if you were right, how would you feel? Our whole existence is different, it would be a whole fantasy thing, have you ever stopped to think that if magic were real, we would carry with us the weight... The weight of dealing with a world that doesn't believe in us " said the older one putting her hand on the younger one's shoulder.
" I prefer to know the truth, whether it's magic or not, knowing where we come from, knowing what we are, to me that's what matters, and I'm just believing in the thing that makes the most sense, at least to me," answered the redhead.
" Oh Hellene, you don't have to be so innocent, you know what sex is, staying in this fantasy denial will only make you traumatized when it happens to you... I just know that if I want to have any child in my life I'll have to... Ahhh " said the one with platinum blond hair.
" I'm not playing dumb, I've already caught the mothers in the act, that's even how I knew about this, but that doesn't mean that I won't think of other possibilities, I prefer to think of all sides, since I also know that you will always think of the most logical side of things... " Replies the purple"eyed one who then put away the rest of the yearbooks.
" That's it! Let's go to our room, there's nothing here, only useless books, some crazy idea nerd set up a whole magic system involving this crazy stuff, there's only useless books here, I think that's why they don't let us pass, there must be a role"playing session once in a while and to remember what to do these nerds Croix and Ursula take the books " Amanda said.
The other girls agree with O'Neill, they go back in a sneaky way after arranging the books on the shelves and leaving the library without a trace they reach the green team's room, where by there they come to conclusions about what they ended up seeing in those books.
" There's only junk in the library and Lotte's book must be somewhere in Ursula and Croix's room, so forget it, we'll never get it.
" We'll have to make the perfect plan if we want to, but right now I'm going to focus on the skate championship, so I'm out, it was bad girls, but after the championship we can think about acting again " Hellene said.
" What for? You've already won " retorts the American.
" You never know, you can't sing victory before the hour " replies the redhead.
On another attempt to explore the abandoned place of Luna Nova and again there was nothing but an empty corridor, with Lotte's book missing, plus also the girls checked in the library also finding that there was nothing, at least in the most skeptical point of view, already the trio of the more fantasy girls was like finding a gold mine.
See you, book witches...