Dorcas checked her watch. Three minutes until she would have to leave for Ancient Runes. It was enough, this wouldn't take long. It would either work or it wouldn't – if it didn't, she would leave, and if it did, she could return later.
She knelt on the grass and waved her wand over a small rock, which turned into an ornate silver handle. Grabbing it, she opened a roughly hewn hole in which the seven books were now stacked. She took out Horcrucious waved her wand again, watching the grey rock reappear.
Dorcas sat on the tree branch and opened the book to the first page where four lines of meaningless scribbles stood, thus far indecipherable. She opened up her cheap penknife, and, flinching, cut a small nick on the side of her arm. Blood welled up red and full. Dorcas twisted her arm, and a single droplet landed on the paper. Clutching the wound, she watched the page as it soaked up the scarlet liquid, leaving the sheet as clean as it had been before. Except.
Except where the blood had touched the page there was now a letter, a fancy L, spindly and ornate.
She squeezed her cut and let more blood drip out, watching it translate the code before her eyes.It amazed her. She made the cut larger to let more blood out andwinced at the pain, jagged and sharp. It dulled, though, as she was swallowed by the fact that this book, probably encoded for decades, finally revealed its secret to her, and her alone. Sweetest success of her secret obsession dulled the pain as she watched her blood pool on the paper before disappearing. After a minute thededication stood clear:
Like the snake of Eden
Given God's own breath,
Find the stuff of life
Then turn and eat death.