The Daily Lives of The Owl Familia: P2 The Truth at The Root
Summary: The rebel leaders stumbled onto something while into the many Secrets Belos kept.
Timeline: Two weeks had passed since the Day of Unity was foiled.
"Titan, this has been exhausting," Darius moaned as the rebel leaders walked down a hall.
Raine couldn't help but agree; in the week the three had been investigating the castle, they had found many secret rooms housing different experiments.
A shudder ran down the bard's back as they recalled the last room they found. It seemed Philip had been trying to remove bile sacs by any means possible. Given how old the equipment in the room looked, they assumed Philip abandoned this plan when he came up with the Day of Unity.
"Well," Darius said, bringing Raine out of their thoughts. "We have reached the end of the castle. Let's hope there are no more surprises."
Rain nodded weakly, and they took a few steps forward. They put their finger and thumb into their mouth and whistled. A surge of bard magic went out across the hall and returned to the bard a few seconds later.
Raine sighed as their shoulders slumped slightly. They looked at Darius, and the abomination witch groaned exasperatedly.
"For Titan's sake, I'm starting to think he just likes seeing me in agony," Darius groaned and waved at Raine. "Lead on, Songbird."
Raine didn't respond; they walked a short distance and looked at the right wall. Darius walked up to the wall and pressed a hand against it. Abomination goo came out of Darius's hand onto the wall. Soon, the goo found some cracks to seep into, and a click was heard a few seconds later.
Darius stepped back as the door opened, and a thin mist escaped the room. He waved a hand to clear the mist and walked into the room with the others behind him.
Raine frowned as they looked around the room; yellow flowers covered nearly every inch of the place. They knew they had seen this flower before but were drawing a blink.
"You know the routine by this point," Darius said, getting his fellow rebels' attention. "Search the room; Philip was a madman, but he kept detailed notes on all his projects.
Raine and Eberwolf nodded, and the group began their search. They didn't need to search long; Belos's reach notes were on a table in the center of the room. What was found next to the journal shocked them.
"Is that…" Raine was breathless as they gawked down at the three sheets of paper.
"Yes," Darius was scowling as he picked up one of the sheets, "The Healing Coven's dangerous spell."
The trio fell into a tense silence as they thought over things. After Belos's end, the rebels gathered The Most Dangerous Spells and put them in a new vault. They have done this so no one would be tempted to use the spells and cause even more problems during this period of change.
The only spell they couldn't find was the Healing Coven spell. When they questioned Hettie Cutburn, she revealed that no Head of the Healing Coven knew where the spell's sheets were.
"I don't even want to think about what this all means," Darius said after a minute, clearly disturbed by this find.
Raine couldn't help but agree. Still, they took one of the copies and began to look it over. Their eyes snapped open when they saw what was written on it.
"Deadwardian River Root…"
Raine's head snapped around so fast it was a wonder why they didn't get whiplash. That's why the flowers in the room seemed familiar; Tarra Snapdragon had talked about them at length many times.
"Titan, we stumbled into another one of Belos's lies," the bard spoke loudly.
"What are you going on about, songbird?" Darius asked, giving his cousin a curious look.
Raine didn't answer Darius; they put down the spell sheet and walked to one of the plants. They gingerly ran a finger across the tip of a plant and then turned their attention to Darius.
"Tarra used to talk about these all the time," Raine explained. "She said that all the Plant Coven's heads had one task given to them by Belos himself. They were to find a way to extend the flowers' lifespan."
Darius cocked an eyebrow, and he scanned the room. Next to him, Eberwolf growled a question, and Darius nodded.
"I agree with you, mutt," the former coven head replied. "It doesn't make a lot of sense. But, a lot that madman did and said doesn't make sense if one put some thought into it."
Darius looked around the room one more time. He then turned his attention to the table and picked up the journal. He flipped through a couple of pages as he speeds read.
Raine noticed a look in Darius's eyes as he closed the journal. He looked around the room one more time and then back at Raine.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't River Roots the main ingredient in Rejuvenation potions?" Darius asked.
Raine nodded awkwardly, and they saw the plan forming in their cousin's head.
"I might just be able to use this," Darius muttered, scanning the room once before looking at Raine. "Come, Songbird. I believe we could use some "us" time, and I can't think of anything better than visiting a certain family."
(M Corner)
I bet everyone could guess what Good ol' Darius is planning to do with the River Roots. Also, while working on the Sisters' Family vacation, I realized this month marks the year anniversary since I started writing this series. Where does the time go?