“Oh, no,” he laughed, “dying is much more pleasant. We’ve been in the Middleworld to make a deal.”
“Middleworld? I thought this is the middle. Also, a deal? You didn’t warn me about any of this.”
Veymor arched his eyebrows at me and pouched his lips. “Let’s remember one thing, you said ‘whatever it takes’, alright? Apparently, you didn’t like our act as much as I did. I didn’t see shit, and I assume you didn’t either. This is the Upperworld. Then, the Middleworld, the realm of your Gods and further down, my beloved Underworld.” He spoke of the Underworld with a cynical undertone, as if he hated the realm he had all for himself.
“You made a deal with another God, then?” I asked while my head overheated, and my understanding of the world corrupted. Up was down and down was up.
“Yes. I told you, I was hiding from Frya? Your girlfriend’s Goddess. I asked her to open your eyes a little.”
“It didn’t work,” I said. “I saw nothing but black dots on grey paper.”
He grunted, “What did she say?”
“Something in your language. She said my name and… tana or tara… ohara,” I repeated but struggled to remember more.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “Tana ohara means to live with poisoned eyes.”
It made sense to me, as I was the one producing the poison.
“I might have angered her by medicating Claire.”
“At least we have a lead,” he sighed. “I’ve estimated where it could be.”
“Why didn’t you go?”
“You want the grimoire? You dig. We have a deal, why should I bother?”
After drying myself up, I was not ready but able to leave.
“Make a portal in the woods,” he said and sank through the rune.
I slid through the door behind the tower and formed the portal with twigs and leaves. I had to do. Barely standing upright, I followed Veymor downhill.
We walked North, and the trees thickened every other step. This part of the forest was overgrown, untouched by the villagers. Veymor assisted me in climbing over gigantic roots, and the weight of time danced on my shoulders. Once he stopped, I scouted the area. The intense smell of the Underworld stood around us.
“Do you feel it?” he asked.
I nodded and grabbed the roots while chanting my poem until I had the exact location.
Buried under an older wolves den; my initial thought had proven to be right—to a certain extent. Behind various layers of paper and sand, we found the leather-bound grimoire and Veymor started tapping his foot.
I rushed through it, searching for something, anything, that would help Claire return to a sane state. Adoring my grandmother’s neat writing had to wait, as I was running out of time.
In the ritual section, I found a recipe for a paste that promised to detoxify the mind and body. It was my best guess. “Do you think this might work?” I tapped on the recipe with my finger.
“You got to do everything else, too,” he said and hovered his hand over the pages. “It might work but I wouldn’t risk it.”
“I have no other option. Take the grimoire and return to my room, I will meet you there and I promise you can have it soon. I promise.”
After pushing the treasure into his arms, I sprinted to the Di Centi mansion while repeating the procedure to myself.
Climbing up the stairs, I had to push myself through the crowd of servants.
Kress leaned on the doorframe with crossed arms. “Bad news,” he said when I approached him.
“What’s going on?”
He cracked the door open and let me through.
A man in a black leather coat crunched herbs and measured liquids on her table. He wore a crow-like mask. Evrett and Tonio were leaning over Claire’s unconscious body. She was still breathing and drooled on her pillow.
I stormed up to them. “What happened?”
“We can’t wake her. She hasn’t eaten since you disappeared,” Tonio said.
Doctor Di Centi frowned and patted Claire’s head. “My little girl. Perhaps it’s best to send her away.”
“Father, no,” Tonio scoffed, “we don’t know them.”
“That’s exactly how we lost your mother. I’m not making that mistake twice.”
The masked man poured his potion into a cup and handed it to Evrett.
“Wait!” I exclaimed. “Don’t.”
Tonio seized the cup from his hand.
“I can fix this, Doctor. I found a cure,” I said, though I was not sure if it would work at all.
“What cure?” he asked. “I won’t let you experiment on my daughter.”
“And I won’t let this cultist poison my sister,” Tonio insisted. “I will stay with Verra. We will handle this as a family.”
A miserable idea, as he would witness me practising witchcraft, but there was no other option left. Together we would set the ritual up faster.
Tonio shooed the cultist out of the room, and the Doctor kissed Claire’s cheeks before closing the door behind him.
“So, what do we do?” he asked while I collected the ingredients together.
“Call Loyra to prepare a hot bath and... you can grind these,” I said, passing the mortar over to him.
“Namikai and Byorn root in one potion. Are you insane? This could kill her.”
“Unless it’s not a potion.”
His face muscles tensed and he stared into my eyes, demanding an explanation.
“Just trust me,” I begged, “we don’t have much time.”
While he ground the paste and Loyra filled up the tub, I turned Claire onto her side and tried to remember the words of the ritual. I noted them on a piece of paper while circling the bath with pink salt and basil leaves.
Tonio picked her up and placed her into the hot water as soon as we were all done. Loyra clung to his arm, like a worried mother, unable to look at Claire without crying.
I stuck the paste into her nostrils and stirred the water chanting, “Hear me and accept my prayer. Take this soul into your care.” I kept repeating it and until Claire belched.
“What is this? Ancient
