Mana Pool Snippets - Keystone

Part 6

“Okay… That’s it?”

“No. There’s more to it,” Katie said. “You still have Scott’s spellbook?”

Jaruka pointed to a makeshift desk covered in papers. Scott’s dark green spellbook sat open. Katie went to it, but paused. “You were ripping pages out of it?”

“Oh you saw that? I can explain.”

“Jaruka,” Katie said with an elevated tone. “This is a priceless tome of knowledge. You can’t just rip delicate pa…”

Jaruka took a page on terran anatomy and deliberately tore it off the binding. Katie was about to curse up a storm, but she saw light coming from the book. The duplicate page grew from the rip, making an exact copy of the original page.

“How in the…”

“You never tried doing it to your own?” Jaruka said. “Found that out when I blasted it with a plasma round and it regenerated itself.”

“What?” Scott said.

“At least I can take the pages and digitize them. Be grateful you can still learn magic when that heart comes back. Now, as you were saying?”

Katie shook her head and lifted the spellbook. She brought it so all five could see it.

“We know it’s a spell, and a poem,” Katie started, “but what Andrea and Dallas said to me and Scott, it’s hidden. Not entirely in plain sight but it’s there nonetheless. Follow me.” She turned several pages to a section of basic terran magic mechanics and placed her finger on one bold Celtic word in purple. “I’ve seen these colored words and thought they were a glossary type of format when looking up a definition.”

“I’ve seen those too,” Jaruka said.

“Turns out there are more words of that color, spread out through the whole book. And that tiny number on the top right of the word. That’s the word placement in a sentence. The purple words makes up one poem. It reads:”

The Darkness consumes an innocent soul,

thwart freedom and the abundant bowl.

A keystone will spark

to give souls a mark.

And the Darkness will take a toll.

“I was so tired to realize it that it stared right in my face,” Katie said. “Not only the basics are visible, but advanced spells and rituals are spread out. Isn’t this awesome?”

“Sounds awesome to me,” Scott said.

Andrea and Dallas agreed too.

But not Jaruka.

He appeared agitated by the discovery. In times he reviewed the mysterious spellbook in a rage. The rage coming from his situation. He did not put the pieces together and had to find a way to calm down and do the job.

“Of course, I found it,” Dallas said. “She never let me out, and I did not fight her for freedom. Plus I’m small, and I can hurt anybody I hug. So I talked to her, yelled at her, to use magic. I found that spell the day she transformed, and I pleaded her to use it on her parents.”

Andrea nodded. “I couldn’t trust him. I thought he was from space. I thought that spell could kill Mom and Dad. I was afraid. So, so afraid.” Her head lowered. “I hate being responsible.”

Scott sat beside her. “Sometimes we have to do what we are afraid of doing. You know, I was afraid too. I was afraid of magic and unsure what would happen if I loose myself to it. Become corrupt. And it nearly cost my life when I needed it the most.”