Lenaria: The Party Begins CONTINUED

Until Next Time - Part 5

Bella could see black hair with bags under his eyes. The bard blinked once, flinching when the man huffed out a breath of annoyance.

"Word of advice?"

"Hm?"

He glared at Bella, "Stay away from me."

The door shut loudly, thumping hard against the frame.

Bella stared, mouth agape with shock.

Honestly, that could've gone a whole lot worse.

Bella shook her head, hands clenching even harder as she yelled, "I'll get you to train me! Just you wait!"

She waited for a response. But after concluding there wouldn't be one, Bella pouted. She turned around, clutching her guitar strap as she stalked away back to the inn.

As Bella shuffled away in a nervous wreak, the man peered between his curtains.

Feeling cold, the man rolled his eyes and took a swig from his flask.

"Who was it?"

The man let out an irritated sound from the back of his throat, taking another drink from his silver flask. Sighing, the man said, "Just some bard wanting me to teach her."

"To sing?"

"No," The man closed the curtains, "To fight."

...

When Bella came back to the inn defeated, she found a very quiet room. Adva was in one of the beds, laying on their back with their long arms folded behind their head. The necromancer was staring at the ceiling, probably counting the cracks there.

Evgenia and Victor were at one of the desks, going through books Evgenia had to look for more information on the Moonstone. Based on their annoyed and tired looks, they probably couldn't find anything.

Minerva was back at polishing her sword, again. It must be a habit of hers to keep polishing her sword, maybe it was to calm her nerves?

Momoko was still sleeping, or maybe she was pretending to be asleep.

Adva lazilly looked over at Bella, a smile quickly growing on their face. Adva jumped out of the bed, tackling Bella to the ground. The bard screamed, squealing as Adva tightened their hold on her.

"Let me guess," Evgenia said, not looking up from a book she was reading, "He rejected you?"

Bella nodded. Then she snapped her fingers, "But no worries! I'll just ask again!"

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea," Minerva said, vigorously wiping her sword until her reflection showed. The knight sighed, looking at her sword before continuing to wipe it again and again.

"We have other things to worry about anway," Evgenia said, exasperated and tired, "We couldn't find anything else about the Moonstone. Even with the books our parents had there's nothing much."

Before they had left their parent's home, the siblings had taken some textbooks and journals from their parents. They tried to decipher as much as they could, picking out important information. But there was nothing on the Moonstone.

Their parents said it themselves.

They were the ones who found information on the Moonstone. And yet, there was no trace of it. Even if they had given all their data to Joana, Evgenia and Victor's parents were smart enough to make copies for themselves.

Evgenia cursed, shutting a textbook harshly. She thudded her head against it, admitting defeat for the day. Usually she loved learning about magic and whatnot, but not like this. This was way too many magical information that either she already knew or didn't need.

Victor sighed, "Eve, maybe this could help?"

Evgenia glumly looked up, not lifting her head from the table. In Victor's hand was a leather bound journal, it was thick with papers and bookmarks sticking out. The cover was worn out from years of being used. A string of glowing thread was wrapped around the book.

Evgenia quickly shot up, grabbing the journal from her brother's hand when realizing what it was.

"You took our parent's journal?" She practically screamed.

The others looked at her strangely. Adva pointed a finger at all the books around the siblings, "Don't you already have some of their journals?"

The witch shook her head, "No, this is THE journal. As in, the journal we're not allowed to touch. There's even a lock spell on it, hence the glowing string." She waved the book around then quickly set it on the table, mentally apologizing to the book for waving it around aimlessly.

Victor sighed, "Eve, this might be our only chance at getting answer. There must be something really important in there if the lock spell is still there."

She stopped talking, frown falling into a calm pout. Victor had a point.

Usually a mage's magic, any trace or spell they cast, would disappear after they died. It was mostly because the spell's main source of power came from the mage. With the mage no longer there, the magic would cease to exist.

However, there were instances of spells still occurring even after the mage had passed. Those spells were powerful, only the most skilled and focus of mages could manage something like that. Spells that last forever were usually used to lock people away, keep the land rich, or to protect. But spells that last after death, they were nearly impossible to do alone. It would require a group of mages, a shared magic spell as some may call it.

Take Mt. Rosaline for example. The mountains that bordered Icier, those were brought up by magic centuries ago. The original mages who had raised those mountains had passed away a long time ago, obviously. But the mountain still stands and that's because the magic is strong in the mountains. Magic still flows in the mountains.

Something like this, spells that lasted for centuries, was called an eternum spell.

Their parents were... gone.

And this book had a lock spell that was an eternum. Which means, it was very important.

But the question is... how do they open it?

Evgenia sighed, rubbing her eyes, "I guess we can figure out how to open this journal."

If their parents casted an eternum on this journal, than there must be something very important. Something they didn't want anyone to see.

But breaking a lock spell, one this powerful, could be troublesome. It'll take a lot of time and effort. Hopefully, it would be soon that they opened it.