Kailu came in the room holding a bag of onions, garlic, and honey. She took one look at the scene and asked, “What happened here? Where’s Yunara?”
She asked the question in Spanish.
“You speak Spanish?” Manuel questioned in the same language.
“My papa often traveled to Spain to trade for supplies. It made for cheaper shipping. Sometimes he brought me with him.”
Manuel was too caught up in what had just happened between Yunara and him to be as impressed as he should have been. “Well, Yunara didn’t want to treat me,” Manuel said, stepping over the water on the floor and taking the bag from her. “Thank you. I don’t need anything else.”
Kailu looked at him disbelievingly with a raised eyebrow. But she shrugged, appearing that it didn’t matter to her much. “Well... alright. But I suggest you use that. Papa always treated me when I got scraped up with a paste of garlic, onions, and honey. Otherwise the infection could last for weeks or more. If we’re attacked by more Dark Ones, could be a problem,” she added on her way out.
Manuel put the bag Kailu gave him in the rubbish bin. Then he picked up the rag with alcohol Yunara threw at him. He didn’t know what Naiad mothers were doing rubbing cooking ingredients on cuts, but he knew alcohol cleaned wounds. Bracing himself, he cleaned his cut himself, biting his tongue as it flared up in protest. But he finally finished, wrapping the wound with what was left of the cloth Yunara brought as best he could manage with one hand.
“Manuel,” a voice called out.
Manuel jumped as Lorenn appeared beside him on his bed. “Lorenn!”
“Something bothering you?” she asked, from Manuel’s perspective, in Spanish.
“Why even give us a bell if you just appear when you want to?” Manuel grumbled, though refreshed to be able to use his native language. He was getting tired of speaking English all the time.
“I know you’re preoccupied right now, but I thought now would be a good moment, since you have your father’s book sitting there.”
“My father’s book?”
She flew over to the desk, the breeze from her wings opening the book and flipping its pages.
“You might want to look into a diary entry he made here. This is where he talks about a woman you’re going to have to meet.”
“A woman? The next chosen person, you mean?”
The owl chuckled, which annoyed Manuel as he wasn’t in a humorous mood. “The next chosen person you have to find is a man. An Italian pirate by the name of Luca Valentini. But that means that in order to find him, you have to be on the water, and basically, raided by him.”
“Are you telling me that we have to purposely be raided by an Italian pirate? Why are you telling me this, anyway? These matters concern Yunara more than they concern me.”
“In that, I’m afraid you’re wrong, Manuel. Yunara’s problems have everything to do with you, despite the fact you may not like it. The Ancient Ones have anticipated what Lord Stretton is doing for a long time. He’s a madman, and don’t think he won’t come for Spain, as well. His plans go beyond Caorfi, and your father was capable of understanding that, which is why he and your mother accomplished so much together. Not only that, but you must understand that you are only half human. Whether you like it or not, Ecencia is your country, and Caorfi is your world, as well. Read the book. It will help you understand your past, and will prove useful when you have to find a name you might recognize. Lucia Fuentes de Moreno might ring a bell.”
With that, Lorenn flew away and disappeared.
Lucia Fuentes? Manuel hadn’t seen her since he was a child. From what he knew, she was a close friend to his mother. He had very few memories of her. Just that she was a Duchess that lived in Málaga.
Manuel wasn’t left with much more than to read the book. He sat down in his bed and looked to where the book was already open. It seemed to be the very next passage from after the last one Manuel read.
January 3, 1835.
The Unseeables have asked of us a few tasks. One of them was to investigate the presence of what are called Dark Ones here in Spain.
Apparently, to summon Dark Ones, the Aracs have to have a place for the Dark Ones to return to when their task is complete. On Caorfi, this is no problem because the Dark Ones innately live on the forbidden islands there. But here on Earth it poses more of a problem, and there exists the risk that the Dark One will not wish to make the journey back to their world, and will stay and destroy their summoner. That was the reasoning that Aznia chose to come and live here in Spain for her own protection. It was harder for the Aracs to reach or find her here.
The Unseeables believe that the Aracs are setting up what are called returning grounds here on Earth, which will provide the Dark Ones a secluded zone to permanently inhabit undisturbed until summoned, which will make summoning here on earth easier for them. Part of the reason for them making this move is Aznia. They are trying to find ways to get to her and stop the movement she started in Caorfi.
Another reason for this move is the Aracs want more control here on Earth. They see this realm, the people that live here, as weak. We aren’t even aware of the existence of Caorfi, and they plan to use that against us, to catch us unawares, and even blindly lead some into becoming Aracs under their control.
Therefore our first mission is to prevent an invasion before it happens. We need to find out where they’re planning to hold the returning grounds.
March 15, 1835
It has taken a lot of investigating, but we finally found the information we’re looking for. We’ve gone about following rumors and leads wherever we could find them. Aznia has a lot of servants, all from Spain, and without telling them anything about Caorfi or Unseeables, sends them to discreetly keep their ears out for information that pertained to anything mysterious or odd, especially around Lords or Ladies we were fairly certain had something to do with bringing Dark Ones to Spain. No one notices conversation spoken amongst the help, and her servants easily got information by word of mouth of other servants they knew.
The results have been fruitful.
From the rumors we’ve heard, we can deduce that the Aracs are working on two ends. They are using remote locations in the mountains of Basque country as the returning grounds, and are working on sending Dark Ones to live there. There have been recent rumors of people that go up those mountains disappearing, and we believe this to be the reason why.
On the other end, they have started converting aristocracy here into Aracs, as we presumed they would. One of Aznia’s sources who worked for a Lord in Basque country claimed to have seen her master in possession of a black glove with the symbol of a spider on it, something Aznia told her servants and servants’ friends to look out for.
It's becoming obvious that to stop the rapid spread of the Aracs there on Earth, we’re going to need help. It's time we began on the second step the Unseeables requested we take: we too will extend our reach. We’ll have to figure out a way to convince everyday people here on Earth of the existence of Caorfi, and teach them to hear the Unseeables like Aznia and I. With any luck, here in Spain at least, we can begin to unroot this weed called the Aracs that has settled itself here before it's too late.
April 1, 1835
The Unseeables have given us two items to help us on our next task a pocketwatch that can block memories, much like hypnosis. Secondly, they gave us a yellow powder than when applied, allows an average human to see Caorfians and Dark Ones. I have no need for such a thing, but it comes in useful for our mission.
We were hoping that after seeing Aznia for who she really is, it would convince my acquaintances that what we were saying was true. But most of them even after we had explained the gangers the Aracs brought to the country, wanted nothing to do with us, and we had to erase their memory of the entire conversation for fear they might tell the wrong people about what we had discussed.
We have only been successful in convincing two out of all of my supposed friends: Fernando Álvaro, a friend I´ve had since childhood, and Lucia Fuentes, another very close friend of mine, a Duchess living in Málaga. They were the only two friends of mine that remained despite my courting Aznia.
If we continue at this rate, it will be too late to stop the Aracs, because we know their network is growing much faster than ours. It seems my fellow aristocrats are quicker to opt to blindly aid in the destruction of this country than to aid in saving it.
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I absolutely love writing about Manuel’s father. I feel like this is his second chance at getting to know him, now that he's moved on :'(
Anyway, what are your thoughts on it? Let me know!
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