Damien catching the confused expression on Penelope’s face, asked, “What do you see, Penny?”
“This doesn’t speak about mushrooms. Not a word about it…” her words trailed still confused on why they couldn’t read it, “It speaks about creatures that the people don’t know about. About death and other things,” she looked up to meet Damien’s eyes.
“You must be special,” said Father Antonio taking back the parchments in his hand to observe it. Reading the lines and not finding anything that she was talking about. The priest didn’t doubt her. Like many other things, he had heard or read from this very library on how some of the white witches who had died due to tapping into the forbidden magic or because of being burnt, had hidden things from their own kind.
It was due to the risk in those times where people couldn’t trust anyone. The white witches like the vampires and humans had turned to greed and power. Wanting to know everything and anything their hands could reach so that they could use it for their own needs.
Somewhere it was written on how some of the witches had decided to hide the knowledge they had acquired on the potions, the spells and many other parts of this world which none knew about.
Years had passed but he doubted anyone ever had the doubt raise in their mind about it. After all, everyone read about the same things the other could read like the mushroom and here was this one person who could actually read the truth that had been over decades and centuries.
“You must have been granted a gift,” he looked at Penelope, his eyes staring at the girl wondering what it was about. She had only known about her lineage recently yet it seemed like she stood apart from her own kind, the one to read the parchments, “Parchment reader,” he gave the name to her.
Penny stood in her place hearing the words pass through Father Antonio’s lips, “Why?” she asked him.
“I don’t know,” he replied back to her, “The white witches hid information in this room but we thought it was only the books that didn’t hold everything in there. The missing pages is what most of us considered it to be the half information but it looks like it was more than that.”
Did that mean that what Sister Jera had meant to give her was supposed to be regarding the mushrooms and not about the actual written in detail by the white witches who were now dead?
Both Damien and Penny gave each other a silent look, making them wonder if it had anything to do with the alignment of stars that she could read the parchments which Father Antonio and the others had failed to read in these many years that it had been lying here to speak just about the good and bad mushrooms. Even when Penny had given him the parchment back in the mansion when she had taken it home, he had read but that wasn’t everything.
The parchment spoke about various things but what she saw and what others saw was slightly different. A piece of hidden information that none were aware of.
“What do you see in there?” asked Father Antonio.
Penny took back the parchment, reading out loud for both the men. Reciting every word that was written. When she was finally done, Father Antonio looked with a grim expression, his eyes staring at the bottle of potions that were placed on the shelf. He then said,
“I think I know what these are, there was a saying that used to go around the white witches. In the coven which now people aren’t aware of because people were forced to not speak about it. The saying went on something like- beware of the early birds who disguise themselves in the cloak of white when the cloak is filled with blood that carries the death.”
“What is it about?” Damien asked, his eyes looking blank. He didn’t like the fact that some creature had entered the church and out of the blue had attacked Penny. It was like everyone wanted to kill her right now and they had no clue about what the creature was or from where it came from.
“I don’t know,” Father Antonio gave out an apologetic smile as he couldn’t be of any help. The man belonged to the current generation where he had started to learn the magic only after the previous ancestors had locked and thrown the key which could unlock a sea full of information.
As the men continued to speak, Penny tried remembering and understanding what was written down here. Her head suddenly snapped, asking Father Antonio,
“Could you please explain the hour you spoke about earlier. The time,” he had spoken about the time when this hour was full of opportunities. Where it allowed good and bad.
He looked at her, giving her a questionable look but either way went to explain, “It is called the hour of the hourglass.”
“I know this,” Damien commented, his eyes narrowing, “It isn’t just for the magic but it is a portal for other beings. I thought it was a rumored myth. It was written in one of the children’s books for the pureblooded vampires,” who knew that the hourglass which was mentioned as a harmless story was going to be used here.
Damien said, “But then they are just words regarding the portal where a person could come and go from one world to another which is what they called the hourglass.”
“I think we were searching for it in the wrong books until now. There must be another book solely written on the hourglass,” Penny looked at both of them, and soon they started to look through the books which would have anything related to the hourglass and the hour of time.
Father Antonio picked a book but he didn’t know why he wasn’t sure if it really did have the information or not. He called Penny to his side,
“I think it would be best that you look at what we are going through. The last thing we need is to have the information on hand to only close and move to the next book,” She nodded her head. Standing between Damien as well as Father Antonio…
