Somewhere deep down in her heart, Penny wished she had met the late lady. What Penny didn’t know was that time had let her meet the lady, walking past each other where Penny didn’t know who the lady was but the woman who had walked by her one of those days in the church was the very person whom she now wished to meet.
To think she lived here and Alexander was her son, she couldn’t stop the genuine respect she felt right now. The woman had been considerate and like many others wanted a life of peace but the black witches had got to her. Lord Alexander knew about it but the man was a lord of the whole West land and he had to act the part without raging out his anger for what happened to his mother.
“Are the books in the room?” Alexander asked to receive a quick nod by Penny. He went to one of the closets, opening it and pulling the bell. In less than a minute, the ghost butler arrived. It made Penny wonder if the man had run to reach here, thinking about it she smiled to herself, “There are some old rusted books that are in Damien’s room. Get all of them here.”
“Yes, milord,” Martin bowed his head and went out. The butler returned back with all the books using just one hand to balance everything out, “Where do I place it, Sir?” he asked for instructions.
“Here, should be fine,” he pointed out at the table and the butler placed all the books without letting any fall down.
“You can leave,” Alexander said to have the butler close the door behind him and walk away. It looked like the lord trusted Martin a lot to let him see this side of the mansion which she doubted anyone saw at all, “Did you try reading it?” he asked Damien who smiled.
“Yes, I can. It speaks about how to grow mushrooms and carrots and whatnot. Aunt Isabelle sure had a sense of humor to camouflage it with a spell that we couldn’t read,” this brought a smile on Lord Alexander’s lips.
“Others might not be able to read it right now but it is better that you burn the moon signs once you are done reading it,” he looked at Penny for her to nod.
“I know!” Penny’s sudden exclamation startled both the men, “The book of clouds and weather speaks about plants and flowers. They have a scent. The reason why the potions don’t have labels is so that others will never come to misuse it. Only the white witches can smell and tell what each other they belong to.”
“And how do we know what it belongs to?” asked Damien which even Alexander had no answer to at the moment.
She pulled one of the books which the butler had placed. Tapping on the surface of it, she said, “This one speaks about the use. They are very subtle hints and do not talk directly. But they are all in here,” she assured them.
“Looks like you both will be doing a lot of reading.”
The next couple of hours and two days were spent reading the book and deciphering what it was all about. What was in here in the mansion was just a portion of what was in the secret room. They had to know the scent and use the potions. The witches didn’t mean to eat the information but were only protecting what they knew.
With many books, both Alexander and Penelope sectioned the books to read and complete it. Apart from the identification of the scent, Penny found out something that was scribbled in haste.
It read-‘Making of charm stones’.
She went through the content but it appeared to differ from the way the church did. Finally, they decided to create one of the potions which were to heal the injury. No potion had ever been mentioned like this before. The maximum a white witch ever did was give some herbs but healing wound was something unheard of.
“I don’t think we got everything right in here,” Penny looked down at the boiling pot which had turned black.
“Hmm,” Alexander stared at it, picking the book he said, “We added everything that was needed. Roots of chimole, hair of the cat, nail of an old man, a drop of blood.”
Damien who couldn’t read the book was reading a normal book that he had borrowed from Alexander’s library, hearing what they were doing, he leaned slightly forward to see what his cousin and his mouse were up to. Seeing the state of the pot, he frowned along with the ingredients that were listed. He didn’t know why but it didn’t look like it was anything remotely close to what one would use for healing.
Raising his brows and pushing the glasses back on the bridge of his nose that had slid down, he went back to reading while leaving the excited children with the cookbooks, until he heard Alexander’s voice,
“Let’s test this on you, Damien,” the lord looked at him with a serious expression.
“Oh, hell no! Are you serious?”
“You will be fine” Penny commented before looking at him sweetly when he narrowed his eyes, “You told you would trust me.”
“You? Yes. That thing? Not happening,” he shook his head.
Lord Alexander looked back at the pot and then the ingredients they had added. It was often told on how white magic had to be handled delicately as one misstep could touch and open the forbidden magic. Something didn’t feel right. At least with how the potion turned out to look.
Damien took another look at the pot before he asked, “Are you even sure what is written in there is right? All the ingredients used there looks like one a black witch would use. I mean you did add an old man’s nail.”
Lord Alexander was one of the first person to realize following Damien on what was going on, their expressions turning grim and serious. The room had suddenly turned quiet.
She asked,”What happened? Did we miss something?” looking at them back and forth. With the lord who was still trying to wrap his head around, Damien replied,
“This isn’t white magic,” it took Penny some time to sink the information in her mind, “There’s a possibility that you both have tried to tap the forbidden magic.”
