The butler stood in front of her with his black soulless looking eyes staring back into her green ones. It took Penny some time to finally realize it was not here or anywhere that she knew that she had met this butler.
She had met him during the time of Valeria. It was during the time both Damien and her were coming back from the slave establishment when they ended up stuck in the middle of nowhere in the forest.
“You brought me back,” Penny whispered, her eyes couldn’t look away as she gauged the butler who at first appeared to be simple appeared not to be simple at all. Damien was in his corrupted state and he had taken more than the required blood from her. What she had assumed to be a dream was not a dream after all. She would have pegged that he had erased her memory but she remembered him faintly when they met again today.
It made her question who this butler was who was working for the Adams’ family.
The butler looked away from her to look at a guest who was walking by the other side of the corridor and his eyes moved back to her.
Penny questioned if he was a different kind of witch-like the one she had met during the time in the council’s second examination. With the rituals and the leaking of the black magic, no one knew what kind of magic had come to reach the black witches.
She gulped softly before asking the butler, “Do you know my mother?”
“I have crossed paths with her but I haven’t found the time to chat with her,” the butler replied to her question and he then said, “If you’re wondering about some things, I will have to tell you I don’t side with anyone.”
She frowned hearing this, “You speak in riddles,” she pointed out to the serious-looking butler.
“What I mean to say is, I am not going to take part in the upcoming fight that is going to break soon. I am just a bystander. The book you’re looking for, you should consider it lost but safe at the same time,” said the butler to her. Penny’s eyes widened. Was he speaking about the book of Garlic because that was the only book she had been looking for, “I believe it goes by the name of garlic for humans and the book of Verves to some of the white witches,” he confirmed her doubts.
“How do you know about it?” she questioned him. If he was speaking about it, it meant he could read it too. Was he related to the white witches? No, it didn’t seem like it.
“The book belongs to me and holds something crucial which I wouldn’t want it falling in wrong hands where there is no business. It contains things one shouldn’t know about. Your mother was carrying it,” Her mother had it? What was she doing with that and how did she get it? She then heard the butler say, “I did mention I crossed paths with her.”
Penny who had only read about the book being mentioned in the other books that were written by the white witch couldn’t help but wonder what the book contained that her mother and now this man carrying it, “What do you mean to do with the book? If you know about that book…you are aware of the other books too.”
The butler gave her a nod, “I am but I don’t care for some mere little spells that I have no use for. The book that I have is not for you or any other creatures to look at. Consider it to be something forbidden that is not supposed to be looked at. Did you learn all the spells from the book?” he asked her.
“Most of them,” she replied. She was unsure of how this person knew so many things that many people weren’t aware of.
“Lady Penelope, take in only things that you can handle. The last time the book of spells fell into the hands of a person, the person got the spells engraved until the body couldn’t keep up,” advised the butler.
Was he speaking about the person who ended up with Murkh?
It seemed that the butler was a mysterious man who claimed to tell that he wasn’t going to take part and not side with anyone. Before they could go back to the soiree that was being held, Penny’s eyebrows furrowed and she said,
“I have something for you to read,” she put her hand in the pocket of her dress to pull out an old parchment that was torn to give it to show it to the butler, “Do you know what this is?” she questioned him. For someone who knew about the books and could read both the versions of the books, Penny couldn’t help but ask him right now.
He gave a single glance at the parchment and then replied it with, “This is a spell. Half of it I thought someone must have got their hands on it. Where did you find it?”
“A church father who is a white witch had it in his possession. He told, he didn’t know what to do with it and passed it to me. Might you know what the spell is about?” she asked him, her toes standing on the tips of her toes.
“Please wait here,” the butler walked away to come back with a parchment. He gave it to her, “I am not supposed to be telling this but the spell is used to bind the black magic. The spell won’t work right now even though you might find traces of the black magic right now. Only when the magic is out in the open completely, then it can be cast. I hope this will come in use for you when the black magic which has been bound will make itself free.”
“How are you sure it will happen?” Penny asked him. Taking the paper while reading the completed spell on it.
The butler appeared to be stoic, as he said, “If something exists it is for a reason and a purpose it exists. It is good to be prepared.”
“You appear to know a lot of things. What are you doing here?” she questioned him.
“Serving my mistress,” a small smile cracked upon his lips as he said this.
Penny remembered the first time when she had been here how she had caught both Miss Belle and the butler in a compromising position. Not commenting on it, she thanked him, “Thank you for the spell.”
