Changed by Time ✔

seventeen.

"So what exactly are we supposed to do now?" Wendy questioned as she pulled her curls into a ponytail. "Grab the quill and go back up the slide?"

"No, the people who built this place had to come up with some way to get back out of here." Nolan walked over to the quill, eying it and looking back and forth from it and the portrait.

"At least we were right," Wendy said as she stood next to him, "this was definitely the right library."

"No doubt about it." He looked back to her, sharing a quick smile as his eyes wandered past her.

He walked over to the wall behind her, beginning to feel around it. Wendy turned back, raising a brow as she asked, "What are you doing?"

"They could've built a secret passageway here, too. So I'm trying to feel for a button or lever of some kind."

"You look like you're just feeling up the wall."

"You're so funny. If you come up with anything better, I'd love to hear it."

Wendy rolled her eyes. She stared down at the quill, slowly and delicately picking it up to observe. She ran her fingers along the edge of it, letting out a sharp hiss as she sliced her finger on the metal tip.

"You okay?" Nolan questioned without looking back.

"Yeah," Wendy watched as a droplet of blood formed on her finger, "I'm okay."

She was about to wipe it off on her bandage when she stopped, noticing a slight glow from the quill. She raised a brow as she turned it over in her hands, watching as the blood was absorbed into the tip of the quill.

The feather slowly turned from lavender to a smoky blue, raising slightly above her hand and turning towards the wall Nolan was feeling. It fell back into her palm almost immediately after, only streaks of the feather a smoky blue while the base was still lavender.

Nolan turned away from the wall as he saw Wendy staring back down at the quill. He walked over and asked, "What's wrong? Did you think of a way out?"

Wendy held up the quill and looked down to the small cut. "I think I did."

She swiftly pulled open her bandages, just enough for the tip of the quill to fit through. She stabbed the quill into her open wound, letting out a cry of pain as she felt the tip slice deeper into her cut. She could feel the blood pooling around the bandages and into the quill.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Nolan exclaimed, reaching down to take the quill from her.

He jerked his hand back as the quill flew out of her wound and into the air. Wendy let out a sharp breath as she readjusted the bandages, keeping pressure on the cut for a moment as the quill spun in the air.

"The books were telling us how to find the SuperSource," Nolan said as he watched the quill's spin slow, revealing the feather as a full smoky blue rather than lavender. "We have to use the quill as a guide of sorts."

Wendy looked towards the portrait and let out a scoff. "Of course it's only powered by the blood of superhumans."

"Superhuman blood contains traces of the substance that gives them their abilities," Nolan explained. "It only makes sense that something that contains the SuperSource can guide them to it."

"That doesn't mean I have to like it." Wendy walked up to the quill, watching as it floated ahead of her.

The quill began to turn slightly, prompting her to turn as she went against the wall. She pressed her fingers against the stones, feeling around. That's when she noticed the quill began to lower itself against the wall, mere centimeters from dragging the tip against the rocky edge.