The Beast and the Sword Book 2: The Changes

Page 54: It's Complicated

Night came as none couldn't believe another month had gone by. Many of the Black Bull members had a peaceful night after a long day of missions, or lessons, or sometimes both. After a long busy day, they were all having a good night's rest.

All except one.

    Yami had exited the bathroom area as he let out a sigh of relief, having finished his "Midnight Battle" as he would put it.

    "Another day, another battle won." Yami said with a smile he looked at the window as he saw a certain barn emitting all kinds of sparks. His eye twitched, "Damn it, not again--I'm gonna have to have a word with them when morning comes. Speaking of which--" He soon started to go back in the direction of his room, "--Time to catch some Z's."

    Just as Yami went back over in the direction of his room, though that's when he noticed the library had been dimly lit.

    "Don't tell me sword boy is up late again."

    He went over to the library.

    "Hey Sword Boy, enough with the studying go to bed al--"

    He stopped in his tracks as he had gotten into the room's view. He saw a familiar raptor curled around a familiar young silver haired girl with spirits sleeping around her; Including a sand spirit that had been sleeping on her head.

She and Adrien had been surrounded by a tower of books, some had been knocked over, not to mention there had been several candles that had yet to be lit with the lantern she had next to her. In her lap there had been a grimoire and what looked to be a journal; a quill with fresh ink had been in her hand.

"Well this is a surprise." Yami said, "Never thought the Lizard Girl would be up this late."

He soon noticed one of the books that had been next to her. He noticed the title on the cover as it had read, "FROM INCANTATIONS TO SPELLS: THE KEY TO UNLOCK"

This had only perplexed the Captain.

"Why was she looking at this?"

He soon noticed her grimoire had been open. That's when he saw it, a set of red words that had been just underneath where the incantation had been written.

His eyes widened in shock, "The hell?" He took the grimoire from her lap to get a closer look, "What is this? How did those words get here?!"

He soon turned the page to see if there had been more of the strange red writings. That's when he noticed something--

"... The page is warm?"

He soon looked at the journal that had been at her side. He set her grimoire aside before he took the journal. He turned the pages back a bit before he read the entry he had stopped at. It had read the following: 

"It's been a few weeks since the invasion. I'm still a bit shaken from all that's happened, especially with the man who commanded the dead. And yet, despite all the horrors I've witnessed one thing still plagues my mind.

It's something I can't bring myself to tell anyone, not Asta, Feo, Yuno, Plu-Plu or even Yami.

Hours before the invasion started, before I saw the Spirits of Death, Theo brought these riddles to my attention when he asked me to read to him. I never realized they were there because they were somehow written with invisible ink.

Uncle Rhya showed me the trick with invisible ink before, so it was easy to make the words visible, but I still couldn't believe my eyes even after Aurora helped me to translate. I don't know what they mean, or who wrote them, or even if they're a warning, but I think they might help me unlock my grimoire.