Perzys Āeterña | Hope Mikaelson

Chapter 9

Once she was calm, they got to working on their plan.

Thankfully, MG knew enough to get them started. "Listen, my mom was working for Triad, and because of it I was able to figure out what they're using to mute the magic. It's this blood fountain made of skulls down in the tunnels."

"A blood fountain?" said Hope, cringing. "Gross."

"It's even grosser in person, trust me. I was looking for a way to shut it off, but I couldn't figure out how."

"Alright," said Hope. "I'll go find the secret tunnel, I guess."

"Thanks. We get our magic back, we'll have the upper hand."

"And then I can siphon the sludge out of Josie," said Lizzie. "Not that she'll appreciate it."

Josie rolled her eyes. "Great, then I'll just be shot."

"See?" said Lizzie proudly. "The new you is so snarky."

Hope tugged at Rhysaenya's hand. "You're coming with me. We'll be back as soon as we can. MG, keep these two from trying to kill or die for each other."

"Woah," said MG. "You need to go help Landon. We don't need you to be here."

"But I can't leave you guys here."

Lizzie groaned. "For the love of Frodo, go rescue your Hobbit. We'll muddle through."

Hope looked at Rhysaenya, who shrugged. "I'm still down to rescue Landon," she said. "As long as you are all sure you have it handled here."

"We do," promised MG. "No offense but we don't need you going Maegor on everyone else in here. Try to deactivate the fountain then go before it's too late."

The tribrid led the way down into the tunnels, where they found the fountain leaking blood on an endless loop. Hope huffed, crossing her arms. "I don't suppose it comes with an instruction manual."

A flashlight shone at them from the other end. "Dr. Saltzman," said Rhysaenya, waving at him. "Good."

"I told you to wait for me!" he told Hope.

"In a shocking turn of events, I ignored you."

"Yeah, Hope, about that–"

"Save the speech. Okay? I've paid the price."

"I see that," he said, noticing the blood on them. "What happened to your arm?"

Hope held out her arm, seeing a hole in her jacket. She frowned. "That Triad guy shot at us with Malivore mud. He must have gotten me too, but I didn't even feel it."

"It didn't leave a scratch on you," said Rhysaenya, amazed. "That's awesome."

Alaric held out his hands. "Backtrack– who else got shot?"

Hope gulped. "Dr. Saltzman, you have to trust me. Josie's gonna be–"

"Josie got shot?!"

"She'll be fine!" promised Rhysaenya, though she didn't know if that was true. "MG and Lizzie are taking care of her. They'll fix it. We just need to turn off the fountain."

Alaric reached out, using the dripping blood to make a series of symbols on the skulls. Hope stared at him suspiciously. "How did you know how to do that?"

"This is a dark object," explained Alaric. "Created by a group of extinct witch-like people called the Travelers. Anti-magic was kind of their thing."

"Now I remember," said Hope, though it was clear that whatever she learned about the Travelers, this artifact hadn't been mentioned. "But how did Triad even get it in here? How did they know that there were tunnels?"