The Secret Plains

20

Monday was a nightmare.

Fell asleep during Ancient Runes, almost messed up the Pain Inflicting potion (firstly, I don't remember the name, secondly, why are they teaching us how to inflict pain??), then we had another set of training with weapons for a really long time before Nature Identification, which I messed up a lot. How am I supposed to know that that jar of berries isn't blueberries, its deadly nightshade? There's no label!

Good news is, we have a special session today that is replacing Site Recognition (I hate that class). Querida decided that it was finally time to open the library. Why they locked it, I don't know, but now it's open, and that "special session" was my class using the library for journaling. This is our first journaling class since the semester started, and they gave us these custom journals with our names on it! Mine has dark purple leather, with stars and my name in white cursive in the middle. It is honestly so pretty.

But I did find some more information on Il-Homan, thanks to Mr Begner, my Site Recognition teacher.

"Sir?" I asked. "Do you know anything about Il-Homan?"

Mr Begner visibly froze. Why is everyone freezing when I ask them this question?? I get that the place is cursed but it's not like the Council is going to break down their door in the middle of the night for telling me, especially if I say it's for "research."

"Why do you want to know? Surely you're not thinking of going there, are you?" he asked in a quiet voice.

I feign horror, "Oh, absolutely not! It's just for research purposes."

He seemed to have an inner battle with himself before eventually sighing, claiming defeat.

"What do you want to know?" he asks.

"Is there a chance that one can enter the cave without suffering any effects?" I ask immediately.

He looked shocked by that question, "Madness is a fickle thing, constantly changing, constantly evolving, but never disappearing. It can affect even the most resistant of minds and purest of souls. One falls to it eventually, especially in the cave itself."

"But, hypothetically, could someone get in the cave and, I don't know, light a fire? Would they have enough time to do that before they eventually fall?"

"Light a fire? You must be joking. The Tal-Homan around Il-Homan sucks the energy out of one's body, so that if they do make it to the cave without their mind breaking, their body certainly would, therefore rendering them unable to do even the slightest actions, let alone light a fire."

"But I heard," I persisted, "that Tal-Homan doesn't affect animals. Couldn't a vampire or a werewolf turn into their animal counterparts, a bat or a wolf, and enter the cave?"

"Well, certainly they can. But you think they would need actual hands to light the fire?"

My eyes widened. Yeah, they would, but it just doesn't add up. "Exactly," he continues, seeing the look on my face. "And once they turn back to their original body, they will be hit full force with the strongest dose of Tal-Homan that Il-Homan has to offer. And, well, their body, mind or both break." he stood up from his seat. "Are we done here?"

"Are you sure, sir? There's no way to enter without total...death?"

He hummed for a bit, "Well, there is a myth..."

A myth? That is exactly what I need to hear. At this point, this entire investigation is just running on myths.

"The myth states that the 4 Mageians who fled from the cave, took a bottle of that uncontrollable madness with them, so they could figure out a cure. They took refuge with the Seers when they admitted to the destruction, per say, of Il-Homan. Together, with the bottle of madness, they made a cure and immunity to the madness. Apparently, the Council has themselves a tiny vial of it, and the other vial is passed down to one of the Mageian's descendants, along with the vial of madness. So according to the myth, there's someone out there who has both the immunity to the madness and a sample of that madness outside of Il-Homan."

My eyes widened, as I processed this new information. "Do you have any idea where this descendant might be?"

He shook his head, and I felt my face drop, "That was over 100 years ago, it's very unlikely that the descendant is even a Mageian anymore, with all the inter-marriage that went on back in the day. They might even be a mix of two totally different species, totally far away from Mageia. But, like I said, it's a myth, so it's unlikely that it even exists."

That discussion happened about an hour ago, and I tell Ilkesi all about it at home, but she dismisses me almost immediately.

"He said it's a myth."

"Many things are myths and they turn out to be true!" I argue.

"I don't want to look into the entire family tree of some dude from a hundred years ago!"

"Fine, I'll do it myself!"