Sins of the Father | Sebastian x OFC (Caroline Rookwood) | Ominis x Garreth

Chapter 66: Sacred Ground Part 1

CW:

Death.

Notes:

There's bread. Yes...bread. If that seems silly, have you seen the grotto in game?

Last Time:Caroline has woken up and Ominis' attempts to determine Marvolo and Merope's plans lead him back down the road of wizarding fairy tales. But as history and folklore will often show, stories are not passed on exactly as so. They're embellished or redacted or changed in numerous ways to fit an audience or theme.The same can be said of the Fountain of Fair Fortune.

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Caroline

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What had begun as a journey of three had become more at the insistence of their family and friends. One by one, they went. Down the worn stairs and the dirt path leading through the forest toward the village of Keenbridge until they were at the fork between a bridge and a lone tower at the base of the hill. Through thickets and trees and dewy grass, they walked up to the small open alcove of what Caroline once thought held a grand door.

There was no old woman to greet or bar their entry, no figure they could give their offerings to, and no whisper assuring them that Tessie's loaves and biscuits they carried were not meager offerings at all.

But there, under the chill of the summer air, they moved—driven singularly by the need to be rid of their current misfortune forevermore. One by one, at the instruction of Matilda Weasley and led by Tessie, up they went into the ruins. Moonlight cast ripples of shadows to pass across each face and Vincent trailed closely after their mother, hands clenched into a fist around his wand and loaf of bread. Ominis and Garreth stood nervously hand in hand along the edges. Anne, she could see, stood beside her and Sebastian— her impish smile only replaced by a grim and wary stare across the room while Sebastian peered at the watch in his hand.

The slow, steady tick and the howling wind did little to ease the heavy silence. And while Caroline returned the smile Tessie threw her way, she was unwilling to admit the dread creeping up from under her skin. However delicious and incomparable Tessie's biscuits and loaves were, Caroline could not speak of their value before the unknown. If they were like the god the Muggles spoke of, they would be blessed most assuredly. But if they were the spirits and other beings of old, they were fickle—favored one moment before being struck and cursed the next.

"What now?" Vincent asked.

"We give thanks." Matilda smiled, her hand sweeping around the room. Lammas Day. Any other year, they would have slept peacefully before breaking bread in the comfort of their homes with their friends and families. But tonight, they stood amidst ruined stone, desperate and weary.

Matilda smiled lightly as she ushered Tessie to the rounded nook southeast of the tower before gesturing to the other corners. "Choose one," she said, "We must cover all—one for the northern wind, the other to cover the southern seas. Face east to the rising moon and west to the setting sun."

Towards the modest and crumbling shelves of books, Vincent gripped their mother's hand and stood. To towers of cauldrons and wares, Garreth and Ominis went hand and hand and took their place. And Caroline moved, across dust and dirt with the Sallows, bearing their offerings beneath the watchful eyes of a sphinx carved in stone.

The watch ticked once.

And bells began to ring.

"Not one, two, three, or four— Seven beings and not one more.