Venator : Devil's Moon

XXVII M E R C A P T O

Guys, I'm now going to change the pov from Ist ( I ) person to third ( he, she ). The reason's quite logical and demanding. Laura isn't the all-knower nor a psychic. She doesn't know what other people are thinking and she also did't belong to this hunter world since the beginning. So she isn't aware of Casstelia or the Deathstar spells or the unrest in the hunter city capital. Also, she now faces blackouts because of the psyche intervention while the story doesn't stop just for her. Yes, the tale still focuses on Laura, but now the speaker would be me. Another reason, as you'd see, is that some secrets are still kept from her and I need to tell them to you without a single word falling on Laura's ears. So naturally, I cannot let her be the narrator.

~~~

"Laura, open your eyes! Laura!" Sebastian shouted. He'd thought his speech would help her feel better, but the results were obviously contradictory to his expectations.

One moment Laura was sitting just beside him, trying to calm herself down. But the next moment, she'd fallen completely unconscious in his hands. He held her upright, shook her shoulders and patted her cheeks but she wouldn't react in any way. It was as if he were trying to bring a motionless doll to life.

"Laura, you hear me?" He could no longer control the panic rising in his breaking voice. This was just like before when they'd defeated Brad the Warlock. Laura had became unconscious and hadn't rosen up until next week. He couldn't go through the same procedure of crashing hopes. That time, he barely held up. But now, his uneasiness had increased several folds.

"Don't worry, a few blackouts are expected." Pamela was back. She held the thickest book Sebastian had ever seen and it also looked the oldest, even when compared to his uncle's priceless collection. In her other hand, she held a silver goblet through which grey fumes were rising.

"What you should worry about is this-" She placed the book in his laps. It was as heavy as it looked. The silver embroidered cover, through which a net of silver strings arose, was torn at many places. But instead of degrading the book, it added to its fragile beauty.

Pamela flipped it open and unlike any other book he'd seen, this book was indeed made in the old days. It wasn't printed. A beautiful cursive flow of ancient Latin adorned the yellow brown parchment.

"Is this-" Sebastian's eyes widened.

"Yeah, it's the Psychiatricana Ritualis . Don't ask me how I got this." Pamela cut him off.

Psychiatricana Ritualis, written by the great scholar and psychic Monroe, was one of the most important scriptures manuscripted by the Royal Society which was off limits to commoners, including the non-royal hunter society. Few of them were raided as history dictates but the existence of most still remained a secret. And Pamela having one such highly secretive scripture, that too the original one, was therefore quite surprising. She might make a zillion dollars just by letting a venatorian historian steal a few glances.

"This is more important." She said while flipping over a few pages. Though the book looked very fragile from outside, it was quite well maintained. The latin verses and translations hadn't faded out with time and apart from a few pages in between, nothing else was torn.

Now, Sebastian wasn't a polyglot. But if you belong to the Venator Society, you end up learning a few Latin words. He understood the title

Mercapto

But comprehending the rest of the article was beyond his limits.