Cassana PoV [https://i.imgur.com/XNFTriK.jpg]

With a flick of the drow's hand, all the floating furniture coalesced around the center of the room, and then she smashed them all towards the main door of the manor. "No one leaves this manor until I say so."

The drow mage cancelled the spell and then cast another one. One of the linens covering the divans flew towards Cassana and wrapped around her neck. With a motion of the drow's fist, the blanket tightened and lifted her up to the ceiling. Cassana instinctively grabbed on it with her arms, but it wouldn't nudge. Her head began to bloat and the white of her eyes started turning red.

"Such determination. Such will. If you were a drow, I would feel bad for you." The mage released her spell and Cassana dropped onto the floor, the white cloth spreading around her leg. She gasped for air and held back her tears.

"I see what you're doing," the drow continued, "you think if you can keep up that facade of courage, you can convince yourself that you're brave enough to go through this. But I can see through the mask. I know that deep inside, you are trembling with fear. I know that you know, there's no way you and your gullible little boyfriend are getting out of this alive. That after we get what we want from you, we will kill both of you, and there will be nothing you can do about it.

"I guess the best course of action for you now is to just... die. So why don't you get that blanket and tie it on your neck and hang yourself. That way, you could at least die on your own terms."

Cassana looked up at the drow standing in front of her, with her eyes now the same crimson as her hair. She wiped the snot from her cheeks and tried to stand up. She should grab the blanket and wrap it around the drow's neck but her arms were shaking uncontrollably.

The drow mage stepped aside and motioned for her to enter the parlor. "Chop chop. It's almost morning."

The redhead obliged. She dragged her foot one at a time towards the door leading to the parlor. It seemed like exhaustion had drawn out every energy from her body and she probably wouldn't be able to cast a simple light spell. She opened the door and the familiar scene of the parlor room greeted her. Except there was only one drow inside, Nymgos. All the lamps were lit and in the center was the painted box that holds the bow. Beside it was another box, which Cassana recognized was the one where she put most of the stuff she got from her father's secret room.

"You should have everything you need in here," the drow mage said, "so go ahead, we don't have all night."

Nymgos shifted on his seat and watched Cassana approach the artifact. What, you just sit there all day? She would love to throw another quip but her whole body was shaking.

Cassana opened the painted box and took another look at the weapon inside it. "I need a nugget," she announced.

"Do you really think I would give you a focusing stone?" said the mage.

"Just a small one."

"No."

"Look, the last time I touched this, the curse that's protecting it almost fried my brain. I would have died earlier if not for the nugget on my bracelet. If I touch this now, then you're gonna have to find another translator."

The drow mage produced a piece of wool mitten, the kind one uses for cooking, and grabbed the bow from inside the box and turned it sidewards to reveal the part with inscriptions. "There, you don't need to touch it."

"Can I have that?"

"No."

"Okay. And I need ink and paper."

"What for?"

"Translating runes like these is not easy, I can't do it off the top of my head, I will need to write down notes and scribble some stuff, it's complicated. So just give me some parchment and something to write with.

"I don't have anything of that sort," shrugged the drow.

Cassana looked around and saw a writing table on one corner. "There should be some vellum and some ink and a writing pen on that desk over there. Check the drawers."

The drow mage walked towards the said table and pulled open its drawers. She did find a bottle of ink, a sharp writing pen, and a bundle of parchments. She picked up the pen to take a closer look.

"Yes, that one, I need that one," Cassana.

The drow studied its sharpness, as it glimmered under the dim lamplight. "No."

"How am I gonna write? With my finger?"

The mage returned the pen to the drawer. She rummaged through the desk and under it and found a decorative feather. She lifted it and studied its sharp but soft tip.

"Really?" Cassana sighed, "has anyone ever told you you're too paranoid?"

"Not to my face." The drow marched back to her with the parchment, the bottle of ink and the feather quill.

"I need a container for the ink." added Cassana. The drow eyed her in disbelief. "I don't wanna mess the carpet!"

The drow walked back to the table to find something to hold the ink. She returned with a small, cylindrical metallic lid.

"Thank you." Cassana said with as much sarcasm and disdain she can muster.

She sat on her knees and proceeded to do her work. First, she pulled out documents from her father's notes that relate to ancient fae writing. She laid them all down on the carpeted floor. She then studied the runes one by one, first by writing each on the paper, and searching for its meaning from within the books and documents.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The process took a long time, longer than the two drows had anticipated. Sometimes Cassana would struggle to find the meaning of a rune and she would skip over it. Sometimes she would find the meaning of a rune she was not looking for and she would jump on that instead. She tried to be as organized as she can, but she had long accepted that this was not her cup of tea. Her father would be able to accomplish this better, and faster.

Not that she would complain about the time, she needed the time. If she can drag this until the sun rises, all the better. Hopefully, these drows were not medicated to withstand the daylight, and she could just simply run off.

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Cassana had lost track of how long she had been working on the runes, but she was certain it was still far from morning. She can feel her head getting heavy and her eyes getting tired. She had lost count of how many times she spilled ink on the carpet.

"Seti's breath!" she cursed as ink spilled onto the parchment she was working on. She tried to wipe it off with her palms but it only made it worse. She let out a frustrated scream that should wake the two other drows if ever they were sleeping.

"What's your problem now?" asked the drow mage.

"I can't write with this!" Cassana raised her arms, it was dripping with black ink from her fingertips to her elbow. So was her upper chest, her neck and her cheeks.

"What are you, a child?" mocked the drow.

"Try writing in this," she shook the metal cuffs on her wrists.

The drow pulled a sash from her waist and handed it to Cassana.

"No, I don't need to wipe the ink clean, I need you to take these off." Cassana again violently shook the cuffs on her arms, and tiny droplets of ink splashed around her.

The drow gave out a sigh of utter acquiescence. She produced another key and used it to unlock the cuffs on Cassana's wrists. "Remember, any unwanted move-"

"And Otheric's dead, yeah, yeah, I know." Cassana dismissed. She stretched her arms and hurriedly returned to her work.

The drow mage went back beside Nymgos and continued watching in silence.

"I have a question," started Cassana, as she was writing down a phrase on the parchment, "how will you know that I would tell you the truth about these runes? What's stopping me from, you know, just making it all up, come up with a bullshit result?"

"First, I know who owned that bow," explained the drow, "so if you don't get that right, it means either you're lying, or you're not as good as your boyfriend said you were.

"Second, I already know some of the words of that inscription, as the runes used there are close enough to the alphabet that we drows use in writing. So I could tell if something's wrong. Plus we could always just torture you, or your lover boy, or this entire village. I'm sure you don't want that to happen."

"Noted." Cassana sneered.

The young wizard was getting close to something, or everything really. The vital keyphrases were already there and she can figure the rest just from context clues. The words she found, however, spelled of more doom to come.

A loud noise interrupted her thoughts. She looked back towards the door and noticed that the two drows also stood up alarmed.

"Where's the rest?" the mage drow asked Nymgos, "they haven't reported in a while. Did you give them a task?"

"No." Nymgos answered. "I'll find them, you keep watch."

The big drow walked towards the door and out into the main hall. Cassana couldn't help but smile, good thing she was facing away from them.

"So, according to this," she began, letting no time go to waste, "this bow belonged to Maeve, the Fae-Queen."

"The goddess," the drow corrected her.

"Your goddess, whatever, I worship Eirene."

The drow started slowly walking towards the redhead, as the latter began pulling up the dried parchments, and pointing towards the translations she made.

"So, this one talks about a ritual, this one has no direct translation, so the closest I could get is transference or something. This one talked about Eon. Yes, the Eon. And as we both know, Eon and Maeve, they were more than just work-wives, if you know what I mean."

"Yes, I know what you mean." The drow knelt down on the bunch of paper scattered on the floor, reading each phrase, each word.

Cassana stepped backward and continued explaining, walking around the mage drow, "So if I'm right, this inscription talks about the means and the methods, and elements, needed to bring Maeve back to life."

A sinister smile had formed on the drow's face, and she was completely enthralled by the words she was reading, trying her best to keep them to memory.

Meanwhile, Cassana had walked halfway around the kneeling mage. "You're happy now? You think you can bring her back? Nah, not some ersatz sorcerer like you."

"I see you're not done with your insults yet," answered the drow, trying not to listen to Cassana.

"It's not an insult, it's just a basic fact of life. The difference between you and me, is that you learn magic by copying other magicians, imitating their hands and repeating their incantations.

"Meanwhile, I learned magic from reading books, scrolls and grimoires. I know every step of a spell, how it works, what it needs to take effect. I know the principles; basic, intermediate, advanced. I know all the history behind the spell I cast. In fact, I know that the early primitive form of a wizard stone is charcoal. Charcoal is what happens when you imbue fire elemental magic into a piece of wood."

Cassana might as well be just rambling to herself right now, the drow mage was preoccupied with her work that she was sure she never heard anything she said.

"And do you know what ink is made of?"

Or maybe she was listening. The drow raised her head as she was holding a piece of parchment and looked up at Cassana who by this point had returned to her original spot before she started rambling.

"Charcoal." It was now too late for her to notice that Cassana had just finished a motion with her hand. She chanted a word and a blazing pillar of flames roared around her. Unbeknownst to the drow, Cassana used her toes to render an arkogram on the carpeted floor around her while she was walking in a circle. Immolation Spell. She threw her arms forward and the ink that smudged on her body fed into the spell, giving it more intensity. It grew so hot, so quick, that it immediately melted the drow's clothes into her body. Her agonizing scream echoed throughout the parlor room.

Cassana was glad for a moment that her tricked work. The only problem was she underestimated how much energy this spell needed. All the ink in her body had now disappeared, and the spell was now slowly draining her stamina. To keep her from passing out, she quickly cancelled the spell the moment her vision got blurry. She glanced up, the drow waved her arms around to get free of the spell she put her in. Cassana figured it won't hold her long and quickly ran for the exit.

Outside on the main hall, the door had been barred by furniture, so she went ahead for the corridors. She can feel her knees getting weak, so she started checking the doorknobs one after another. She found one that was not locked so she opened it and pushed herself in.

Despite the lack of light, Cassana recognized what this room was. It was Otheric's father's private gallery. She walked in, minding the wet, sticky floor, and tried to hide behind one of the vitrines.

She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. That was a mistake, letting a spell consume her energy like that. If she didn't stop sooner, it would have drained her to dry. But she had never used ink, or in this case, tiny fragments of charcoal dissolved on ink, as focusing stone before, so she miscalculated. And she was not really good with fire magic overall. Still, it was enough to incapacitate the drow, giving her time to get away. For now she just needed to collect her strength and get to Otheric and so they can both escape.

She focused her hearing to listen for any movement outside and she prepared herself to step out again. But the noise that caught her attention didn't come from outside, but inside the room. She glanced to her left and she saw a dim light coming from behind one of the vitrines followed by a silent hum that seemed to call out her name.

She slowly walked to see where the light was coming from, and there on the floor, she saw it.

"What the--"