Blessing Moon

Thirty-Three: Patengailte

Beanni grabbed Oslac's wrist and pulled him inside in a flurry of excitement. The door closed behind them, plunging the pair into deep darkness. The sudden envelopment of black took the Prince's breath away.

"Oh, it's so dark!" The wary shake in Beanni's timid declaration spurred Oslac on to scrabble for his light orb. He saw it as his duty to ensure that Beanni always felt safe, especially after what she had been through.

He held his light orb in his left hand and as it grew to fill his palm, rays of white light sent a sparkling glow into the blackness. As soon as that light reached the walls, lanterns chained to the rounded stone lit up, giving a warm orange glow. They revealed a lone Trabem Pool standing in the centre of a round room. Oslac also noticed a dark doorway straight ahead - directly opposite the door they both entered the cave through.

With slow deliberate steps, Oslac walked to the pool, taking in his damp and dingy surroundings. The sound of his footsteps on the slate floor bounced off the towering walls. Soon Beanni's footsteps mixed in with his as she followed his lead to the centre of the room.

He looked over the pool's stone side, there lying eerily motionless, was the water that the pool still held after so many years. It looked black under the deep dark night sky that peeked through the round gap directly above it - in the room's ceiling.

"I can't believe I'm standing here," Oslac broke the awe filled silence, his eyes getting lost in the dark abyss of the night sky. "The very place where Queen Astrid and her family appeared, the day they returned." He glanced at Beanni, who was mesmerised by the deep, dark water. "This spot right here is rich with so much history!"

Beanni tore her eyes away from the Trabem Pool, and looked at him with determination

"Come on, Oz," she said. "We need to set out the Potion's ingredients in the order that Genelle told us."

"Yes, yes you're right!" Oslac replied, then turned his focus onto the satchel that hung at his side. He opened it and looked down at the pile of random things that he worked for hours to collect.

But then his mind went blank.

He turned back towards Beanni, who stood looking at the satchel, then into his face, then back down to the satchel again.

"Are you alright, Oz?"

"Can you remember the order?"

"Yes, it's the etioirm-berries first," Beanni answered pointing a delicate finger towards the full interior of the bag.

"Oh!" Oslac delved in and quickly retrieved the small, pale pink berries. He collected six - the number that Genelle instructed him to get. He set them down, one by one, in a tiny bunch upon the stone side of the Trabem Pool. Once he was done, he glanced towards Beanni, who gave him a small nod. Her gaze then went up to her brow as she thought for a second.

"Next is..." Her face then changed, showing that she was suddenly struck with certainty. "Next is the ghea mach." He found the jar of ghea-mach that he had stolen from Claudia Slànacus' stores at Astrid Palace, and placed it beside the small bunch of berries.

"Then it's the wheat chaff... No! Then it's the goat hair! Sorry."

Oslac quickly picked up the wheat chaff and swapped it for the goat hair, then put the wheat chaff down as Beanni confirmed that that was indeed what went next.

"Then comes the smoke, and the water from Luna Lake at the very end." As Beanni announced the last couple of ingredients in the line, she pulled the vial that held the eternal smoke up, over her head. The leather strap hung from her hand as she carefully placed it on the wall between the chaff of wheat and the jar of glittering water.