06: The Parchment

Bloom sat near the only little table of the room and started to carefully open the parchment that Griffin give her.
It wasn't very long, more or less like her forearm. Its outside was covered in drawings and sketches, sometimes too faded to be recognizable. On the right side stood up the image of the warrior nymph that Griffin showed them, Hesperia.
The rest of the paper housed drawings of swords and gems, the portrait of a girl which hair shone radially like a sun, the drawing of a mysterious jewel who resembled a metallic flame and, drawn by a light hand, some landscapes.
Between a drawing and the other a minute calligraphy had traced lines and lines of notes, written in an incomprehensible language.
- Is this it? - exclaimed Stella, peeking at it over Bloom's shoulder.
- What did you expect, a tutorial? - Musa's voice was a mixture of fun and disappointment.
Bloom run her fingers over the drawing of the flame, absent-mindedly.
- We should start by translating this writing, don't you think?
Tecna knelt down near the little table and took a picture of the parchment with her inseparable tablet. When she turned around her eyes were sparkling with impatience.
- I managed to get my hands on Magister Aemil's latest tecnospell, I think that's what we need. It only takes a picture of the writing and...
- Magister Aemil? - asked Bloom, curious.
- He's a wizard in exile – started Tecna passionately – and nobody knows where he lives but sometimes he sends his spells, usually tecnomagic, in order to contribute to the development of the magic community.
Aisha laughed softly.
- According to my parents it's nothing more than a nice story and behind his tecnospells there's simply a lab that doesn't want to reveal his name. A wizard in exile? From what?
- Yes, sure, go on, mock me – grumbled Tecna – but so far his spells have always worked and when I'll translate all of this inscriptions with his tecnospell you will all thank me.
- What would we do without you, Tecna?- exclaimed Flora. The girl blushed but kept on typing undaunted.
- This drawings are all but clear... - whispered Bloom while her eyes kept going back to the mysterious metal flame.
- It could be anything – considered Musa, pointing at the different drawings – a piece of armour, this flame shaped jewellery, these gems. And the landscapes.... they're not ringing any bell. What do you think about them?
The girls focused on the drawings while the expression of Tecna, who was still sitting on the rug, got more and more frowning.
- Wait a second..
Aisha gently splipped the parchment from under Bloom's hands and held it closer to her eyes.
- I dreamt this place for weeks after we reached the Infinite Ocean through it.... Bloom, isn't this Roccaluce's cave, where Daphne was imprisoned?
The fairy stared carefully at the drawing that Aisha pointed her. The shapes of the nymph of Magix along the walls, the crystal at the center and the pool of water all around...
- Sure, this is Roccaluce! Anyone who made this drawings had access to Roccaluce!
- Look here...
Aisha pointed at the back of the cave. In the shadows, long lines of writing sculpted in the stone could be seen.
- I don't remember seeing them when we met Omnia. How could we miss it?
Bloom thought of the innumerable dreams that Daphne had sent her, of all the times she had found herself in the cave, of when, to fight Tritannus, they had crossed the lake.
- I don't remember anything like this either. If there was something sculpted on the wall I would have seen it. Surely that hasn't been done after our visit....
- Girls, we've got a problem.
The fairies turned toward Tecna, who flipped the tablet in their direction.
- It's not a code nor an unknown language...
- That's good, right? At least you can understang something! - exclaimed Stella, trying to decipher the writing on the screen.
- The problem is that a lot of letters are so faded they're illegible and so they also make a lot of words illegible as well. Look: it says "gem of power" and "balance of magic" but you can't read what's between them. Some inscriptions are transcribed here as well but the rest of them.....
Bloom bowed her head on the parchment, thinking.
- The only way to decipher this words is to go personally to the Roccaluce cave. We should go tomorrow.
- Do you think Alfea would still have a room for us? - whispered Stella.
- Who knew, this morning, that all of this was going to happen?