"Hey, can I get some?" he asks, his hand already reaching for a burrito.
Spark jumps on my lap, while Kelsi takes a seat next to me. She places a huge pile of papers and some books on her lap, probably everything she didn't have time to check or copy. However, she crosses her arms on it and looks at me with a frown.
"Boo, you look terrible... Are you alright?"
Liam comes to sit on my other side with his second serving of burrito. Like me, he seems tired, and just leans against my shoulder while he eats.
"Sorry, Kelsi, I'm just... exhausted. Can you update me on what you found?"
"You could take a nap," she suggests.
I look around. Yeah, maybe I could. Nora and her husband are chatting in one corner, busy catering to their guests. Selena is with Ayesha, who actually begged to get some food too. I can't blame her, if she used as much energy as I did... Now she's trying to eat with her injured hands, but I suspect she must be healing already, judging by how she can already hold a burrito. At least, I don't think she's dangerous anymore. She's seated in one corner, and with the house filled with werewolves, I don't believe there's any risk... Selena's husband took over the bathroom, and more wolves arrived inside and outside of the house. It's an almost continuous flow of werewolves, in their human or wolf form, coming in quietly to grab some food and go back out. It looks like Nora's cooking is the official roll call of the pack...
"...I promise I'll take one later, but I really need to hear what you found."
"Okay."
She grabs Spark to switch his position with all the documents that were on her lap for mine. The cat protests, but still curls himself in a ball of fur to get petted by Kelsi, while I have to open the documents and books. She already marked a lot of them with folded corners and some sticky notes she found Moon Goddess knows where. Next to me, Liam grabs some to help me look through the pile, checking the contents as well.
"Can someone translate these for me?" he asks.
"Those are necromancy rituals," I say out loud.
I know a lot of ears in the room are listening, although the discussion may seem to be going on only between me and Kelsi. She nods, and grabs a page to show me a new pattern.
"This is the most similar one I found to that of the tattoo. I don't think that professor was only spreading it, I think she actually may have helped create that tattoo for... whichever witch she worked for. I found a lot of different sketches she had done, and a ton more of them in those creepy necromancy books."
The necromancy books she mentioned are actually filled with dust, very old, and even stink a bit. I need to manipulate them carefully for the pages not to fall apart in my hands. Kelsi grimaces while petting the purring kitty.
"Yeah, they were hidden... Sparky found them in some secret panel under the rug. I think those are real witch's books, they don't have any information about a publisher or an author..."
I raise the book for Ayesha, sitting across the room, to see.
"Ring a bell?" I ask her, raising an eyebrow.
She shakes her head.
"Nope... but have you seen those runes?"
I nod. The runes on the cover... They are very thin, but to a witch, they are hard to miss. I put my finger on it. Those are a bit more complex than the key Clarissa had on her journal. An older witch, then? It would match the... dust.
"I'll bet that professor collects witches' possessions to study them," I sigh, still looking through the pages.
The handwriting inside seemed like it had been printed at first glance because of how regular the letters were without having lines, but the more I look, the more this was done with fresh ink. There are even some stains on the paper. It's written in a foreign but modern language I don't understand.
"Selena, is that Spanish?" asks Liam.
She frowns and comes over.
"...Portuguese," she says after just a few seconds of looking at it. "I don't think I can translate it, but I can find someone if it's urgent."
"...Maybe, but I don't think we have time," I shake my head, putting that book aside.
I go through the other documents, massaging my sore neck while reading. As Kelsi had said, it's a lot of random research, more sketches of what eventually became the tattoo design, and tons of notes... There are even parts of the genealogy of some witches. Not the full tree we saw, more like just a few branches of it.
"It's strange; can't all witches see the tree?"
"Maybe that professor was doing some digging of her own," says Kelsi. "I found a lot of research on witches, and for all three elements too. I think she was fascinated."
