“Maybe you could see it somewhere?” she suggested. “Maybe it's a signature? It has to mean something.”
“It can be. She had a favorite spot in her garden full of blue and purple flowers, perhaps there could be lupines and lilacs,” he said thoughtlessly. “Can't say for sure.”
“You said she was a witch, right? Could she make potions?”
“No, I don't think so. But she was making magic powders.”
Violette got deep into her mind. Tinctures, potions and powders, although requiring different skills, sometimes were prepared from the same ingredients.
“I don't know that much about powders as about potions but I know lilacs are not toxic flowers andnever used in poisons. In the magic world we call them midnight flowers because they symbolize spirituality, believing that night is the best time for brewing potions.” She tipped her head towards the sky, processing her thoughts. “Midnight flowers are usually used in sleep powders and spells, as well as in cures for memory loss and to fight nightmares. And the lilac is a symbol of memory so I'd connect it to a powder of memory, an old and kind of rare spell.” Her head lowered, her index finger touched her chin. “Maybe the answer we're looking for is in her memories? Could she leave a message for us in one of her reminiscences?”
Dante was deep in thought for a short time, pondering over her words.
“You think she could leave a piece of her memory?” His shoulders got tense.
“Yes!” Violette actively nodded. “Some magicians can save their memory for centuries to convey a message to their followers, to teach them or warn them about something.”
Dante looked at the piece of paper once more, his eyes fixed on another flower –lupine.
“No,” he said with a low voice, not taking his eyes off the little drawing. “It's not from her memory.” A sudden realization cleared his mind. “It's from mine. I know where to go.”
Dante rolled up the scroll in a second and stalked forward.
“Wait!” His words caught Violette off guard. “Where do we go?”
“It's a place from my past,” he let out shortly as she aligned with him, moving further out of the river.
“What exactly?” She crossed his path, forcing him to stop.
His stone face looked right onto her. “I'd rather not have a conversation about it.”
“And again, you're keeping secrets. I thought we were past it.”
“It's not a secret.” An earnestness flickered in his eyes. “I just don't want to speak about it,” he said as he walked past, leaving her behind.
A white alcovewith cracked columns stood lonely among the thickets of various flowers and plants which could only blossom in the winter. Climbing vines of wild ivy entwined the structure from below to the roof, thick clumps of leaves hanging from above the bare bushes of the lilac. It looked sad and fallen. A neglected garden.
“This place saw better days,” Violette mumbled.
The place of borrowed sorrow,the words rang through her mind.
She could see anguish and dying in this place, not because of the ruins of stones but because this place reminded her of something that once was great and was making people happy, whoever was spending time here. But now all this is just wreckage of the past covered in dust and forever mourning. Desolate and forgotten.
“What are you looking for?”
“I hope I am not mistaken,” Dante breathed as his hand reached the spot under the marble bench through the tangled thickets of ivy. A little beige box made of wood appeared under its shadow. A little symbol of lupine decorated the case, the same as on the scroll from the lake.
“How did you know?” Violette's lashes flitted.
“I remembered I saw it before. Long time ago,” he said. Violette felt a tone of grief in his voice, the longing in his gaze as it fixated on the wooden surface.
He reached for a little lock and opened the box – nothing except a little crystalline bottle with a silver dust in it.
Dante took the bottle out.
“Do you know what it is?” The question fell from his lips as his eyes were studying the little vial.
“I am not sure,” Violette looked closely and then took it from his hand. “A lot of potions and powders share the same color. Sometimes toxic potions can look exactly like the regular potion for better eyesight.”
