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Helios nodded. "It's imperative we keep this room secure, especially during lessons."
Helios placed his palm on the door, muttering an incantation under his breath. In response, the runes flashed red before dissolving from existence. Once the runes were gone, Helios reached for the doorknob, turning it and opening the door. He stepped aside, gesturing for me to go in. A part of me was hesitant to do so, but another part was intrigued by whether I could truly do magic like Deimos and the others believe or not. Steeling myself for the challenge ahead, I stepped into the room with my head held high. I wasn't sure what I was expecting the room to look like, but admittedly, I felt a little disappointed. The room was spacious enough, and had a cozy feel to it, but it wasn't what I would've envisioned for a room to study magic.
It was an office, that was the best way to describe it. The center of the room held a long wooden table with a total of six chairs set around it. To the left side were rows of obsidian cabinets with glass doors revealing the contents inside them. Mostly jars and vials full of herbs, oils, flowers, and other stuff. On the opposite side were shelves stacked with leatherbound books. Towards the other end of the room was an obsidian podium with a glass case placed on top. Inside was a thick leather book that looked heavily used. The cover was worn and dark with age, and from where I stood, I could see the pages were jagged and yellowed.
I stared long and hard at the book, feeling a tingling sensation running up my spine. I couldn't explain why, but I felt compelled to go to it. It was like a siren song beckoning me to swim towards my demise. There was something about it that latched onto me, gripping onto me for dear life and yanking my chain so I'd get closer to it.
"You feel it, don't you?" I shook the haze out of my mind at the sound of Helios' voice.
"What? What do you mean?" I asked, confused for a moment.
Helios tilted his chin up to the glass case in front of us. "You feel it calling to you, right? I can tell by how stiff you were."
I faced the book in question and nodded. "Is that normal?"
"It is if there's magic in your blood."
So, it was another piece of evidence confirming that I was capable of doing magic. By now I was starting to believe it myself, which led me to wonder why I never saw any sign that would've alerted me about my hidden talent. Wouldn't my magic have manifested over time or something? Wouldn't I have strange happenings to me because I was an untrained witch who can't control her magic yet? Or was that only in the movies?
"What is it?" I asked, my fingers twitching as the compelling need to go to the book grew.
Helios looked my way and nodded, giving me permission to do what my body was craving to do. I let myself go and walked towards the case. The closer I got, the more I felt a heat wave stirring inside me. When I stood mere inches from it, I reached out a hand and pressed it against the glass. A steady wave of energy vibrated along the surface and against my palm. It felt like a heartbeat, like the book was alive and breathing, calling for me to reach inside and grab it.
"Is it a spellbook or something?" I asked.
"Not just any spellbook. It'sthespellbook," Helios said, coming to stand behind the glass so he could face me. "This is the ultimate book of spells, the first one ever created by Satan himself. This was what was used to teach human women the art of witchcraft and medicine in the late seventeenth century."
My eyes widened at the reveal. The late seventeenth century, did he mean during the Salem which trails? If so, that meant this was the book that started it all. The birth of witches and healthcare workers who were looking for herbal remedies to cure the sick. Did my ancestors learn magic from this book too?
"I'm assuming there are other spellbooks that have been created long after this one, right? So, what makes this one special?" I asked.
"You're correct that other witches, wizards, and sorcerers have created many spellbooks and grimoires over the centuries, and like this one, only a select few are capable of casting the spells written in their pages. But this book in particular holds everything in its contents. Every medicine. Every potion. Every charm, spell, hex, curse, and ritual ever created by magic. Even now, its pages are constantly filled with new passages."
"They're being added on their own?"
"Yes. Nobody knows how Satan created it. Some say he forged it from his own heart and bound it with the flesh of his enemies. Others believe he manifested the book out of thin air. We keep it locked away in the case when nobody is in here because it likes to teleport itself to random locations. Even to the human world. I'm sure you've heard rumors or theories of a spellbook that some humans believe to have existed, right?"
I furrowed my brow in confusion, trying to look back in my life to see if I could recall ever hearing about a spellbook existing. I knew many believed witchcraft and devil worshipping were real, but that never pertained to a book. Then, as if the name itself was being whispered in my ear, I said, "Necronomicon?"
"That's the one," Helios confirmed.
"But that can't be right. The Necronomicon is the name of a grimoire created by HP Lovecraft."
He smirked."And yet many people speculate the book actually existed and that Lovecraft had it in his possession for some time, right?"
"Wait a minute. You're telling me that this is the Necronomicon? It's real?"
"That's exactly what I'm telling you. Though it's not actually called the Necronomicon. It doesn’t have a name, but the book itself does in fact exist. And it's right in front of you."
I took a step back, stunned at knowing a powerful and dangerous book of the dead existed. Admittedly I never read much of Lovecraft's works, but I've heard about the Necronomicon. Many authors have written about the book in their stories, and many have tried publishing books called the Necronomicon. Now I was questioning everything. Did to book appear to the other authors? Was that why they wrote about it in their books? What if the book fell into the wrong hands?
"I can see the gears turning in your head. Wanna tell me what's on your mind?"
"So much," I spoke softly, pulling back a chair and taking a seat. "I feel like I don't know the world like I thought I knew before. I don't even know who I am anymore. All this time I thought I was a normal girl in a bad marriage. Now here I am, a witch who's about to learn magic from a book I thought was nothing more than a fictional thing from a horror novel."
At this point I was babbling. I knew that, but there was nothing I was sure of anymore. Everything I'd ever known, or what I'd believed to be true, were all lies. I was wandering through life with rose-colored glasses, and now the lenses were removed, and I was seeing the world in a different light. The only thing I knew for certain was that I didn't know anything. I was a fish out of water even when I was back home. Now I was being forced to adjust and it was too much to take in.
Helios took the seat in front of me and sat down, resting his arms on the table as he regarded me with sympathy. "I know it's a lot to take in. It'll likely be a while before you fully adjust to your surroundings and what you're learning about yourself and the world around you. I can't say I fully understand what you're going through since I've never been in your predicament. Not exactly. When I was reincarnated, I only knew of what my life would be like here and that was it."
