It was something I could get used to.
The six of us sat around Brody’s kitchen table, one of the few pieces of furniture large enough for all six of us, and Kayden and I explained everything that had happened to us since we left nearly two weeks ago.
We spared no detail, and the explanation took a couple hours. We ended up stopping halfway through to make dinner, which turned out to be a small feast when feeding all six of us. The remnants of the meal still sat on the table—and a few plates had even ended up on the floor for the dogs to lick clean—when our story finally came to an end.
“So, is it really over?” Ellis asked as he hand fed Indigo pieces of chicken from his own plate.
In answer, Brody and Magnus both spoke at the same time.
“Yes.”
“No.”
The two looked at each other in confusion.
“It’s over,” Brody insisted. “You were busy at the time, but I helped collect the evidence myself. Blatant kidnapping like that is a serious crime, especially if it’s getting kicked all the way up to a federal level. The cult may still exist, but they won’t be coming after us anymore. We have nothing for them.”
Huffing in exasperation, Magnus haphazardly stacked a few of the empty plates and started carrying them over to the sink.
“We do have something they want. You heard that Grieve guy. He really thinks we’re the descendants of theMothers of the MountainandThe Tamed Soulsfounder. That kind of delusional fanaticism doesn’t just go away. Besides, we don’t have all the answers yet.”
Everyone else, including Kayden, rose to help clear the table. I tried to help as well, but I was told to stay put and take it easy. Apparently, although they were happy to joke about me being kidnapped and drugged, they were also worried about me.
If it meant I didn’t have to do dishes, then I was happy to let them spoil me a bit longer.
“What do you mean we don’t have all the answers?” Trent asked as he brought another stack of dishes to the sink.
Magnus moved on to packing away the leftover food into containers so it could be refrigerated for later. His focus remained on his task, so he couldn’t look up, but he still addressed the question.
“The dowel we found in the underground vault. We still don’t know the meaning of that.”
Brody took the newly emptied plates from him and began rinsing them off before piling them into the dishwasher.
“I suppose you’re right. If Chester Grieve thought the vault contained information about the children of their founder, then I can understand why he sent people to find it, and why they were so disappointed by the outcome. However, it doesn’t explain why the vault was built in the first place or why it contained only a simple wooden dowel.”
His voice and expression both had a sour edge to them, which was understandable. He and Ellis had also been captured in order to get into the vault, though not for as long as Kayden and I had been held hostage.
After the dishes were taken care of and the table was clear, Brody brought out the wooden dowel that had remained locked in the safe in his office all this time. It looked just as unremarkable as the last time I’d seen it. The piece of wood was clearly well crafted and carefully polished, but there was ultimately not a single noteworthy thing about it.
I also brought out Lisianthus’s journal. I’d managed to get my hands on it when everything withThe Tamed Soulscase was wrapping up, and I’d managed to finish translating the rest of it. Nothing in the journal explained about the vault or the dowel, but it was the only other clue we had.
The dowel and the journal sat together on the table, looking completely out of place next to each other.
“Are you sure there wasn’t anything in the journal that mentioned this?” Brody asked me, not for the first time.
I flipped open the journal to reveal the coded gibberish contained within, along with the loose-leaf pages filled with my translations.
“I already told you. The journal only explains how they escaped the cult and their shared husband. It barely even mentions the fact that all three of them were pregnant. Lisianthus didn’t seem to want to dwell on that fact too much, and mostly focused on the logistics of their escape. There’s no mention of an underground vault anywhere.”
Flipping to the back of the book, I turned to the very last page.
“The only page that stands out is this last one here.”
All six of us leaned over the table, examining the last page from various angles.
To grow, to build, and to survive. The future lies in the strength of one’s spine.
These were the exact same words I’d translated earlier. Nothing had changed. It provided no answers, and just sounded like a profound sendoff for an overall unpleasant story.