Page 36 of Legends of Sorcery
Arion kept reading and knew this was it. By the time he reached the bottom of the page he had goosebumps. This had to be it.
The last page read: there are only two ways to counter this curse…
He turned the page over with great anticipation, but there was nothing. The other side of the paper was for an entirely different potion.
“No,” Arion yelled as he pounded his fist against the table. “Where is the next page?”
He tried to find some identifying mark on the paper to tell him what book it came from, but there was nothing. It could literally have come from any of the hundreds of books in the dark magic room, and if not there, then in one of the thousands of books in the archives.
Frustrated he stormed out with the paper in hand. Perhaps Zallon knew a way track the book the missing page came from. He carefully folded it and stuck it in his back pocket as he went to find his mentor.
“Zallon,” he yelled checking all his usual spot throughout the lower level. Not findig him there he headed upstairs. “Zallon!” he tried again.
“He’s gone out for a bit,” Jeffrid said, startling him.
“What are you doing here?” Arion asked.
“I stopped by to see you. Everyone’s been worried. You sort of disappeared on us,” he said.
“Yeah, sorry about that. Zallon’s been keeping me exceptionally busy.”
“Have you found anything to help?” he asked.
“No, not yet?” he lied. It wasn’t entirely a lie. Without knowing the source the page came from, there was really nothing new to share.
“Since he’s out, do you want to take a break and come hang out with us?” Jeffrid asked hopefully.
Arion thought about it. It had been days since he last took a personal break of any kind. “Yeah, that’s sounds good. I could use the break.”
“Great!”
Arion sat on the cliffs overlooking the valley with the castle looming high behind him. It wasn’t long before the others joined them.
“There he is,” Garron announced. “We thought Zallon had you locked in a dungeon or something.”
Arion laughed. “Not far from it.”
“I passed Valaria on my way over. She’s not happy with you, but I suspect she’ll be showing up shortly,” Garron warned.
“She’s been a mood for days. The whole castle is buzzing about it,” Kyler added.
“She’ll get over it,” Jeffrid said.
Only a few minutes later they heard her approach.
“Arion!” she yelled as she ran toward him.
In his mind she was going to leap into his arms and tell him how much she missed him, but that not what happened. Instead, she ran up to him, stopping short just as he was bracing to catch her, and pulled back and punched him as hard as she could. He instantly bowled over.
“You promised,” she said.
“I didn’t have a choice,” he protested. “Zallon’s had me doing research around the clock.”
“I told you this was going to happen, but you said I had nothing to worry about,” she reminded him.
“I know. I didn’t know it was going to be like this. I swear it. I miss you too. All of you,” he corrected quickly knowing the guys were watching. “I’ll talk to Zallon when he gets back about having a bit of free time. It’s going to work out. You’ll see.”
True to his promise, later that night after Valaria calmed down and Arion was able to spend some good time with his friends, he asked Zallon about personal time.
