Lithanya, Yaithra and Samantha were in The Tarot Library and searching for the book about Novaria. Samantha should’ve asked Shilin which section the book was under because it did take a while to find a specific book in this massive library. The three women were in different sections, looking for the book to speed things up.

  “Found it!”, Yaithra screamed across the entire library for Samantha and Lithanya.

  Luckily, Samantha and Lithanya were near where Yaithra was right now. “We’re here!”, Lithanya screamed back.

  Lithanya waited in between the tall book shelves with arms crossed and waited patiently. Yaithra appeared with full excitement while holding a thick dark blue and silver mystical patterned book. Samantha also appeared while dusting out the dust from her uniform. Yaithra placed the book on the wooden polished counter in front of the shelves filled with books.

  “Let’s go to the pages related to the smuggling of diamond merchants.”, Samantha instructed.

  “Hold on.”, Lithanya stopped Yaithra. “Don’t we have to go through the history of that continent? To understand it better?”, she asked.

  Samantha shook her head. “No, let’s focus on smuggling diamond merchants. Then we can spend time going through history in case we find out what powers these diamonds contain.”, she explained.

  The sisters listened and Yaithra opened the book to the specific page. Lithanya looked at Samantha. “Do we also have to question Heston about the teenagers?”

  Samantha shook her head. “No, Shilin did try to question him but Heston refused to answer anything.”

  “Then we need to take out our stinging powder. That’ll make him answer.”, Yaithra said while searching for the merchants.

  “What’s stinging powder?”, Samantha asked.

  Lithanya pulled out a small royal blue glass jar. “Our favourite powder that we always carry, The Stinging Answer Powder.”, she showed Samantha the jar. “This powder will make him answer.”

  Samantha took the bottle. “Do you think it’ll do the trick?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Here we are.”, Yaithra found the pages that were related to the merchants.

  Lithanya and Samantha looked at the pages Yaithra found. There were twenty-five pages related to the smuggling merchants. Each page had background information that was related to a merchant, including the history. And there was so much information related to each other but it was not a good way.

  “This is a lot of information to read.”, Yaithra mentioned.

  Samantha came closer. “There’s no need to worry because the information is very similar. There’s no need to go through the diamonds right now. Now that we found what we were looking for, we can go and question Heston.

  Samantha walked to the entrance quickly. Lithanya took the book and held it tightly so she didn't drop it on her toe or anyone’s toes. Yaithra also followed them with a bright smile because she couldn’t wait to use The Stinging Answer Powder. It had been a long time since she used that powder.

  The dungeon was behind the academy premises but in the mountain. Samantha, Lithanya and Yaithra appeared by the mountains behind the academy dorms. Samantha drew a silver mystical cat in the air then she slammed the cat against the mountains that burst into smoke after being slammed. A small opened dark entrance appeared instantly revealing a dark passageway. Immediately, a strong stinking smell slammed on them which caused Samantha and Yaithra to block their noses. Lithanya held her breath to not get that smell in her nose instead of blocking her nose with her hands.

  The smell disappeared slowly. “Phew, it's really hard to hold your breath like that.”, Lithanya was breathing heavily.

  Samantha and Yaithra gradually moved their arms away from their noses. Lithanya walked into the mountains with full confidence followed by Samantha and Yaithra. Heston was kept in a private cell because he was one of the most dangerous merchants.

  Heston was sitting in a corner with his arms and ankles wrapped with the metal chains. His body was covered with a light grey ragged uniform that was mostly torn. The door opened slowly and Samantha walked in first followed by the sisters.

  “Mr Heston, are you now ready to answer the questions?”, Samantha asked firmly.

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  He showed no eye contact. “I already told you that I won’t answer to anyone.”, he hissed.

  She decided to give him another chance before making another decision. “I’m giving you one more chance.”, she was serious. “Where are the other merchants that are in Novaria?”

  “I’m still not answering.”, he growled like a lion.

  Samantha was getting fed up and looked at Yaithra. “Do it.”, she instructed.

  Yaithra pulled out the jar while walking to Heston. Heston saw her coming to him so he moved further into the corner because he didn’t want her touching him. Yaithra opened the jar then poured a little bit of the powder on his skin. Heston started screaming when he immediately felt the sting.

  Samantha’s eyes widened with full shock that the powder reacted very quickly. “Now are you going to answer?”, she hissed like a snake.

  “All right, I’ll answer!”, he cried.

  Samantha was impressed that Heston changed his mind quickly. Yaithra went back to Lithanya with a proud smile. One drop of powder mistakenly landed on the back of Lithanya’s palm.

  “Ah!”, she screamed. “What was that for?”, Lithanya looked at her in pain and rubbed her poor palm.

  Yaithra looked at her weirdly. “I didn’t know there was one more drop on the edge of the bottle.”

  Samantha walked to Heston, not interested in the sister’s argument. “So, where are the other merchants?”, she asked.

  Heston was crying in pain while rubbing his skin. “Don’t rub too much otherwise it’ll make it worse.”, Lithanya said clearly.

  Heston gave her a death stare then listened to her. “Well, are you going to answer?”, Samantha asked.

  He looked at her with a few tears. “The merchants are living in Northern Novaria, the luxury part of the continent while the slaves stay in Southern Novaria.”

  “Slaves?”, Yaithra wanted to hear clearly.

  “The Native Novaria people, they’re the slaves.”, he answered. “But it’s really hard to enter the continent because it’s heavily guarded. And once you enter the continent, there’s no way out. Unless, you’re using a transportation spell that is powerful enough for my companions to not detect it.”, he explained.

  Samantha nodded while listening to every single word. “So, you’re saying that Shuchang was a slave before you put him into the dungeon.”

  “Yes. We captured him when his ship sank many years ago.”

  Lithanya’s head tilted a little bit when she heard the words ‘ship sank many years ago’. “What are doing with the diamond stones?”, Samantha asked.

  “Keeping them for ourselves.”

  “Liar. The diamonds that we found in the cells were put into potato bags and it was written "The Land of Shadowbrook.”, she raised a brow. “So, who are you sending them to in Shadowbrooks?”

  Heston glanced at her. “I’m not allowed to tell you otherwise they’ll come for me.”

  Yaithra showed a strange face. “What do you mean?”

  Heston looked at her with fear. “They will come and kill me if I let out the truth.”, he cried.

  Samantha came closer to him. “You can tell me softly and won’t tell anyone.”

  Heston shook his head. “I can’t tell you otherwise I’ll be killed.”

  “Samantha, don’t need to ask him that specific question. We’ll go back to the library to find more about Shadowbrook.”, Lithanya said like an empress. “Now that we know where those diamonds are going, we should focus on the merchants and that continent.”

  For the first time, Samantha actually agreed with a student. “Fine. But remember, we aren’t leaving you alone. We’ll make sure that you’ll give us the name of the person you’re sending those diamonds to. Don’t act like your life is more important than the people you tortured in the mansion, including Shuchang.”, Samantha said with frustration.

  Heston didn’t answer back and looked away and curled himself in the corner. Samantha got up then walked straight to the door, followed by Lithanya and Yaithra. The door was closed behind them and the cell was back into darkness.

  Samantha, Lithanya and Yaithra came out of the mountain together. The mountain entrance closed immediately and an invisible shield surrounded the mountain. Lithanya stopped then looked at the mountain for a moment. Samantha stopped then turned to Lithanya with some confusion.

  “What’s wrong?”, she asked.

  Lithanya looked at her. “Maybe we should ask Shuchang some questions since he was a slave before being put into the dungeon.”, she suggested.

  Samantha was having a bit of a bad feeling. “But he is in the recovery stage. I’ve a bad feeling that he might not remember much.”

  Lithanya came closer to her. “There’s more to this and Heston knows it. Heston didn’t tell us everything, he was reserved with how much information he was telling us. He didn’t want to tell us more, hence he was playing a victim that this person might kill him. Also, he could be communicating with the merchants right now by using his mind so the other merchants could start cleaning all the evidence before we can go to Novaria.”, she explained.

  Samantha didn’t think about that last sentence which made her more concern. She ran back to the mountain while drawing the cat in the air. Lithanya and Yaithra also ran after her.

  Heston was lying on the floor, communicating with the merchants in Novaria. Until the door was opened and Samantha ran into the room. Before Heston could turn to her, she struck him on the back of his neck, unconscious. Samantha turned to the sisters while feeling proud about what she did.

  “So, when do you want to see Shuchang?”, Samantha asked the girls.