The book of spells was placed on the floor and many other spells were scattered around the floor which was written by Penny as she was trying to figure out what the reversal spell was. With a quill in her hand and the bottle of ink that wasn't too far away, she wrote down the spell which was nothing less to a formula that needed calculations to be added and removed. She had been working by piecing them one after another with the knowledge she had so far acquired.
Damien who entered the room found Penny who was surrounded by parchment sheets around her. Picking the closest parchment he asked her, "Any luck with the spell?"
"I think I got half of it done, there's still a few more words I need to search," Penny answered without looking up at him.
Without bothering to remove his shoes that he wore, he stepped on the bed and let the front side of his body rest by going to the edge of the bed while he supported the upper part of his body with his elbows to look into what Penny was writing. Penelope had beautiful handwriting.
She put the paper down, letting herself lean back against the bed, she turned to look at him, "Did you find Durik?" she was worried where Grace had chased their butler out of the mansion.
"Not yet. I have asked the others to look for him. As in to look for a toad according to the description you gave me," Penny nodded her head, a deep frown on her forehead for not being meticulous when it came to the spells.
When Damien had instructed the servants to bring the toad to him if they found one, he had also ordered them to ignore Grace's order as she had previously asked some of the maids to chase the toad away.
If it weren't for her, the butler would still be here. Penny felt guilty for turning him to a toad but when the black witcher, Piers had acknowledged that he knew about the toad spell, she had automatically taken it for granted that he also knew the reversal casting process to it.
She felt Damien kiss on the top of her head, "The more you worry, the harder it will be to think. Calm yourself and take a deep breath. If you can't calm your nerves, the worry lines will increase, you will fail to see the obvious things that are right in front of you," Penny sighed at this. It was hard to do it when she had turned someone to a toad, especially the skittish butler of the mansion.
"I haven't done this before…" she had never cast a spell, "I just remembered something because of this. When we were in the forest grounds during the council exam. I couldn't cast a spell there. It was like the element of magic was non-existent but Helen could. I don't know if she was walking in the path of turning to a complete black witch which was why it didn't stop her," she said to him. Because of falling unconscious and falling sick right after the exam, Penny had failed to mention this detail to him.
Damien smiled at this, "I think we already have our culprits."
"Who?" she turned her body to look at him, her eyes searching for an answer.
"The council exam that took place might appear to have failed but with it, we were able to eliminate the main witches who were in charge of the ritual. We did lose many of the white witches but at the same time, you were one of the two people who survived and it was why I sent you there in the first place," said Damien to her. Getting up from the bed, he came to sit next to her on the floor with his back leaning against the bed, "You are the only one who knows most of the spells right now. Someone who knows to create the potions. We might as well say that you are the apprentice of Aunt Isabelle," hearing that she was the apprentice of Lady Isabell, Penny took joy in it.
Damien continued to say, "The witches who work in the church, they don't know how to make use of magic. Not the kind that is used to hurt and attack. The witches were never brought up to hurt others but to only defend them."
"Defending didn't work either," Penny stated to hear him hum.
"Why do you think it is so? Where doesn't the magic work?" Damien questioned her, knowing Penny had the answer herself to it.
"In the land of spilled magic...black magic has their own spells for it," Penny whispered. Until now she knew it was only the white witches who used spilled magic, "The forest was prepared before the examinees went there."
Damien's red eyes held her green ones, "Before we decided to hold the council exam for the third time in such a short duration of time, there was someone in the head council room who was the one to push the council exam. Councilwoman Ava. She's a human, makes me wonder why she's pulling the strings unless she was associated with Creed."
"Will you be exposing her?"
"I will need to trap her. Now that we know that there is a snitch in there who is the one holding the intel of what is happening in the council, there will be people who will be following her. It shouldn't take much time. We already found the clue we have been looking for and another thread which is your mother who hasn't appeared anywhere close to this town. As we are already sure about it, Reuben has set out people to catch her but we have been having a series of hunter bodies, which also means not all the hunters are corrupted and are still working for the council and not for the witches."
"There might be a possibility that she has been turned. The councilwoman. A witch who was turned to a human."
Damien gave her a nod, "There's a possibility but the woman has passed the test of the spray. She showed no hint of being a witch," looking down at the papers, he then said, "Let me help you," and they started to look for the spells together.
Late at night, Penny was still working on the spells when she raised her hand with the parchment of the spell she had written down on it, "I got it!"
Damien who was reading a book in his hand, accompanying her through the night while she had been working, he said, "Are you sure? We need to test it if it works."
Penny stared at the parchment paper, her heart beating loudly in her chest. She had done everything she could and she could only hope what she had found was the reversal spell.
"I think we should find Durik to try it on him."
"Finding him in this night is impossible if he decided to take a stroll out of the mansion," he pointed out to her. Damien gave it some thought and then said, "Grab your coat. We are going to hunt for some potential toads."