Chapter 398 - Track Of Time- Part 1
As Lucas was in the past, apparating out of the land of the dead was not hard and he appeared in the land of the living. His appearance changed to the mortal form and he walked around the land of the Bonelake. He had told Catina that he would need only an hour time to fix things.
There were only two things to fix, one was to let Crane know that he was leaving from here where he had burned the note so that it would reach directly in his creator's hand. The second was to pick the book from the dead to place it in the living world so that it could keep circulating just like it had happened in reality.
The only change this time was that he had sent a message to Crane.
The white witch, Isabell Genevieve had written other books that came to be known as the book of vegetables in the mortal world but while she was writing it, Lucas had written a book of his own. It was the very same book which he had used to bring Isabell back to life for the second time. Of course, at that time, the Hawverts didn't know about the book's existence nor did they know where to start and perform the magic.
"Where shall I put you now?" asked Lucas looking at the book that read 'How to work with Garlic'.
It was the time of evening and people were walking past him on the street where he stood. Hearing the tower bell ring, he pulled out the pocket watch. If there was one thing he believed in, it was the pocket watch he carried with himself. Given that it had skipped and moved forward to stay in time because of what the timekeeper did, the time always worked.
Before getting into the portal which Catina had created for him to walk in, Lucas had set time by pressing the button on the top. And right now, he had sixteen minutes. Most of his time had been lost thanks to Winston.
Winston was an idiot, but he would come to know that the book Lucas had lent him was not the real one. Lucas didn't believe in sharing. It was his book and no one else's.
With time ticking close by, Lucas walked to the one place where he believed the book would be picked by someone. He knocked on the door when he saw the man who was standing behind the desk.
"Is this open?" Lucas asked the librarian in a polite tone.
The man who was sorting the books turned around, "It is for the next thirty minutes or so. I will be closing it after that," answered the librarian.
"I will take less time than that," Lucas offered a smile and the man nodded. Walking through the racks of books, he looked around the place that was built to have the same architecture of placement of the racks as the council's storage room. Noticing that there was no one in here right now except for him and the librarian, Lucas continued to walk before taking a turn towards one of the book racks.
Standing in front of the books, he placed his hand on one of the books there, for his hand to sink in the air and he stepped inside it, a portal that led way to the council directly.
Though Lucas had turned to a butler in the living, he had always kept an eye on the deaths of the people who were connected to him. It was one of the easiest ways to avoid trouble. He raised his hand as if to summon something by stretching his hand,
"Where are the oldest stacked books of the witch?" he asked to no one in the storage room that was wide and dark. The boxes that were in the racks suddenly started to pull out one after another randomly to fall on the ground, "Fuck," cursed Lucas because it seemed like there were many things that belonged to the witches that had been stored by the council members.
Many more boxes continued to fall and he snapped his fingers to stop the other boxes from falling out. He needed to be specific. Sighing, he said, "Revert!" and the boxes that had fallen out, moved up in the air and went back to the racks they previously were in.
He walked around the racks as the time continued to tick itself. Catina, the timekeeper was someone who worked in accordance with time. If the hour was up, she wouldn't wait but bring him back to the present.
In a moment, his eyes turned pitch black and he looked at the racks. When he saw vapours of white coming from the other side, Lucas walked towards there and found the box he was looking for. When he got the box down, he read the heading on top of it,
'Isabell Genevieve'
To everyone, the white witch was dead and there were barely a handful of people who knew that she still existed. The council had the habit of taking belongings of unfinished cases and storing them in here. If the books were not here, it meant someone had taken it and that someone was the councilman who had an eyepatch on his face.
Councilman Creed was the one who had the books written by Isabell. He would surely return to this box again, after all, the book was stolen and handed to the scientist who used to live in the border mountains of Woville and Bonelake. He opened the last page and tore the side of it. Tearing another page, he left the book there. Even if Winston or any others wanted to search for it, they wouldn't for the next few years, Lucas smiled at this thought.
When he was placing the box back, he heard the sound of someone open the door of the storage room. Quickly going back to the rack, he entered the library room.
Picking a random book, he went to the desk where the librarian looked like he was packing his things for the day,
"Did you get the book you were looking for?" asked the librarian.
Lucas placed the book on the table, "I will take this," he said. He would have disappeared if he didn't notice a death reaper who was walking by to stop and look at him. It was a Grim Reaper and the person was none other than the sixth card, Greed. Lucas didn't know how much time he had left with but he needed to leave without causing any suspicion.
Greed was in his Grim reaper form which was why Lucas had noticed him. Lucas turned away as if he didn't see Greed at all. But that didn't lower down the then Sixth Grim's suspicion.
"Here you go. If you want to keep it after a week, make sure to get it back and sign it again," the librarian said to turn the registry book and Lucas took hold of the book, writing his name with the quill before pushing the book back.
"Thank you," Lucas bowed his head and stepped out of the library.
Greed who was standing outside stared at Lucas who took his leave. He changed his form to a mortal one and stepped into the library. The librarian seeing the young blue-eyed man said,
"The library is closing for today. You can come back tomorrow."
"I need to check when I have to return my book. It will take only a moment," replied Greed with a bright smile. He took hold of the registry and read the last entry that was not written in the mortal's language but in the language of the dead.
'Keep your nose out where it doesn't belong, fellow Grim. I will see you later'.
Greed's eyes narrowed and he went out in search of the person but by that time Lucas had already returned to the land of the dead by the help of Catina as his time was up. The ride back was not poised as Lucas fell flat on the ground.
"Lucas is back!" Barron screamed, who had been sitting next to Belle. Getting up quickly Lucas changed to his reaper form.
Belle seeing Lucas, stood up and went to stand in front of Lucas, "How did it go?" she asked him.
"Perfect," answered Lucas. When his eyes fell on the book she was holding, he asked, "Let me take a look at it." He flipped the pages to the end and noticed the tear on it. It was indeed the original book. Somewhere he had a doubt that Winston had sent out the fake one to the land of the living but it seemed like all had gone well.
"Everything alright?" asked Catina who looked at the book. Lucas nodded his head.
"Thank you for your help," Lucas thanked the timekeeper, "I apologize for the next." Everyone looked confused as to what Lucas was saying and when he touched Catina's hand, the timekeeper turned unconscious and fell on the ground.
Belle's eyes widened, "What did you do to her?"
"I think the right question here is, are we packing her up and sending Catina as a gift to the Hawverts? We can write a note with it. By Barron," suggested the rabbit who was staring at the timekeeper now.
Lucas looked down at the timekeeper and said, "It's just for a precautionary measure. So that Winston doesn't come to summon and make use of her ability. Now, where's Rower and Greed?"
Barron replied with a solemn look, "An excellent question you have there. The answer to it is- We don't know."