"Wasn't there an old well there?" Maya pointed at the glass of the narrow bridge where they sat on the floor.
Elena looked up from her sketchpad and narrowed her eyes in the pointed direction. "There was…" she was puzzled.
"Hmm. Maybe they removed it. It was quite dilapidated. Someone could fall in," Maya shrugged it off.
"Do you think they asked Linda to just make grass and shrubbery grow back over it?" Elena's tone was filled with irony. "Look closer. It's as if it was never there!"
"I'm sure there are landscaping methods where they put tarps of grass to cover things," Maya argued against Elena's sarcastic comments.
"Why would they do that? It doesn't seem right… No… There were some markings on it."
Pondering about it, Elena ripped out a paper from a textbook and started scribbling on it. Maya wanted to scold her for destroying the academy's property when she had a perfectly suitable sketchbook for that very purpose but decided to let it slide this time.
The symbols were quickly drafted and Elena raised it to show to Maya.
Maya studied Elena with a perplexed expression. How did she see that, let alone remember?
"I bet it's some kind of magic," Elena claimed enthusiastically.
"Why do you think it looked like that?"
To Maya, it was as if Elena just invented those scribbles and, in a schizo way, convinced herself it was real. Someone could just have scribbled their initials on the old rock, or put some graffiti, like they would on the bathroom walls.
"I saw it," Elena answered naturally.
'Maybe she was closer to it at some point. Who knows what mischief she gets up to?'
Maya did remember feeling a strange source of magic emanating from there, so Elena could be right. On their own, they couldn't figure it out, so while walking back from the academy, Elena pulled out the paper with those scribbles to ask if Keith had seen it before.
"Hm, it looks like runes to me," Keith answered. "Perhaps some runic magic."
"What's it for?"
"I don't know that. Hunters are known for using runic magic. Others are prohibited."
"Hunters? That's a dead end," Elena was disappointed.
"Maybe we should search the library," Maya suggested.
"That's a dead end, too. There are mentions of runes in Nordic mythology but not much meaning, let alone spells," Keith said. They looked at him confused like he knew the entire contents of the library. "I had an assignment a while ago about different forms of magic. I couldn't find anything more detailed about it," he clarified, feeling like he needed to excuse himself as if barring himself from the possibility of being called a nerd.
"How about the restricted part?" Maya looked at Elena.
"We can try. But it's not exactly catalogued or systematized. It's basically a wild west in there."
"Then I think I have someone I could ask," Maya said.
Lately, Maya could find Anastasia at the academy tower more often. She would appear to check in on Maya's progress with developing her magical senses, and Maya would share with enthusiasm her every new finding. Anastasia also wouldn't give Maya straight-out lectures but rather guide her on the path of her self-development and allow her to reach conclusions on her own.
Being shown Elena's messy scribbles, she was able to tell right away. "It's a Glamour spell. It's used for masking and concealing."
Maya was amazed such spells existed. It was closer in line to the wonderous magic Maya had always imagined immersed in fiction books.
Intrigued, Maya asked, "Hunters use them?"
Anastasia nodded, "Yes. But a hunter didn't make this."
"Who did?" Curiosity sparkled in Maya's eyes.
Anastasia paused before answering, her gaze distant, "Someone who doesn't want people to see."
Maya frowned. "Why go through all this means to hide a well? Why would anyone want to hide it?" she asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.
Anastasia's lips curved into a small, mysterious smile. "Because it's a passage."
"Passage to where?"
"You'll soon find out."
Back in her room, Maya pondered about glamour magic. "You could basically create a cloak of invisibility."
Elena had swiped books from the restricted area of the library and was carelessly rummaging through them.
"So, a Glamour spell…" Elena was intrigued. "Then that means the well is still there, only hidden from the eye."
"It's amazing magic is capable of doing something like that."
"On the other hand, all these books are useless trash," Elena tossed one of the old manuscripts that looked precious. "Hunters have already confiscated any relevant information."
"Anastasia has mentioned a book that could potentially have all the answers. A legacy of Primas, of sorts. If I could get it, I would prove myself."
"The only book mentioning the special writing of Primas is this one… I think," Elena grabbed one very damaged book with pages so dark Maya was unsure if they were supposed to be like that originally. "It has a lot of water damage and is also in old Slovenian. So… It will take time to properly translate it."
"Getting it would be a part of my trial."
"…I can lead you to it. You just have to be ready. When the next wave comes," Anastasia had told her, back in the tower. "You'll need a rope, a light and someone to take the fall for you if necessary."
"Huh? Take the fall? What kind of fall? Is it high up?"
Anastasia looked at her, her eyes telling nothing. "Just take your snake friend with you."
"Snake friend? Do you mean Elena?"
"…We'll have to go down there," Maya relayed to Elena, sitting on her bed.
"Destroying the etchings should break the spell and make it visible, again. Like with that earthquake. But the person who hid it would also know it was uncovered," Elena pointed out.
"We can't risk that. We'll have to go in blind," Maya concluded.
"Are you serious?"
"It's still there, even if we can't see it. We need to rely on other senses."
"Finding it is fine. But you want to go inside a well that you can't even see to confirm what you are getting yourself into?" Elena was in rare disbelief.
"Look. You've done enough. I appreciate you helping me. And we don't know what's waiting for us in there. So, I can't ask you to go further down with me."
Elena scoffed. "Following you into a well while you blindly follow a ghost isn't a problem for me. Count me in." It seems Elena was only surprised Maya was ready to go through with it.
"It does sound like a wicked horror movie," Maya acknowledged.