Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I’m trying to find the Vanished Compendium. My friends and I collected the quill that’s linked to it, and it pointed us here.”
Petra nodded, seeming unsurprised. “And these friends, who are they?”
“Members of the Root and Vine Society,” I said, assuming she had heard of it.
She nodded again. “Ah, yes. The mission of the Root and Vine Society in recent years has been to find the Vanished Compendium. But did you know that when it was founded, its mission was to protect the book?”
My lips parted. “The Root and Vine Society are the ones who hid the book?”
“They were indeed. About a hundred years ago. But they weren’t the first ones to attempt to hide the book.”
“Who else tried to hide it?” I leaned forward.
“Botanists of the Renaissance period.” Petra looked pointedly at me, and a shiver ran up my spine as I realized I was finally going to get some answers about Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance botanists.
“Certain royalties in Europe had suspicions about magic and were confiscating any ‘spell books’ they could find. Leonardo da Vinci and others on the magical botanist council of the region decided it was best to hide the second book so that the work that had been carefully documented wouldn’t all be lost if the book fell into the wrong hands. ”
My mind swirled as I pictured the magical botanists of hundreds of years ago fighting to save their work.
“Around this same time, he and other powerful botanists bound up their magic within their inconspicuous botanical drawing journals. They did not want to be accused of having magic. But they didn’t realize that this was going to preserve their magic in the book for future generations, which is how your magic eventually made its way to you. ”
My brain was sparking as I processed her words. I was piecing together things I had been wondering about, but I still had so many questions.
“What did they do with the second book? Where did they hide it? And why didn’t they hide the Compendium Floracantus?”
“I guess they figured that if at least one book was protected, they had a failsafe against losing all their knowledge. Magical botanists didn’t go underground completely.
In fact, magic proliferated around that time, though they had to be careful to protect their secrets.
The Compendium Floracantus was spread rapidly in secretive magical botanist communities with the invention of the printing press.
The second book continued to be hidden and passed down through trusted members of the community, and no copies were ever made to increase discretion.
Over time, magical botanists began to refer to it in rumors as the Vanished Compendium.
Eventually, that book landed in the hands of the defensive plant founder of Evergreen Academy and the founder of this conservatory. ”
Petra continued, “Jean-Claudia, the defensives founder, hid the book without telling anyone where. In the meantime, she implemented a block on the quill so that others couldn’t use it to find the book.
Lore has it she anchored the original blocking Floracantus to a plant somehow.
You must have figured out where if you got the quill working. ”
“Not me. A friend.” My heart squeezed as I thought of Callan. I wished he could be with me to hear everything firsthand. I tried to memorize every detail to relay to him later. “It was anchored to an oak tree along a prominent nature trail in town.”
Petra nodded. “That makes sense. Jean-Claudia would have centered the blocking spell in Weed because Evergreen Academy is a hub for magical botanists. I’m sure she figured many people would search for the book there, so that’s where the block would be strongest. Of course, back then, more magical botanists had all the affinity powers.
Today, it’s a rarity, so most botanists wouldn’t be able to use the quill even without the blocking spell. ”
“Why didn’t Jean-Claudia just destroy the quill? Or hide it with the book?” I asked.
“I believe she thought, like the Renaissance botanists, that there would be a time for the book’s use again.
And when that time came, the right person needed to be able to locate it.
The quill was a tool for doing that. Plus…
” Her lips twisted into a coy smile. “Magical botanists don’t enjoy destroying artifacts. ”
I exhaled, contemplating all she had said. It made sense, but one thing was bugging me. “You said that she thought the time would come for the book to be used again. Do you think that time is now?”
“I don’t think the reappearance of a botanist with all the affinity powers is a coincidence, Briar. The power of magical botanists has been decreasing over time, but nature likes balance. Perhaps it is attempting to shift the scales again, and here you are.”
I sat quietly with that statement for a moment. “So… the book. It’s here?”
Petra pursed her lips. “I am not sure. The past few curators have speculated that Jean-Claudia hid it here, and we were protecting it by keeping this conservatory hidden, though none of us alive today have seen it. If the quill sent you here, then I guess their speculations were correct.”
I pulled out the quill and showed it to Petra. “According to this, we’re very close to the book. And it’s pointing west.”
Petra looked in the direction of the quill’s compass arrow. “That would put the book in the library.”
I didn’t mean to state the obvious, but the question came flowing out of me. “Hasn’t anyone ever looked in the library?”
A smile touched Petra’s lips. “Let’s just say the defensive library is not your… average magical botanical library.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Can I see it?”
“Follow me.”