As Hum and Lilly walked away, Jupiter crept behind them, opening the door Hum had rushed Lilly away from before they could lock it. They paced along the room for a moment, eyeing the scattered flowers that he’d seen in a conversation so recently, one where he had spilled far more than they had liked.
He pushed it back from his mind, walking around for a moment before their gaze was drawn to a bookshelf. They looked at a few books there, some insignificant ones, before seeing a familiar cover of a certain cursed book. Their gloved hand picked up the text, holding the green spine as they examined it. There didn’t seem to be any sign of a curse connected. It was simple, titled simply Wilted Flower, no larger than any other books.
As he opened it, he was striken by something eerily familiar. A premonition, or perhaps a past. This one had a separate name, Rose, but a familiar description. Kind, peaceful, lively… and with more beneath the surface. He read of kindness, determination, and wilted thorn. The tone shifted from descriptive, maybe optimistic, to a proper depiction of doom. A powerlessness ever-familiar, and a last ditch effort to eliminate a corruption unending.
His voice was soft as he read aloud.
“They cried out as they dashed into the corruption, killing every creature they saw. They fought, cried and wilted.”
Jupiter sucked in a breath. They stared at the page, his eyes lingering on one word before he read aloud.
“The only remaining piece of the mage, their last gift, was the budding thorns and a single Lilly.”
Upon finishing, he closed the book, returning it to it’s shelf. He sat for a minute, their mind swirling on the text. It was similar to the one he’d read just some hours earlier, but the fate was undeniably different. And the direct labeling of a name… it only furthered his thoughts on the book. Past didn’t embolden this many strings to present. These books were something else.
