As soon as the letter touched the bowl, the crystal shimmered and glowed with an eerie blue light.
Loki felt his hair stand on end as the glow took over the room and the lights all around dimmed.
The light felt so ethereal he felt it touch his soul.
Soon the light slowly seeped into the bowl, like a stream of wind that was directed towards it, and vanished.
The bowl however had begun to vibrate.
Like it contained energy that it wasn't built to hold.
Loki's breathing paused and he hung on to see whatever was happening with intense focus before the glow, as quickly as it had come, emerged and vanished back into the crystal, leaving everything exactly as it looked before.
A frown formed on Loki's face as he noticed several things with his enhanced vision.
'The bowl won't last for much longer. Although I don't know how many times more it can take, it will eventually break if I keep trying to use it.'
'....'
Loki picked up the letter and tried to see if there were any changes in it, but it appeared normal, at least to him.
'What was that?' Loki wondered.
'What do you want me to do?' Loki asked looking at the frozen man in front of him.
The man had an unkempt beard and hair while a soft frown remained on his face, even then he looked peaceful as if he'd never had a better chance to rest.
'They say you shouldn't directly look at a god but…just a quick peek wouldn't hurt right?'
Loki switched to spirit vision to peer into the crystals but to his shock, he couldn't see anything inside it in the crystals where there were bodies.
He saw no signs of life emerging from inside the two crystals which he assumed contained Salazar Slytherin and Rowena or Helga.
It looked like the people inside were dead.
'...and yet I feel like they are still alive.'
'What exactly were they doing here?'
Loki's attention then shifted toward the other two crystals that were originally empty.
But they now however contained two bodies.
The bodies of a well-built man and a motherly woman.
'What's going on?'
'Did someone come here earlier and mess with them before?'
'Perhaps they set them free but weren't able to finish the job because they ended up dying or something?'
'But then why are all the books locked?'
'Shouldn't two of them be unlocked?'
In his spiralling confusion, Loki spent a few minutes pacing around the room, wondering about all the possibilities yet he could come up with nothing substantial.
Giving up after a while, Loki glanced all around the room he was in, he took in everything and tried to freeze a picture of it all inside his mind.
And slowly, after he was done, he pulled out his Marauder's map which elegantly showed him standing inside the walls causing him to giggle a little.
Eventually, when he was sure there was no one outside, he stepped toward the golden door he'd come in through.
Again, with but his touch, the door moved like it was moving because of his thoughts, and opened, allowing him to leave outside.
Stepping out and breathing the cold and fresh night air, Loki sent a brief glance towards the Black Lake and walked back to his dormitory.
The next day, Loki woke up feeling tired.
'Why am I so tired?'
'Is it because I didn't sleep early?'
'But this hasn't happened before.'
'Did the room I was in do something to me?'
'Was it the tea?'
Loki felt a little worried and immediately moved toward a mirror. He activated his Spirit Vision and became surprised. Loki's eyes widened and his heart began to race.
'What?'
'How am I so sick already!?'
Everything in the mirror had a grey aura around it, instead of the usual white. It looked like all the organs in his body had started failing.
Although his body was trembling, Loki tried to keep calm and think of a solution.
'...Madam Pomfrey!'
Rushing through the halls, Loki didn't pay much attention to anyone else as he walked through the mostly silent corridors towards the Hospital Wing.
Only to be surprised when he reached there.
There was a long line of students already standing in front of the door and waiting while Madam Pomfrey kept handing them all something Loki recognised.
It was the potion that he'd brewed with Madam Pomfrey on the day he'd arrived at Hogwarts.
'A rejuvenation potion.'
'Is everyone sick?' Loki wondered.
He quickly activated spirit vision, and to his surprise, all the students in the line had bodies covered in grey auras exactly like him.
'No, it's even worse for the other students. Is it because their constitution is weaker than Beyonders?'
It looked like a sea of grey instead of the usual white Loki was used to seeing.
'Madam Pomfrey seems fine.'
'Did entering that place cause this mess?'
'...but how…? There was nothing in there that would suggest something like this happening.'
The potion Madam Pomfrey was handing out seemed to be working well and helping the students's auras turn from grey to white, yet Loki felt his heartbeat quicken.
'What's happening? Why did this happen?'
'Were those other times earlier for different reasons and yesterday was just a coincidence?'
Soon it was Loki's turn to move to the front of the line and Madam Pomfrey greeted him, "Good morning Loki. Feeling terrible?" she asked with a smile, it was unlike her usual self that would be in a bad mood because of the sickness everyone had.
"Well, yeah, I feel quite weak. Any idea what's happening?"
Madam Pomfrey lightly bit her lips as if she wanted to contain whatever was making her feel so bubbly in spite of the majority of the student population being so sick.
"Hmm…I'm not really supposed to say this, but it seems the Headmaster is working on a solution, so I wouldn't worry much." She said in barely above a whisper so that none of the other students behind Loki would hear.
"I see." Loki relaxed a little. "Thank you for letting me know."
Taking his potion and gulping it down, Loki handed back the cup to Madam Pomfrey who promptly took it and cleaned it using magic.
'So that's why she's happy. She's probably happy that the Headmaster has figured out a solution to the problem.'
'Not like I trust him or his solution though…'
And then another thought struck Loki's mind.
'Is this what the Aurora Order was planning to do?'
'Make everyone sick?'
'Oh but maybe they're working with a Demoness to spread a plague?!' Loki thought with worry.
'That means there's a Beyonder of the Demoness Pathway in school?'
'But who? How do I even look for them? Pretty girls?'
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A/N : Since we crossed a hundred powerstones today, expect an extra chapter tomorrow! Thank you for reading! Keep me motivated by joining my patreon!
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