First Bowl.

That was when Loki remembered the third line of the riddle.

'Will lead you to me to wake.'

"So this is Salazar Slytherin? Who is the other woman?"

Loki stared at her slightly distorted face through the crystal and tried to figure out if he'd seen a face like her's anywhere in all the books that he'd read but he couldn't recognise her.

At least until he suddenly looked at the other two empty crystals which caused an idea to pop up in his head.

"Rowena Ravenclaw?" Loki mumbled. "Or Helga Hufflepuff perhaps?"

"But why are the two other crystals empty? Did something happen to them?"

"Or maybe they lost control while they were trapped in here and died? But wouldn't that have shattered the crystals too? *sigh* too early to make conclusions, I don't even know what the crystal does."

As his gaze drifted Loki spotted the four ornate golden bowls hanging from the sides of the crystal, one each, and began to contemplate.

'Do I have to put something in there for them to wake up?'

'But why do I have to wake them up in the first place?'

Loki looked around and spotted the wealth of books that were standing still on the shelves and moved to them instead.

'The books are more interesting than some half-dead Beyonders.' Loki concluded.

'I don't even know what sequence they are off or their pathway.'

'They might be grateful to me if I woke them up, and depending on their mood they might even choose to help me. But that's all depending on their mood. What if they try and kill me?'

'I better see everything around here and only try to wake them up when I know what I'm doing.'

Walking to a bookshelf with the teacup following behind him, Loki found himself reading through the titles etched onto the spines of the books.

'Stories of Valour, Courage and Sacrifice.'

'Intricacies of Magic.'

'Food, a magical perspective.'

'Horrors of the Dark.'

As Loki strolled around the shelves casually he quickly realised something, "The books are only of four colours. Red, Blue, Yellow and Green."

"Do they represent the four houses of Hogwarts? So these are written by the founders themselves?" Loki mumbled and found his potion digesting another five per cent, bringing Loki's potion digestion to forty per cent. "How did they write so many books?"

Loki was shocked since there were hundreds if not thousands of books here on the shelves strewn across the large room. It wasn't even like a library anymore, it felt like a warehouse, meant specially for books.

Looking at the titles and passing by, Loki eventually felt a little thirsty, so to wet his lips he grabbed the cup that had still been diligently floating by his side.

'Hmm…'

Loki's steps paused as he took a sip.

Just to confirm what he was feeling, Loki took another sip.

'It is real…how..?'

'How is this tea making my spirituality react so much?'

With each sip of the tea he took Loki immediately felt a clear difference. It wasn't by much, but Loki felt the tea soothe his spirituality. It felt like he was in the warm embrace of nature and his entire body felt relaxed.

As if years of fatigue that had been built up were instantly cured, as if it was vanished into thin air.

A smile blossomed on Loki's lips, yet a question remained on his mind.

'How did they incorporate a rejuvenation potion's properties into tea?'

'Especially when it tastes so horrible.'

Loki remembered how Madam Pomfrey's potion that she'd given to him at the start of the year after his encounters with the Dementors had made him want to puke it all out.

Yet this tea held the same properties but tasted so extraordinary.

Walking back a few shelves, Loki stood beside the yellow book, 'Food, a magical perspective.' and placed his hand on it to pull it out.

'Huh?'

Except he couldn't.

'What's going on?'

Loki tried to pull the book by force and felt as if he'd almost gotten it but a sudden spark through the book caused his whole body to spasm as the teacup in his hand was tossed away.

"Damn!! Why leave these books out if you only wanted to shock me with them!?"

Loki then looked at the teacup that had fallen from his hand and grew confused when not a single drop of tea had been spilt out as it hovered in the air.

"How did you do that?" Loki asked out loud not expecting an answer but he could instinctively feel that the teacup felt a little proud because of his words.

"*sigh* what cunning people you all are. Will all this unlock only after I wake you up?" Loki asked out loud while looking at who he presumed to be Salazar Slytherin.

Slytherin played his part well and stood still like a corpse that was frozen inside the crystal.

Loki's eyes twitched but then he looked at the bowl that was hanging off of his side.

'What do I put in it?'

'The riddle letter?'

Loki didn't think that was the answer but he decided to try it out anyway.

So he moved behind a bunch of shelves from where he couldn't see the crystals or the people in it anymore and performed a sacrificial ritual to bless himself with the riddle letter.

Loki did the ritual while he was inside the room since Salazar hinted at already knowing his identity earlier, but he still did it without them being able to see him and inside a small sealed box made out of walls of spirituality because of his slowly improving twisted paranoia about the Beyonder world.

With the letter in his hand, Loki strode towards the bowl handing from Salazar's crystal and looked at it for a bit.

'*sigh* there's no going back if he does wake up.'

'I don't have much else to try anyway.'

'I could just leave.' Loki thought and paused in his actions.

But then looking at the letter and back at Slytherin who appeared to be peacefully resting in his crystal, Loki dropped the letter into his bowl.

'Maybe he can help Walburga….'

There was a hint of unwillingness in Loki's eyes, but remembering all the short but sweet moments he spent with the old lady made his vision slightly blurry.

'But if he could help her why didn't he already do it?'

'Is it because of this crystal?'

'Even if it is…what would change once he breaks out of it?'

'I doubt a True God cannot answer to the prayers of their pathway members…'

'Especially since Professor McGonagall never said anything about the True God of the Darkness pathway missing or going mad…'

'So he is still responding to people's wishes and prayers…'

'So why exactly can't he help Walburga?'

'Is she really fated to die?'

'But then what about her prophecy? About me taking the Black family house to great heights?'

'Will I do it without her?'

'I doubt I can pull such a thing off, even if I take Sirius's help…'

Loki for the first time in a while felt frustrated.

He didn't want to take the risk of waking up or interacting with a True God because it would probably bring him immense risk, something that even if he was willing to take on wouldn't promise his safety. 

And so after he performed a few more divinations to test his luck in the Sefirah Castle, Loki emerged and walked to the bowl in front of Salazar Slytherin's crystal and dropped the letter in, as reluctantly as he could.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N : Join my Patreon (p@treon.com/hooin_kyoma_au) to read 20 chapters ahead for just $3.