There were writings on the wall.
In a language she had never seen before but could somehow understand.
"How are you doing that?" Alaris asked again as the words clatter out of her mouth, and she took a turn according to the writing on the wall, a torch that was hung on the wall, lighting up as they approached.
They had been doing this for about five minutes now, following the instructions on the wall.
"I don't know," Belladonna didn't want to think too much about it, this wasn't the time.
This cave gave her an eerie feeling. Everything was going too smoothly and they still hadn't come across any obstacle yet. Also, Motu hadn't come along to get Taria yet, or maybe he was trying and the chaos of finding her was already happening above them.
All that didn't matter for now though, she had to remain focused and get out of this dream as quickly as possible for everyone's sake.
"The language isn't from this Realm," Alaris said behind her.
"What? So it is from where you came from?" Belladonna tried to laugh it off but the affirmative answer he gave made ice crawl under her skin.
There wasn't much of it to be thought about. Nadia's grandmother had given her the necklace that morphed into a key upon contact with her blood, maybe that had also given her the ability to understand this language because it was important in helping her find the way they can kill the Soul Witch.
She would have to meet Nadia's mother once she made it out of here.
Maybe there was more she could do for her, maybe there was more she could tell her.
Belladonna stopped when they approached the next writing on the wall, their shoes echoing to a stop, the trickle of water in the distance filling the silence.
"Alright, can you tell me what this is?" Belladonna asked in reference to the writing on the cave wall right in front of them.
"I can't. I'm a captive with limitations."
Belladonna hummed.
She had half-expected that. She had been coming up with a theory as to why he was here, because there was no way she could just believe anything that depicted Eli as evil, the theory just wasn't well established yet, but she would figure it out soon.
Belladonna traced her hand on the carved letters, feeling the roughness of the wall beneath her finger as she ran them along the lines.
The writing was the answer they needed.
There were summaries about how the Soul Witch got her powers, her abilities to kill other witches and acquire what they had.
Belladonna skimmed through those parts, down to where it said how she could get rid of her.
There were tiny stick figures drawn on the walls too, an imagery description of each step to take.
Whosoever did this took his or her sweet time with it. The person must have had a lot of fun too, or maybe it wasn't a person considering that it was written in this language, but honestly, that was none of her business.
She just needed to get to the root of this and get out already.
This cave made her feel so uneasy.
"The Night of Gain can also be the Night of Ruin."
Moon drawing.
Night of Gain must mean Blood Moon.
"With a twig of her blood, magic of the dragon stone, and nectar of Thanatou's Sunflower, all can be done when a point of control is struck."
Wait.
A twig of her blood, a smile stretched across Belladonna's lips.
She already had that.
By Ignas, this might be easier than she thought.
Now all she had to look for was a dragon stone with magic and Thanatos Sunflower?
What were those though?
Ah, maybe this would be hard.
"I know where we can get the last one," Alaris' whisper almost startled her.
It was so silent in the cave, her quickened breathing was loud to her ears.
"What?" She asked, almost breathlessly. "I thought you said---"
"Yes, I can't tell you but I can show you. Which is even better, don't you think?"
Belladonna nodded.
There were always loopholes to exploit.
Her gaze was fixed on the cave wall, trying to get the description of each of the items needed craved into her brain.
The twig, looked like any ordinary twig with blood dripping at the tip. Well, she hoped what was needed wasn't fresh blood.
The dragon stone looked like a rock with sharp edges and the Thanatos Sunflower looked like a sunflower.
"We have to leave," Alaris' voice interrupted her. "This cave is not good for your body."
Great.
Alright. She had to hurry up, they didn't have much time.
What was the point of control?
No time, NO TIME, NO TIME!
"Point of control.... point of control..." She mumbled to herself, then stopped when she found the words again, only this time she also paid attention to the drawing.
There was no reason next to it.
Or maybe there was, and Alaris was resting his hand on the wall, as he tried to lead her away.
"I need to see---"
Her words were interrupted by a rumble from the place Alaris was resting his hand against.
He pulled away quickly, only to witness that part of the cave wall rearrange and bring from within it the dragon stone.
It looked fairly like the drawing, oh how lucky she was being in this dream.
Belladonna stretched her hand forward and picked the dragon stone, feeling the jagged edges against her palm.
Two items down, now all they needed to find was Thanatos Sunflower. There had been a drawing of how to make use of the items but then there was the problem of "point of control" again.
Belladonna looked back at the cave wall, to see if there would be any hint, only to realize that there was a writing in big fonts where she had picked up the dragonstone.
"GO BACK THE WAY YOU CAME. NOW!"
Quickly, Alaris grabbed her hands and started running back the way they came, as the cave walls rumbled, the ground trembled and inhumanly voices filled the air.