When they got home, Barney immediately retired to his room. Lumi stayed to help Matthos and learn about the refrigerator.
"So it keeps the food cold? And that stops it from spoiling easily?" she was in awe as she watched him arrange the food in containers and put it on respective shelves. The bluish light enhanced her copper eyes, making it look like she was in the middle of snowy terrain. Her curiosity for modern technology never fails to make Matthos smile.
"Yes, the cold stops the food from spoiling easily."
"In my days, it was always wine, salt, and vinegar. Sometimes oil, but it was expensive," Lumi walked to the bar and plopped herself, looking at Matthos' numerous notes. She could barely understand most of it, as it felt like a foreign language to her. For one, the letters were too small, and the paper was so different from the ones they used in the past.
"Matthos, what is this?" She picked up a certain page that looked familiar.
"Dead Men Tell No Tales, I know this legend!" she said.
"It's a common one, connected to curses with music in it. Would you like me to read this one to you?"
Lumi nodded eagerly and ran to the room like a butterfly, Matthos walking behind her while holding the files.
She finally got used to the fireplace and lit the wood with the lighter. Matthos dimmed the lights for dramatic effect, and with that, their story time began.
"Legend has it that in the shores of Badiwan, a war from aboveground destroyed part of the sea. In the deepest depths, the heavy canons hit lone mermaids and sea beings only roaming for food," Matthos started narrating, and Lumi found herself tantalized by his baritone voice. She put her head in the palm of her hands, and without noticing, started to swing her feet as she listened to him read the study as if it were a tale itself. "The ruins aboveground sunk to the bottom of the sea, destroying the homes of many aquatic animals, and in turn, water beings. In Badiwan, where two opposite waves meet and form a dangerous tide, there you will find the place of the sirenas. With their crown of pearls, tridents made of sea metal, the sirenas ruled the waters and the animals."
"What did they look like?"
"Their upper half is human, while their lower part is that of a fish. They have a fish body and a tail waist down. Legend has it that no one truly knows what they look like because—"
"Dead men tell no tales" Lumi giggled.
"Yes," Matthos continued, "and when their home was destroyed, their detest towards humanity grew. A war that destroyed a fourth of the sea forced them to flee. They ended up scattered across the sea"
The research stated, "It is concluded that the destruction of their home and the loss of aquatic life caused starvation. The situation resulted in the sirenas' insanity." But to Matthos, that didn't sound fairytale-like.
Instead, he said, "The war destroyed their homes. However, they found a way to repair them. Still, they wanted to cause a little mischief."
"The sirenas went aboveground and sang songs, luring fishermen in. However, there were tragedies that ended in fishermen drowning." A lie, Matthos said inside his head, "Their mischief grew until it became warships, and their disappearances are only found through the little parts of the ships left on the sea floor today."
"That's sad," Lumi commented.
They talked some more about dead men tell no tales, and Lumi's version was the same. It was mermaids who became mischievous. However, when she left Matthos, his hair stood up, and he immediately opened the lights. That wasn't the story.
In the research, it said, "The loss of aquatic life led to starvation. This incurred the wrath of the sirenas."
He went and prepared a cup of caramel macchiato before continuing the research by Davon, which said, "The sirenas became insane. One of the few said survivors, who were deemed insane, said that there was a barrier of illusion that led them to believe they were entering still waters."
"The barrier felt like mist, and when it was gone, they are met with fog and darkness. The tide is much stronger, and the singing grew louder. When it got closer, the face of a young maiden will come up. However, when it smiled, its teeth were similar to that of a piranha's, sharp and deadly."
Matthos gulped, "The young maiden will turn into an old hag and bite the person out of the boat. Like piranhas, other sirenas will appear and eat what is left of that being."
"They were hungry, and they went insane," Matthos said, "and then he opened his notebook on the Curse of the Wren.
"The people heard music, and then they went from sad to insane. When they were burned, more wrens arrived at the scene."
He wrote down, "Wrens are messenger birds, that means that their presence must have meant something. Did that mean there was no legitimate shaman to understand their words? Or were those Wrens working under someone?"
"When music is involved, insanity is always an after-effect. People are under an illusion, a barrier. Does the positioning of these wrens affect the illusion's boundaries?"
Matthos's brain was in overdrive.
"Dead men tell no tales."
He looked at the title of the study, and his heart raced for a reason he doesn't truly know. What is it with sounds that suddenly had an effect like this?
"When someone says dead men tell no tales, it meant that the secrets they had are with them forever. There is no way to unearth them. However, is there a chance that —
"Impossible, someone would've contacted the dead and talked with them unless
"Does this mean that the death of humans under sirenas can also turn into the death of their soul? So where does it go if it doesn't become lost?"
In all of his years of working, Matthos found that in summoning, people who die in the middle of their mission ended up having lost souls. Until they finish their missions on earth, they won't get eternal rest. Their eternal rest was left in whatever they believed in, of course. 'Lucky are those who only believe in sleep,' Matthos shuddered.
'Is there a chance that I can summon an old spirit to talk about the Curse of the Wren?' Matthos thought to himself and then proceeded to take an old grimoire from the bookshelf. The battered, leather book looked as if it would crumble in a few. However, spells made sure that it would be intact for a few more centuries as its contents are being transferred in other grimoires.
Evocation was a huge taboo. The Grisham household is also a protected place, so the one thing he can do is asking through fire. With that, he threw some incense on the flames and waited until the fire grew.
Matthos closed his eyes and waited if a being was summoned to show him something, but he was only disappointed.
The being he summoned was that of a recently deceased puppy. Probably his neighbor's, and it wanted him to say that he's going to the other side now and that it's okay.
"Damn you, puppies. You just have to make me sad. Ugh," Matthos groaned and looked at the time, it was only 9 pm.
"Who is your owner?"
"Arf"
"Rufus"
"Arf"
"Okay, you may go now. Rest in peace."
With that, he called Rufus
"Hey man, I heard about the death of your puppy. I want you to know that he's probably on the other side getting the treats of his life,"
"Arf!"
"Thanks, man. Fufu is a good boy," the owner cried.
"Arf!"
"What's that man?"
"Oh, nothing. Just some barking from my TV. I'm watching something. I'm really sorry, man." Matthos left a very sad Rufus and went back to Fufu.
"Hey, Fufu. I need to talk to some spirits that can talk and you're in the way."
"Arf!"
"Well, yes, it's really necessary."
"Arf!"
"I know that summoning isn't allowed but that's for demons and I'm asking good beings, kind beings, the ones that guide beings."
Anyone who saw Matthos talking to the flames would really look at him as if he lost their mind, and their island heartthrob would be gone.
"Arf!"
"What?"
That was a revelation. Something was blocking the communication?
"Arf Arf!"
"You mean that I can't contact the people who died with that curse?"
"Arf!"
Matthos's forehead creased, 'Why won't he be able to contact them?"
"Hey buddy? Don't you think it's some communication thing? Like, I need to concentrate better and summon deeper? Maybe it's the barrier that's keeping them out," Matthos suggested
"Arf arf arf!"
"Oh fudge no"
Matthos sat when the dog bid goodbye. It wasn't a communication thing. The spirits of the Curse of the Wren, they're not in the afterlife, they're kept somewhere else.