The Cauldron's Revelation
“Bai baya. Bai baya. Inosetes Akes Bairas Bairas. Setenmeitolos Jezir Jezir.”
Three old women stood around a large cauldron atop a wide, open hill beneath the night sky, chanting words no one could understand. Together they gripped a crooked wooden staff and stirred the liquid inside with vigorous sweeps. Strange floating debris and half-burnt leaves drifted across the surface.
After stirring for some time, one of the women pulled a fragment of bone from her robes and dropped it into the cauldron. It sank slowly to the bottom. When the women resumed their muttering, the liquid began to glow.
More debris rose to the surface, gradually forming a distinct shape. It resembled a map. Suddenly, one of the half-burnt leaves caught fire and blazed brightly.
“Found it.”
A satisfied smile spread across one woman’s face. They withdrew the staff from the cauldron; an infant’s skull was fixed to its end.
“The Parerin Archipelago. The Dark Priests are there.”
Her lips twisted into a crooked grin filled with greed and triumph.
“Excellent. Let’s report to the master at once.”
“Wait a moment.”
The shortest, most hunched of the three grabbed the others.
“The Parerin Archipelago? Are you certain?”
“We all saw it. Why ask now?”
“Exactly! We must tell the master immediately. What if the others notice first and report ahead of us?”
Despite their irritation, the smallest woman refused to yield.
“We’ve performed countless divinations and cast every spell without the slightest response—until now. And the Parerin Archipelago is hardly welcoming to outsiders. It’s not the sort of place one could easily hide in, either.”
“That’s precisely why they chose it. Hostility toward outsiders means trackers can’t approach easily. They’ve managed to stay hidden until now; perhaps their concealment finally failed, or internal conflict scattered them.”
“She’s right! Regardless, we still have to report to the master. If she learns we delayed after finding them, do you really think she’ll forgive us?”
The woman holding them back finally released her grip, though doubt still lingered in her eyes.
The other two turned sharply and walked toward a pile of stones they had prepared earlier. A small mirror with a long crack across its surface rested on top. One woman waved her hand over it, and the mirror emitted a strange light. A woman’s image appeared within.
“I told you not to contact me until you had results.”
The woman in the mirror looked young enough to be their granddaughter—beautiful and alluring—yet her gaze and tone were imperious, as though she were regarding insects rather than her own disciples.
“Yes, Master. We just detected a reaction from the Dark Priests in the Parerin Archipelago.”
The three old women showed no offense, only fear and reverence, fidgeting anxiously lest they displease her.
“The Parerin Archipelago?”
The woman in the mirror regarded them with clear skepticism. The old women rushed to add more details.
“Yes, yes! All three of us saw it in the cauldron just now. It was definitely the Parerin Archipelago!”
One gestured frantically at the others for confirmation, and they nodded quickly.
“We saw it ourselves.”
“……”
The woman in the mirror stared at them in silence for a moment before speaking in a flat voice.
“Understood. Since you brought information, I’ll acknowledge the effort.”
“Th-thank you, Mas—!”
She cut them off before they could finish.
“But you know what will happen if you’ve wasted my time with nothing of value.”
Fear flashed across the three women’s faces. They dared not look away from the mirror, struggling to still their trembling lips.
“O-of course, Master.”
“Good. Continue searching for other traces. I have no intention of dragging a pack of old women along.”
Once the connection ended and the mirror went dark, the women exhaled in relief. Their legs gave out, and they supported one another as they sank onto the stones. One scattered powder from her robes; roots erupted from the ground, forming a crude bench with armrests.
“…It’s certain, right?”
The woman who had been most confident earlier now spoke in an anxious voice, glancing at the one who had tried to stop them. Only now did worry surface. The woman who had hesitated, however, showed no emotion at all.
“What does it matter now? The report is already made.”
More accurately, she had simply given up.
“Whether we become nothing more than bubbles in the swamp or receive another decade of life, it’s out of our hands either way.”
“Why are you both like this? We all saw it! There was definitely a reaction in the Parerin Archipelago. Besides, the master isn’t the type to act on our word alone. She’ll perform her own divination and confirm it.”
The words were reasonable. Speed and accuracy could not always coexist, and they were merely the lowest-ranking servants. Their duty was to gather information and report it immediately, regardless of certainty. Verifying the truth was the responsibility of those above them—or the master herself. Their judgment had been correct.
“……”
Yet even the one who had spoken could not erase the fear from her face. Her earlier words had been nothing more than desperate hope and prayer. All three knew the truth.
They had lived beside their master for a very long time.
Back when they could still count the wrinkles on one another’s faces, an elderly senior disciple—too frail to receive the master’s gift of extended life—had tripped while hurrying to answer a summons. She had merely fallen. She hadn’t broken anything, spilled any potions, or even touched the master. She had simply lost her footing and struggled briefly to rise.
The master had thrown her into the swamp without hesitation, declaring that her aged, ugly appearance offended her. The woman had thrashed and sunk, desperately waving her feeble arms and begging for help until the end.
The three of them had watched without intervening or feeling pity. They had thought she had lived long enough already and found her final, pathetic pleas repulsive.
The old women tucked their trembling hands into their robes. Time had passed, and now they were older than that senior disciple had been. Their faces were so wrinkled they could no longer count them, and their hands were even more skeletal than hers had been as she drowned.
“We’ll be fine.”
“Yes. We’ll be fine.”
In the hollow comfort of those words, they stared at the ground, unable to meet one another’s eyes.
* * *
A long green robe, stained and filthy. It suited the young, alluring woman not at all, yet she paid it no mind.
“…The Parerin Archipelago.”
She turned away from the large mirror on the wall and walked to the center of the room, where the ceiling was glass and the night sky was visible. A massive cauldron stood there—far older and heavier than the one the three old women had used, its surface covered in countless grotesque runes and symbols.
“Yes. They could have fled there. Did they really think hiding among those gravekeepers would keep them safe from me? Were they that foolish?”
She snatched one of the small jars clustered beside the cauldron and poured its contents inside without ceremony. Acrid powder spilled into the liquid and dissolved instantly. Next she took a long red vessel and tilted it; two small animal eyes—still glistening as though freshly removed—rolled out and dropped into the cauldron.
Her expression never changed. She rolled the eyes in her palm before adding them as well. She continued retrieving various bizarre ingredients from the jars and tossing them in while murmuring an incantation.
Mist rose from the cauldron, bringing strange shapes with it. She stared into the swirling forms for a long time. When the mist finally cleared and the shapes vanished, she snapped her fingers.
—Yes, you called?
A broom that had been standing quietly in the corner flew over and stopped before her.
“Selkel. We need to head to the Parerin Archipelago immediately. Prepare.”
—Understood. Will you be going alone? Should we wait for the other disciples…?
“Those sluggish old hags will never keep up anyway.”
With a cold glance and an impatient gesture, she dismissed the concern. The broom darted about the room, using deliberately placed holes as passages while gathering supplies. Objects wrapped in blue mana floated behind it, gradually forming a procession. Meanwhile, the woman donned talismans made from dried animal limbs and bones, along with a dark-looking necklace and earrings.
—Everything is ready.
“Good. Let’s go.”
She mounted the broom. Blue mana flared around them, linking with her own power to tear open a rift in the air ahead. The protective spells over the Parerin Archipelago made direct portal travel impossible, but shortening the flight distance was still worthwhile.
The broom shot through the rift like an arrow. In moments, both it and its rider vanished into the night sky.