'The papyrus. It's gone!'

'I know! This is just so annoying' exclaimed Devika. 'Things are getting worse as we move'

'What did you say that papyrus contained? In the WhatsApp text?' asked Dhruv.

'The antidote to the AMNESIA spell! I have a book that says so. We need to find it so that I can get my memory back, of the actual day that Anu disappeared. Maybe we'll get something then' I answered.

'But hey, Anu is a victim of the RUBY spell, isn't it? Then how do we free the real victim? And we still don't know where Akash went!'

'That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out'

'Do we really have a lot of time?' asked Devika.

'Well, isn't it better than sitting and wringing our hands in despair? At least we tried, isn't it? And isn't it obvious to all of you now that the police can't do anything about this at all?'

'Right. But on the practical side of things, shouldn't we hunt down the person who harmed the twins? Instead of trying to point fingers at a different lead?' asked Samarth.

'Maybe this lead will work too! Take the ring for example. How did it get there?'

'Are you sure it wasn't there when you went up for the first time?' asked Dhruv.

'One hundred percent sure! And neither was the blood stain'

'Yes. How did that get there? You're sure it doesn't belong to Anu or her mom?'

'Damn sure! For the life of me, I've never seen Anu wear this and neither have I seen her mom do so. I've been to her place a million times in fourteen years and I know each and every room of the house and its belongings. This ring was never there'

'But what if her mom brought it as a good luck charm after her children went missing? The ring looks new. You yourself said that the family is pretty superstitious'

'That could be true. But I don't know how it should end up there. If you'd noticed, there was dust on the floor. If anybody walked through there in the past three months, there would either be no dust, or traces of footprints left. But no, it was smooth like a bed sheet'

'Well done, Holmes'

'Also, the stain looks old. Probably by a month'

There was a five-minute silence as we pondered over this. I wore the ring on my finger, which was way too loose on me.

'This ring can't belong to Anu or any one of her family. It would fit somebody who's got really thick and short fingers. Anu has long and slender ones'

'True that'

'I think', Samarth broke the silence 'that the ring belongs to the thief who stole the papyrus. They caught the ring over the interlock while putting in or taking out a hand and it might have slipped off the finger. That also explains the blood stain'

I was shocked. Honestly, I was impressed that he came up with that on his own.

'Why that's brilliant! Good job, Samarth!' I patted his arm.

'Seriously man, you're no match!' Dhruv slapped him on the shoulder. By now, everybody loved him. I just hope he won't let me down.

'Anytime' he bowed, making us laugh.

But the question is, how do we find the owner of this ring? You can get fifty knockoff rings for a hundred bucks in the nearby market' said Dhruv.

'Yes. That's true. What do we do about that? And the blood stain looks at least a month old! What do we-'

'I got it!' Devika jumped up from the bed.

'What?' we spun around

'Dear friends, we can go to the market and ask if anybody bought this ring in the last one month!'

There was a silence as we all digested this.

'HOLY Jesus! Devi, what an absolutely amazing brainwave! Here come on, give me a hug!' Dhruv threw his arms around his sister and clasped her tightly.

'Leggo, can't breathe now!' she wheezed. He finally let her loose.

'My my, brother, such affection from you?' she looked amused.

'Yep, you of all people using your brain is a matter of celebration!' pat came the reply. They were so cute together, just like Anu and Akash. As much as they clowned each other, they loved each other too. It was a standing joke for me to bring in a thermometer the day they didn't squabble with each other, to see if they were ill by any chance.

Maitreyi, stop it for heaven's sake, or you'll start crying.

I took a deep breath and sat up straight.

'So, when do we go to the market? It's closed on the weekends'

'Monday afternoon? We'll study in the morning. How's that?' suggested Samarth.

'Great! It's summer vacation anyway, so there's no point sitting at home in such a beautiful place' agreed Dhruv.

'Seriously, it's boiling at Delhi right now, so we crashed at your place! Not bad eh?' laughed Devika.

'Indeed. But I think we should go off to study now. We don't want to be answering our parents' FBI questions, do we?'

'That's true. But oh Maitreyi, how can I study in all this excitement? I can't wait to continue the search!' Devika begged.

'Don't worry, sister. We aren't sitting idle for the rest of the weekend. We are reading up the books I got from the library! And anyway, it's Saturday already. Just one day in hand for our reading'

'What do you mean, study?' Dhruv grimaced.

'You'll know!' I winked at Samarth. He winked back.

'What is it, girl?'

'Impatience runs in the family, isn't it Dhruv?' I teased him, with reference to Devika begging us to continue the search. 

He and his sister blushed as we all laughed at that last remark.

'Maybe, dear. But impatience keeps us moving' Dhruv returned.

'Absolutely. I agree' he was right though.

We all went off to study. Goodness knows how far we'll actually go with it.

Sunday, 12:00 noon

With flawless punctuality Samarth, Dhruv and Devika piled into my room. I took out the huge, unwieldy books and placed them on my bed.

'Okay guys, this is it'

Saying so I opened the first book I issued.

'Whoa, this is amazing! I feel like I'm in a Harry Potter movie' Devika gushed.

'I know, right. This is surreal!' Samarth exclaimed as we all scrolled down the contents of various magic spells.

'AMETHYST, ANASTASIA, AMBER.....' goodness, are these names of spells or of somebody's ex-girlfriends? Dhruv exclaimed which sent us roaring with laughter.

'What's all that laughter about?' his Mom came thundering up the stairs.

Oh crap.

'Uh, nothing at all maasi**!' I replied. **maternal aunt

'Have you children finished your studies?'

'Of course, ma' Dhruv replied. 'You know, we really want to do well in the boards, isn't it?'

'What's with this sudden seriousness of yours, Baby?'

'Ewwww, Mom I hate that nickname!' he shot us annoyed glances as we started giggling, even under maasi's stern eye. She's a fun old darling in general, but we knew better than to fool around in this sort of mood of hers. As a result of being a senior IAS officer, she had a great presence everywhere, even though she was just about five and a half feet tall. Typical leader, with square framed spectacles sitting on her high nose which brought out her fair complexion even more.

'You still haven't answered me' she ordered Dhruv exactly the way she does in the UPSC headquarters.

'Ma, come on. You know we studied all morning and now we've gathered here instead of watching TV. And lunchtime is just an hour away!'

'Alright then. Can I have a look at what you're reading?'

All shuffling stopped as the other three froze cold.

'Sure, maasi! Why not?' I urged her. Now I called the shots here!

She bent over the book and flipped the pages and slowly, a satisfied look crossed her face.

'Oh, you are studying math! Why didn't you tell me earlier? We wouldn't have had such a long talk otherwise'

'Yeah-uh' I smiled sheepishly. 'Group study kind of thing'

'Good, good! Please continue'

The moment her feet ended the flight of stairs, we caught our breath again.

'Wait, math? I thought-' Dhruv looked bamboozled. And so did his sister.

'Yes. The spell really lived up to its name isn't it?' Samarth added.

'Yeah, it surely did'

'What spell?' asked the other two in unison.

'Oh, I didn't tell you? I got this specially signed in your name'

'Magic again?' Now it wasn't an obscure idea anymore.

'Exactly. This spell allows a person to sign a book in his own name and he can ask the librarian to get it signed in somebody else's name too. So this book will make sense only to legitimate borrowers. To anybody else, it looks like trigonometry! Cool, isn't it?'

It took them a minute to digest this.

'But that's amazing! No book locks, keys, or combinations. A spell and that's it! It stays with us' Dhruv exclaimed.

'Yeah, I wish I could see this stuff work' Devika replied wistfully.

'I'll take you soon!' I hoped they brushed off this topic as I didn't want to tell them about the whole Samarth episode right now, with the subject in the same room as me.

Whew, that was a close one' Dhruv breathed.

'Of course, considering that you had to talk all extra. (Mockingly) We want to do well in the boards isn't it?' Devika snapped at him.

'Hey! How would I know that she wouldn't buy it?'

'She's our mom, brother!'

'Very well, then. And who-'

'Okay, that's enough. Let's get back to work' I interjected. This sort of thing between them could go on forever.

We started scrolling through the contents again.

'BELLA......BIANCA......BRIDGET.....' damn these women names again. Dhruv looked irritated.

'Hey, these are in alphabetical order! Let's go backward then' I suggested.

'Damn, right!'

We started from the end of the contents that went up to four pages of the book.

'Z....Y....X.....W.....V.....U....T....S....R..... RUBY! Finally'

'RUBY!' we whisper yelled in unison. It was at the bottom of the R list.

We opened up the page and started reading.

"Spell: RUBY

Use: Drink or inject the potion of Red Chrysanthemum into one's body

Effect: Loss of brain command, loss of motor command, and most importantly, bright red eyes.

Signs of notice: Red eyes"

'So this is Anu's spell. The one she's a victim to?' asked Devika.

'Precisely. I saw her in the Amethyst, red eyes, staggering movement and everything'

'Let's read on. Maybe we'll find more' said Samarth.

"Origin: A Beagle Fire member Octavius, was caught giving away their secret spells to his lover, Ruby, who was the evil witch of the Poison Ivy island. She wished to overthrow the Fire and ruled over the valley. His brethren realized that they had to stop their secret knowledge from being misused, so they decided to use the AMNESIA spell on him"

'So this is the story you wanted to tell us?' asked Dhruv.

'Yep. Read on'

".....But as luck would have it, they had to rush to the aid of a group of baby elves who were trapped under the tree. Knowing that he had no time to lose, he quickly created the RUBY spell to cause mass havoc. The spell gets its name from two obvious characteristics. One, the name of the creator's lover and the other, after the effect of bright red eyes which was actually undesirable. Octavius didn't want his brethren to realize immediately that his victims were under a spell. So he tried to remove the effect, but within that time, his brethren caught him, wiped out his memory using AMNESIA, and sent him to work in the gallows"

We paused for breath.

'So this is the story of RUBY. You knew this beforehand I believe?' piped up Samarth.

'Yes, Esperanza told me'

'Wait, there's more' interrupted Devika.

"However, there's a missing link. The Fire claimed that they never got hold of the spell. And to this date, nobody knows where it is. Because as far as history spoke, Octavius never had a child and he died a bachelor"

'No way! Then what happened to Anu if the spell wasn't found?' Devika exclaimed in horror.

'That's exactly what the mystery revolves around. And also, Octavius didn't have a child even after he was banished!'

'Are you absolutely sure that it's this one only? Couldn't there be any similar spells of this sort' asked Dhruv.

'None other. Esperanza told me about it. This the only red-eyed spell'

There was a silence as we all digested this.

'So the mystery deepens and deepens' commented Dhruv.

'Absolutely, dear' I replied.

'So what do we do now?'

'Read the second book!'

'I don't think I've ever done so much reading in my life' Dhruv groaned.

I picked out the black book from my shelf and placed it on the bed. On opening the top cover, this is what we found across the page.

BEAGLE FIRE, BOOK II: PAPYRUS KEYS

'A coding guide! Good old Esperanza, I knew I could trust her with the book choice' I exclaimed in joy.

'Esperanza is the psychic, isn't it?' Dhruv asked.

'Yep. An angel' I confirmed.

We opened the first contents page to find the same women-centric spell names in alphabetical order. So finding RUBY wasn't hard this time. We flipped to the correct page, shivering with excitement.

'Okay guys, this is it' we took a deep breath and opened our eyes.