I suddenly felt a hard clasp on my arm. Dhruv was nudging me to get out. So I managed to cut the conversation short and ask for the books.

We quickly grabbed the books and made our way out.

'Have a nice day, children'

'You too, Esperanza'

We ran out of her place and gathered to talk.

'What happened?'

'That cleaning lady, she was listening to our conversation from behind the curtain' Dhruv told me.

'What! Why?' everyone exclaimed together.

'No idea'

'For how long was she standing there?'

'I don't really know. I was listening to you guys, when I noticed a shadow behind the curtain when a gust of wind fluttered it a little a beam of light fell on it'

'Should we go home now?'

'Yes, we've nothing more to do here' I replied.

We all headed home and I put the book of papyrus clues on my bed.

'Now to find the AMNESIA antidote clue'

We scrolled down the contents to find AMNESIA right after AMBER. We opened up the page and I must say, no matter how much we explored, nothing will stop our hearts from tingling with excitement on uncovering a secret.

This is what met our eyes:

"Reverse"

'Reverse?' asked Devika.

'What's that supposed to mean?' I asked

'What if this word is directly the answer?'

'By now, we're sure it can't be. There are no direct answers here'

'I should add here that the AMNESIA papyrus had an eight-character code. This word has seven letters' Samarth added.

'Really, are you sure?' I asked.

'Hundred percent'

'Then we have to figure out this one too' Devika replied.

'That goes without saying. This universe is against direct answers' I replied.

'But I must admit that it's pretty fun' said Dhruv.

I had to agree. 'Yes, it is'

'Oh, I just remembered. Maitreyi, as far as you know, did anybody outside the family have any access to the attic?' Dhruv asked.

'Nobody at all, we weren't even allowed to go up there! Anu's mom forbade us "in case we caught dust allergies" and also Akash's allergic to dust. Now we know the truth, she was hiding her paranormal ancestry. So we went up there once secretly when their parents were away from home. She never let even the servants go up there and clean, even though the place was filthy'

'Man, this is so confusing. But what if somebody left that ring in the safe to deceive us? Maybe he or she was trying to frame someone?' Sam asked.

'But then how do you explain the unlocked safe? The only person who knew the code was Akash'

My cousins looked shocked.

'Then, did he do something? Did he cast the spell?' Devika asked.

'Don't forget that the spell was passed on only to a descendant. The twins are descendants of Tylon and not of Octavius, hence they had the AMNESIA spell with them. And even if they were descended from Octavius, how did Akash get hold of the spell and not Anu?' I explained.

'You're right. I hadn't thought about that'

'And also, you can see that Anu is a victim of the spell which needs to be cast by someone else. You can't pull it off on your own self, so there's no chance of Anu goofing up the spell during an experiment or making a suicidal move'

'Plus, the motive is very clear. Revenge' Samarth replied.

'But there's still one problem. Why was the safe unlocked? Nobody apart from Akash knows the combination. Why would he open that safe? And even if he did, how did Anu get hold of the spell and use it on me?'

'That's still a problem. Were they in a good relationship?' Devika asked.

'The twins? They were sworn buddies always sticking up for each other, no matter how hard they fought or argued with each other. What's more, they were super protective of each other too. Akash never let anybody lay a finger on her and Anu had a number of face-offs with the silly girls who annoyed him with their flirtatious behavior. Enough to fill up a book!' I replied wistfully, recalling their adorable little quarrels that would make me laugh.

'Listen, let's flip through these facts one last time and see if we find anything important' I said.

We did, only to find useless facts apart from puzzles we didn't need, yet again about lovers and secret marriages and debauchery that got us all sighing in frustration.

'There's nothing here too. Let's return this to Esperanza after lunch'

'Today? I mean, what's the hurry?' asked Samarth.

'The hurry is that we could get another book in this place. Three months have already gone by since Anu disappeared first and I feel something bad will happen if we're not quick. We have no time to lose. And we've got two antidotes unsolved, without which we're nothing'

'Great then'

After lunch, we all set out to return all our borrowed books to Esperanza at two in the afternoon who was shocked upon seeing us.

'My my, what's the matter?'

'We came to return these and maybe borrow another two. We've taken all that we need from here' I replied.

'Actually, we're sorry to rush with this, but we're really worried about our friends' safety' Samarth added.

'I understand'

'So should we go then? To the library?'

'Oh yes. One minute, let Sylvia come out from there. We shouldn't end up bumping into her in that passage. Sylvia!'

At once we heard the shuffling of feet which grew closer with time.

'Yes?' There she stood in the passage.

All of a sudden, I was struck by lightning.