a wizards study

"Come on, let's go.", Lenn urged Ann, "I don't want to stay down here for much longer."

"Yea, my head is slowly clearing up again. Thank you."

"No problem", Lenn said while helping Ann up, "Before we go up though I wanna take a closer look into the room at the other end of the hallway, it looked like some kind of study."

Bracing herself against Lenn Ann managed to move along at a reasonable pace to the room that Lenn wanted to see.

In the light of Lenns' pendant the room revealed itself to contain a large, square, rotten table with laboratory equipment on it, a bookcase with books so deteriorated that they turned to dust, and in one corner a pedestal on which rested a large bowl at chest hight.

Ann raised her voice: "I wanna take a closer look at that bowl. It looks in much better shape than the rest of the place."

Getting closer they could see that it was empty, but Lenn noticed something. "Isn't this elvish writing, here on the rim?"

"Hm? Oh, you are right. Hang on, let me translate."

Eye of time and space. Ear of flesh and mind. Tongue of truth and lies. Nose of light and dark. Skin of life and death.

"Are you sure that is right? It sounds like nonsense to me."

Ann was staring into the distance, deep in thought and wonderment. "Put some water in it."

"What? Water? Why?"

Snapping out of her thoughts she turns to Lenn, "Just do it, a few drops should do. I think I know what it is, but I want to see proof before I tell you."

Lenn looked at Ann for a second before taking out the water flask and doing as she told him.

As soon as the water hit the bowl the drops lit up with a silvery shimmer, pooling in the centre, but appearing to be swirling slowly and unpredictably.

Anns' eyebrows shot up, eyes still fixated on the silvery substance. "It's ... it's a soul basin."

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Part five of the story written for Inktober 2019 (#21: Treasure).