177 Ancient ties revealed

After the service is over Aisling is hesitant to leave. She is watching her family closely hoping to get a chance at least say hello. She hears the oldest girl call out 

"Norma come here, you know you are to stay close. If papa comes to get us and your running around. I will be in trouble." The little one sticks her tongue out at the older sister. 

"You always use Mama and Papa to be bossy. Papa doesn't care as long as I'm close by. " she runs towards Aisling and stops to stare at Yona. 

"Whoa your handsome ." She exclaims just looking at him. Yona blushes thinking this is his Norma . 

"Why thank you little lady , you are a pretty little hen." Teasing her watching the dimple beside her mouth show as she smiles. 

"You silly I'm not a hen I'm a girl. So are you married yet?" Her eyes twinkling. Yona kneels down on one knee and shows her his ring. 

"I'm joined with this pretty lady here. You know when you grow up your going to meet a man. One that you will love for more than fifty years and have a big brood of kids. Your going to be beloved by all that you meet." He tweeks her on the nose. She giggles and hugs him tightly.

"I'm sure I will I just hope he is as handsome as you. "Yona hugs her tight tears fill his eyes thinking this is their Norma how he misses her. She is a handful of loving joy even as a child. 

"You will think he is even more handsome I promise. " her mother finishes talking to the pastor and comes to collect Norma. Smiling at the two couples she asks.

"I hope my daughter was not being a bother ?" The four of them answer at once 

"Oh not at all." Yona smiles at the little girl he notices that Aisling is staring at the oldest sister. That must be her fathers mother. The lady in front of him must be the one who raises her father. He wonders if they will meet her grandfather while they are here. The family of six girls and mother wave bye as they walk out of the church. The pastor walks over to welcome them to town. Aisling is watching him closely there is something familiar about him. She doesn't know what it is though. They thank him and head back to the boarding house. Macha is coming out as they are going inside. She greets them 

"oh good you made it back before I head home. The night clerk is inside if you need anything before morning. He works at the munitions factory during the day and stays here at night. His will get you whatever you may need. " the two boys follow her out to the wagon they watch them drive off. Yona looks at his brother they grin to each other. 

" I think we need some male bonding time ladies .We will be up in awhile ." They kiss their wives and sends them upstairs. Calling for the night clerk . A tall lanky man comes stumbling from the back room of the kitchen. 

"We were wondering if you would care for a drink with us. We are just passing through and with my wife pregnant I don't want to be far away. We don't know anything about the town so what do you say,Will you get us a bottle of whisky and have a glass?" The man grins at the two gentlemen and tells them he will be right back. He puts his hat on and heads out the door. Aisling hears the door close and brings them a tiny vial . Astila looks at her questionly. 

"It's a natural truth drug it comes from a tree 

They say that just the pollen from the flowers can make someone tell the truth. It's from the tree that scopolamine is made from. Morrigan slipped it to me before we parted. Since magic may not work we may need to use this . Only a drop or two should be enough. " She hears the clerk coming back and runs upstairs. He comes in with a few mason jars of moonshine. 

"The pub owner makes his own its cheeper but it's good." 

the three men drink for several hours before the clerk is ready to answer their questions. Astila and Yona pretend to be drunk so he doesn't get suspicious. Thinking he should have used a few drops from the vial . 

"So the owner where does she live? Most boarding house owners live where they work." The clerk chuckles. 

"She doesn't need money she just likes it. She lives in a big house on the other side of town. Her husband is the mayor you know. He came from a rich family and married a man she could control. She looks down her nose at people that she thinks is beneath her. Those boys of hers never say a word except the oldest one . You know the one they lynched. He was like her nasty and mean. I'm surprised that anyone did anything to him for fear of crossing her. I guess I shouldn't say anything bad against her since she lets me stay here at night for free . as long as I keep putting food just inside the cellar entrance and take care of guest. I Get free room and food most days I don't have anything to do so it's a easy job. " his words are slurring together after drinking so much so the brothers help him to bed. Once they get him to bed they go upstairs to their rooms to check on the girls. Aisling is sleeping but wakes up when she hears Astila opening the door. 

"Did you find anything out?" He shakes his head and lays down . 

"Nothing much, only what we already knew except that the clerk puts food just inside the cellar door. I figure it's for the person she brought back but before then I'm not sure. It would be nice if we could see what's down there. " 

"There is no way to know unless we try to look around for a different entrance because in our time the house is the property of the national park service now. So the public can go through it but can not touch anything. I remember helping paint the walls in the house when I was younger. But I don't remember there being a door to the cellar. Tomorrow let's see if we can see where the clerk places the food at. That way we can know where to look. " they snuggle together within minutes they are sleeping. 

Inola and Onacona go looking for the area of the burned out house. Starting at the waterfall. Moll has to work and It's not safe for Maureen to hike through the woods. They have hiking poles to jab the earth to know if they hit a hard surface. . Since it's the end of winter the overgrowth is still low to the ground so it will be easier. Onacona luckily remembers the direction and general area of the old shack. The over large trees and rock formations have not changed that much. The gemstones on the jewelry that Uktena and Morrigan gave them begins to warm as they get closer to the area of the lynching. 

Inola circles the area looking while rubbing the gemstone. Outside of the large circle it's cold inside of a large circle area the gem seems to pulse as a heartbeat. 

"This must be where she performed the blood magic. My stone pulses inside the circle. And see the growth here is very little compared to anywhere else. " they begin to shift the dirt around with the poles. At the four directions of the circle they find crystals buried just beneath the surface.thinking to cleanse the area by making a small fire and placing white sage on the flames . when the area is filled with the smoke of the sage they use the pole tips to move the crystals close the flames and smoke. As the crystals heat up they emit ear deafening screams. The men look at each other holding their ears, writhing in pain they fall to the ground. The earth seems to quake and heave. Then nothing sitting up looking around they look dumbfounded at each other. The wind picks up and they hear rustling. In the center of the circle are four young girls no more than twelve to fifteen years of age. They are dressed in clothes of late eighteen hundreds. They bow to the two men and point to the direction of the shack. Onacona recognizes one of the girls. Her family lived just up the hill from them. They shared food back and forth and took care of each other. Her brother was an infant when she was taken. The girl he knew begins to speak. 

"I'm not sure if you can hear me but thank you for releasing us. There are many others in the dark. Mr Medicine man you were always kind to my family I thank you for helping us. Please follow us we will show you the way. " as they walked more girls joined behind them . Onacona began to think these must be the souls of the girls that were kidnapped. The spirits won't go near the foundation of the shack but they form a circle around the perimeter showing them where to look. 

taking the poles the begin to stab at the ground Inola hits something with a loud thud.