"She was right here," said Daphne, stopping behind Bryony's house in roughly the place Bella had caught her the previous morning. "Then she checked over her shoulder and started moving the buckets—but slowly, like she didn't want to make noise. She did that both times, and then moved them back after."

"Show us," said Titus. "See if you can recreate what she did."

Daphne hesitated with a glance at Bella, as though seeking confirmation. Bella inclined her head stiffly towards the buckets. Daphne edged forward and moved two off to one side, where faint circles in the grass indicated they'd sat recently. For all her reluctance, Bella had to admit there was another reason Titus had been right to bring the kid along for this investigation. Neither he nor Bella would have had the strength to move those obstacles themselves.

"And then she crouched down like she was looking..."

Daphne broke off. Bella fluttered after Titus as he joined the kid beside the wall. Daphne traced a brick with her fingertips. It still had all its mortar, but that sealant didn't look sealed, and was chipped on one side. Daphne hooked a fingertip into this gap and tugged the brick. It wiggled. She found a second divot on its other side and worked the brick back and forth, easing it slowly out of the wall to reveal a secret space beyond. It was small—no bigger than two stacked bricks—and seemed built into the wall itself. It was empty.

"She might have put something here the first time she came, then fetched it again," said Daphne.

"That would be my suspicion," said Titus. Daphne pulled her hands back as he slipped past them to sniff around the inside of the hidden cavity. He wrinkled his nose.

"Was there something there?" asked Bella.

"A potion, most likely." Titus sniffed again, whiskers pulled back in visible distaste. "Not a particularly pleasant one."

"In smell, or in properties?"

"Impossible to say. Henbane has equal use in medicinal and poisonous concoctions. I don't recognize this particular potion."

Henbane was used in more than those two things, but Titus might be abbreviating the plant's utility to prolong Daphne's innocence. Pleasure-seekers of many kinds were drawn to henbane potions, a class of Herbalism Bella was glad Bryony had never dabbled in. It would only increase the number and decrease the quality of her already unwanted midnight visitors if that were part of her reputation.

As for storing such potions out here, that much made sense. The plant stank on its own, let alone in any preparations. Bryony sometimes opted to even handle it outside, let alone leave its potions to mature overnight. That would explain why Bella hadn't detected the foul plant indoors over the last few days.

"Do you have any trackers?" Titus asked Daphne.

"I might." Daphne frowned hard for a moment, tugging on her long, dark braid. "Wait here."

She was off a heartbeat later. When she returned, Titus nodded around the house. "You'll need an individualizer, will you not?"

"Yeah. A strand of hair would be best, if you know where to find one."

"I'll see," said Bella before Titus could offer to bring the kid inside, too. She winged around to her crow-door and spent less than a minute poking over Bryony's pillow before she came up with a long, brown strand. She brought this back to Daphne, who uncorked a portly potion bottle and poked the hair inside. The clear potion there began to swirl a misty purple almost immediately. Daphne gave it a good shake and let it mature for a minute longer before looking to Titus again. He nodded to the ground around the mulch buckets.

The tracking potion emitted a faint smell of crushed grass and resin when Daphne uncorked it. She fished in her pocket again and came up with a perforated cork, which she jammed in the bottle-top before flipping it upside-down. The perforated cork released a delicate sprinkling of potion over the grass where Bryony had been standing two nights before. Almost immediately, footprints began to appear, outlined in misty purple. Daphne hadn't been lying when she said she'd seen Bryony come here. There were two sets of footprints. The fainter set only led from the house and back. The second, bolder set came from the same direction, then headed for the road.

"Follow her," said Titus.

Daphne did, sprinkling dutifully. Bryony's trail led to the edge of town, bound southeast.

Bella puffed her feathers. "See? She went to Solanum."

Daphne and Titus said nothing. The potion bottle was running low. Daphne sprinkled it thinner and thinner around a bend in the road, then caught her breath. Bella's heart skipped several beats. Scarcely out of sight of Hyacinth, Bryony's trail paused at the road's edge, then forged into the forest instead.

"Where's she going?" demanded Bella.

"Isn't that the question?" murmured Titus.

"Keep going," said Bella, pretending not to hear.

Daphne obeyed. The potion bottle ran out a good stone's throw into the forest, far enough to rule out a simple detour. Bella landed on a low branch, staring after it in dismay. This was too detailed a path to be a setup by Daphne herself. Bryony really had come this way. But why?

"Was she Wight-lured?" said Titus.

"She can't have been." Bella swallowed against a dry throat. "She knows them too well."

"Why was she called to Solanum?" asked Daphne.

"Medical incident," said Bella. Titus watched her in silence as she declined to elaborate. According to Celandine, there had been no incident in Solanum. None that had needed Bryony's attention, anyway.

"We need to check inside," said Titus, turning away. Bella said nothing. If Bryony had left home intending to travel to Solanum, why had she walked into the forest instead, let alone so close to Wightnight? And where had she gone?

Bella followed wordlessly as Titus led the way back to Bryony's house. There was no avoiding going inside now, and Daphne would once again be of use. Bella flew ahead to retrieve Bryony's spare key before Daphne saw where it was stored, then had to surrender it again for the young Witch to unlock the door.

"Where was she when you spoke with her?" said Titus, to Bella this time. "We'll start there."

"The kitchen," said Bella numbly. "Packing."

Packing a full bag, no less, with more food than Bella had thought practical for a trip to a town only an hour's walk away. It was customary for whoever called a Witch to feed them during their visit, and the town would have stepped in had that family not been capable. Bryony was even better regarded in Solanum than Hyacinth, where the Borns did their best to disparage her.

Daphne was more than tall enough to check cupboards. Bella pointed her around the kitchen to try and pinpoint items missing, to only some avail. They split up to search for other clues. Bella took a similar tour through Bryony's bedroom, only to be called back a minute later. When she returned to the kitchen, Daphne held out two crumpled, ash-smeared slips of paper.

"I found these in the fireplace," she said.

The first slip, already unfolded, was the note Bryony had intended to leave before Bella came to find her. She'd tossed the paper in the fireplace, then, but with the coals so low by that hour of the night, it must not have burned. Daphne unfolded the second note.

"Dearest Bella," it read. "Got called away to Neriu—"

It ended there. Bella read it again, but she wasn't misinterpreting. "She didn't go to Nerium," she said. "Solanum called her."

Daphne shrugged. "Or Solanum was just an excuse. In which case, she could have gone anywhere."

"Well, she didn't tell me. And she tells me everything."

Even as she said it, though, Bella's nape prickled. She looked up to find Titus giving her another long, silent look. The prickle turned to a chill. Bella fluffed up to hide a shiver. Bryony did tell her everything. If she ever didn't, it was for a good reason: protecting Bella from bad actors, or sparing her from the drama of Nerium's jealous Covens. Titus wouldn't understand how it felt to share that kind of bond with someone. If that tainted this investigation, Bella might need to continue it alone.

Daphne had left the room again. "Can I check over here?" she called a moment later, from Bryony's lab and study.

"For what?" said Bella, but Titus cut across her once again.

"By all means," he said. "It might yield clues to what she was doing with those henbane potions."

"Are you really?" hissed Bella under her breath, intercepting him.

His yellow gaze met hers, eyes cold as twin winter moons. "Would you rather stop me?"

"You're just going to let her do what she wants with Bryony's papers?"

"We're both here to supervise."

"And if she sees something she shouldn't?"

"Why?" Titus cocked his head every so slightly, a warning that flickered through his otherwise calm demeanor. "Do you imagine Bryony has something to hide?"

Bella stuttered back a step. "No, I—"

"Guys?" said Daphne from across the room. They both turned to find her standing with one hand on an open desk drawer—one even Bella rarely saw Bryony use. Daphne lifted an open book from it and set it on the table. "You might want to come see this."

A/N: This week's ONC recommendation!

Message in a bottle by Spruce_Goose: