The Ritual
Giselle and I searched everywhere inside the coven chambers but, of course, the compass was nowhere to be found. I couldn't tell her yet that I didn't actually lose it. I just needed answers, answers she kept giving in vague pieces and the only way I knew to get them was to force the truth out of her.
"Can we just give up the search?" I asked, sounding genuinely exhausted.
"No, not yet. I have to find it." She sounded frantic.
At this point, I wanted to confess that the compass was with me all along, but I just couldn't. Not yet.
"G, can you tell me more about this compass?" I asked, hoping she would finally give me a straight answer instead of circling around the truth. "What exactly does it do, and why did you give it to me?"
"Oh Dana, there are a lot of things you don't know. Even I don't fully understand them. But soon enough, you will." Her voice was tired.
What was that supposed to mean? What was she keeping from me?
"Everyone please gather round! We need to start the ritual quickly!" I heard Peckam's voice echo from outside the chamber.
"Come on, let's go prepare," Giselle said plainly. She was clearly frustrated about the missing compass.
"Wait, G—" I started.
"Just stop. Please. Stop asking questions. This is a lost cause… everything is a lost cause." She sounded devastated.
"G, I can barely understand anything you're saying. Please, make me understand. I need to—"
But the call came again from outside: "Everyone, gather round! We have to do the ritual before nightfall!"
It was already evening. We had spent nearly the whole day fixing up the coven after the attack, and now it was time for the final part of our punishment.
Giselle walked out of the chamber and I followed closely behind her.
Everyone gathered in a circle sitting on the floor, hands linked. Candles glowed around us, illuminating the newly restored coven. Everyone looked exhausted, but this was it, our last task.
Peckam held the spellbook and began to chant. We repeated after him.
"Soliea makkum graliares skella mackulum."
The room echoed the words.
"Okailas vakum kiminolis hothias sekalum."
Again, we repeated.
"Skofilis declorum gasias fekkum Orialis!"
The final chant.
The candles flickered violently… and then all went out.
A presence entered the room.
Everyone froze, bewildered. Silence swallowed the air. Goosebumps erupted along my arms. And then I saw something. I wasn't sure what it was, but my body moved toward it on its own.
The moment I stood up, the others remained perfectly still. Time itself seemed frozen. I kept walking, following the thing I saw. It stopped, turned, and looked at me.
It wasn't human. It wasn't normal.
But I didn't feel fear, only a strange sense of safety.
It pointed behind me, as if directing me somewhere. Then it handed me something, a scroll.
And just like that, it vanished.
Suddenly, I was back in place, still seated, still holding hands, as though I had never moved. My spirit had left my body. I knew it. But what did I interact with?
I looked around. No one else seemed to have seen anything. I kept it to myself.
The ritual ended, our punishment lifted, and people began leaving the chambers. But I stared in the direction the entity had pointed me toward. Maybe the scroll from the trance was there.
I walked there… nothing. It was empty. Everyone was leaving now. I knew I'd have to return later. The only thing I had left to rely on was the compass, though Giselle couldn't know I still had it.
That evening, at home, I told my parents nothing. I couldn't, not until I found out what that entity was directing me towards.
---
I snuck out of the house and returned to the coven at midnight, as quietly as possible. I entered the main room where the ritual had taken place and walked toward the direction the entity had indicated.
I opened the compass.
It glowed, bright blue, startling me. I didn't expect that.
The light brightened when I walked the right direction, and dimmed when I turned away.
So that's how it works… good.
Following the strongest glow, I reached a far wall. A faint crack caught my eye. I tugged at it and part of the wall loosened, not destroyed, just shifted, something easily repaired with magic.
Inside, I found the scroll.
The same one from the trance.
I opened it immediately, but the writing wasn't in any familiar language. Ancient… foreign… unreadable.
"Oh God," I whispered. "More help."
I tucked the scroll and compass into my bag, fixed the wall back in place, and slipped out unnoticed.
Tonight, I would go to the Labyrinth, with the scroll and the compass.
Maybe Doya could help me.