"This is from the last witch Zhimosom encountered," Rotiaqua said. "He killed her and kept her skull as a decoration. Just a little reminder."
"I don't see what harm can come of it."
"Stay away from her," Rotiaqua insisted. "Even if she does know where Chihon is, she will lead you into trouble. Mark my words."
"I need to find Chihon. Maybe the witch can help. Lord Draril seems to think so, and I am willing to take a chance."
"Lorit, I know you want to find Chihon more than anything else, but be wary. Witches are trouble. They draw their power from the spirit world, it is evil magic."
"Have you discovered anything about Zhimosom?" Lorit hoped that she knew more than the last time they'd spoken. "I still can't contact him, either."
"Zhimosom still lives, but he is weakening. I can feel it."
"Do you know where he is?"
"No. I'm searching, but remember, my powers are diminished because of his imprisonment. It's part of the pairing."
"Why aren't my powers diminished because of Chihon?"
"Her powers are not diminished. They are just hidden from you. She must be well and strong, or else you would feel it, too."
"That's good, isn't it?" Lorit worried about Chihon more than Zhimosom. He had come to depend not only on her power to aid his own, but he missed her advice, and he had to admit to himself, he missed her company, too.
"It's a good sign." Rotiaqua raised her hand and pointed one aged finger at Lorit. "Stay away from that witch."
"Thank you for your counsel," Lorit said, releasing the connection. He didn't want to argue with her about the witch. If the witch offered any hope of locating Chihon, he was going to see her.
After the Sorceress faded from view, Lorit fell into a troubled sleep. His dreams were filled with terror. He dreamed he had found Chihon, only every time he reached for her she would shimmer and fade into the image of Princess Ukina, laughing maniacally.
Witchery
When the witch was ready, Lorit and the Princess were escorted by one of Lord Draril's servants to the less reputable side of the city. The witch lived in a rundown house adjacent to a graveyard. The old house had the obligatory spire but it was crooked and weathered. Lorit worried that it would topple under the slightest breeze and crush them as they made their way inside.
The witch's abode was no less run down inside. The walls were hung with threadbare tapestries depicting mythical creatures and monsters that Lorit recognized from his childhood lessons. There was a smell in the air that reminded him of rotting corpses mixed in with burnt hair and berries.
In the center of the room was a sturdy marble table with a large depression in the center. It stood on stout wooden legs, which were the only things in the room that appeared untouched by decay and degradation.
An old woman carrying a large silver bowl entered the room. She placed it in the middle of the table and sat heavily in one of the chairs. "So you have come to Kelnit to seek your love."
"No," Lorit said. "I am looking for Chihon. She's my partner in magic, not my lover."
"Not just partner." The witch pointed a crooked finger at him. "Your love." Lorit felt uncomfortable. The witch had seen something in him that he was not sure he was ready to admit to himself.
She turned to the Princess. "And you ... are looking for your brother."
"Yes, I am." The Princess walked the perimeter of the room, arms folded, looking at each of the hangings with great interest.
"Sit down, both of you," Kelnit said.
Lorit and the Princess took their seats across from each other. The witch leaned over the large glimmering silver bowl. "This will tell us everything we seek if we but ask properly." She sat up and looked at Lorit. "Do you have a personal item from the one you seek?"
Lorit searched his pack for the comb the girl had secreted away when Chihon left. He handed it to the witch. "This is her comb. It was left behind when she was abducted."
"And you?" she asked turning to the Princess.
The Princess rummaged in her own pack until she came up with a small dagger. "This is his."
"Good." The witch called out to her apprentice to bring the water. A young girl came out, carrying a silver pitcher. She was about fourteen summers in age, dressed in a dirty but well maintained dress. She tipped the pitcher and poured water into the silver bowl. It stank of slime and decay, as if it had been scooped from a stagnant pond in the graveyard.
The water swirled around the bowl as she poured. Kelnit took the dagger and stirred the water violently, almost splashing it out of the bowl. She sat back and let the water settle down. The debris and contamination slowly sank to the bottom of the bowl.
The witch leaned over it and cackled. Lorit could see a rough pattern form in the sediment as it settled out of the water. It appeared vaguely like the map he carried in his pack.
"I see a tall mountain peak, protected by a steep cliff and a solid wall of rock cut from the mountain itself. Banners fly from the walls, their golden trim awash in the sunlight that reflects off the snow. The mountain rises out of the Ice Father to challenge the spires of Relynn."
The air above the water shimmered and took on the shape she described. High up in the mountains a city sat nestled against the sheer granite cliffs. Its walls were made of the same stone that formed the mountain, blending in almost as if the city itself had been formed right along with the craggy peaks.
"In the city there is a temple. Not to one of these new gods that are now in fashion, but the old ones, the real ones. There, one held under bondage may be released." The witch waved her hand over the water, wiping away the image.
"What of Chihon?" Lorit demanded.
The witch swirled the water in the bowl using the comb this time, setting the debris whirling about violently and once again allowed it to settle. "Let's see what the waters say about your love."
She leaned over the bowl searching the sediment in detail. She poked at the water with the comb, occasionally stirring up small local eddies that disturbed the sediment and allowed it to settle again.
Lorit grew impatient as the witch repeatedly poked and stirred the water in different areas of the bowl, mumbling to herself.
"What about Chihon?" he demanded. "Do you know where they've taken her?"
"It's unclear," the witch said. "The signs are muddled. They don't show anything definite."
"What do you mean, it's unclear? You had no problem locating the Prince."
"There is interference. The spirits are barred from speaking. They know, but they can not reveal this." She spoke slowly, and then looked up at Lorit. "But you already knew this, didn't you?"
"I knew that she was being hidden from me. That's why I came here." Lorit was growing impatient with the witch. He had been warned that she might prove useless or even harmful.
Lorit stood up and raised his magic. He leaned in towards Kelnit, grasping the edges of the bowl as he did. "You had better stop lying to me. If you know where they've taken her, or your spirits know, then tell me or I will make you wish you had."
The witch laughed and sat back in her chair. "You can't command me or the spirits. Your magic is no use against mine. Try to harm me and you will only harm yourself."
Lorit let his anger rise. He used it to fuel the spell he'd prepared for the witch. He reached out his hand towards her. "Precipio tibi quod mihi verum." He commanded her to tell him the truth.
Suddenly Lorit felt as if he was falling and the room went dark.
"Lorit! Are you there? What happened?" came the voice of the Princess out of the darkness.
"I don't know. Are you hurt?"
"No, but I can't see."
Lorit felt a hand strike his face. It felt around until it reached his shoulder and latched on.
"Is that you?" she asked.
"It's me." His eyes should have adjusted to the dark, but he was still unable to make out anything. It was blacker than a storm on a moonless night.
"Incendo ignio," Lorit called forth fire.
Nothing.
"What is that?" the Princess cried out.
"It isn't fire." Lorit peered into the darkness but saw nothing.
"Over there." He felt her hand pulling his shoulder to point him in the direction she meant. Far off in the distance, he could see a small point of light. It grew slowly, almost achingly so, until it was about as large as a head of cabbage. It was a sphere of dark gray light, almost as black as the room, but shining faintly.
The globe hovered in the air in front of him and stopped. He reached out to touch it and it backed away. The gray changed into a swirl of color that twisted and turned across the face of the globe, growing progressively lighter. As his eyes accustomed to the faint light, it started to form an image.
The image began as a swirl of red and yellow, slowly setting into the visage of a little girl in a red dress. She had light hair brushed neatly and tied in ribbons. She sat on a blanket underneath a tree next to a picnic basket.
As the image grew clearer, Lorit felt fingernails digging into his arm. Suddenly there was a piercing scream, "No!"
The globe fled into the distance fading away until they were once again left in the dark. The pressure on Lorit's arm released, and he heard the Princess drop to the floor, sobbing. He felt around until he found her, and sat down next to her. He reached out and took her hand.
"What's wrong?" He could feel her shaking; her skin was sweaty and clammy.
"No!" was all she said between heavy sobs.
Another globe appeared in the distance. It went through the same stage of clearing as the first apparition had, but this time the image was of a young boy. Lorit peered into it as the image sharpened.
It was him.
He was sitting at the table in the kitchen back home. The image drew him into it until he felt himself sitting at that table. It was larger than he remembered. His legs swung in the air as he kicked them freely. They were too short to reach the floor. He suddenly had an overwhelming sense of being alone. Totally and utterly alone. There was no one else in the world but him.
The fear welled up inside of him just as it had on that day so long ago. His mother had left him sitting on the chair in the kitchen. She had been gone forever and Lorit knew she was never coming back. Who was going to take care of him? Who would make his meals and help him get dressed?
His lower lip started to tremble. He could feel the tears overflowing his eyes. He kicked his legs hard but there was nothing but air. He fought back the tears when he heard a voice off in the distance say "Is that you?"
It was the Princess. She had not been there the day that his mother had left him.
"Lorit, is that you?" she asked again.
"Yes, it's me. I was small, maybe five summers old. My mother left me all alone in the house. She said she'd be right back, but she was gone all afternoon. One of the kine had been in trouble with a birth. She had to run to help. She forgot all about me. I thought she had left me alone forever.
"The dogs got in through the open door and growled at me. I thought they were going to eat me. I climbed up on the table and cried until she came back. It was getting dark and the dogs growled at me every time I tried to get down and go find her.
"When she came back, she was covered in blood and dirt. She saw me there crying, and she just scowled at me. She didn't even say why she was gone. She just went over to the sink and started washing up and told me to grow up; that I was being a baby.
"I was afraid she had abandoned me. I was little and I didn't understand why she left me all alone that day when she said she would be right back or why she was so short with me. I learned later that despite her efforts, the kine and calf had both died. It was a great loss to our family."
As Lorit told the story to the Princess, the globe portrayed it before him. When he reached the end, it became brighter and brighter until it burst into a shower of sparks with a pronounced pop and plunged them into darkness once again.
Lorit wondered what they had gotten themselves into, when another sphere appeared. This one came on quicker and sharpened immediately. It hovered in front of the Princess. Lorit could see her face by its light. She cringed in fear, throwing her hands up to hide her face. "No!" she shrieked and the globe sped away leaving them in the dark once more.
Far off in the dark another vision arose, this one was of a young woman. As it became clear, Lorit saw it was Chihon. She was sitting in a chair, looking as if she were fast asleep. A woman stood over her with a razor. The woman lifted Chihon’s curls in one gnarled hand and deftly sliced them away. She dropped them on the floor, adding to the accumulated tangle.
Chihon soon sat there completely bald, her head white and angry from the abuse she had just suffered. The woman brushed her off and motioned her to stand. A Priest in black robes entered the vision carrying a black robe with silver piping.
Lorit saw Chihon slip her arms into the robe and turn to face him. She was impassive, emotionless.
He reached out to her. "Chihon!" He tried to touch her magic, to call out to her in his mind, but she was far away and unresponsive.
The image exploded in a shower of sparks, leaving Lorit and the Princess in darkness once more. Lorit sat frozen. Was this reality, the past, the future, or just some ruse to anger him? He desperately wished he knew what had happened to Chihon and how to reach her.
A new sphere appeared. There was a young woman of about ten summers portrayed in its light. It was the Princess again. This time she was seated in a chair beside a large canopy bed.
Lorit felt her hand grasp his. "Please, I don't want to watch this."
"I don't think it will hurt you," Lorit told her. He squeezed her hand as the image came to life. A short fat woman in servants' garb entered from the side, carrying a large spoon. She approached the young Princess, tapping the spoon in her hand as she did. When she reached the Princess, she said something that Lorit could not hear, but the Princess squeezed his hand even tighter.