Little Town of Torriden (rewriting off Wattpad)

17 ~ Location Spell

No one had a clear head leaving the ball that night, and many sat at home, wondering what had happened to them all, while others chose to ignore it and move on with their lives.

Sleep seemed to become something that was an impossible task for Estelle. She lay empty in her bed, staring at the large ceiling, many paintings finely illustrated above her. Mind whirling with thoughts of what could be happening with her sister. After the clock's hour hand pointed to two, Estelle couldn't handle lying there. Sleep could wait. The thick sheets flew off of the girl's body as she got out of bed. Her mind was made up, she would ask evenora if she knew anything that could help her.

Opening up her doors, the realization that the guards of the castle would not let her accomplish this task dawned on her. They looked surprised, seeing the princess out of bed at this hour, and started to ask questions.

"Miss," One guard began.

"Don't worry, I just can't sleep, and I'm going to the library."

The guards couldn't fight Estelle on the matter, so they stayed by her instead of trying to convince her to stay in her room.

The library had such a familiar scent, the smell of books with hundreds of pages bringing a calming feeling to the room and its inhabitants. Estelle browsed the rows of books, looking up and down for the words, "magic" "spells" and "location seeking". There weren't many books that had the titles the girl was looking for, but a few caught her eye.

By the end of her search, Estelle had a total of four large books piled in her arms. One was titled, "The Essence of Learning Magic", which is what Estelle decided she would read later. Another book was titled, "Simple Spells Everyone Should Know". This book was what the princess decided to look into, because when she skimmed through the table of contents, one section had a label of "Location Spells". Hope seemed to come over Estelle when she saw this, and there was no hesitation to flip to the pages where this section was meant to be.

"Object Finding." No. "Animal Tracking." No. "Locating Individuals." There it was, exactly what she was looking for. This was perfect. Eager to read what this book had to offer, Estelle engulfed herself in the book that lay comfortably on her legs which were propped up, knees as high as her lips. She started reading at around 3:15 A.M., and finished reading about locating individuals at 5 A.M.

Sun shone through the stained windows of the library. Estelle's eyes seemed dry and tired, but full of energy and determination at the same time. She knew what she had to do, and made a pact with herself to accomplish whatever needed to be done in order to find her missing sister.

Before leaving the library, Estelle took the book she had been reading with her, whilst hiding the other three in a safe spot only she would look in. The guards continued to follow her, wondering what she would do next.

"Can you two leave me alone for a little while? There are guards all over, and it's practically daytime, so I don't see why it would be a problem if you let me be on my own." The guards let out a sigh, agreeing to the one before them's request.

Smiling, Estelle then made her way towards her sister's room. This was where she would obtain one of the necessary components to perform, or attempt, a location spell. Arriving to the hallway in which Aedra's room was, the princess couldn't help but feel excitement fill her chest.

The door opened, revealing a finely decorated room, elegant decorations placed within. The girl walked inside, knowing exactly where she wanted to go. There was a wooden dresser, with tiny paintings that filled up space on the drawers, and mirrors that seemed to be just as tall as the dresser itself.

Estelle grabbed a hairbrush, and after carefully pulling a strand of hair from the cluster, she took a music box that was sentimental to her sister.

"This should be good." Estelle said, pleased with what she had in the palms of her hands.

The girl then left her sister's room, not wasting any time, and started to go downstairs, knowing she could find paper and pen there. She was right, for there it was, the perfect piece of paper, paired with a pen and ink in the corner of a room on a desk.

Not wanting to be seen performing a spell, Estelle locked the doors of the mini study room before sitting down, legs crossed on the floor. The carpet was not the most comfortable, with its little pieces of wire feeling rope poked out, but this would have to do.

She began the spell by placing the piece of paper in front of her, then, in the corner of the paper, it was there she placed the strand of hair under the musicbox. To make sure she said everything correctly, Estelle flipped to the page she needed to in the book.

Checking off what she needed in an invisible list in her head, the next step was to recite specific phrases. If not done correctly, this spell would not work. Although some words felt like gibberish to Estelle at first, with practice in sounding them out in her head, she was ready. Her eyes closed, taking a deep breath to prepare herself for the upcoming events.

"I call upon the spirits who have no harmful intent to guide me to whom I desire to see once again. Go say to where. Guide me for low. See into the spirit who pairs with the objects I have offered. If you will do me the honor of carrying out my request, use my hand to write out where this person may be." After repeating the phrases in a quieter voice every repetition, Estelles hand seemed to have an invisible force take a hold of her hand.

The sensation was of something she had never experienced before. Her mind could not comprehend what was happening before her. Her hand began moving on its own, creating a form of a map. Estelle's eyes shook whilst watching her own hand sketch on the blank paper. The process took about a total of three minutes, and in the last second, the force harshly placed a dot in the center of the paper, causing it to appear as a splatter.

When the presence that had been wrapped around the princesses hand vanished, Estelle's hand fell a few inches before regaining its ability to move on its own. She was speechless, in fact, in utter disbelief. Yes, she had hoped for this spell to work in some way, but she was not prepared for the spell to follow through with what the book stated may happen.

There the girl sat, alone in a small room, with only a singular window allowing an increment of light to fill pieces of the darkness, and a smile formed. This feeling of knowing and accomplishing something that she felt no one else knew about or could do made her heart race. In the silence, all that could be heard was the ticking of a clock, and the silent laughter from Estelle.

~~~~~~~~~~

Metal and leather rubbed together in forceful intervals as Aedra struggled to escape the binds that held her down. Flashbacks from the time in which her sister and herself were trapped in a cabin similar to this one invaded her mind.

"What do you want?!" the girl screamed, wrists and ankles burning from the friction she created.

"You are a princess, are you not?" The man asked.

"Is this some want for ransom?" She gritted her teeth, looking into her captores eyes with a fierce glare.

"No, but we need your blood." The man reached over to the table displaying many surgical knives, viles, and bags with tubes.

This answer was entirely unexpected, and caused much more fear to roll throughout Aedra's body than a simple random order would have. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but had to choose wisely as to what to say.

"What makes my blood different from any other persons, or princesses?" She paused. "Or perhaps, is there no difference? I just happen to be the unlucky one?"

Something in the way Aedra talked made the knife-holder laugh. His laugh was loud and deep, but his voice went cold when he regained himself and continued.

"You see, the difference is because you have a high chance of the magic from that cave over there being inside of you."

"Magic? This man is more crazy than I thought." Aedra thought to herself.

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