40°58’57.7”N 47°29’11.3”E – Kərimli, Azerbaijan
20.05.2024 – 17.30 Local Time
I inhaled and exhaled. I tried to go back into that night. I remembered… locking myself in the cabin, spreading sand around it to create a powerful ward. And I waited long for… for what? What happened? I felt inexplicably tense the more I pushed myself to remember. And then as unexpected as always, my eyes opened to a vision.
All I could see was an endless desert, houses built in the sand, and no vegetation in sight. It was almost midday. The vision intensified.
I was floating in the middle of the scenery, looking around for whatever might indicate the importance of this location. This was clairvoyance. It was not what I initially was aiming for, but it could reveal unexpected clues. My subconscious had pulled me into this vision for some reason, even if I did not know why. I grew still and tried to examine my surroundings.
My clairvoyance usually worked in real time so if now it was midday there, this place must have been very far to the west from here. Europe has no such deserts. Africa?
I tried to walk on the sun-scorched sand of this desert. I kneeled and touched it, sifting through it, to see if it triggered anything.
“Ah,” I exasperated a surprised cry.
Something sharp had bit me under the sand. I could feel my finger bleeding, vividly in the vision. I started shifting the sand around, looking for it. For the sign. A small scorpion jumped out of the sand and skittered away. Its body was dark like charcoal, but its legs were white like sand. Morocco, or Western Sahara. I just knew some-
-how. I woke up from the vision in the middle of the bathroom. The bathtub was almost full, but then again, it did not matter. I immediately noticed my finger was bleeding, also in real life. A small but tactical nick at the edge of my finger. And then right in front of me, the mirror of the bathroom was smothered in blood. Not randomly, but shaping a word in Azerbaijani, in Arabic.
RUN
As I read the word, I froze, and my heart started pumping blood faster into my brain. My powers have been trying to warn me all day, and now telling me to run. I picked up a wet towel and quickly cleaned the mirror. Was Ramin the one I had to run away from?
I stopped the running water, the bathtub almost full and ready to overflow. The intoxicating smell of flowers emanating from the bathtub aromas nearby blurred my vision.
Is he fucking with my head somehow? Is it this aroma? I almost tripped and fell wondering this.
“All good Nisÿ?” he asked from outside the door.
“Absolutely,” I said with a cracking voice.
“All right, let me know if you need anything,” he said and I heard him moving away.
I went into the bathtub. I was in no condition to run anywhere right now – and even if I was, I had no clue where to go to find my coven. I had no idea why I had a vision of the Sahara Desert. And I had no clue what this man wanted from me. But I had an obvious idea of how to get all my answers from him.
I found myself standing in the kitchen, humming some melody I had long forgotten. Ramin was cleaning the dishes, and I was holding a cup of tea. I closed my eyes trying to remember again.
RUN
A message I had left to myself, an indeterminate amount of time earlier. As I slowly left the teacup on the table, I had to convince myself not to relax with this cozy feeling. I was under the influence of some substance, enchantment, or perhaps an aggressive ward: I was being kept hostage. I sat down, even though I knew I had to run.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“What’s that song about?” Ramin asked me as I kept humming a melody.
“The sun. About the day that the sun went out, and people had to invent light to find themselves” I explained. I laughed a bit.
“It does not sound that funny,” he said jokingly.
No, it wasn’t. But my mind was sending me subliminal messages, trying to break me free. I kept humming the song as I looked straight into the tea in my teacup. What was the reason I was cooperative? Was it a poison in the tea? Was it the food? Did Ramin do something to me while I was asleep?
As I kept humming, I tried to exert my ward, just enough to flicker the lights. Ramin did not seem to notice. Something kept a strong hold over me, and I seemed unable to stop my good attitude, even though logically I should be trying to run away.
I tried once more while humming with a bit more flair. The lights went off.
“Oh no, another outage,” Ramin cursed “Since this domain war has started it has always been like this. The municipality blames the bad infrastructure, but there is nothing one can do against shadows. I need to go restart the generator, maybe give it the good-old spank”
I nodded; and pretended I was lost in the melody I was humming. The moment he left I stood up, as I kept going with my melody – not because I was compelled to, but to remind myself what I intended to do, in case I forgot. I started going through the drawers of the kitchen. All I needed was a candle, or even a lighter perhaps.
My ward powers were quite powerful, as they could nullify most malicious curses. If anything could help release me from this situation, that was it. That said, my ward powers were balanced out by quite strong restrictions. They were interacting with light, and if I tried to create a ward I usually -at best- disabled simple electricity like I did a moment ago. Furthermore, I could only concentrate on a ward I would cast around small open flames. I had already learned that if I cleansed sand through those flames, I could create a fine powder that I could use to define wider and more permanent warded areas. All I had to do was sprinkle cleansed sand around the area I needed to ward and ascertain no one broke the circle.
The best was sand scorched by the sun, which was the fastest to cleanse. I had trained long on Caspian beaches to develop such rituals. I had gone through intense training alongside Zephyr, a Whisperer from Zaqatala. These were blessed times: connecting with the elements of the Caspian Sea and tuning into the bright sun’s rays.
I looked at the oven in front of me. Where was I again? Not the Caspian Sea, and I haven’t heard whispers from Zephyr in a while. I had to
RUN
and for that, I was trying to find something. I stopped humming and cursed. What was it?
Wait, what melody was I humming?
One day the sun went out, and people had to invent light to find themselves
I said that part out loud, and let my hands guide me through the kitchen’s drawers. I could hear Ramin cursing and coming back up the stairs, failing to reignite the lights I had killed
There were no candles. But there, a box of matches. That should do. I pulled a few matches out of the box. Without rubbing them on the side of the box, I kept one out and waited for Ramin to march into the room. Once he did, I blew on one of the matches, and as if it knew, it ignited on its own. A red flame sparked and for the first time in hours, I could think straight again.
As he entered the room, he looked confused and then startled. I said nothing, only looking at him as intimidatingly as I could.
“Who are you?” I asked him.
“I am… Ramin,” he said coming closer. He was not threatening, he seemed more drawn to my lit match.
“Why are you keeping me here? Under whose orders?”
“I… don’t?”
“Don’t come any closer” I commanded.
“No… please. It feels, different” he said and then looked around. “Where are we?”
Before my match’s flame would go out, I blew on another one.
“Stop these goddamn games” I yelled at him “This is where you are keeping me. But I have allies”
“Keeping you? I am not even sure where we are” he insisted, but I had already started whispering.
--Starling, Zephyr, anyone. I am locked somewhere in South Oghuz, Nisÿ
Suddenly, Ramin jumped towards me.
“No, please don’t!” he said as he grabbed my arms and stopped my whisper.
“Do not touch me, vile man!” The match fell on the ground, but before it could go out, I blew on the third one. He backed off.
“You don’t understand! We must run away, and you just warned them!” He screamed at me.
“Starling will save me from you, but you are free to run. I have no intention to harm you, but they will.”
“But I cannot without your flame. This… What day is it?” he asked in panic.
For a moment I tried to decipher what he meant. His reaction to my breaking whatever controlling hex was placed upon me was opposite to what I expected.
“It was May eighteen when I was hurt. Not sure what day is today,” I responded before he would yell again. The look of despair on his face said all I needed to know. “You are not my captor, aren’t you? You are my cellmate.”
I looked out the window. Who was keeping me here? I searched my pocket for more matches and readily blew on one more.
“How do you know Starling?” I asked him.
“I… do not remember. But I know they have to do with us… being in this house. I remember telling you they are coming soon, and all I could feel was fear.”
My heart started pounding. I was in a coven created by a very powerful Cursed individual who hid behind the persona of “Starling”. They had more Curses than I knew and were a very dangerous influential person who I thought were working to protect me. But now, it seemed there was a good chance that this Ramin said the truth and I was imprisoned in this warm cozy house by Starling’s orders.
Was I supposed to trust this man? And do what?
RUN