Redeemed (Part one)
My eyes cracked open.
Did I… fall asleep?
I don't remember drifting off, but somehow I must have.
Why didn't I return to the labyrinth?
What happened last night?
I quickly realised I was no longer suspended in chains. Instead, I was tied to an iron chair, wrists locked in heavy cuffs on each side and ankles strapped tightly to the legs of the chair. Movement was impossible, every attempt sent a sharp sting through my limbs.
Then the flashes came.
A forsaken had entered the room last night.
He tried to get into my mind.
He mentally tortured me, digging, tearing through my thoughts in search of the cranium. Thank God I didn't know its true location. But then, he saw something. The key. The great red door in the labyrinth that Doya had shown me only days ago.
I panicked for a moment, until I remembered:
They can't access the labyrinth.
They've been rejected from it.
He tortured until he could get nothing else, then murmured a spell, sharp and cold, that knocked me out instantly.
That spell, no doubt, was the reason I couldn't return to the labyrinth last night. It was the same spell Casi had used on me earlier, when I got captured.
Awakened now, my head throbbed violently.
I tried to cast a spell to break free from the cuffs, but a counter-spell had already been woven through the room to suffocate any attempt of escape.
"Oh, great," I muttered under my breath.
My thoughts turned to my parents.
I hadn't come home.
They would be worried sick, probably scouring the whole Earth looking for me. Anxiety twisted in my chest, but there was no time for regret. I needed a plan.
I tried summoning Doya again, mentally, the way I usually did.
Nothing.
It was like every lifeline I clung to had been cut.
Then the door swung open.
Giselle.
A rush of anger flared through me.
Shock.
Then fury.
"Oh my God, Dana… oh God, are you alright?" she asked, rushing toward me with a frantic expression.
I didn't answer. What did she think asking me if I was alright. I was furious.
I stared at her, cold and unmoving.
"I-I'm sorry this happened," she continued, her voice trembling. "I messed up. I had no idea they'd come after you like this." Tears pooled in her eyes as she tugged desperately at the cuffs. "I'm getting you out of here."
Her words froze me.
Getting me out?
Still, I kept quiet.
"My dad… he made me become friends with you to deceive you," she confessed as the cuffs released with a clank. "Please, please forgive me. I didn't know they would go this far."
She paused for a moment... Then she continued.
"There's a guy they brought in not long before you," she informed. "I heard whispers that he works with you or something, that he's from the labyrinth."
My heart lurched. Doya.
"Take me to him," I said, my voice hoarse.
"Yes. But we have to be careful."
We moved through the dim corridor until we reached a door. Giselle pushed it open, and my breath caught.
Doya was hanging by his wrists, the chains biting deep into his arms. His hood was gone. It was my first time seeing him without his hood on. His fair pale skin was bruised, almost lifeless. His dark-ash blonde hair was matted, and his normally sharp blue eyes had dulled.
He looked broken.
"Doya…" My voice cracked as tears welled up. I reached for him, frantic for a way to free him.
He looked at me and whispered, "I'm sorry."
"No," I murmured. "Don't speak. Save your strength. We're getting you out."
Together, Giselle and I freed him and supported his weight as we carried him through the halls.
She knew the layout well… because she was one of them.
I still hadn't spoken to her.
Then I remembered, my bag. The compass. The scroll.
"My bag, where is it?" I demanded.
"We can't get it," she said quickly. "It's in a restricted room. I have no access."
I swallowed my frustration. I'd have to retrieve it later.
As we moved, Casi suddenly stepped into our path.
Oh no.
Her eyes locked on me, and she hurled a fireball.
Giselle blocked it with her own magic.
Doya and I were too weak to fight properly, but we forced ourselves into the battle regardless. Casi was unbelievably strong, far different from the girl I once knew.
More forsaken arrived, outnumbering us instantly.
Magic exploded through the halls in blinding bursts.
Giselle fought viciously, far more skilled than I ever imagined.
She fought her own people… for me.
In the chaos, she uttered a spell that summoned a dense fog around us.
Doya used its cover, forcing his broken body to veil-walk us away.
Veil-walking meant stepping into the Veil, that thin space between places. It allowed a channeler to move through it and emerge elsewhere in a heartbeat, but it was never simple. Distance mattered. Memory mattered. Familiarity. Focus. Strength. Every rule existed for one reason only, to keep the walker alive.
I really needed to learn magic properly.
We landed in the middle of a forest. Doya collapsed instantly, pain wracking his body. My heart clenched as I held him, guilt washing over me. Why was I always the cause of someone's suffering?
I remembered the healing spell my mother once used, placing my hands over Doya's body;
"Sae muraa akas silaa mier caer."
The bruises on Doya's body slowly faded. It didn't do much considering the damage the forsaken had done, although, he exhaled softly in relief.
"They've found a way," he whispered. "I don't know how… but they found a way back into the labyrinth."
I turned to Giselle.
She saw the look in my eyes and looked away with guilt written all over her face.
I wanted answers.
"I'm sorry, Dana," she began.
"Oh, cut it out," I snapped. "Save the apologies. What was that? You're a forsaken. How long have you been trying to use me? Start talking."
Guilt clouded her face.
"My dad is a forsaken," she said quietly. "He was one of those who left the labyrinth ages ago moments before it's disappearance. He used to be a good man or so I thought. But he turned to the god of destruction when life became too hard outside the labyrinth. He raised me here. When I was old enough, he sent me to the school of witchery."
She swallowed, tears forming.
"He ordered me to befriend you. Told me he wanted to 'help' you. The day of your birthday, he gave me the compass to give you. When the forsaken attacked the coven party, he took me away. That's why I wasn't harmed. Everything made sense after that. I realised he'd lied all my life. He wants the cranium. He wants power."
She shook her head.
"That's why I ended our friendship. I didn't want to lie to you anymore. But when you told me you lost the compass, I got home that day and told him then he panicked. He made us pack and leave. I didn't know why until we arrived where you were held."
A tear slid down her cheek.
"This is all my fault."
"Are you from the labyrinth?" I asked.
"No. Just my father. He met my mother here. I was born here."
"Did you know they had Casi?"
"No," she whispered. "I found out few days ago."
My chest ached.
"What do they do to gifted children?" I asked.
"They turn them into weapons," she answered softly. "They strip them of their identity, drill them, brainwash them… until the person they once were is gone."
She met my eyes.
"The Casi you once knew… she's gone, Dana. That girl is now a forsaken."
My heart broke, but I forced myself to stay strong.
We had two days unaccounted for.
I needed to go home. I needed to see my parents.
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Author's note:
*Visual reference for Doya below*