The road back home felt longer than it had when she first ran away. Trees leaned overhead like witnesses. The sky darkened with clouds as if preparing for confession.
When Ariel reached her aunt's house, nothing had changed. The verandah was still cluttered. The nephews' laughter still grated. The walls still held the smell of old oil and old bitterness.
Aunt Maame blinked at her as if seeing a ghost. "Ariel? Why are you here?"
Ariel swallowed. "I need to see my mother's old room."
"What for?" the aunt demanded, voice sharp.
"There's something I must find."
The nephews snickered. "She's back to do magic," one muttered.
But Aunt Maame-surprisingly-didn't push her out. She crossed her arms tightly. "Go. But be quick."
Ariel entered the small room.
Dust coated everything. The floor creaked. Light slanted in through missing corners of the window. Ariel knelt in the center of the room, holding the pendant tightly.
"Show me," she whispered.
The necklace pulsed.
And then like a compass aligning the warmth pulled her to a corner of the room. Ariel pried up the old wooden plank.
Nothing.
Panic surged.
"Please," she whispered, tears burning her eyes. "Please..."
The pendant glowed brighter its strongest light yet and guided her hand deeper under the floor.
Her fingers brushed something.
A folded cloth.
Brittle.
Dusty.
Wrapped around a document.
Ariel's breath hitched as she pulled it out.
Aunt Maame gasped from the doorway. "What is that?"
Ariel unfolded the cloth with trembling hands.
It was the document from her dreams.
Her mother's handwriting danced across the page.
The symbol at the bottom gleamed faintly in the dim light.
Her mother had left her a truth.
And as Ariel read the first line, her world shattered and reassembled in one heartbeat.
