The Labyrinth
I've never been good at magic.
That was the first thing anyone ever learned about me at the Coven of Orialis, a secluded stronghold on the eastern coast of the continent of Káremuul. While my peers could summon sparks with a whisper or lift petals from the ground, I could barely make a candle flicker. My master said he saw potential in me, but I think he only said that out of pity.
Every evening, after the lessons ended and the corridors emptied, I returned home and cried myself to sleep. The tears came before I could stop them, a quiet, bitter reminder that I wasn't enough. My parents tried to encourage me, but their words always carried the weight of disappointment. In our world, a witch without her channel was like a bird without wings.
Not many people knew magic existed. It was hidden, buried beneath ordinary skies and quieter lives, known only to those born gifted, with the rare ability to channel. To everyone else, it was myth, superstition, stories told to frighten children. To us, it was the axis upon which our world turned.
Despite being born gifted, I was terrible at it. The power was there, I knew it was, buried somewhere deep inside me, but it refused to answer when I called. Channeling felt like grasping at smoke, like reaching for something that slipped through my fingers every single time. I studied harder, practiced longer, bled effort into every lesson, and still I failed where others succeeded without trying. Having the gift but being unable to use it felt worse than having nothing at all.
They called me names, dead flame, silent wand, empty vessel. I tried to laugh it off, but each insult chipped away at me until there was barely anything left.
And yet, when I slept... everything changed.
In my dreams, I was someone else, powerful, radiant, loved. I walked through a realm of shimmering light and winding paths that seemed endless and alive. There, I could channel effortlessly. Magic flowed through me like breath. I called that place the Labyrinth. My Labyrinth.
But the Labyrinth wasn't always just a dream.
Seven Years Ago
I was nine when the invasion happened.
That day started like any other, a long morning at the School of Witchery, frustration gnawing at me because I still couldn't levitate a single flower from the ground. My only comfort was Casi, a girl of six who was everything I wasn't. She was sweet, gifted, and bright - a prodigy. People loved her. And she loved me, even when the others turned away.
We were playing near the field when it happened.
First came the feeling, a strange tightening in my chest, like the world had stopped. I knew something terrible was about to happen, though I couldn't explain how. I tried to warn everyone, shouting for them to leave the field, but no one listened. No one ever listened to me.
So I grabbed Casi's hand and ran. Seconds later, the ground erupted behind us. The explosion roared like a thousand screams, fire and smoke swallowing the air. Cries filled the field, children hurt, some without limbs, some too shocked to move. I remember the smell of ash, the taste of fear.
"Dana, how did you know?" Casi asked, trembling.
"I-I don't know," I stammered. "I just did."
Then came the invaders, tall men in dark armour, their eyes glowing faintly beneath their helmets. They stormed the field, seizing children with power strong enough to be useful. The sages of the coven fought bravely, hurling fire and wind, but chaos ruled the air.
Casi and I hid in the coven's chamber, my heart pounding so loudly I thought it would give us away.
"We can't just hide!" Casi whispered fiercely.
"Be quiet! Please, someone might hear us!" I begged.
Someone did hear us.
A heavy shadow filled the doorway, one of the invaders. He saw us instantly.
Casi's hands glowed as she tried to form a barrier around us, a shimmering bubble of light. It flickered, then cracked under his touch.
"Dana, help me! Channel something! Anything!" she cried.
But nothing came. I screamed and reached deep inside myself, but my magic, the thing that was supposed to make me a witch, betrayed me again.
The barrier shattered.
He grabbed Casi, and before I could even move, they were gone. Just like that. He didn't bother taking me, he said something like "Useless" under his breath and walked away.
I remember standing there, shaking, staring at the empty doorway. I wanted to burn the world down in that moment. But I couldn't even light a spark.
Later, when the battle ended and the names of the missing were read aloud, I heard hers.
Casi.
I fell to the ground and cried until my throat hurt. The guilt wrapped around me like chains. I kept thinking, if only I'd been stronger. If only I'd fought. If only...
When I got home that night, I said nothing to my parents. I just went to bed and wept until I drifted into sleep. And that was the first night I saw it... "The Labyrinth" the place that welcomed me when the real world never did.
It was beautiful, gold vines, rivers of light, people who smiled when they saw me. There, I wasn't weak. I was a queen. I was everything I always wished to be in the real world.
Present Day
Today, I turned sixteen.
No celebration. No friends. Just my mother, my father, and the quiet hum of disappointment that always lingered in our home in Urkael. Seven years had passed since the invasion, but I still saw Casi's face every time I closed my eyes.
The sages never found her or the others who were taken. Some said they were dead; others whispered that the invaders turned them into weapons. But I couldn't believe that. I wouldn't.
"I have to find Casi," I told myself this morning. My voice trembled, but the resolve in it surprised me. Maybe I was weak when I was awake, but when I slept, when I was in the Labyrinth, I was powerful. And perhaps that was where my answers had quietly been waiting.
Maybe the Labyrinth wasn't just a dream after all.
Maybe... it was calling me back.
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Author's note:
*Visual reference for Dana below*