Mirai

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I spun one lap around, looked between the trees and bushes in the hopes of that Tamah would appear. She didn't.

When I stopped, I was face to face with the Man of the Maze.

"Where is she?" My voice came out shrill.

"She is where you last saw her," he answered in a calm that seemed unable to go away. It clashed with my own panic like water onto an oil fire.

"Where is that! Why didn't the Maze show me!" I yelled at him.

"For there are better ways for you to find that knowledge."

I was on my way to yell some more when I realized where I had to go. What place, if any, held that last piece of the puzzle.

The Library.

Now that I knew who Tamah was, the Library should be able to provide me with answers. It might not be able to tell me exactly where she is. But Tamah, or rather Lamia, was well-known enough. There had to be stories of her. There had to be information about the last recorded place where she had been seen.

I summoned my magic to teleport myself down from the mountain and to the portal. But before I could do it, the Man of the Maze moved at a surprising speed for a person that needed a walking stick for support and grabbed hold of my wrist.

"There is something more you have to know," he told me and my stomach dropped. What other horrors could there be? I wasn't sure I could handle anything more. "The last you saw of her happened over three hundred years ago. Remember that and prepare yourself."

"What... What do you mean? Prepare myself for what?" My body became cold. As cold as Tamah's skin had been.

"You spoke to her over three hundred years ago."

My head was empty except for his words that echo. Three hundred years ago. It had been three hundred years since I spoke to her. I had promised her I would get her out of there three hundred years ago.

I shook my head. "No. That can't be."

"But it is."

"No! Why! She's been waiting for three hundred years! Why would you do that!"

I felt myself breaking apart and before I could stop it, my tears flowed down my face. That cell had been horrible. So cold and she hadn't had room to sleep. Had she been there all this time? She seemed to have been there for quite some time when I talked to her already and then she'd spent another three hundred years there?

I fell to my knees. Buried my face in my hands. My sobs grew louder and uncontrollable.

Tamah had suffered so much and watching all of it had already been taxing. That had in itself already brought me such anguish. But this new knowledge, the knowledge that I had let her down by keeping her waiting for freedom for three hundred years...

It was all too much. I wanted nothing more than to have her safe, but who was I really to provide her that safety? I couldn't even do a damn thing by myself. I was, after all, just a teenage witch. Nothing special. No one powerful. I wasn't smart and had no special talent.

And I had kept her waiting for over three hundred years.

I felt a hand in my hair. It patted my head lightly. I drew in a deep breath and forced the air to remain in my lungs for three seconds before I let it out. After having done that a couple of times, I breathed normally again.

I looked up to see the Man of the Maze standing over me.

"I told you before entering that few go in and even fewer come out and all that do are not the same as before," he said. "Why didn't you give up in the darkness?"

I dried away my tears. The darkness... That felt like it belonged to another life. So much had happened since then. I had seen so much. I hardly remembered the darkness anymore, but it had been terrifying. I had been ready to give up, but why hadn't I?

Because I hadn't entered the Maze for my own sake, but for Tamah's.

The Man smiled at me and continued. "It's been three hundred years. A lot can change in a person in three hundred years. Remember that when you find her."

I nodded. She had already then told me she had forgotten her name until I had said it. What more would she have forgotten during the past three hundred years? She had likely forgotten me and our conversation.

"And one last thing before you go. You weren't in the Maze for too long, but enough for company to have found you."

I blinked and he was gone. I looked over at what had been the entrance, but there wasn't an opening in the mountain anymore.

Company had found me? Did that mean the coven was here somewhere? That they hadn't been scared enough by Nox to not track me down again?

If they were smart, they would be waiting by the portal. They had to know it was likely I would want to use it to leave, and I did. That portal could take me straight to the Library.

That meant I would need to be fast and I couldn't hesitate.

I got to my feet. Brushed away the earth that was stuck on my clothing. I dried away the tears that still remained and also the snot.

I didn't do any of this for myself, I did it for Tamah. And for her, I needed to be strong and not give up.

I teleported myself down the mountain.

The portal was ten meters in front of me, but between me and it stood several witches.

"There!" one screamed as I teleported myself so I ended up on the other side of the portal. I was still about ten meters away, but the space before me was empty. I began to run.

They moved around the portal to face me. Cast spells at me. But I knew the spells would come before they did. I knew to dodge, to throw counter spells, to move sideways so all of them would as well. To stop my running, let them move closer to me, to have them all packed together in one area. Then to teleport myself to the side of them.

I was only a meter away and I took those last steps.

But as I entered the portal, one of the witches threw a spell at me. It didn't hit me, but the portal itself. The previous times I had gone through the portals, it had been just like stepping through a door. But as the spell hit, I felt myself fall to the side. My surroundings became a spinning blur, and I knew I would fall out of it at the wrong place.