Sightwitch (The Witchlands 0.5)

As soon as Trina came to relieve me of shepherding, I pelted straight for our bedroom, where I knew I’d find Ryber huddled over a book. When chores end, that’s always where she goes first.

Except that when I barged through the door, she wasn’t hunched over Tüll’s Compendium or A Guide to the Constellations.

She had a child’s slate on her lap. The kind with the Nine Star Puzzle embedded into the stone.

At the sight of me, she flung the slate under the covers and then, knowing it was too late—I’d already seen—she dug herself under the covers too.

“Any luck?” I asked with forced lightness.

“Of course not,” she snarled, words muffled by the blanket.

I scrabbled onto the bed and burrowed under with her. It smelled like chalk, and a streak was smeared across her cheek. “I can tell you the answer, Rybie-Ry.”

“No,” she spat and, chalk still in hand, she clapped her hands to her ears. “I will figure this blighter out by myself, even if it takes me an entire lifetime.” Then, as she always declares and has for the past seven years: “Sister Hilga says that it takes some Sisters their whole lives to find the answer.”

“Can I at least give you a hint—”

“NO.”

With a groan, I kicked the covers off. Ryber gets worse and worse these days about following the Rules, about having to do everything perfectly ALL. THE. TIME.

Yes, I know she thinks that acting like the perfect Serving Sister will draw the spirit swifts from the scrying pool. That it will get her a Summoning from Sirmaya and she will finally earn that powerful Sight like the Sisters always promised her. But I think she’s wrong.

It won’t make a lick of difference. Sister Gaellan never remembered the Rules, so she constantly broke them by accident. And Sister Lachmi prided herself on breaking as many as she could. Yet they’re both clear-eyed now, and Ry still isn’t.

My poor Threadsister.

I just want her to be happy. To be free.

But she never will be if she won’t think beyond like I keep telling her.

“Hey,” I murmured, poking her in the shoulder. “Why do birds fly south in the winter?” I waited a beat before declaring, “Because it’s too far to walk!”

She glared at me.

I sighed. “Laugh, Ry. It’s funny, don’t you think?”

Then, because I was truly desperate to see her smile, I dragged out the only thing I knew she couldn’t refuse: “How about we go swimming under the Convent?”

She shot upright, the slate and puzzle completely forgotten. “Yes, yes, yes!” In a flurry of blankets, she tumbled out of bed and aimed for the door. “Last one there is an earwig!”

By the Twelve, she can move when she wants to.

Ugh, I thought, as I hurried after her. Why do I do this to myself? Sleeper knows, I hate earwigs—and I hate swimming under the Convent even more.

Goddess, the things I do to make her smile.

Then again, she does the same for me.





Y18 D180 — 6 days since I became the last Sightwitch Sister

I tried ringing the bell today, to see if it would trick the Goddess into welcoming me into the mountain. I tried first in the observatory after morning prayers …

Nothing. No answering toll came from the chapel.

So I tried again at the chapel.

But still, nothing. Instead, the words above the entrance mocked me.

TWO OR MORE AT ALL TIMES,

FOR A LONE SISTER IS LOST.



I am a lone Sister.

I am lost.

A lone sister is lost





A LONE SISTER IS LOST





A lone sister is lost A lone sister is lost





Y18 D184 — 10 days since I became the last Sightwitch Sister

Why am I here?

Is it because I never solved the Nine Star Puzzle?

Every day I say my morning prayers. Every night I stand vigil in the Grove.

Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here?

Part of me thinks I should simply leave the Convent. I do not have the Sight, so unlike the other Sisters, I can survive just fine in the outside world. But … where exactly would I go? And what if Tanzi returns in that time?

LOST LOST lost lost LOST



No. I have to stay. I led myself here by choice when I was four years old. I might not remember that snowy day nor how my aunt chased after me, insisting we continue onward to our new home in Saldonica. But when I found the Sorrow and Sister Hilga came out—when I told them all I was supposed to join—no one argued. My aunt and her family continued on their journey without me, and I became a Serving Sister.

Surely all of that means something. Surely the Goddess brought me here for a reason.

This is my home. Tanzi and the Sisters are my family. I cannot … I will not abandon them.

No. I will wait here and I will continue serving Sirmaya for as long as She needs me.

Lost lost lost lost



I am lost





I AM LOST





Y18 D195 — 21 days since I became the last Sightwitch Sister

Why am I here?

I have done each Convent chore at least ten times.

I have tended the gardens and the sheep and the chickens every day. I have washed the Supplicant’s Sorrow and the dolmen and even the Standing Stones too. The trails are spotless, and the cellar has never been so free of cobwebs. I have cleaned the lookout’s nest and reinforced the ladder—something no one has bothered to do in ages.

Every rule I was ever taught, I have followed to perfection. Just as I’ve always done. I still say my morning prayers to an empty room—though I have finally stopped expecting the spirit swifts to Summon me.

Thirteen years it has taken before I finally gave up hope.


Pathetic.

I am pathetic.




LOST LOST LOST LOST lost lost





Lost Lost Lost LOST lost lost LOST lost lost





Y18 D209 — 35 days since I became the last Sightwitch Sister

Without the Rook here I do not know what I would do.

He is not human, but at least he is sentient. At least he listens and communicates in his own strange bird way.

Or maybe he doesn’t. Maybe I’m imagining it all.

WHY AM I HERE?





A lone sister is lost




THE UNIVERSITY OF ONTIGUA





CHAPTER 3


The Great Mystery of Eridysi’s Lament


Many conflicting tales exist surrounding the disappearance of the once famed Sightwitch Sisters, and just as many tales exist proclaiming to know where to find them. Known across the Witchlands for their abilities to both record the memories of the dead as well as foresee events of the future, their mysterious sect has not been seen since the days of Eridysi, almost a millennium past.

While some accounts declare Eridysi the most powerful Sightwitch ever to have lived1, this humble scholar asserts that she was not, in fact, powerful at all.

I will even go so far as to assert that what set Eridysi apart from other Sightwitches in the scrolls of history is that her final writings are the only ones of which we still have record.

1. See the works of Markus fon Grübe, Kristine Jialla, Raphael Hanssen, or Pitora Abedirashi.





Diary of Eridysi Gochienka





Eridysi Gochienka

Y2786 D128

MEMORIES—

The first doorway is almost complete.

I am so close. We are so close.