COMPASS OF TRUE LOVE - CHAPTER 1

Chapter 1: My boyfriend broke up with me so I’m gonna find a legendary magical artefact to find my One True Love so that I will never ever be alone again – This is a healthy way to cope

My soft steps echoed throughout the long, dark corridor. The air around me felt cooler and cooler the further in I got. Even what little light my small, creaky lantern gave off seemed to be getting lighter and lighter. But the worst was behind me, if Gerden’s information was to be trusted.

I felt my mind wander to the hectic events of last week. It all started when Marlon suddenly broke up with me. My best friend. My longest partner in life. Always there, ever since we were kids. And then he went and broke my heart the day after my 19th birthday.

I spent a few days shutting myself in and grieving. But when I finally left my little room above Gerden’s shop again, it was with a purpose.

Down at Gerden’s I read about a magical artefact in one of the tomes: The Compass of True Love.

Apparently, this compass would point to the person you are bound to by fate. Your One True Love. And according to the lore, it wasn’t located all that far away from home.

I would never be alone again.

I blinked my eyes for a moment as my thoughts came back to reality.

A light breeze softly started to blow through the corridor and rustled my hair, as the corridor started to open up. Rows and rows of large, black pillars line the hallway as it became wider and wider.

The blueish shimmer of moonlight started flitting through the darkness as I came upon a chamber.
The polished black floor beneath me reflected my thoughtful expression back to me. My blue eyes dancing across the tiles as my tussled orange wavy hair flittered around in the wind.

I quickly tucked my unruly strands behind my ears and pulled my light blue robes closer as I advanced into the chamber.

The roof of this crucible shaped room was cracked open and rays of blue moonlight shot down onto a statue in the middle. Her wings were spread out and almost spanned from one side of the room to the other. Her long wavy hair and fluttery clothes fell down her tall, slim figure.

I felt both excited and terrified, looking at the massive statue of Lilyfay, Goddess of Love. After taking a moment to calm down my poor beating heart, I started eying the statue again and my eyes fell on the target of my little adventure.

 A small, golden compass was held up by a silver chain around the neck of the statue and sat in the middle of her chest. A comically large metal arrow was lazily pointing downwards.

I slowly walked up to the plateau the statue was placed on and carefully climbed up the marble clothes until my hands finally got a grip on her shoulder and I heaved myself on top of her.

The necklace was right there next to me. I felt my breath shudder as the compass was withing reach. Calm down Sephie. You can do it.

I gently pulled on the silver chain and opened up the little hook and pulled the compass up to me.

As I cupped the compass in my hands, the cold metal suddenly grew warm and I felt a small shudder course through my body, as the needle started to fill with colour. Suddenly it turned so rapidly I lost my grip on the compass. I felt it slip through my fingers and heard it clutter down onto the ground.

My Body tensed. My heart stood still for a moment. I stared down at the little metal contraption that lied face down on the ground below me. Then I hastily climbed down the statue. I felt like her cold marble eyes were judging me for my carelessness, as I picked up her little treasure.

As I turned the compass my eyes went wide. It was… broken? I stared in disbelief at the mess in my hands. The large silver arrow had split into six different needles in different rainbow colours. Each of them pointed in a different direction.

I couldn’t believe it. After all this effort I went to I just had to ruin everything. I felt tears forming in my eyes as I looked up to the goddess above me. Her eyes still felt cold and judging. “I’m sorry” I croaked out.

A few moments passed. I gently put the chain of the compass around my neck and let the compass glide down between my breasts. I took a deep breath, then got back up to my feet and started walking my way back to where I came.  

*****

As I walked down the slopes of the summery hills that grazed the edges of my little hometown, my mind was tumbling down into deep thought.

Now that my quest for finding my One True Love has failed, the breakup felt all the more real to me again. It seemed to come out of nowhere. One day we were happily celebrating my birthday. We went to our favourite restaurant and we talked excitedly about our future together.

We were only born two weeks apart, Marlon was a little older than me, and since our parents were neighbours, we were pretty much raised together. We both attended our lessons together at the chapel and when we became teenagers, we both moved to a boarding school near the large city of Omar. It was during that time that I received a letter that informed me of my parents’ passing and it was shortly after that me and Marlon’s relationship moved from friendly to… spicy.

Though now that I think about it the way things changed, I might have sought after a distraction or two to keep me from thinking about my parents. The way I constantly caused trouble would point to that, too. I still remember the countless times I tried to stealth my way over to the boy’s dorms to stay the night. It felt only yesterday that professor Fennek dragged me in front of the principal because she caught me trying to scale the building with a climbing kit.

We both graduated at 18 and moved back home, where we started apprenticing for Gerden at his magic shop. He was even kind enough to let me have the small bedroom above the shop.

Our apprenticeship was going really well and, on my birthday, I mentioned my family plans. Marlon always talked about moving to the capital and I thought that it would be a good time to start a family of our own once we got there. After that he seemed at lot more sombre.

I had noticed it at the time, but I chose not to ask. If he wanted to talk about something, he would bring it up at his own time. At least that’s how things usually went between us. I could never imagine that he would break up with me the next day. It shook me to the core.

I asked if I did anything wrong, if I could change something, make him stay, give me another chance, but he deflected my pleading. He said that I didn’t do anything wrong. That he just felt like things couldn’t work out between us. That our love would be impossible.

I didn’t understand what he meant, but he said something along the lines of “something I have to do”. And that our relationship couldn’t survive it. I begged him to tell me what was wrong, and how I could help but he told me it was something he could only do himself and that it would only hurt my feelings even more if I knew what he planned to do. After that, I stormed off crying and shut myself off from the world.

I felt a tear forming and quickly wiped it away. The sound of running water focused my attention back to reality and I spotted the small river that ran down the hills and, further down, through my little hometown. I hopped the last few steps towards the water and knelt down.

My hand slid into the cool creek and I relished the cold on this warm summer day and quickly began washing my arms and face off.

Once I felt relatively fresh again, I began my climb down the hill alongside the river.

It took little more than an hour until my hometown came into view. At first there were only a couple of pastures with all kinds of grazing animals, but soon the first farmhouses came into view. Shortly after the palisade came into view, my eyes fell onto the thick, engraved headstone next to the earthen road, that read: “Tumblewood – County of Littlehorn”. The whole journey took me five days in total, but I was finally home.

*****

The bell on the door gave off a cute little ding as I entered the magic shop. The main room was very small and cramped. The left side had a few bookshelves filled to the brim with all kinds of tomes. The floor beneath them was littered with stacks of newer books that haven’t found a place just yet. On the right side was a chaotic mess of all kinds of magical items, most of them toys for children. Little wooden animals that softly moved about. A tiny carousel that turned using wind magic. Along the back of the room ran a long, massive oak wood counter that softly turned in an L-shape. There was an open door behind that lead to the back of the store and a small winding staircase the weaved its way up to the second story, where my room sat. Behind the counter sat a large older man in light, breezy light blue robes.

As my gaze fell on his dark brown eyes, I was promptly greeted by Gerden’s wide grin that constantly tried to escape his bushy salt and pepper lumberjack-beard. “Stephanie!” he bellowed with that hearty voice of his. “Hiya gramps, I’m back.” I replied sheepishly, as I noticed his expectant look. He wasn’t my actual grandpa, but both Marlon and I liked calling him that and he didn’t seem to mind.

“So? Did ya find it?” he said, deep eyes fixed on the very expensive looking silver chain around my neck. My heart sank and my gaze fell down, knowing what I had to admit. I slowly pulled at the chain until the compass slid out of my white blouse. I unhooked the necklace and placed Lilyfay’s treasure on the polished counter. I didn’t dare look up at Gerden.

“Well would ya look at that…” he mumbled quietly, as I saw his burly hands gentry pick up the compass. “Ya really found it, huh?” I quickly glanced a look up. Why wasn’t he angry? Or disappointed? He runs a magic shop, he of all people should know that I broke the damn thing! Instead he watched with glee, as the arrow turned rapidly towards the back of the shop.

Wait. The arrow? Didn’t it shatter? Split apart into a bunch of little needles? Why was it whole again? My mind was flooded with questions as Gerden gave a hearty chuckle. “Seems like the real thing. Unless Gertrude snuck out, she should be in the garden out back.” He waved his free hand roughly towards the garden and turned back to look at me.

“I, uhh, think it doesn’t work right for me…” I forced myself to say, lips pressed tightly together. I saw him raise an eyebrow. His other special move, besides the beard-escaping-grin. “Wadda ya mean kid?” he blabbered out. “I mean, when I picked it up the arrow broke apart. Turned into a bunch of needles. Look!” I gently pried the compass from his hands and held it out on the counter where he could see.

Sure enough, the thing started to rapidly turn again until it split apart. Six needles shot out in six different directions. Each one had a different hue in colour. There was a red one, an orange one, a yellow one, a green one, a blue one and a purple one.

His eyes were fixed on the compass below him for a while, until he shook out of his thoughts and started muttering a few arcane words. An identify spell of sorts, I could gather from what I learned at the boarding school. His eyes lit up with a bright white glow for a mere moment, before simmering down into their original dark brown colour.

“Seems to be working just fine kid. Not sure what to make of it, though it might-“
He quickly cut himself off as we both watched the yellow needle suddenly shoot around a solid 180 degrees.

“Well I’ll be damned whoever that is sure moves fast!” he bellowed out, a sparkle of curiosity moving across his eyes. “I think this means ya got more ‘an one potential true love! Gotta find out for yourself which one is… the One.”

What is that supposed to mean? That I have six different true loves to choose from? That’s a lot to take in. Would I have to travel the world the meet each and every one of them? My face must have betrayed my thoughts, because Gerden’s face shifted to a more comforting look.

“Hey kid. Ya had a long journey and its only just midday. Maybe get a bit of rest. We’ll talk more tonight, hm?” he said softly, while one of his large hands moved around my shoulder.

“Yeah, uhh, t-that sounds good…” I managed to stutter out. I pulled the compass back to my chest and slowly shuffled my way through the shop and up into my room. There, I quickly took off my boots and coat. While I made my way over to the bed my pants also flew off onto the chair at my desk.

I plopped down on the soft mattress and was immediately taken to dreamland.