"Every spell is a journey." 

― Lawren Leo, Love's Shadow: Nine Crooked Paths 

☽★☾

Brynn felt as if she was being stretched thin and then shoved together, again and again until she finally returned to her original shape. Her limbs tingled as she regained feeling. The insides of her eyelids were tattooed with the remains of the bright light that had shot through them. She muttered a curse as she scrambled to her feet — having somehow ended up in a sitting position — and a plethora of aches flooded her body. She almost couldn't wait for her eyesight to fully return; she wanted to teach Joan a lesson for messing with her like this, assuming it was Joan that had done this. But as her vision cleared, she quickly realized that she wasn't where she had started.

There were no store shelves surrounding her, no tinkling of chimes, no sweet smell of incense... In fact, Brynn didn't appear to be inside a building at all. Her eyebrows furrowed with confusion as she gazed at the landscape around her. She was out in the streets of Salem once more, but for some reason the touristy hubbub of people, flyers, and gift shops had disappeared. In fact, some of the buildings themselves had disappeared, and the city felt a little more open than it had before, leaving more room for farmland and woods. The cobblestones beneath her were still rough and uneven, but they looked newer, as if they had only been put down recently. While Brynn was looking down at the ground, her eyes caught on her own appearance.

"What the..." Her modern clothes had been replaced with a black petticoat and waistcoat, white apron and shift, and a white cloth keeping her auburn hair under control that looked somewhat like a bandana. She felt the immediate need to rip all of the clothes off — they didn't feel right at all — but she also didn't  want to be seen stripping in the middle of the street. Brynn tugged at the white cuffs at the end of each sleeve as she desperately thought of how to get out of this mess. I should ask for help, she eventually decided. I'll find someone who might be able to tell me what's going on.

The girl took a deep breath, trying to reassure herself that everything would be okay, before starting off down the street. Her shoes — which were some type of pointy-toed boot — clicked on the cobblestone as she hurried off. She tried her best to look casual, but it was more than a little hard to do so when she was in such a panicked state. This place didn't look like the Salem Brynn had come to recognize.

Relief spread through her as she noticed a young woman stopped at a street corner underneath an unlit oil lamppost. She appeared to be looking around for something, curiously peering this way and that. However, she hadn't seemed to notice Brynn approaching, because she jumped as the girl came up beside her.

"Sorry," Brynn muttered, offering an apologetic smile. "Could you perhaps tell me where I am?" It couldn't hurt to ask, she figured. Maybe I'm overreacting and this is actually some dumb trick. This can't be Salem, right? Or maybe Joan knocked me out and I'm just having a really weird dream.

The young woman took a second to adjust her dirty blonde hair from where it had drifted over her shoulders, pushing it back so that it hung neatly down her back. She eyed Brynn with curiosity in her brown-eyed gaze. "Of course. You're in Salem Town."

"Salem... Town?" Brynn hadn't remembered that extra word being in the city's name. "Does anyone call it anything different? Maybe just, um, Salem?"

The young woman stared at her for a moment, trying to decipher what Brynn meant. "No, not that I know of. Maybe you're thinking of Salem Village? That's just west of here."

Brynn bit her lip with a thoughtful hum. This was getting more and more frustrating;  how was she supposed to get out of whatever nightmare she had been forced into if no one knew what she was talking about? "Oh, okay. Thanks." She stood there a moment longer, lingering because she wasn't sure where else to go. 

The young woman seemed to sense that something was amiss, because she shifted her position on her feet and glanced over at Brynn again. "I'm Elise. Is there... anything else I can help you with?"

"Brynn," she replied quickly. "I, um... what year is it? I'm just a tad lost." Brynn realized that her wording may have come off as a little strange, but she didn't bother to rephrase anything. 

"Sure... It's 1692. August, in case you missed the month too." Elise answered with a small smile. She must think I'm crazy, asking for the year like that. But being seen as crazy is the least of my problems. Assuming she didn't just blurt out some random number, I'm... in the past somehow?

Brynn nodded, trying to keep the panic out of her expression. "Okay, great. Yeah, just great." She took a deep breath and exhaled shakily. She stared off into the distance as she attempted to calm herself, watching as a couple made their way down the street a block away. Both were dressed just like the puritans in Brynn's history books, which did nothing to reassure her.

"Do you need to sit down? I can make you a cup of tea if you'd like." Elise told her. The young woman was still watching Brynn, concern evident in her features. She raised a hand to gently clutch Brynn's upper arm, as if she was afraid she was going to fall down without her support. Clearly I'm not doing a good enough job cloaking my expression, Brynn thought to herself absentmindedly as she allowed Elise to lead her forwards. They headed down the street together and turned a corner, merging into a town square full of people. Shouting and pounding reached her ears immediately; the buildings must have been blocking out the sound before.

"What's going on?" Brynn asked quietly as the two paused at the edge of the group. There was a wooden platform at the front of the group, with a man standing upon it that appeared to be attracting the crowd. He was making large motions with his hands, his speech illustrated by the movements. 

Elise was wearing a grimace when Brynn glanced over at her. "Another warning about witches, I'm sure. That bastard up there is Sebastian Nowells, probably spewing more garbage." She glared up at the platform, gaze full of pure contempt. Brynn was shocked by the change in the young woman; she had seemed like the perfect example of a polite and innocent person. 

"Why would he be talking about... Oh." Brynn cut herself off as realization dawned on her. So that's why I'm here. The witch trials! They happened around this time, didn't they? That snake Joan sent me right into the time of that book page!

Elise returned her gaze to Brynn, raising a curious eyebrow. "I take it you know what's going on." The sentence wasn't phrased as a question, but when Brynn nodded, the young woman let out a soft sigh. "Luckily it doesn't look like anyone's being accused right now. Sebastian's just ranting." She set her hand once more on Brynn's arm to lead her off, but paused as she heard a new sound fill the square.

A scream went up, followed by the rustling sounds of a struggle taking place. Brynn glanced back up and watched as a woman no older than Elise or herself was tugged onto the platform beside Sebastian. She was groaning and screeching, making as loud of a racket as possible as she tried to wrench herself out of the grasp of the two men holding her. Their grip held and she quickly grew too exhausted to fight them, slumping in their hold so that they were forced to carry her up instead. Sebastian's angry expression spread into more of sly one as he grinned at the young woman, his broad-shouldered body sidling up beside her.

"Look right here! Perfect example of one of these fiendish witches." Sebastian spat the word out like it was poison, gripping one of the young woman's shoulders in what looked to be a rather painful grip. She lowered her head, dark hair blocking her face from the audience that had amassed in front of the platform. The man tilted his head to grin at her. Brynn fought the urge to gag.

Sebastian went right back into his frenzied speech, talking so quickly that Brynn wasn't sure whether anyone in the crowd could fully understand him. She only picked out bits and pieces of it herself, mentions of the need for determined interrogation and surefire ways to recognize a witch. Brynn allowed herself to study the woman on the platform with him. She sure didn't seem to be special in any way; she definitely didn't seem like the disgraceful monster Sebastian was describing.

As Sebastian took up a fistful of the woman's hair and wrenched her head upwards so her face was shown, a figure suddenly appeared just behind the man. They were too well hidden to make out any features, but the figure slunk closer, fingers making strange motions. A moment later Sebastian jerked away from the young woman with a cry of pain, as if he had been burned. He shook his hand and shouted for someone to grab the woman as she made a break for it, dashing off of the platform and away from the gathered crowd. The figure had slipped into the shadows behind the platform, invisible to Sebastian from where he stood. Brynn could have sworn that she saw something bright red flash in the figure's hand, but it disappeared before she could do a double take. Then the figure was dashing off down an alley. 

"I have to go after them," Brynn murmured to Elise, in case she was listening. She didn't wait for a response, breaking into a run in the direction the figure had left. If my instincts can be trusted, that person just did magic. That makes them my best chance on getting back home. Well, back to the future.

The figure was still running full speed ahead, dodging stairways and piles of horse manure with ease. Brynn struggled to keep up; she was far from athletic and was soon out of breath and aching. She didn't allow herself a pause, willing her legs to keep moving as she chased the figure ahead. There has to be a dead end here somewhere. Come on, come on... As if it had appeared from nowhere, a brick wall came into view up ahead. The figure didn't hesitate to plan a way out, continuing to run at full speed. Brynn slowed to a jog and watched as the person suddenly ducked to the left, into some sort of hidden entryway. Hoping desperately that she wasn't about to put herself into danger, Brynn slipped into the crevice behind the figure.

She sucked in a breath as the figure turned around to reveal their face. "Joan?"