---Entry 26/Divination 6/Esmeraude's Ethereal Example---
Dear Gretel,
The sleeping bag and the fire I slept near overnight was a warmth I coveted especially with the cool, damp air of the cave surrounding me. My naked body shivered a bit, searching for Connie's body heat and gropable parts, but I could feel her absence, only able to grasp at the fun we had before sleeping. The vampire in me ran the tip of my tongue over my incisors, hoping wherever Connie was, she still bore the marks of a fantasy fulfilled that sent hot tingles below both our waists. I'm not much for vampires, but that fantasy I definitely intend to keep in-mind for exclusive sessions of brainwashing and intimacy with Connie.
From a deep, roaring yawn reflecting how good I felt, the kind where your whole body can stretch from arms reaching out to some unseen ceiling, to toes curling and flexing from a workout. All of that pointed to signs that I'd caught up on some rest, relaxed muscles not aching as much from the last few days. But how good I felt made me think of how long I'd slept, or possibly overslept; from within a deep, dark cave, it can be hard to tell. Lights above the cave system not obscured by the bonfire light suggested mid-day, and I giggled to myself a little how I might have been keeping Esmeraude waiting a certain amount of time by sleeping in. I wondered what kind of demerit or punishment would be in-order if that was true.
"Naughty girls do enjoy a good spanking every now and again," I mused in my own thoughts, finally getting up to move on to the final day. As I gathered what remained of any evidence of human activity in that cave, I noticed my clothes were missing. I looked around to find them in the sleeping back, around the fire, everywhere I could before considering the fact that Connie had took them on her way out.
"You biddy bitch," I sneered, then half-smiled. "The bite I take out of you will be substantial when we get back," I whispered, hoping she was still in hiding somewhere close to hear me. Literally all I had to take out was the sleeping bag, and quelling the fire with Pyrokinesis was easy. As I stood naked and in the dark, I realized there was no clear path out of the cave. The hole I'd fallen through the day before was conveniently gone, none of the others above indicating daylight were big enough for me to fit through, and a 360 turn in every direction was just varying shades of darkness that could've led somewhere outside, or let to an even deeper pit that could've been the death of me.
Transmutation as a means of escape seemed like a good idea at first, before thinking about how it would be best to know in which direction I should be going, and without knowing how much energy I would need to reserve for whatever was coming.
"Not me, not lately," I chided myself, standing in the dark, waiting for a brilliant solution to present itself. "Man, the orgasm I have once I'm finished is probably going to be nuclear, I may have to finish myself off away from everyone," tried to brighten my mood with darkness all around me. Pulling one of the pieces of wood from the kindling, I lit the end of it with Pyrokinesis, trying to find my own way out, but outside of the completely-enclosed cave I used for yesterday's test, it was all open space with just a few holes in the distance to try for; searching for a way out like any random normal could take me hours if I was lucky, or more than a day if I wasn't. A naked one at that could die from hypothermia, but the witch in me burned to finish this strong and for good.
It occurred to me to figure out how Connie would've gotten out of this cave system by herself. It could've just have been that she investigated and studied it before bringing me here; my whole trio could've mapped out the entire Angeles National Forest in preparation for this. But then again, that wouldn't explain how they expected me to escape alone, without any of that information. Going down the list of Wonders they would expect me to use to get there, none of them seemed ideal for escape, except Divination, which most of the time meant coming into contact with a specific item or something that would connect a witch to vivid visions and premonitions. But in the broad sense, there was a way to use the power to divine one's way toward what they were fated to do, or where they were fated to go (obligatory "fuck fate" inserted here). Closing my eyes and reaching into the edge of what was a little beyond my consciousness, probably my soul, I channeled Divination into my feet, using to detect the steps I was going to take. Honing in on the fated steps like magnetic forces raised against the skin, I walked across puddles and avoided piles of batshit, thankful I didn't have to rely on the torch to see where I was supposed to go.
It was definitely confusing at first, as following fated feet told me how many directions I'd crossed over in an attempt to find my way out, which told me how much I may have panicked in aimless escape. But to the credit of the vague use of Divination, one fun trick Aunt Maggie explained that stuck with me about the Wonder is that someone with a strong enough spirit connected to magic could probably detect trails other Divination invokers could, their past and their future steps. Being the talent she expected me to be, I found one trail seemed stronger than most, raising the tiny hairs on the top of my foot as I followed them into a specific direction, one that led to a smaller cavernous opening I wouldn't have guessed was there even if I was ten feet away from it. I had to crouch my way into the small opening, but it led to something wider for sure. A good shot of hope flooded into my system as the end of the small opening widened with daylight at the end of it. I got the end of the path where I could stand tall again, and looked up to a path ready to take me outside.
"Okay Esmeraude, let's see what else you have for me today," I whispered, ready to climb the rocky way out, only to be pulled back in someone's grip. They held one arm around my waist, and the other around my neck, whispering something in my ear that seized my whole body to stillness. If it wasn't the sound of the whisper, it was the scent that gave the last witch away; I could smell Esmeraude, something about how her skin gave off some pleasant scent when aroused; if I had the wherewithal to, how I would've taken advantage of her disposition. Instead, mine was to listen to her talking that shot past me and kept me listening. Whatever she was saying rapidly, it put life into my lips, as the repeated result spilled out past them.
"Spiritu duce, in me est. Deduc me in tenebris vita ad extremum, ut salutaret inferi. Descensum!"
Before I knew it, that seized sensation went away, along with everything else. A moment later, there was only the floating sensation of seeing my naked body collapse to the ground, it's fall broken by the sleeping back laid out by my redhead, moments before both of us fell. My projected soul realized at that moment that Esmeraude used Concilium in a sneak attack to get me to perform the incantation for Descensum, which kicked in as I traveled past the plane of existence I knew at scary speeds I thought would rip my soul apart mid-flight. The little things the media got about this spell wrong is both numerous and wrong past the point of insulting. First, it certainly isn't as painless as a Star Trek beam up; maybe with experience, it'll feel like a rollercoaster ride instead of flying at airplane speed sans the airplane. Second, and most importantly, no witch has ever been able to prove the claim that the astral plane, the afterlife we end up in is actually hell. Taken all the reports I've heard of, the experience of visiting the afterlife varies from witch to witch. Some find paradise, which makes it hard to leave, and so they never leave. Some find what feels like life gone wrong every way it can, giving great incentive to leave. Others can find just an empty void, which could be a purgatory.
