- Name
- The Compass Does Not Point North
- Type
- Investigation note
- Content
- The compass changed again tonight.
It did not point north, east, or toward the sea. It pointed at the empty chair across from me in the Map Room, as if someone had been sitting there a moment before I looked up.
Orlan says the compass reacts to lies, but that is not the whole truth. I have seen it turn toward sealed doors, blank pages, storm clouds, and once toward my own reflection.
Father carried this thing for months before he vanished. He must have known what it was. He must have known it was not only a tool, but a warning.
The old archive calendar says Stillmere begins in three days. Officially, that month does not exist. Unofficially, every map in this place has started leaving space for it.
I keep thinking about Father's last message:
"Do not let the city remember your name."
But if Vael Tareth remembers him, then maybe it can tell me where he went.
—
Private Addition:
When I held the compass over Father's notebook, the needle stopped moving for the first time. Then the page beneath it wrote one word by itself: Mira.