The forest was quiet and deserted enough to make Penny know that this wasn't any small forest as almost forty people had come in here and the only person she could see was Jera as the girl was walking next to her.
Almost two hours passed and it seemed like they didn't meet anyone. Did they get lost? Asked Penny to herself.
"Do you have the compass?" Penny asked Jera who quickly nodded and pulled out a small instrument that looked like a pocket watch. When she opened the compass, both of them looked at it when Jera moved her hand to make sure it was positioned right, and as she did that, they noticed how the compass's needle was not working.
"Ah, I am not sure if I broke it. It was working fine last night," Jera muttered under her breath and knocked her wrist against the instrument to see it wasn't working.
Penny didn't know why but it felt like this forest wasn't a normal one. They had been walking for two hours and the chance of meeting anyone had turned to zero. Was it just a coincidence that they hadn't met anyone as they were walking in the wrong direction? That couldn't be though. As the people had dispersed, Penny had made sure to look at where people were heading in.
Her green eyes looked around the forest and as she did, she heard the sound of a bird as if it were flying from one end to another end of the forest. But that wasn't what she found to be peculiar. It was the bird that had perched on a branch of a tree that was shaking its feathers as it sat down.
"Did you see that bird before?" Penny asked Jera who looked up from her compass where she was still hitting the instrument to look up at the tree and find the bird.
"There are many birds in here," the young witch chirped, noticing a leaf fall from the top and wondering what the lady was pointing at.
Penny couldn't be wrong and her palms fell slightly cold, "We need to find the closest river," the girl quickly nodded and they started to walk quickly leaving where they were standing.
"We will need to get some fruits to eat for lunch and need water from the river, Lady Penelope," Jera mentioned, walking on the muddy ground she continued to speak unable to stay quiet, "I thought only the church members were going as the council knows us. I am glad you are here with me right now," expressed the girl until she caught sight of a bird that was shaking its feathers before sitting down. She saw how the leaf from the nearest branch fell.
"Did you notice that?" Jera asked, her footsteps coming to a pause.
"Someone placed a spell here and we stepped right into it," Penny replied back, her eyes picking on the things that were repeating themselves, "There's a spell called mirroring. This spell gives you the sense of a Deja Vu over and over again, to confuse the opponent that makes them live the same moment over and over again," at first Penny wasn't sure and had thought that it was a possible setup but they were experiencing the same incidents in the forest over and over again in a loop. She had read about it in the book of spells.
"Is this the spell of black witches? Possibly from the forbidden magic?"
"Yes," Penny frowned looking at the forest and then the sky, "And though the magic is the forbidden one, they are performed by white witches," did that mean there was a traitor amongst the white witches who had passed the written exam?
Jera snapped her head to look at Penelope, "You mean someone from the church cast a spell on us? That can't be though. The people there are very loyal and Father Antonio chose us by himself."
That was true, thought Penny to herself. She had met the white witches and she had worked with them for months now to know they weren't the kind of people who would mean any harm yet at the same time, she remembered what Caitlin had told her before she got down from the carriage.
'Don't trust anyone'.
The word resounded in the back of her head.
"Alright," Penny sighed, gearing up for the team work because they had to break through this spell unless they were planning to spend the rest of their lives in this loop which would never end, "The concept of mirroring is like a box that is placed away and without the contact of the actual existing world."
Jera blinked her eyes over what Penny said as the words passed through her mind without understanding it.
Seeing the white witch not respond, she said, "Though we are in the forest right now, we are not exactly part of it. This is a space created by the witch which means, the rest of the examinee in the forest cannot find us unless we break the spell."
Jera smiled nervously, "In short we are lost?"
"You can say that. To break the spell, we need to find the point where the scene starts and ends that is creating a loop. There should be a crack," Penny started to walk and Jera quickly followed her heel, "I don't think we saw any water body here. If we end up stuck there for more time, it would mean no food or no water. Wait, there's the bird, so we will need to travel to catch the bird and eat it over and over again," the young girl made a face if distaste as she thought about it.
"Let's find it quick," Sister Jera clapped both her hands and they two of them started to find the crack which would lead to the opening, and as they were doing it, the younger witch asked, "Who do you think placed the spell? If it is a white witch I don't think the person's aim is to be part of the council. I mean I have seen a white witch who used to work in the church with me combust in front of my eyes when the person walked into the council territory."
"I am sorry to hear that," Penny said and the girl waved her hand.
"I didn't like him so it's alright," replied Sister Jera.