Page 56 of Compass Points
“Yes.”
“And you’ve had it this whole time? Why haven’t we tried to use it for anything else? Like our need to defeat the mist plague?”
“To be completely honest…” Rose started.
“I love it when you do that,” Luc replied, seeming to quite enjoy this new turn in their partnership.
“To be completely honest,” she started again, “I never really believed this was the compass.”
Arie flew towards them as they stood in the street, compass still in her outstretched palm.
“So you’ve finally decided to acknowledge what that compass is?”
“You knew?” Rose turned to stare open-mouthed at the bird on her shoulder.
“Knew that you carried Aurora’s compass? Yes, of course, Rose. What do you take me for?”
Rose didn’t know what to think of that. “I was telling Luc I didn’t believe my family’s stories. That I wasn’t sure of what I had until…”
“Until what, Rose?” Luc asked.
Arie tilted his head and watched her.
“Until…oh fine, until I held it in the ruined workshop at the Lake of the Gods. I was facing west, but the compass pointed south, to where…” She lifted her eyes to Luc.
“To where I stood.” His voice was thick.
She nodded.
“Seems like Aurora has still got some tricks up her sleeve.”
“What?” Rose turned to Arie, breaking the intimacy of her acknowledgment to Luc.
“Nothing, Rose. So the compass thought you needed to go with him. And that’s when you believed you truly held Aurora’s compass? Not just a family reproduction?”
“That’s right. I mean, how was I to know? Mom, Dad, Grandpa, whenever they told the story of the compass’s creation, they’d tug gently on my necklace, but I always thought it was symbolism that I wore a compass like Aurora’s since I was Norden.”
Luc seemed to have recovered from the compass’s feelings about him. “How did your family come across it?”
“I don’t know. They never told me.” She shrugged. “I think they planned to tell me more about it after the Norden test, but…” Her words drifted off. They’d never discussed it because they’d been killed. She couldn’t bring herself to say the words.
“So, are we ready to use it now? What do you need, exactly?”
“I’m ready to use it,” Rose repeated for Luc’s benefit. “I need something to make my claim that I’m the Norden Point clear. The test isn’t enough; the only people who know I passed are Aiden’s father, who’s dead, and the elder, who I gather is missing.”
“You want something to help prove you’re the rightful Norden Point. Does such a thing exist?”
“Yes, at least according to Norden legend.”
“You’re looking for her dagger?”
Rose tilted her head at Arie. His knowledge of Aurora’s artifacts seemed deeper than she’d thought. “Yes, we’re looking for Aurora’s dagger. She forged it herself and gave it to the first Norden Point, with the gift of becoming fae and gaining her water magic.”
“It was her promise that she’d always stand by the Norden people. That whoever wielded that dagger had her blessing.”
“Yes, Arie.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “The dagger represents Aurora’s blessing. Which the Norden always took to mean only the Norden Point could wield it. They went so far as to say that only the Norden Point could even get to it.”
“What does that mean?” Luc asked.
