"Follow my voice, Misty. We are all here waiting for you. Come back to me". As tears fell faster and faster, Cordelia pulled Misty closer. So impossibly close, as if she could pull the witch back from her own personal hellscape if her grip on the younger girl was tight enough. With the last few seconds before sundown came softly muttered Latin incantations spoken in-between bursts of sobs. Cordelia Goode could feel time running out, could feel the girl's life force leaving her body as she once again tightened her grip, a futile attempt to bring life backing into Misty's near lifeless body.
All at once, Cordelia folder over onto the ground below her, now coated in the dust that was once Misty Day: Cordelia's most promising young witch, a witch so kind and loving that her power revolved around bringing others to safety. Her best friend. Her soulmate (though no one knew that besides her. She considered it her best-kept secret, a piece of her life she wished to have only shared between her and the young blonde who now lays scattered around her. A source of comfort, of pure light, to part her now dark and dreary days.).
Gathering the remains of the once wild Cajun girl, the witch frantically endeavored to pull every grain of dust that contained the only source of her happiness into a small pile. Pawing at the ground, making sure not to leave anything out, for if one small fraction of the fine powder managed to be left out, who knows the consequences that might fall upon either of the girls. With the belief that she successfully obtained the entirety of her Misty, Cordelia shakily draw a breath, preparing to slowly exhale in the precise direction of the dust.
"Vitalum Vitalis".
Two words that could change Misty and Cordelia's life forever. The power that these two words hold can bring life back into the dead, remove someone's lifeforce, can heal practically any injury or disease. However, no matter how many times the elder witch quietly spoke them, like a promise of protection to the love of her life, nothing happened. Nothing could happen.
Both women knew the consequences of failing descendum. If you were not able to return to your body before sundown, your body will fail and disintegrate into dust. Once a witch was dust, no living practitioner of magic has been able to bring them back to life, let alone know where to start.
" Sequere. Lecem. Ventite ad me". With every word, Cordelia felt her own sanity slipping away. She loved Misty. She needed Misty. How would she be able to continue living without her love?
"Cordelia, sweetie, time's up. There's no longer a light for her to follow. She cannot return to us. We need to continue with the other seven wonders". Even with her good intentions, Cordelia couldn't help but feel betrayed by the words spoken by Myrtle Snow. A beloved member of their coven has disappeared right before their eyes and these girls want to finish these deadly tasks, to risk their lives for some title which will only bring anyone who holds it torment and suffering?
"How can you even think of sending these three girls to their doom?! Misty is dead! She is never coming back! We did this to her! She told us time and time again that she was not ready! That she didn't even want to be the Supreme! Do you want to see these girls in her position? Lying dead as a mound of sand?"
Every word rose in volume until the witch, consumed with anger and grief, was yelling in the face of Myrtle. The woman who was her mother when her own biological mother practically abandoned her on the footsteps of Mrs. Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies was now her personal verbal punching bag. Cordelia knew that she should regret the words the left her mouth, but how could she when she spoke the truth. Misty was virtually forced into performing the seven wonders by Myrtle and herself and now Cordelia is left alone, without the one person who she loved more than anything else in this world.
"Darling with your mother gone, we need a new supreme. We cannot find her unless we give these girls the opportunity to prove themselves. I understand that this may be fast considering what just happened, but this is for the good of our coven. Surely that you must understand."
Cordelia did understand. She has given up her life for years to ensure that this coven could grow and become something wonderful. No matter how she was feeling personally, she knew that the test of the seven wonders was the only way at this point to make sure that this coven does not become extinct. But even if she did want to continue her beloved cove, she knew that she could no longer put anyone else's lives at risk. However, that wasn't what her mouth said.
"Fine. Tomorrow at dawn. Zoe, Madison, and Queenie will continue the test of the seven wonders. Starting with transmutation".
Cordelia had no way of knowing what kind of pain tomorrow would bring her with the test of transmutation.