A/N- Hi everyone! I have no idea if anyone is still following this story after all these years, but I've recently felt inspired to start writing it again. There will be a longer note at the end of the chapter, but I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer- I am neither old enough, British enough, or rich enough to be JK Rowling. If I was, I'd be sipping tea in a fancy house somewhere, not sitting here writing fanfiction on an old laptop.

Chapter 1- The Beginning, Part One

Maya O'Connor stared down at the undeyed linen fabric of her robe. It was cold, and the antechamber to the ogof defodol, the ritual cave, was far within the mountain and even in July the warmth didn't reach this far. The rough-hewn stone of the cave floor bit into the bony parts of her ankles where she sat cross-legged on the floor. There wasn't much to see- she'd already studied the drips of water from a crack on the far side of the room, the vent openings in the ceiling, and the small hole at the edge of one wall where a mouse had come in and out earlier, before she had moved and scared it off. There was no furniture, and besides the doors in front of and behind her, there was only the cold grey stone of the cave walls and ceiling.

She was bored.

She knew she wasn't supposed to be- the vigil before the cosán an espíritu was meant to be a time for self-reflection, a review of who she was and what she wanted to be. She was meant to be examining her path in life, and what she wanted her future to hold. She was meant to be thinking of her ancestors and asking them for guidance.

But she was bored. It had been a long, cold, lonely night in the chamber, and self-reflection had gotten old after the first twenty minutes. She found herself straining to listen for any sound outside the door that might indicate someone was coming to fetch her. They would come to get her and lead her into the cave at dawn, where she would stay until the ancestors were finished with her…however long that took.

Sometimes it was only a few hours, but occasionally it took days, and one time, years ago when her mother was a girl, one boy had been shut into the cave for a full week. They had expected to find him dead, but on the 7th day the door opened to reveal him standing there, perfectly healthy and having no idea how long he had been inside. Tía Siobhán liked to tell that story to scare the teenagers, and then mutter about how the ancestors must have had many things to scold him for (by all accounts he had been very rambunctious as a child). But usually it was only a day or two.

There were footsteps outside the door- step step CLACK. Step step CLACK. The cold of the caves must have been bothering Abuela Rosa more than usual, if she was using her cane this morning. The latch clicked, and the door swung open. The elderly woman stood in the door frame for a moment, gazing at the girl. Abuela Rosa was best described as "mostly grey." She had a grey headscarf, and singe braid of long grey hair down her back, and grey ankle-length robes. But her eyes were still a bright, shining blue, and they were smiling. Abuela was someone who only rarely smiled with her whole face, and to someone who didn't know her well, she always looked stern. But to Maya, who had known her since she was a baby, the smile was plain in the way her eyes crinkled at the corners.

"Are you ready?"

Maya nodded, and stood slowly, giving herself a moment to get feeling back into her legs. Then she stepped forward to stand before the Abuela. The woman looked her up and down for a moment, pride shining in her eyes. At fifteen, Maya stood at average height, with a slim build, sharp nose, and curly auburn hair that hung in a braid down her back.

Rosa embraced her, and then stepped aside to allow her to walk past. The other two Abuelas were waiting in the vestibule, Abuela Maeve with her white-streaked yellow hair, and Abuela Caoimhe, the eldest, with her blue headscarf that marked her as the Matriarch of the clan. Their robes swished around their ankles as they led her across to the door on the opposite side of the hall, and then Abuela Maeve opened it and they all moved to stand behind her. From here, she must go on alone.

She simply stared for a moment, peering into the darkness and trying to see any shapes that lay beyond. But there was nothing- it seemed as if the world ended in a black void immediately after the doorway- not even the light of the torches on the walls cast any light beyond the threshold.

She took a deep breath. There was no point in delaying. As she let the breath out, she stepped through the door, and Abuela Maeve closed it behind her.

Inside the chamber it was pitch black, so dark that Maya couldn't even see her hand in front of her face. She took a couple steps, then knelt down to feel the ground. The floor of the cave was flat, rough, dry stone. She couldn't see the walls or ceiling, but the way the air moved gave her the impression that it was a very large chamber.

Then, so slowly that she wasn't actually sure when it began, the room began to lighten. She couldn't tell where it was coming from, but the darkness of the room slowly turned from pitch black, to grey, and then to white. The floor of the cave felt solid under her feet, but she couldn't see the walls or ceiling- the white blankness stretched out endlessly. She turned around and realized with a jolt that the door wasn't behind her anymore- the place where it had been was just more blank, empty whiteness. She stared for a moment, then blinked.

When she opened her eyes, her mouth fell open. The blank whiteness was gone, and she was now standing in a grassy field, with a clear blue sky overhead. She turned slowly in a circle, but saw no landmarks of any kind- just green grass under her feet and a blue sky above, with the horizon far in the distance on all sides. There were no clouds in the sky, and no visible sun, although it was light out.

She frowned. Is this supposed to happen? she thought. Talking about the specifics of what happened during a cosán an espiritú wasn't forbidden, exactly, but her Tía Siobhán had told her that it was an intensely personal experience, and most people preferred not to speak of it afterwards. Tía had shared, however, that most people saw and spoke with some of their ancestors, and that they were typically given some sort of guidance for their future. So why was nothing happening? Having nothing better to do, she picked a direction and started walking.

She didn't know how long she walked before things started to change, but it felt like hours. But finally, just as she was starting to wonder if something really had gone wrong, she spotted something on the horizon. The small speck slowly grew closer, until she realized it was a person, someone with long brown hair, sitting on the ground with their back to her. She walked until she was standing a few feet behind the person, then stopped. She suspected she knew who this was- she'd been hoping for years that she'd be able to meet her mother during the ceremony. But suddenly she realized she was afraid to look- what if it wasn't her mother? What if it was, but she was angry or disappointed in her?

She stood for several minutes, frozen, before shaking herself and walking around the figure deliberately. Papa always says ignoring my fears only makes them stronger. The sooner she looked, the sooner she would know.

As the woman's face came into view, her breath caught. It was her mother, sitting on the ground and running her hand over the grass. Mara looked up, and a big grin lit up her face as she saw her daughter. She stood slowly and held out her arms. "Welcome, Querida! I've been waiting for you."

The next thing Maya knew, she was hugging her mother with all her strength, and both women were crying. "I've missed you so much!" she choked out.

"I know, little one. I've missed you too."

Eventually, they separated. Mara sat back down, and patted the ground next to her. Maya sat, and her mother put her arm around her shoulders. She leaned into the hug and closed her eyes.

After a while, Mara pulled back and moved to sit across from her daughter. "There are some things I need to tell you, sweetheart."

"Like what? And wait, is this what it's like for everybody? I was expecting something more intense than just a conversation. Or does that start later? And how does the thing with time progression work? Everybody says that it feels like time passes differently in the Chamber but I just don't understand how that's possible."

Mara laughed. "Ay, Querida, so many questions!"

Maya ducked her head. "Sorry."

"You do not need to be sorry. It is wonderful that you are so curious- you're certainly your father's daughter! Not everybody experiences what you have- we are all individuals, and part of the magic of the chamber is that it shows you things in a way that you can understand. Since everyone is different, what happens during each person's ceremony is different also. Time passes differently here because you're not properly present in the normal world right now. It's difficult to explain, but essentially this place is an "in-between" place that forms a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds. Time passes differently in the two realms, so it passes differently here as well. But we're getting off topic."

Mara sighed, and her shoulders drooped. "Something is coming. Magic herself is trembling with it. Most of the world has fallen away from the old traditions, and in some areas of the world magic is weakening as a result. Above all things, Magic requires balance in the world, and that hasn't existed for some time now. You're going to be given some instructions before you leave here, and it's of the highest importance that you follow them. Magic is seeking to finally restore the balance that has been lost, and you've been chosen to be a part of that."

"But…why would Magic choose me? I don't understand why I'm special."

"You're very special, darling, and not just because all mothers think that of their children. You are something that has never really existed in our culture, not since the time when we separated from the wand users- a single person who is fully part of and fully understands both worlds, the old traditions and the ways of the wand users. Our people have always held themselves separate from the rest of the magical world- at first it was for our safety, but it became ingrained into our culture and so we never reconnected with them, even after the danger had passed. You are the person who has been chosen to bridge that gap."

"I-I have absolutely no idea how I'm supposed to do that."

"You won't be alone. You'll be given instructions before you leave here, and there will be people who will help you. And this won't happen right away- you'll have a few years to study and get ready.

"I love you, Querida. I'm sorry that I had to leave you so early, and that I wasn't there for you as you grew up, but I am so proud of the young woman you've become. I'm looking forward to seeing who you will grow to be. Tell your father that I love him and miss him but I'm happy here, and that he'd damn well better take his sweet time coming to see me." They both chuckled at that. "It's time for me to go now, but I'll always be with you, cariño. I promise. I love you so much!"

"I love you too, mamá."

As Maya finished speaking, the world around her began to fade away, first the sky, then the grass, and then her mother. She reached her hand out desperately, but Mara too faded away until she was left sitting cross-legged alone, back in the black stone chamber, staring unseeing into the darkness with tears streaming down her cheeks, but smiling at the memory of hugging her mother again. Thank you, Mamá. Thank you.

As she finished that thought, a doorway suddenly appeared in front of her out of the darkness. There was no door, but the opening was filled with a brilliant white light that was too bright to look at directly, and she couldn't see what it lead to. Well, here goes nothing. She thought as she stepped through. Magic guide and preserve me.

A/N- So...I'm back. Finally. The idea for this story has been living rent-free in my head for at least ten years, and years ago I published the prologue and then got stuck on some things and never continued. I finally decided to sit down and start writing again, so here you go!

I'm writing this as I go, so updates will be sporadic. I also can't 100% guarantee this will end up finished- a lot of life has been happening lately and I have no idea how frequently I'll actually get the chance to write. But I would LIKE to finish it if at all possible and I plan to do my best. This chapter is a bit short and I didn't end it in the best spot, but it's currently 1:28 AM here and I'm tired, and I don't want to lose what momentum I've got to get this published.

The biggest thing that caused me to get stuck and stop writing after the first chapter was trying to figure out what in the world the culture of Macondo would look like. We have here a culture of people who left Britain and northern Europe in the late Iron Age, moved to a pre-Colonial era South America, and interacted with the ancient kingdoms there, and then had sporadic contact with the Hispanic cultures that developed after the Colonial period. One of the biggest hurdles was what kind of language would these people even speak? It would most likely be some kind of mix between whatever Celtic dialects were spoken in Britain and the nearby areas at the time they left, plus a decent amount of loan words from the Aztec and other native peoples, plus a bit of Spanish from after that language became dominant.

Maya is fluent in English because of reasons we'll get to next chapter, but most of her people have no reason to be. And it's a bit difficult to write a compelling narrative when most of your dialogue isn't in English. And also, of the languages I've mentioned, English and some Spanish are the only ones I actually know. I finally decided that this shouldn't stop me from actually writing the story. So what I'm going to do is have the Maqueña speak a Spanish dialect with occasional Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic terms provided by Google translate. It's not the most accurate, but it'll have to do. I'll also be including what I know of the mythology and traditions of both Celtic and Latino cultures as I develop the Maqueña culture.

I hope you all enjoy the story, and I'll do my best to update semi-regularly as much as I'm able!

P.S.- Digital Bonus points to anyone who recognizes where I got the name for Macondo! :D