Chapter 4

The next morning Maddie woke up with a shock. For a moment she did not know where she was until she recognized the open doors that led to the balcony and heard the sound of the twittering birds. Eighteen years old, it shot through her and she felt a strange tension in her stomach.

Omem had made a special tea for her, which she drank before going to sleep. A mixture of marigold, elderberry, and anise, sealed with a ritual spell. Among other things, it was supposed to help her refresh her mind.

She had slept wonderfully. No nightmares and no dreams at all because she couldn't remember anything. And that was quite strange. She also had a strange feeling, as if she were very bright, more sensitive than usual. As if she was more open to the world and had stepped out of a fog. Maybe it had to do with the herbal tea, which she had been drinking for years and left since the day before.

Birthday!

She jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom.

If it was time for a lot of secrecy, it couldn't start early enough.

Within half an hour she was done and ran downstairs. The patio doors were open, letting in a fresh morning breeze. The fire in the big basket from the night before had gone out and Maddie went to the kitchen.

There was no one to be seen.

She felt the black kettle and it was still warm, then she made herself a cup of tea. Where was everyone?

Still in bed? Who then had put kettle on? Omem? She was always up early.

Maddie thought she heard something in the hall and went to have a look.

She saw nothing.

The sound seemed to come from the basement and Maddie opened that door. She walked halfway down the stairs and looked around, still seeing nothing.

She wasn't going to say hello, since everyone used to do that in the movie and she allways thought that it was the dumbest thing you could do. Then the misery came to find you.

She continued walking down the stairs but still saw no one. Only the old racks with stock and stuff. She was on her way up again, when she heard a noise that seemed to come from behind the scaffolding.

She went back carefully and saw nothing at first. Then she noticed a kind of inequality between the two statements. She reached for it and suddenly the racks turned away. She looked at it in surprise. A staircase down became visible. She walked carefully over to it and stood as if she was nailed to it, her heart almost stopped beating. She recognized those stairs! It was the stairs from her nightmares! The dark staircase with the rough stones lining the wall! She felt the blood drain from her head, she got dizzy, and she fel, her head hit the floor. Then it got dark around her.

Maddie felt the cold from the floor she lay on.

The memory of what had happened returned like a shock. She lay on the floor in the cellar, under Omem's house. She got up carefully, she was no longer dizzy. She felt her head. There was only one sensitive spot where her head had hit the floor. No one had found her, as always happened in the movie. Nice then, no knight in shining armor. That had been very strange in the basement, too, she realized and smiled at her own thoughts. It calmed her.

She walked forward carefully. There was the carved stone staircase from her dreams, from her nightmares.

‘You're awake,’ she said aloud to herself. ‘Come on Maddie.’

She remembered the words of Omem, about experiencing more mystery and the deeper layers of witchcraft. That was literally deep.

She slowly descended the stone steps, it was so strange walking around in her nightmare while awake. Her clarity made her feel that she no longer felt so scared. Besides, she had descended those stairs countless times in her dreams.

She came out at the bottom of the stairs into a room she recognized. She saw the familiar niches with the lanterns and the candles already burning.

Suddenly her heart beat faster because then it got scary in her nightmares, she recalled. She was wary. She walked further into the room, it was more of a wide hallway than a room. She also saw two doors side by side, at the end of that room.

One green and one blue. On both doors was a circle with different signs on it. She felt all her senses become alert. The blue door had a symbol resembling a compass with four directions of the compass, referred to as arrows.

The green door had a symbol of a shield with a sword in it. The point pointed down. Maddie tried to open the door. Since there was no door handle, she pushed with her flat hand. The door didn't give way and she tried to push it with her bodyweight. However, there was no movement. Then pull? She broke her nail trying to do that. With the other door, nothing happened either. Ridiculous! Two doors in a mysterious tunnel and it wasn't going anywhere! And she had been afraid of that in her dreams? The outrage diminished her focus on the environment. She walked back up the stone steps in the rough wall.

‘Maddie!’

Suddenly she heard her name called behind her and spun around. Behind her Omem stood in front of the blue door. With Jente, Anke, Liza, and two strangers. Omem smiled and that was not what Maddie had expected. More like indignation or perhaps anger, because she was standing there in the tunnel. Omem gestured and the two strangers came forward.

‘This is Esmee.’

Maddie looked into the big brown eyes of a smiling and friendly face. The girl was a little shorter than her and had her thick blond hair tied up in a braid that she wore on her back. She had the same stature as her mother Jente. Esmee gave her a firm hand.

‘Hi, Maddie, nice to finally meet you.’

‘Thank you.’ Maddie felt as if she already knew her and suspected that they would probably get along well.

A tall boy came up to her. His crimson hair and similar redbeard made him look older than he probably was.

‘Rodolf,’ he said briefly.

She shook his firm hand, which felt powerful, contrary to what his thin, lanky body suggested. He also had pleasant energy.

‘Nice to finally see you in person,’ he said in a dark, pleasant voice. He had a inquisitive look in his brown eyes.

Maddie felt how suddenly her cheeks got warm because of his interested look and hoped that nobody saw that.

Omem gestured to Liza, to lead the way and bring the group upstairs .

She put her hand on Maddie's shoulder.

‘Because you dreamed more and more vividly, where the scratch you got in your nightmare appeared on your physical body, I knew. You are really ready to be initiated into all the secrets. It can no longer be hidden from you.’

She stood in front of Maddie and looked her deeply in the eye.

‘You have become clearer, you perceive more and that is partly because you no longer get herbs that close you off from your gifts.’

Maddie nodded, as if she had understood, but did it feel that way? It actually still felt like a dream.

‘I'm sorry you've been cutoff from the part of yourself, but that was the deal with your parents. ‘Omem pressed a kiss on her cheek.

‘You will be more attracted to magic and the magic will respond more to you.’

‘Magic, Omem? I still don't know exactly what you mean by that! ‘Maddie looked at her.

Omem took her hand and walked her back to the blue door. She put her hand on the compass symbol and muttered something. Suddenly they stood on the other side of the closed door together, without it having been opened. Maddie saw a narrow corridor.

This too was lit by candles.

She looked in surprise again at the closed door behind her, without understanding exactly what had happened.

‘This hallway leads to the train station. It's a fast travel portal, ‘explained Omem.

Maddie did not fully understand. ‘Above ground, you don't live that far from the station, how much shorter and faster is this hallway?’

Omem smiled mysteriously.

She took Maddies hand again and took three steps forward, muttering. Suddenly a door appeared and opened by itself. Omem led the way and they arrived in an attic with a staircase

Maddie followed her grandmother downstairs.

They ended up in the old part of the station, where tickets used to be sold. It was closed to the public. An old hardwood door opened into the corridor leading to the main station. Maddie felt her head spin. They had arrived at the main station in seconds from Omem's house.

‘It takes a while for your mind to understand what is happening to you. It must first become a new normal, ‘said Omem. ‘Just let it happen and don't try to find explanations for it. Your head is only trying because you didn't grow up with it and that's why it's so strange. ‘

She patted Maddie on the arm encouragingly.

‘Come.’

They walked from the train station to Omem's house at a leisurely pace, so that Maddie regained control of the situation.

Within ten minutes they arrived at Omem's stately mansion with different architectural styles. Influences of the Chalet style, Jugendstil, and Rationalism. Built-in 1911 by the architect L.W.A. de Blinde.

Maddie took in the house as if she was seeing it for the first time.

She felt how its history affected her. Almost brought her back in time.

‘The herbal tea no longer cuts you off from your powers. Everything comes to you more intensely. Maybe you should really learn to shield yourself now, dear, ‘said Granny, who saw what happened to her.‘The old energy you can feel is only needed to use in magic or for your lessons in history. It pulls you too much out of the present now. ‘

She looked at her grandmother with the feeling as if she had just returned from another time and smiled.

‘Yes, I kind of disappear into it, I think.’

‘I believe that too.’

‘Where does that other door in the basement go,’ Maddie demanded.

‘To other parts of the city or beyond. Wherever you want to go. ‘Omem smiled. ‘It's all going to be fine, honey. You will aget to know the rest of the hallways. ‘

‘Hallways? Are there any more? ‘

'You have no idea!'

Omem laughed and it was as if she was relieved to be able to just tell everything, without taking into account what she was allowed to know or not, Maddie thought.

The garden was decorated with garlands, lamps, and lanterns. Coffee, tea, and a large cake were on the garden table with all kinds of cups and saucers from Omem's china cabinet.

The members of the coven, Esmee and Rodolf, her father, and her brother Thom, were already waiting for her to celebrate her eighteenth  birthday.

Raven just came out of the kitchen and came up to her smiling. ‘Congratulations, child of the light!’ He kissed her on the forehead and pulled her into strong arms for a moment, which felt so familiar. That surprised her, she had certainly become more sensitive to that.

Maddie laughed unintentionally again, his presence and strange statements always lightened the energy in her.

‘You'll get my present later,’ he suddenly whispered in her ear. ‘

She looked up at him in surprise, but he was already walking on.

Raven hugged Rodolf as if he already knew him and Esmee also received a heartfelt hug. It was a pleasant get-together and Maddie was happy to get away from all the mystery and strange practices. She enjoyed the celebration. They ate, laughed, and even danced to the strange tunes that Raven could elicit from a lute. Thom and her father returned home  when it was allready evening.

Then the atmosphere changed. There was an almost trembling tension in the air.

Everything was prepared for Maddies initiation into Wicca, associated with her eighteenth birthday. The day she officially became a witch.

An altar was set up. A large wooden box stood in the center of a circle drawn with the great sword that always hung over the fireplace in the living room.

A green, velvet altar cloth lay over the chest. Two altar candles were placed, one for the goddess in silver and one for the god in gold.

A bowl of salt representing the element of earth was placed on it, an incense vessel for the element of air, a white candle for the element of fire, and a bowl of water as the fourth element.

The sword lay on the ground in front of the altar and next to it on a table, wine in a metal chalice, representing fertility.

Raven placed a crystal in the center of the altar that represented the magical object needed to initiate Maddie.

Maddie was wearing a white habit and a red cord around her waist. Red ment feminine energy. Raven and Rodolf had a blue cord that represented masculine energy. The traditional cord was three meters long, the same length as the magic circle in diameter. A prescription in Wicca.

Maddie stood just outside the circle with her hands tied behind her back with a white ribbon. The color of the goddess and the color of new beginnings. Omem rang the bell.

‘By the god and by the the goddess, you want to come into the coven.

Tie both your hands tight, see your intentions with ease and you might.

Come and open up to the sun and the moon, now give us your new Wiccan name soon. ‘

‘Rudha is my Wiccan name,’ Maddie's voice was loud and clear, Rudha meant, red. It was the name she'd heard regularly in her dreams and seen everywhere. That is why it had suddenly taken on meaning.

 Omem continued with the ritual.

‘We call on our god and goddess now, Rudha wants belongs to us somehow.

Let her enter the coven soon. Give her the blessing, by the light and by the moon.

Let her enter this magical game, so we can call her by her new name.‘

Omem gestured, and Raven and Rodolf pushed Maddie slightly into the circle.

‘You stepped across the threshold, now, that separate the people from the witches somehow.

Do you promise to assist everyone, with your words and your spell,

so that will be done so well?’

‘Yes, I promise to the god and Goddess,’ said Maddie and got a sip from the chalice with the wine.

‘In the middle of the circle, in the ring,

 you’ll kneel down and do your thing.

With your words to be,

you give your promise to me.’

Maddie knelt in the center of the circle and Omem took the sword and put its point on her chest, near Maddie's heart.

Maddie took a deep breath and spoke the promise that bound her to the coven.

‘With all my love and trust,

the coven can build on me, they must.

I’m commiting to learn what I have to know

And as a Wiccan would be able to show.

If you believe me and want me to be,

break the binding of my hands for me.’

Raven and Rodolph stepped forward and unwrapped the white ribbon from her hands. Then they helped her to get up and Maddie spoke the old Wicca statement.

‘Bide the wiccan law ye must, In perfect love and perfect trust.

Eight words the wiccan speech fulfill.

And ye harm none, do what ye will.

What ye send forth comes back to thee.

So ever mind the rule of three.

Follow this with mind and heart.

Merry ye meet and merry ye part.

‘Rudha, the red Wiccan apprentice,’ introduced Omem Maddie with her Wiccan name.

Everyone clapped and walked past her again, to introduce themselves with the Wiccan name they had once adopted at their initiation.

‘Blessed be, I'm Kerian,’ Liza kissed her on both cheeks, ‘my name means dark-haired.’

‘Blessed be, my name is Gaea,’ Anke had tears in her eyes, ‘my name means earth.’

‘Blessed be, Ohana is my name,’ Jente hugged her. ‘Sweetheart, my name means, from the forest.’

‘Blessed be, they call me Ville,’ Raven gave her an encouraging wink and kissed her forehead. ‘And that means protector, yours, among other things.’ He leaned toward her, the look in his bright blue eyes warming her.

‘I'm glad you joined, so that there are no more secrets for you,’ he whispered in her ear, ‘Rudha, the red one? Well, that's an appropriate name.’

His fingers ran through her curls.

She laughed softly and had to stop herself from getting lost in a fit of laughter because that was not part of the initiation. Raven grinned in amusement.

‘Blessed be, my Wiccan name is Aegelweard,’ Rodolf bowed to her and kissed her hand, ‘and that means protector also.’

‘Blessed be, I'm Gweneth,’ Esmee hugged her tightly. ‘Oh yes and that means white lady.’

‘Blessed be and my name is Elda,’ Omem looked at her with love and pride. ‘That means old, wise, protector.’

‘Of course it means that,’ murmured Raven, who was still standing next to Maddie, and that got him an angry look from omem and a burst of laughter from Maddie, who really couldn't contain her laughter anymore.

Omem went to the kitchen table, which had a number of notebooks wrapped in brown leather.

She gave one to Raven, one to Rodolf, one to Esmee, and one to Maddie. ‘This must be your Book Of Shadows. Make your personal notes here about your own spells, herbs, potions, and anything important to you in magic,‘ said Omem whit a seriuous look in her blue eyes.

The four ladies then satdown in the kitchen with a jar of fresh herbal tea. They still had a lot to discuss.

Raven looked at the book with great disgust and Maddie laughed.

He caught her eye and smiled back. Unseen, he put it behind the cushion of the chair and looked conspiringly at Maddie, his finger to his lips.

Then he walked up to her and opened his hand. There was the crystal of the altar with a leather lace on it.

‘Your birthday present that I promised,’ he said softly and stood behind her. The crystal was clear and all kinds of colors were reflected in it.

‘It's magically charged and protects you,’ he said.

She got goosebumps when she felt his warm hands on her shoulders for a moment,

‘If anyone wants to hurt you, I'll know.’ He tied the chain around her neck. ‘Thank you,’ she said moved, turning to him, ‘That's the sweetest gift I've ever received.’

He smiled, leaned in slightly likeif  he wanted to kiss her, changed his mind, and then moved away from her.

The four wicca in training sat in the garden at the garden table.

Everyone was filled with the special feeling that an initiatio caused. Feeling the existence of another world outside the ordinary world, was magical in itself. Sharing that with others felt very special, it created a bond.

Maddie felt her cheeks glow with all the unusual and was tense about what was to come.

‘After so many secrets revealed, we need to relax for a moment,’ Raven said as if sensing her state of mind and leaned forward. ‘Are we going to the forest? Nice to discharge?’

‘What forest?’ Rodolf raised his eyebrow questioningly. ‘Is there a forest here?’

Raven chuckled and said softly, ‘We have our methods for that.'

‘Well I don't think we should do something right away that may not be allowed,’ Esmee responded immediately and looked around, saw the questioning looks, and immediately changed her mind. 'Okay then.'

‘I don't understand,’ said Maddie, ‘how can you all know more than I do about the deeper lauers of Wicca? You have all just been initiated, haven't you?’

Rodolf nodded. ‘I was initiated last month, just like Esmee, but we grew up with a sense of magic. With us, the inner development of magic has not been slowed down with herbal tea, like yours was. ‘

Raven grinned. ‘I was initiated a year and a half ago. I've been waiting for you for so long. And in the meantime, I've picked up a little bit of magic here and there.’

‘Are you the messenger? ‘Esmee asked suddenly with a surprised look in her big brown eyes. ‘The one who brings the knowledge of magic?’

Rodolf laughed. ‘Esmee! Raven's name also means messenger, doesn't it?’ ‘Well, I don't know. Esmee means protector and not the one who knowes everything! ‘ She sounded so indignant that even Maddie laughed.

‘Okay Raven, let's see what you can do,’she saidt and gave him a defiant look. Raven called out to Omem that they had to get some fresh air and led the way to the center of town.

The shops were already closed and there was no late night shopping, so it was nice and quiet.

‘Where are we going?’ Maddie could hardly contain her curiosity. How did you end up in a forest by walking to the center?

Raven walked to the Martini Church, straight to the back of the monument. All of a sudden Maddie got a strange feeling in her stomach and all her senses became sharper.

‘It sied fan juster, is the frucht fan moarn,’ said Raven in Frisian and put his hand on the back stone.

Suddenly there was a staircase down there, lit and all.

Maddie went down the stairs in tension. Raven last, after which the hatch closed by itself.

They entered a hall with several doors and they held eighothers hand. Raven placed his left hand on the hawk symbol on a chestnut leaf.

‘Hawk let us trough so we can go where we want to,’ he muttered out loud.

In a flash, they were on the other side of the door, down a narrow hallway with a flight of stairs. Maddie smelled the scent of damp earth and rotten leaves. The scent of the forest.

Rodolf picked up a lantern with a candle in it and Raven's gesture made it burn, much to Maddie's surprise. So he had recently lit the candles in the library too!

Raven ordered; ‘Hatch open.’

They took turns going up the stairs.

Having come above ground, Maddie saw that they were standing in the stone temple in the forest of Gaasteren. She looked around in amazement and took a deep breath of the fresh evening air.

 ‘Oh delicious,’ she said.

Raven smiled in amusement and suddenly put his arm around her.

‘Yeah, isn't it? And listen to that silence.‘

Maddie had trouble listening, because she became aware of his warm body close to hers. She looked up at him, but he didn't seem to realize it.

‘It's so cold,’ Esmee grumbled, actually having goosebumps on her arms. ‘Here.’ Rodolf took off his coat and handed it to her.

Esmee giggled.

‘St’. Raven's voice was tense in his warning, and with a flick of his hand the candle in the lantern went out.

There were voices in the distance. Over there, in the dark, some light could be seen.

‘Let's go back,’ Esmee whispered and started to walk back.

Raven's eyes twinkled in amusement.

‘No, let's go and see.’

Maddie nodded and took his hand.

For a moment he looked at her with a smile. She saw the concentration when he then peered into the distance.

Slowly they walked closer, cautiously and wary. The light shone in a clearing in the forest.

Maddie saw the campfire and around it, children with pale faces and a number of nuns warming themselves. She wondered why they were there. And what was the story of those nuns?

Why did they sit outside with children in the evening, in that cold?

Still, it seemed as if the kids were having fun.

Esmee stood on a branch and the snap of it took her out of concentration.

‘Sorry,’ Esmee whispered apologetically.

She turned back to the nuns, but she didn't see them anymore!

No children, no nuns!

Instead, she saw a number of young people sitting on a bench and smoking and drinking beer. A number of scooters stood in a semicircle and provided the light. Maddie shivered. Where were the nuns?

Raven gestured to Rodolf, who nodded and suddenly made the sounds of an owl. Raven moved his hand and twigs and leaves flew over the youngsters.

‘Bats or something,’ said one of the boys, and one of the girls screamed. Raven kept a number of leaves circling in front of them and the tough guys shot up too. ‘Ghosts!’

Esmee giggled softly.

‘Get out!’ Was screamed.

Chaos, scooters started, fearful voices, screams and they drove away.

Rodolf laughed loudly.

‘They don't disturb nature anymore,’ said Raven with an amused twinkle in his eye.

He waved his hand and the cans, papers, and other rubbish left behind flew into the empty trash can.

‘What kind of place is this?’ asked Maddie, looking around, ignoring the fact that she was witnessing the real magic of Raven.

Raven looked at her for a moment.

‘A clearing in the woods,’ Esmee replied with a look of disbelief.

Probably because she thought it was a stupid question.

‘No, I mean does it have a history or something? With nuns and children?’

‘She was not put off.

Rodolf raised his eyebrows. ‘What do you mean nuns and children?’

Raven looked at her again, there was a serious look in his blue eyes.

‘Close by is Mooi Gaasteren, a villa where nuns used to take care of children. Big city bleachers, who came here to get stronger. It is Hotel-Restaurant nowadays, ‘he said.

‘Okay,’ she replied, glad her vision was about something.

‘Why, you ask?’ Raven asked, his look serious, and Rodolf's attention also aroused.

Maddie hesitated for a moment. Maybe they thought she was strange, when she said what she had seen. On the other hand, everything that happened was strange.

‘I saw nuns and children at a campfire. No scooters and teenagers.’

She looked at them expectantly. She was expecting a laugh or something.

Or a reaction that they thought she was very strange.

‘That makes sense, I think,’ said Esmee, still crouched by her found mushrooms, ‘that is, if you're an Auror.’

The others nodded in agreement. It was Maddie's turn to look surprised.

Raven and Rodolf exchanged a glance, and Raven nodded slightly as if he were giving permission to Rodolf.

‘You're an Auror,’ said Rodolf, a little uncomfortably. ‘An Auror who has a connection with the past.’

‘Omem has told me that I can feel the energy of the past in monuments and old buildings,’ she shared with the group.

‘Perhaps traveling through the church to the temple of peace, made you more sensitive to the energy of the past, allowing you to see those nuns and children,’ Raven reasoned. ‘Or, your powers are so much stronger than anyone knows. I'm going for the latter.’

He smiled at her.

‘Isn't such an Auror called a retroscopier?’ asked Rodolf.

‘A what?’ They asked simultaneously.

‘Oh, oh I know,’ Esmee responded enthusiastically and stood up, ‘someone who is clairvoyant and clear about the past.’

Rodolf nodded, he was impressed. 'Yes, exactly. Perhaps you are developing that skill or it has been released by not drinking herbal tea to suppress it. ‘

‘Okay,’ answered Maddie, ‘fortunately, I thought I was crazy.’

‘Yes, that too,’ Raven teased.

Everyone laughed, the sky cleared.

The look in Raven's eyes was still serious, he put his arm tightly around her. She didn't think it was a nasty habit of his, on the contrary, it warmed her inside.

They all walked back to the peace temple in the middle of the forest that stood under a large chestnut tree. Peace, a great gift from God, remains a permanent Dutch fate. Show’n on you gratefully. Always flee strife and revenge, was written above it.

Raven read it aloud and the shutter opened again. Through the hatch and the corridor, they arrived in the tunnel under the Martini Church. And then up again, next to the War Memorial.

Maddie glanced at the inscription on the ribbon of the woman's statue.

‘You said something other than what it says on this, to open the gate,’ she remarked to Raven. Raven smiled.

‘You payed attention,’ he said. ‘There used to be another monument. A square column with a wavy roof. On it were the names of the people who had died in the war. Only there was no data.’

‘That was in 1950,’ Maddie suddenly knew, ‘then it became this image. And on the other one, was the text that opens the hatch? ‘

Raven nodded. ‘And before you think anyone who knows this text can open the gate, no they can't. It takes magic and a spell. The intention is the magic. ‘

‘And therefore we are not visible to the environment, as long as the hatch, door, or gate is open,’ added Rodolf, ‘otherwise the chance of being caught would be great.’

She nodded understandingly, it made sense. There was a bum in the dark on the bench in front of the church.

‘Almund!’ cried Raven and raised his hand.

‘Sábháilte?’ asked the wanderer.

‘Sábháilte!’ replied Raven.

‘What?’ asked Esmee. 'What did you do? Who is that?'

She grimaced and Raven laughed out loud.

‘Almund means defender of the temple, that's what he is called and that's what he is. And Sábháilte is Celtic and means safe. He belongs to the Elders. ‘Okay, ‘Esmee sighed,’ I still have a lot to learn, I understand.

‘Yes, ‘agreed Rodolf, which got him an angry look from Esmee.