Broad Horizons

Shortly after Lydia Bates fifteenth birthday, her close friend, Charo, convinced Lydia to receive her gifted shankha charm necklace and to invoke it's 'celestial' guiding angel. Charo grieved over Lydia's painful hip impairment, so in budding trust for her gram's Tarsha cult teachings, Charo urged Lydia to follow the charm's formula, that Lydia might receive healing, power, and guidance from the higher angel realm. Some folks outside the cult suspected that the claimed spirit-guidance was transmitted from the cult's clever Magi Lahmbra, but after Lydia practiced the spirit-invoking formula, she noticed reduced hip-pain, and surrendered more trust and devotion to her spirit 'friend''s wise guidance. When her friend became too chilling close and ghostly visible, its careless boasts fell like scales from Lydia's eyes. At last, Lydia clearly saw the evil taking charge of her life, and she set forth to break their sealed connection.