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“It’s a compass,” Riku remembered observing, gently awed by the palm-sized object he lifted out of the gift box: a weighty brass circlet with a silver star inlaid at its center.
“You’re always talking about leaving the islands someday to go on these amazing adventures,” Kairi had explained. “I thought I should make sure that whenever it happens, you can find your way to anywhere you want to go. And… with this, even if we’re not together then, you’ll always remember what home is to you, too.” She’d laced her fingers behind her back, a sheepish smile tugging at her lips. “Do you like it?”
“I do. I really do. Thank you, Kairi.” Riku had wrapped his arms tightly around the girl, his appreciation sincere. “I’ll carry it with me everywhere I go—I promise.”
He had been true to his word thus far. From daily treks to the school to evening romps on the play island, whether following the road less traveled or the routes he knew by heart, the compass had remained at Riku’s side, stowed away in a special pouch on his belt. It was a source of comfort whenever he felt lost or down on his luck—a sign that assured him the path forward would soon enough become clear to him once again.
…
He wondered now, staring across the cold midnight ocean of Neverland, what had happened to set the compass so far out of alignment. It hadn’t looked like this before, with its hand turning in slow yet constant circles around the constellation of directions below.
Was the frequent world-hopping destabilizing its magnetic field?
The contact with supernatural forces warping its center of gravity?
What was happening to it?
…What was happening to him?
With the needle of his compass completing another senseless rotation in his palm, Riku sighed and peered over his shoulder, the princess’s comatose body braced against the ship’s wall behind him.
“I’m sorry, Kairi,” he said quietly, “I know I don’t usually break my promises. Hopefully you’ll forgive me the next time we can talk, just the two of us.”
He tucked the compass back into its pouch and began to unclasp it from his belt, moving to kneel beside her.
“I’m not sure this can help me here anymore. But maybe if you hold onto it for me, I won’t forget again. Where it is I want to go. What home means to me.”
With careful hands, he closed the compass bag’s latches around one of Kairi’s own belt loops.
“Give it back when this journey is over, alright?”
Riku brushed Kairi’s bangs away from her face and pressed the shadow of a kiss to her forehead.
Then he closed his eyes, and with a flick of his wrist, he abandoned himself once more to the aimless tides of darkness.