SOLVED. Children's/YA choose your own adventure novel from the 80s/90s, a young girl receives magical stones from her father which spin around her head like a halo; the different stones perform different spells; medieval-esque fantasy setting. [s]

[Siavahda]

I don't THINK this was one of the Bantam Books Choose Your Own Adventure series - because I've scrutinised their books and I couldn't find this one I'm thinking of - but I could be wrong. I picked it up in a second-hand bookshop around the year 2000; it looked a good few years older, and that and the cover art makes me suspect it was published in the 80s or 90s. The cover depicted a young girl with a circle of differently-colored stones hovering around her head, a bit like a halo. In the book, these stones were given to her ('you') by her father (who was possibly a smith?) For some reason she had to run away, and her dad gave her the stones before she ran, I think in a pouch.

I honestly don't know what the ideal ending was supposed to be; the only one I remember is one where the girl fades to black/dies by somehow ending up inside a giant pitcher plant-type flower. (This is what makes me wonder if it wasn't a kid's book? It was a gentle death, but still plenty creepy!) I don't know what the overall quest was or what exactly she was supposed to do. There might have been some kind of math involved in figuring out what choice your character made? But I might be misremembering that part, I'm very uncertain about it.

[Ellie]

?

[Siavahda]

That's it!!! Thank you so much, this has been driving me crazy!