That was why I liked humans. They could be funny, loving, and kind, but witches couldn’t. It was as if in the last hundred years something had taken away their humanity. They were like statues. They didn’t laugh or show pain or even anger, and that was why I left. I couldn’t stand seeing them like that. Many said that the White Land’s power was linked to the power of the princess. If the princess was dying inside and had stopped feeling things, were we all affected by her? Like a decease? Why hadn’t I been affected by this condition? Maybe because I was here in the human world where her power couldn’t reach me? Or was it because I was surrounded by all emotions and I could feel?
The Mission
The next days seemed like normal days, but they weren’t. We didn’t have news from the war, but we were hoping for good news. When all seemed lost, hope was the best thing you had.
One day a man came to the village, and by his uniform, I knew he was a messenger from the palace. He announced that the war was over and that we had won. I waited to hear more, but that was it. There was nothing else and no details. How arrogant these royals could be. Just because we were from the village didn’t mean we didn’t want to know more. I went to my shop and spent the rest of the day there where I could at least have some peace and quiet.
The next days passed like always, but everyone was awaiting the army’s arrival so that their lives could really get back to normal. But mine wouldn’t, at least not yet. I hadn’t heard anything from my mother or Ritta, and I was worried. Hadn’t the lockdown ended yet? The war was over. What was taking them so long? Was there something wrong? Every day I was more anxious and considered a trip to the White Land, but people would notice if I suddenly closed the shop. If I wasn’t at the shop, they would come to my house, and that was definitely not good. If they entered my house to look for me, they would find things that would condemn me to death by being burned at the stake. I decided to wait a week, no more, and then I would go up to see.
The army came two days later, but even if I wanted to see if Alec and Jonathan were alive I couldn’t. I was nothing to them but a friend, and I knew the king wouldn’t like it if his son or his friend were associating with a peasant girl. I stayed in the shop, and my anger toward the king grew. Not only was he selfish, but he didn’t treat us like persons; he treated us like we were pests or worse. Fortunately, his son and Alec had escaped that “curse” and were more open-minded than the most.
After I finished my work for the day, I went home, stopping to admire the birds, the trees, and the flowers. Everything was beautiful; spring was finally here. Spring meant new beginnings—something old turned into something new and beautiful.
When I reached my home and opened the door, I knew immediately something was wrong. The lights were on and I could smell something cooking in the kitchen. It must be my mother. I ran to the kitchen, and my beautiful mother with her warm smile was standing near the stove. She gave me a warm hug. I had missed her so much, and it had been lonely without her.
I turned and saw Ritta sitting at the kitchen table wearing her pink dress, and she hugged me too. She was just as happy to see me. My mother and I sat at the table, and we shared our news. I told them what happened here, and they told me the news about our country. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened there. It was the usual of living a peaceful life and not caring about what was happening down on Earth. Yes, some witches could be cold like stone when it wasn’t something that concerned them or the White Land.
When Ritta heard about the Plant of Wishes and its flowers, she went to the garden, my mother following her. They were curious about the flowers.
I shared my plans for the Plant of Wishes. “When I planted it here, I knew I would have to move it to our land,” I said.
“What a great idea, my dear. That way no human can be harmed.” My mother agreed with me and asked, “When should we get them moved? We are taking both, right?”
“No, just one. I want one to stay here in case anything happens and... I think it likes it here.” I pointed at the plant all spread out in the garden. “I have put a cloaking spell on it so no human can see it.”
My mother looked amused. “All right then. We will do it next time. We just came back from there.”
“Hey, what’s that?” Ritta pointed at the flower Jonathan had given me on my windowsill.
Uh, oh. “It’s a moon flower,” I responded innocently.
“Thank you very much, I know it’s a moon flower. I meant where did you find it? They’re very rare.”
“Umm...” I slowly backed away toward the house. This was going to be bad. “Alec sent it to me when he confirmed he received the potion.”
Ritta looked at me suspiciously. “Really? And he said it was for you?”
Knowing what was coming next, my mother smiled and went inside the house. I knew Ritta was going to explode, and I looked for an escape route. “He might have mentioned that it was from Jonathan.”
“What?” Ritta yelled as I took off at a run for the house.
I ran up to my room and locked myself in. As I leaned my back against the door, my cat looked up at me. If she could talk, I knew she would say I told you so. That cat was way too smart for her own good.
Ritta knocked at my door. “I know you’re inside, so don’t try to hide from me.”
I sighed. “Who says I am hiding? The house has only three rooms and you guessed the correct one. You are lucky,” I said sarcastically.
“So, what did he tell you?” Ritta asked from behind the door.
“In the note? Nothing. Alec just said that it was from him. I am sure he doesn’t even know its meaning.” I doubted they taught botany at the palace, and if they did, it was certainly not to boys.
“What if he does?” Ritta insisted.
“I doubt he would send it to me while he was at war and he might not—” I put my hand in my mouth. I couldn’t think of that. I didn’t know if they had returned safely.
“Can you let me in so we can talk like normal—”
“Witches?” I said, opening the door.
“I was going to say people.”
That didn’t go so bad. Ritta came inside, sat on my bed, and started petting Midnight. “So... will you tell me what’s wrong?”
I raised my eyebrows.
“I can tell by the look on your face and your aura is kind of gray.”
I frowned. “I thought you couldn’t see my aura,” I said, confused.
“Well, I can’t, but if you are angry, it goes red, if you’re sad, gray, but other than that, I have no clue what its true color is.”
“Interesting. You never told me that.”
She shrugged. “Well... what could I have told you? You are sad, your aura is gray?” She had a point. “So, what’s wrong?”
I was preoccupied. “I don’t know if they survived. Maybe something happened.”
“I am guessing you are talking about Alec and your fiancé.”
My cheeks turned red. “He’s not my fiancé.” I jumped up and a window broke. Scared, my cat hid under the bed. You should never make a witch angry because her emotions might get the better of her magic.
“All right, your best friend then,” she said.
“An acquaintance,” I corrected her.
“Right. And why you didn’t go to the palace or ask someone? You know, since they are royals, everyone should know about them.”
If only it was that easy. “You forget something. I am a peasant girl. I can’t just go marching into the palace and demand an answer. I may have helped them, but that doesn’t mean anything. They will say a royal helped them—like they know anything about herbs. Ha! They only know about curtains and styles and what to wear to the next ball. We work hard. They know nothing.” Angry, I crossed my arms.
“I see you have a lot of hate against them. Your aura is the color of the burning sun.”
“Of course, I hate them. They’re ridiculous; they don’t see others as people, but as bugs—hardworking bugs that
do whatever they can to please them. I once heard someone saying they were gods who walked on Earth.”
Ritta rolled her eyes. “Do I need to know what happened to him?”
“A chandelier smashed him.”
She snorted. “I see, hate makes you creative.”
“I didn’t do anything. The chandelier was loose.”
She laughed. “Anyway, back to the issue. I am going to the palace tonight.”
I looked at her like she was nuts. “Are you crazy? Do you think it is the Sun Palace or a fair that you go in and out of whenever you want?”
The Sun Palace was her parents’ house, which made sense as her powers were connected to the sun. Although truth be told, she didn’t go home much because she didn’t get along with her parents very well. My mother and I were the only people she actually thought of as family.
Ritta smiled. “I am not very good at tracking, but I am very good at sneaking into places. I actually went in and out of the Forbidden House without anyone noticing.”
I raised my eyebrows. The Forbidden House was a jail for “special people among witches.” These special people among witches were witches who had lost their paths and done bad things or witches who had turned crazy because of their powers. It was kind of sad.
I considered her suggestion for a moment. If it was that easy for her to enter a highly guarded place like the Forbidden House—if you entered, you never left—an unguarded palace wouldn’t be much of a challenge.
“All right. But if we encounter any problem, you leave immediately. You hear me?”
She nodded. “Yeah, yeah, but you can’t come with me.”
“What? Why?” I wanted to go and find my answer immediately.
“You know why. One person alone has better chances of sneaking in than two, and it’s not that dangerous. I’ll just listen to their thoughts while concealed by an invisible spell.”
Yes, we could listen to people’s thoughts, but we didn’t usually do it except in cases like these because we thought it was rude. We believed it was invading your personal space or your privacy, but we did invade the thoughts of demons, if necessary. If you controlled someone’s thoughts, you could control him. You might ask if there was anything witches couldn’t do. There was very little we couldn’t do, and no, we were not gods or angels. We are here to ensure that demons wouldn’t be invading Earth, but we were not many, and fighting demons wasn’t easy. Many witches died fighting demons, so nothing was certain in a witch’s life.
I tried to not to worry when Ritta left for her mission. I lay down in my bed with my cat curled at my feet.
When I woke in the morning, Ritta’s mission was my first thought. I jumped out of bed and went straight to the kitchen.
“Your mother went to the market to buy some more food,” Ritta said and sipped her tea.
I looked at her and tried not to strangle her.
“What? I am making polite conversation. Isn’t what people do at this time?”
I gritted my teeth. “Yes, but I don’t think they make it when the situation is... strange.” I couldn’t bring myself to say critical. “Well?”
She didn’t seem willing to talk. Her expression changed. Her eyes were sad and she looked worried. That was definitely not a good sign.
“Alec is all right. Most of his injuries are healed, and nothing is broken as far as I know.”
I felt a little relieved since I knew Alec was alive, but I didn’t understand why she gave me such details. Telling me Alec was alive would have sufficed. I didn’t want her to file a report. Then I understood. She was preparing to deliver bad news or really bad news. I raised my eyes to meet hers. She was going to say that Jonathan was—
“Jonathan is alive.”
I looked at her surprised. Why didn’t she tell me that first?
“But he has some serious injuries. Their healers were there all the time, but I couldn’t understand what was wrong with him.”
“I see. So they don’t know what his injury is?”
She shook her head and her braids moved. “No, but I am sure they’ll find out soon.”
Nothing could be done but wait now. “Then I will be off to the shop after I get something to eat,” I said.
“Do you need help?”
“No, I will be fine.” I needed some time alone to process what I had heard. Jonathan was alive but seriously injured. He would be fine. Alec was fine. Until I arrived at the shop, I hadn’t realized what I had been doing all that time. I was thinking about Alec and Jonathan, but I thought more about Jonathan. I barely knew him, and he had just learned my name, but I was worried about him like he was my best friend or something more. What was wrong with me?
The day passed like a normal day until closing time. I closed later than usual because there were more people visiting my shop since those who had fled during the war had returned.
After I had locked the door, a voice stopped me.
“No, wait.” Wait a minute.
I knew that voice. I hadn’t heard it for a long time, but I knew it. I turned around and saw Alec running toward me with a worried look on his face. This couldn’t be good. Ritta was right about him. His injuries were mostly gone except there were red scars on his hands. I waited for him to come closer.
“What can I do for you this time?” I said in a formal tone. I shouldn’t be punishing him like that; it wasn’t his fault. It bothered me that he had been too busy to let me know they were all right, but he had been injured and taking care of his friend, and after all, they were royals and I was just some girl that his friend thought was interesting. Knowing what I did of royals, I thought he was only here now because he needed my help or herbs.
He stood before me and bowed. “I am sorry I didn’t let you know...”
Surprise crossed my face as I looked at him. I should have remembered Alec was not like the other royals. He cared about people.
“I am sorry I didn’t tell you. Your medicine was a miracle for us. You deserved better.”
I looked at his shameful expression. It was the first time I had seen this expression on his face, but I understood that he meant every word and also that he cared for me. He really thought of me as a friend even if I was just a peasant girl. I felt bad for thinking he didn’t care for me at all. “So, what happened?”
He shot me a questioning look. “What do you mean?”
Why else would he be here if he didn’t need my help? “How is your friend doing? What happened to him? Will he recover?”
“How do you know that he was injured?”
I smiled. “I have my ways. Come in and we can talk more.”
I took out paper and writing instrument so I could take notes as Alec shared what had happened to Jonathan. It helped me in difficult situations to write information down so I could analyze it better later.
“Jonathan was hurt in the battle, but they don’t know what it was. Until now we had hopes... until last night where his health deteriorated even worse than before.” Alec rubbed a hand over his face as he gave me the details of Jonathan’s condition.
“It sounds like a kind of poison, but I don’t know what kind. It can be a simple thing or it can be a very complicated thing.” Another poison? That was really odd. “Do you think you can find a cure?” He sounded very desperate.
“I will do whatever it takes, but I need something from you.”
He nodded. “Name it and it is yours.”
That was easy. “Can I see him?”
He looked at me strangely. “Why?”
“To see what effects there are from the poison.” Why else would I want to see him?
“Of course.”
I looked at him. “Of course?”
He shrugged. “Yes, why not?”
“I can list a million reasons why not. First, I am a peasant girl, and they won’t let me in just like that.”
He smiled. “Sure they will. You saved them so they owe you, and second, you’re with me.”
So Alec was
my way in? “All right. I’ll pack my stuff and find you at the entrance. Oh, and one more thing: why was the pigeon pierced by an arrow?”
Alec raised his eyebrows. “Well, I guess it didn’t go unnoticed by the enemy. Thank you, Eva.” He stood, bowed and left.
I watched him go and then I collected what I thought I might need while I was there. The truth was that the thought of seeing Jonathan terrified me. I didn’t know if I could just stand there, and examine him while he lay there sick and injured, but I had promised Alec I would do whatever it took, and that was exactly what I was going to do. I sent a message to my mother with the trees saying I was going to be late and left to meet Alec.
When we couldn’t send messages with magic, we could send messages using nature and animals. The trees were the most reliable, but other creatures were all right too if you didn’t have another option. When using animals, you had to pray they delivered the message first and thought about food later.
When I arrived at the palace’s entrance Alec was already there waiting in front of the gates. He saw me and his face relaxed a little. He must really care about his friend. Alec greeted me and took me on the path that passed through the gardens, which were quite impressive, but I hadn’t time to admire them. I was on an important mission, and I couldn’t let other things distract me. We mounted the stairs and I was feeling more nervous since I hadn’t set foot on royal grounds since the ball. I had kept my distances from rich people because I knew better than to mess with dangerous people like them. I’d heard rumors that some would kill you just because you talked to them first.
Once we entered the palace, Alec seemed a little tense. The guards looked at me strangely, but nobody stopped us. The palace was darker now than it had been for the ball. We passed several doors and stopped outside a door with several guards in front of it. At least they were taking good care of him and ensuring he was safe.
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