So…this was supposed to be about a page and a half AT MOST, but then I really got into it and…congratulations, you have a full-length chapter to read! I promise the next update will be the epilogue (which will only be a few paragraphs, but still.)
Also, I know this is terrible to say, but please excuse any mistakes! I REALLY wanted to post this tonight, but could only comb through the chapters once! Again, sorry, but if you catch anything then please write tell me in a review and I'll be sure to fix it! Thank you!
Chapter Nine:
Ripples
The Harvest Sprites skipped across the pond, creating ripples with their steps. Their mistress suppressed a giggle with a hand to her lips. "I see you have returned in fine spirits, my pets." The sprites danced around her before frolicking back to the relics of the temple where they often played.
The Harvest Goddess lifted her head. The white platter of the moon's reflection in the water lay beneath her feet, an actualization of Aphrodite rising on a seashell. "And you?" She smiled." I trust your quest succeeded?"
"Yes. Your plan worked better than I had hoped." Molly returned the smile, only for the goddess' to fall. Her fathomless eyes seemed to search the depths of Molly's. The farmer wondered how far down the goddess could see.
Enough for her lips to purse in disappointment. "And yet sadness still lingers. Has your heart not been returned to you?"
"My heart—?" Molly shook her head when the meaning of the words registered. "Luke is fine. Owen and Bo took him to the clinic to make sure there weren't any side effects from the witch's spell. He made up some crazy story about army ants attacking or something so his dad wouldn't worry. He'll be spending time with him tonight to make sure he doesn't get suspicious since Luke was gone all day."
"I am sure his father would be grateful for the company. Too high is his pride to admit the many nights he spends alone, staring at a picture of what can no longer be and forgetting what can." The Harvest Goddess waved a hand, brushing away the subject. "But enough of that. What became of Witch Princess?"
Molly's hand tightened in her lap. She sighed and called over her shoulder. "It's time, Wizard."
Slowly the fortuneteller emerged from the shadows of the temple's entrance. He was wearing his usual indifferent expression, but this time the mask had cracks, and Molly caught anxiety slipping through. Since Molly had seen him at the rescue, she thought that something was different about him, more than the newfound fluency of his speech. Like something inside of him was melting.
He lowered his hood and bowed deeply with one hand in front of him and the other behind. "Your Holiness."
The goddess nodded respectfully. She must have seen through the cracks in his facade as well. When she raised her head and saw that his was still inclined, she folded her hands in front of her. "Your humbleness is appreciated, but your humility is unneeded. I have learned long ago the foolishness in pinning the sins of the father onto the son." Her eyes danced with mischief. "Especially when the father is so near."
Molly was cut off from asking if she was missing something when a dark cloud rumbling with thunder appeared in the sky overhead that had been clear seconds ago. The Harvest Goddess smiled when they looked up uneasily. "Oh, don't mind him. My husband can be a bit cranky at times." Another rumble. She ignored it and beckoned to Wizard.
"Come."
He rose and levitated towards them, the soles of his feet grazing grass. Coming into sight from behind him was Witch Princess, supine and slumbering as she floated a few feet in the air. Wizard stood to the left of Molly, folding his hands behind his back. The witch came to hover in the gap he had left between him and Molly. She gulped. The witch lay so still it was difficult to remember that she was unconscious rather than dead. The Harvest Goddess beckoned again, and the witch's body drifted to her, hovering over the water. The deity gazed down at her sleeping face. "Tut-tut, so much wasted potential," she murmured, caressing the back of her hand against the witch's cheek.
"What will you do with her?" Molly blurted out. She bit her lip. What happened to the witch was of no concern to her. She deserved whatever she got, Molly thought, pushing away the twinge of her worry in her chest.
"She has broken one of our most sacred laws," the Harvest Goddess declared. "She used her powers to threaten lives that are already far too fragile. Her punishment must be severe."
"Show mercy, Your Holiness."
Molly caught the flash of shock on Wizard's face before he managed to recompose it back into its detached mask. Only the goddess seemed unsurprised. "You esteem her worthy of it?"
Wizard hesitated. Then he said in a steady, matter-of-fact tone, "Witch Princess has made many unwise decisions, the most recent one being her choice to jeopardize myself, the carpenter Luke, and all those she involved thereafter. She struck out, in a mad fury against the world. And yet…in a way…I understand."
Molly gaped, confounded. "You do?"
Wizard met her eyes and nodded. Turning back to the goddess, he said, "While Your Holiness' discrimination of Magicians has lifted the same could not be said for many humans. We have been shunned and forced into hiding at the slightest suspicion of abnormality. Scars like these do not fade so quickly in the minds of the eternal."
The goddess' brow furrowed in the first mark of sternness. "You believe the witch was justified in her retaliation?"
"No," Wizard affirmed. "Hate only breeds hate, and violence more violence. The liability for her actions is hers alone. This I do not refute. However, I have studied how a human mind will unhinge after enough time without social interaction. A magician living in isolation, whether he or she is full or half blooded, would have an exponentially longer amount of time than a human to become crazed. For longer than I have walked this earth the Witch Princess has lived isolated, which has slowly driven her mad.
Desperate for some interaction, she leeched onto Molly after they first met, and continued to do so during their visits. When Molly met me, a fellow magician, the witch became jealous and perceived me as competition for the one maintaining her sanity. It is the reason she held me captive, as well as Luke after he entered a relationship with Molly. Witch Princess' craving for attention had blinded her to the inevitable repercussion when Molly learned of the witch's crimes and chose Luke over her.
As evident by Witch Princess' erratic behavior during the rescue, this revelation was the final straw to her derangement."
"I did this?" Molly asked, feeling aghast.
Wizard shook his head. "With or without you it was only a matter of time before her mind snapped."
She shook her head. "It sounds like you're giving her an insanity defense."
"Not giving," he corrected, but without the clipped tone he usually used. "Simply drawing attention to a factor that should be taken into account. It just as easily could have been me whose mind slowly unraveled, if I had not decided to study the humans of Harmonica Town in their natural habitat."
"Luke's right. You really should stop putting humans and natural habitat in the same sentence," Molly remarked with a teasing smile. Then her brow furrowed. "Earlier you said that Magicians are discriminated by many humans. You never said all of us."
"So I did." The corner of his lip twitched. "Unlike Witch Princess, who had isolated herself from all outside contact, I have lived amongst humans for some time now. Perhaps it is my mother's blood to blame for my penchant of observing humans, albeit from afar, but I have noticed changes in them too subtle for anyone besides one present for decades to perceive. They have become kinder, more open-minded than they were in my early years. The humans I have met recently are not so quick to judge even that they do not fully understand. I have witnessed this more now than ever." He glanced at Molly from the corner of his eyes, and she knew he was thinking of Luke, Owen, and their cousins. "This evidence supports the possibility that perhaps humans have matured enough to acknowledge our kind. Not everywhere or in every heart, but enough that Magicians may know another option other than living in solitudes does exist.
Wizard's eyes fell on Witch Princess for the first time since he arrived at the shrine. Moon rays made her ivory skin glimmer while sleep smoothed out the harshness that normally hardened her face. She looked like a princess in a fairytale, waiting to be awoken by her true love. Except she was loved by no one.
"A life of immortality…" he whispered with a wistful expression, "…leaves ample space for improvement."
"And mistakes," Molly warned.
"Indeed… Is it a chance worth taking?" he murmured half to himself.
"What do you suggest, magician?" The Harvest Goddess inquired.
Wizard dragged his gaze away from the witch to meet hers. "Wash away her past, the stains of her rage and madness, and let her begin anew in another land."
"And what of her magic? I cannot unleash one with immeasurable power and no knowledge of how to control it."
"Repress it. Allow her magic and the knowledge of how to use it only return once she had done enough good to be worthy of the responsibility. Perhaps she will appreciate humans more if she begins life with no more magic than one.
For a moment the Harvest Goddess said nothing, weighing the proposition in her mind. Then she turned to Molly. "You have been unusually silent, my dear. What say you?"
Molly hesitated. Were they really placing the witch's fate in her hands? Her blood still boiled when she thought of Luke almost dying in her arms. She wouldn't think twice about showing Witch Princess what she could do with an axe if she so much as looked at him.
Despite it all, she still felt the sympathy that had allured her to the witch in the first place. She remembered the ache in her heart when she first met her, all fire and smoke to cover up the fact she had an eternal life with no one to share it with. Molly could still remember all too well the loneliness that seemed to swallow her up after her parents died and she was forced to move away from all she had known. It wasn't until she had met Luke—or, more precisely, until Luke was caught practically stalking her—when things began to change. She smiled at the memory of strong arms shielding her from the sorrow and warm whispers promising her that she'd never have to be alone again. She had found other open arms to both support and lean into through Owen, Chloe, Bo and Kathy. All of them had given her a new life, a second chance.
But would she really help the witch have the same? After all she had done, not just to her and Luke, but to everyone else they cared about? She wished Luke were here now. He was the one who had been hurt the most.
On their way back to town she had told him everything: what happened after he was kidnapped, her relationship with both Wizard and Witch Princess, and how she had recruited the Harvest Goddess' help to rescue him. With the amount of questions he had asked and the time it took for him to share his own half of the story, it wasn't until they were at the clinic when she offered him the last truth: she and Wizard would be taking the witch to the Harvest Goddess' shrine for judgment. He was surprisingly quiet as his eyes bored holes into the hospital cot he was perched on. His face was an open book as always, but what she read confused her more than ever. There wasn't hate or revenge or even satisfaction but…pity.
"I thought I'd feel better that I'm getting payback, like people do in videogames, but I don't." He shrugged, giving a halfhearted smile. "I guess I'm not so good at revenge, huh?"
Right then she wanted to kiss him.
Molly looked down at the pond, still unsure. Just then the tips of the witch's hair grazed the water and sent a ripple across its surface.
"I was given a second chance. Seems like as good a time as any to return the favor."
The Harvest Goddess' expression turned grave. "The crimes she has committed are punishable by death. Dura lex, sed lex."
Wizard and Molly froze, unable to look away from the witch who looked already drained of life. Then the deity smiled softly, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "Then again, I am a goddess."
She placed her hands over the witch. She lowered them slowly, and Witch Princess sunk in accordance until her body was submerged in the water. Wizard placed a hand on Molly's shoulder when she gasped and lurched forward. "She will not drown."
Mist streamed from the goddess' palms and poured into the water. Circling around the witch, the ribbons of mist smoothed her short outfit into a flowing white gown that left her shoulders bare. A wave of the goddess' hand, and a cloud pillowed the witch's head. Her silvery hair softened to cascade in gentle curls down her back.
Witch Princess gasped, a cluster of bubbles wobbling to the surface. Her eyes shot open, two miniature fires underwater. The fiery colors were doused when threads of mist swirled into them, dampening and transmuting their color. Her body relaxed. When her eyelids fluttered shut the irises were a blue as pale as crystal. She floated to the surface.
"It is done," Harvest Goddess announced. "All ties to her past has been cut. The woman before you has no recollection of Witch Princess. She is free to start anew."
Wizard inclined his head. "Thank you. Few are fortunate enough to have such a chance."
Words of gratitude or of any other kind were caught in Molly's throat. Her eyes were fixed at the person who was first her friend and later her foe. Now she was a stranger, as ethereal and unreachable as the Lady of Shallot. Her stomach churned in a mixture of horror and relief. Suddenly the mist that had been undulating underwater rose up, shrouding the reborn witch.
"Wh-what's happening to her?" Molly stammered, finding her voice. She reached out and would've fallen into the pond if Wizard hadn't pulled her back by the shirt.
"I am sending her to another land," the goddess answered as the mist and the woman slowly dissipated as one. "Someplace where people's hearts are open and she can learn as much from them as they from her."
Wizard waved his hand and white roses appeared woven in the slumbering woman's silver hair. "Ave atque vale."
"Hail and farewell," Molly translated.
He blinked, looking very similar to an owl with his widened luminescent eyes. "You are familiar with Catullus?"
"No, but I am familiar with The Mortal Instruments.(*)"
He blinked and Molly sighed, this time patting him on the back. "Remind me to never lend you any of Chloe's books."
She could've sworn his cheeks were a dark red as he fussed with his coat. As it became harder to distinguish mist from woman, Molly combed a way to say goodbye. But what was the point when the person was already gone?
"Good luck…wherever you go," Molly settled on as the last of the particles were blown away with a flap of the Harvest Goddess' wings.
Wizard placed a hand over his chest in salute, bowing low to the Harvest Goddess. "If you are ever in need, I am at your disposable, my lady"
The goddess curtsied, her wings flapping open like a butterfly's. "And if you are ever in need, my shrine shall be open."
Wizard smiled. Such a small change, just a curl of the lips, and yet it breathed life into a face that had been a statue for more years than Molly could count. She thought he would look rather handsome if he only smiled more. "Thank you. I believe I will be conducting further research on the changes in humans of this time period. Perhaps my assimilation will yield more in-depth results."
"Then I wish you good fortune for your new lifestyle."
Wizard nodded to Molly before lifting his hood. Suddenly a tornado rushed around him. It lasted only a moment, but long enough to tangle Molly's hair into a mess that would make Finn drop like a fly at the sight of it. "Show off. " She kicked the grass where Wizard had stood seconds ago. She turned around and waved over her shoulder. "Thanks. See you later, goddess."
She had taken only three steps before a delicate "ahem" made her turn around again.
The Harvest Goddess had shifted her formal stance and was sitting on thin air with her legs crossed and a finger tapping her chin, one eyebrow arched almost saucily. "I thought you would have learned by now how fruitless it is to keep secrets from a goddess. What else troubles you, my darling?"
Molly frowned and crossed her arms, knowing it would be useless to protest. "You always knew I was an Earthmate, didn't you?"
"I did."
"And you didn't think I should know?"
The second eyebrow followed the first. "If I had told you, would you have credited your achievements from your own resourcefulness or your supernatural ability?"
Molly thought the goddess looked a little too much like her mother had when she asked a question she already knew the answer to but wanted her to figure it out for herself. Just like she would have with her mother, Molly tried to guess the lesson she was being taught, mulling over the goddess' words again.
Ever since saving Luke she had been trying not to think about her newfound powers and how they would change her life. Perhaps the Harvest Goddess or Wizard could teach her how to use her gifts. Would that mean she had to keep her powers a secret and go into hiding like them? No, Wizard had just said, albeit in his cryptic way, that he no longer needed to isolate himself from the villagers. After all, Luke already knew. So did Owen, Chloe, and Bo. To them she was still just Molly, the woman who had enough spunk to go up against a carpenter in a lumber competition and the courage to rescue her friends from a mad witch. She may have some magic of her own, but it must be subtler than not if it was only unmistakable in a life-and-death situation. In the end she was still Molly, and that was all that mattered.
"You're saying I don't need magic to succeed." The farmer smirked, proud that she had unraveled the goddess' teachings.
The Harvest Goddess smiled in approval. She batted her wings, spraying Molly's skin with a cool mist and the scent of the ocean.
"Witch Princess had always depended on her magic and Wizard his knowledge. This dependency acted as their crutch. Their battle would have raged on until both had succumbed to exhaustion, for while neither would admit it, their powers were evenly matched. What had tipped the scales were their spirits. While Witch Princess had lost her humanity, you and your friends reminded Wizard of his, as his behavior tonight has shown us. The kindness he has been shown has given him a reason to hope again. That is the difference.
I chose you to save my home and my people because I know how strong, how compassionate you are, Molly. Not because of any supernatural powers."
"That coming from a goddess." Molly shook her head and laughed. The rejuvenating breaths of cool night air that filled her lungs made her skin tingle. She looked up at the tapestry of stars and the luminous moon above her, linking her to Luke and Wizard and even Witch Princess' reincarnation, wherever her new life had begun. A wave of certainty washed over her. She couldn't remember the last time she felt so at peace. She didn't know if it was from the Harvest Goddess' presence or being in her holy place or something else entirely, but she knew that if she and Luke had withstood every challenge they had faced so far, both apart and together, then they could handle whatever else came their way.
"Thank you," she breathed, looking back at the goddess. "For everything."
The Harvest Goddess rose. "You are a remarkable woman, my champion. I look forward to seeing your future accomplishments. 'Till then…" Her form slowly faded away like the mist at sunrise until the only thing left was a whisper as gentle as breeze. "…Cherish the happiness you have earned."
Extra points go to whoever guesses Witch Princess' new identity! Here's a hint: think of Rune Factory…
(*) The Mortal Instruments, a series by Cassandra Clare. The latin phrases in this chapter are real, but these books I used as a reference. No laughing allowed, people!