Masks of Love and War
He thought of that girl with glasses and could only imagine she was one of them. A syphara.
Hunter's eyes fluttered open as he emerged from the depths of a dreamed memory. He grunted as a headache flared and he sat up to press his fingers against his forehead, relaxing as the ache slowly settled down. He sighed heavily, and Lil Rascal fluttered down from on top of one Hunter's bookshelves to tweet a question.
"Another dream about her," Hunter said.
Hunter thought over that encounter from so long ago, the details worn down by time, and wondered why his subconscious was reminding him of it now of all times. Now was not a time to be distracted!
Syphara …
With that, Hunter's thoughts turned from that mysterious, powerful little girl to his wonderful, powerful girlfriend. A girl who's greatest wish was to protect those she loved. A real syphara if there ever was one. He swung his legs over the bedside and stood to pad over to his window, pushing it open to gaze over the castle grounds beyond the pit. Mist wafted over the distant ground in soft curls and wisps, and watching it helped ease Hunter's mind.
After a while, he shook himself out of his introspective mood and began dressing in his uniform to begin his rounds for the day. Belos had ordered that he remain close to the castle for a few days to ensure everything was running smoothly before he took any more outside assignments. It seemed he had been trying to get out of the castle a little too much in these last two weeks.
As he fastened his cloak and settled his mask into place, Lil Rascal flitting down from his nest hidden in the rafters to tuck himself under the fold of his cape, Hunter idly wondered how normal people started the day.
Willow grunted as she hauled herself up, sweat beading her brow and running down the sides of her face. "And … twenty," she grunted, dropping herself from an indoor pull-up bar to land heavily on the floor of her room. She bent over and gulped air into her lungs before she looked at her beloved palisman, Clover. "That was twenty, right?" she asked.
Clover trilled in confirmation, her eyes twinkling. Willow sighed in relief and moved on to her next exercise. She lifted herself on her toes and fell forward to catch herself on her hands and begin a rapid series of push-ups, the burning in her arms pushing her on with zeal.
As she went through the familiar motions, Willow thought over the last two weeks — technically sixteen days — since she had been presented to Emperor Belos and the major coven heads as Lady Feronia's apprentice and eventual successor: publicly called the Silver Belle. The day after her presentation to the court, Lady Feronia had arranged the Silver Belle's public unveiling, and the response of the crowd had been … strange to think about.
At first, people didn't seem to know what to think. For those who were familiar with Lady Feronia — particularly the Plant Coven as a whole — the idea that the elderly coven head would appoint a successor at all was difficult to wrap their heads around. In fifty years, the Plant Coven had only had a single head witch, and that had been "Lady" Feronia Romai. Granted, there had been rumors every few years that she would retire and appoint a successor, but they had never panned out.
Until now.
After a while of stunned near-silence, voices had quickly started to raise. Some had seemed thrilled at the clear succession, some had seemed confused or even angry at a teenager being chosen as their future leader, while the rest just seemed eager to celebrate anything at all.
Willow strained to finish her set, a complete thirty, before she flipped over and onto her back to begin sit-ups. Then she thought of her commencement speech, how long she had labored over it beforehand with Feronia's aid and even a night of Hunter's critique via scroll messages. One particular line came to mind.
"I may seem young," she had said, "but time changes all things. Time is a teacher, too, a provider of experience. Lady Feronia has learned more from time than any of us, and under her tutelage — and that of time — I vow to grow into what the Titan wills us all to be: strong, wise, and powerful." She'd traced spell circles and conjured a swath of trees, some immobile and some conscious, as a demonstration of growth. Feronia had worked with her for days to get that meaneuver down.
In hindsight, it had gone over fairly well. And in the days since, the Plant Coven had been pushing her image alongside Lady Feronia's nearly as much as the Emperor's Coven had pushed the Golden Guard after Lilith's defection. She'd also made a handful of public appearances since, from boosting local farms to growing and delivering flowers to the sick at several infirmaries and Healing Coven outposts.
Willow finished her set and lay back for a moment to cool down. She swallowed as she thought even further back to her time between accepting Feronia's offer and her debut. The word "brutal" came to mind, but didn't seem to cover it. Not to say that her new mentor was cruel, per se, but she certainly didn't coddle, either. For the in-between weeks, she pushed Willow to the very edge of her breaking point each and every day.
Evidently, she had been doing so in particular to push Willow's instinctual use of wild magic, or "tapping the Well," as she called it. Willow had been hammered for hours straight with practice duel after practice duel with half a dozen at once of Feronia's most trusted staff, all while being quizzed on flora by the head witch herself, and the cumulative stress during these "sessions" had brought out the wild magic as she tapped into the power of the Titan to compensate.
Every time she had begun, though, Feronia had been there with her walking cane to crack her over the head and banish the raw magic before it could manifest. Just as she had warned when Willow accepted her apprenticeship. Willow rubbed her head in phantom pains from those times. Suffice to say, she had learned very quickly to recognize when her power was rearing and how to ease it back down.
After two weeks of running Willow ragged, Feronia had brought her to her office instead of the coven house's sprawling garden. Willow had found her with her back to the door, looking out the large windows behind her desk. Willow, now used to some of Feronia's quirks, had taken a seat to wait. After a few minutes, the head witch had shaken herself and turned to address Willow, explaining that she felt Willow was ready to be announced to Belos's court.
"So soon?" Willow had asked.
"No time like the present, Dear," she had replied. Then she'd offered a small, sly smile. "Besides, I would think you would be eager to see your little flame again?" Willow blushed at the thought of Hunter as she rolled to her knees and padded to the rack of hand weights she kept in her room. Taking up one for bicep curls, she continued to reminisce.
"Alright, I trust you," she'd said.
Feronia had nodded before the smile faded from her lips. "Then you should be warned that the Emperor will no doubt have you tested." She'd tightened her lips as if biting into something sour. "And he will certainly use the Golden Guard to do it. With a surprise duel." Willow recalled gasping in shock before steeling herself and nodding. Then Feronia had opened a drawer and presented her with her new uniform.
"With the Golden Guard as a baseline, I had the tailors make this for you. To keep your true self a secret from the public."
Willow huffed out a breath as she finished the sets for both arms and replaced the weights. She sighed and grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat from her brow, then opened a drawer on her bedside table. Inside, neatly pressed and folded, lay an arrangement of her Silver Belle guise — a green dress with a pleated skirt and leather apron, leather elbow-length gloves and knee-high boots, a black choker for her neck, a net of pearls to conceal her hair … and her distinctive silver mask. She took the bundle of clothes and made her way to the bathroom to shower and dress before heading to the coven house, Clover perched on her shoulder.
"Same song, different verse," she said to herself with a faint smile.
A sharp crack of thunder split the air, as did a lance of purple fire that decimated a training dummy in an out-of-the-way practice field within the castle grounds. The source of the spell was Kikimora, assistant to the Emperor, who huffed and puffed not with fatigue, but with crackling fury.
Had one seen the training dummy before she had rent it asunder, they would have seen that it was painted to resemble the mask of the Golden Guard.
"Golden Guard," Kikimora hissed. She primed another spell circle and sent another bolt of magic lashing out at a second, undecorated training dummy that she only imagined was that arrogant brat. The one who had been behind every setback in recent weeks to ingratiate herself to Emperor Belos.
When Lilith had shown her true colors and turned traitor to protect her sister, the Owl Lady, Kikimora had all but sung for joy. Granted, Lilith had reeked of failure from the start of her assignment to bring in the Owl Lady, so Kikimora had been fine with needling her and undermining her efforts wherever she could. She had taken pleasure in doing so. And then she had turned her back on the Emperor, and it had seemed Kikimora would finally rise to the position beside Belos, as was right.
But that little rat had slipped in and taken the top spot beside the Emperor instead. In the five years since the child had been brought to the castle, Kikimora had smelled favoritism upon him just as she had sensed failure from Lilith. The boy was armed by Belos himself with a unique staff that the Emperor himself had built and trained with their best fighters and tacticians for whatever Belos felt was coming. It was maddening!
Kikimora hissed and traced a much larger circle, one that fired off a half dozen bolts that spread out and then converged onto another dummy to blitz it from all angles. She huffed in satisfaction as her thoughts continued to turn.
That mission to collect palismen had seemed an excellent opportunity to earn Belos's favor and to rid herself of a tricky obstacle in one fell swoop, but things hadn't gone as intended. Somehow, the Golden Guard had escaped the appetite of her Metakarion — her beloved hand-dragon that had gone missing during the mission, another fault of the blasted Golden Guard — and had somehow both thwarted her attempt to bring in the palismen while also losing them to a third party.
That thought made Kikimora's blood boil even further, and the fingers of her bangs rose with her ire to trace their own circle that tore lightning from the skies to bombard the training ground in a hail of destruction!
When it was done, Kikimora gasped and fell to her knees as a wave of fatigue crashed over her. She panted for several breaths as she adjusted to losing such a large portion of her magic bile from a single spell, viciously berating herself for letting her emotions control her. What if the Golden Guard stumbled upon her like this and decided to stomp on her, like he had after that summons during his Hexside mission? Or worse, if he sneered at her from behind that foolish mask and simply left her alone as if she were beneath his notice … Maybe she should try and take care of him aga-
Kikimora gasped as her side flared with pain at the thought of the last time she had tried her hand at scheming directly against the Golden Guard. She clutched at her ribs and groaned as the wound seemed to burn before the pain subsided again.
After her attempt to undermine the Golden Guard's mission at Hexside, when Lady Feronia had supplanted her spy, Emperor Belos had been … unamused. By which she meant he had beaten her to within an inch of her life, finishing up with impaling her on a spike that had inflicted this very wound. He'd summoned the healers and had her fixed up as quickly as possible — Titan bless the Emperor — but his opinion on that particular scheme had been clear as crystal.
At the same time, her efforts to undermine the coven's high regard for the Golden Guard had been even less fruitful. She'd worked for weeks to sow just the barest hint to the resentment and bitterness she felt for the snide prodigy among the coven scouts and guards, and she'd seemed to be making headway. But then the Golden Guard had finished his mission with that little tart and returned in triumph to solidify his esteem among the ranks of the Emperor's Coven. As if her efforts had meant nothing!
Kikimora stood shakily to her feet and tried to center herself, to drain away the rage and resentment and to think. There had to be a way to get back into Belos's good graces! But how …?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the approach of one of the coven captains, the woman's tusked helmet indicating her subservience to Kikimora herself. At least that good had come from her efforts.
"Yes, Captain, what is it?" she asked, her tiredness impacting her patience and therefore her courtesy.
"My apologies, Kikimora, but the Emperor has summoned you to the throne room."
Kikimora blinked in shock before schooling her features into cool neutrality. "Thank you, Captain. Be on your way." The captain saluted and left, and Kikimora began her walk back into the castle. Belos wanted her? Why?
Lovers of the green and growing … Join the Plant Coven today!
Gus drummed his fingers as he stared at a poster of the Silver Belle — of Willow — encouraging people to join the Plant Coven. He pressed his lips into a thin line as his fear for his friend began to rise in his guts. Seeing that silver mask that he knew hid his oldest friend's face plastered on posters to encourage the coven system … it made him feel as if he'd failed her.
"Yo, Gus," Mattholomule prodded, snapping his fingers in front of his face. "Anyone in there?"
"Huh?" Gus flinched and shook his head. "Uh, yeah. Sorry about that, 'Mule," he said, rubbing his eyes. "What were we talking about?"
"Well, we were trying to figure out what this human do-dad is," Matt said, holding up something that looked kind of like a crystal ball stuck on a training wand, with part of it in the center of the orb — which Luz had reportedly said would "blow their minds" if they figured it out, "but it looks like you've got bigger things to worry about, eh?"
Gus smiled self-depreciatingly and rubbed his neck. "Yeah, I've just got a lot on my mind, you know?"
"You mean besides fortifying the graveyard or figuring out new stuff for the HAS?" Matt said, with just a little disbelief. "What could be more important than that?" Matt narrowed his eyes and turned his head to gauge Gus's line of sight, only to find the poster of the Silver Belle. A grin spread across Matt's face as he glanced back at Gus. "Aha, now I get it," he said wolfishly.
"Get what?" Gus asked blankly.
"I was starting to wonder if witch puberty had just been an illusion," Matt snarked. "But I guess that's actual proof."
"What proof?" Gus asked impatiently.
Matt twitched his head in the direction of the poster. "Getting warm fuzzies from the new face of the Plant Coven, huh? A little celebrity crush?" He laughed. "I mean, no judgment," he said, raising his palms outward, "I can see why. I mean that girl in the posters, with her-" he moved his hands in a downward hourglass motion, "-whew, I can totally see-"
Matt's little speech was cut off when he was yanked off his feet, Gus holding him by the front of his shirt and glaring hard. "Shut. Up. Matt," Gus said, his voice harder than steel. Then he let go of Matt's shirt so that he could collapse back to the bench they had been sitting on and stare with wide eyes at Gus, who released a pent up breath and collapsed onto the bench as well. "Sorry," he said.
"Uh, sure," Matt said, still a little dazed. Then his eyes narrowed as he thought over Gus's reaction. That had not been the reaction of a celebrity crush. Before Matt could go down that jackalope hole any further, Gus's chameleon palisman Shimmer faded into sight with a squeak and rubbed against Gus's head to offer comfort, careful of its horns.
"Yeah, thanks, girl," Gus said, scratching the back of Shimmer's neck, "you always know what to do."
"Hey, uh, Gus?" Matt asked. Gus looked at Matt with curiosity. "What was it like? Y'know, bonding with a palisman?"
Gus blinked in surprise at the question before a thought occurred to him and he smiled. "I'm guessing you're in the next group to have the Bat Queen visit?" he asked. "What? Scared you won't find a match?"
Matt scoffed and looked away, but the color in his cheeks showed Gus's jab was on the mark. "I've heard rumors that you have to say what you want in life," Matt explained. "And I'm not really sure what that is for me yet, you know?"
Gus hummed in thought and picked Shimmer up off his shoulder to sit on his wrist, the palisman's tail curling around his arm. "Well, it was kind of a surprise for us," he said. He glanced up at the Silver Belle poster again before continuing. "Willow was right at the front saying she wanted to protect the people she loves." Gus smiled at the memory, proud of how far his dear friend had grown. "That's kind of general, but it got the point across. Viney said what she wants to do for a living," Gus noted. "Heck, Pall Piton just said he wanted to make it to graduation."
"The spike-headed guy in the Abomination track?" Matt asked, and Gus nodded. "Seriously, that's all he wants?"
"And apparently it's enough to bond to a palisman who can relate," Gus noted. "Just relax, Matt. I mean, when are you scheduled to have your adoption day?"
"Next week," Matt replied.
"Then you've got time to think it over," Gus said encouragingly. "You'll be fine, Matt. I promise."
Matt scoffed. "Yeah, I knew you'd get soft on me, Squirt," he said, crossing his arms with a grin.
"Guess that's what I get for helping a jerk," Gus fired back. And they laughed together over it.
"-And step right, and step back, and step left, and-" Amity grunted as Luz got ahead of herself and stepped on her toes. Again. She'd been trying to teach Luz to dance, having read that dates involving exercise or physical activity drew partners closer.
"Whoops," Luz said with a cringe. "Sorry, Amity." She bit her lip and stepped away from her girlfriend with a sheepish smile. "Maybe we should take a break?"
"Yeah, sounds good," Amity groaned, though her grin softened it. They settled down beside the Grom tree, where they'd earlier laid out a picnic blanket and sandwiches. Amity and Luz settled for the food and ate in companionable silence, trading glances and blushing all the while. They inched closer and closer as they ate until they were cuddled up against the Grom tree, Amity's head leaned on Luz's shoulder and Luz's head on Amity's as their hands were clasped and their fingers woven, and they gazed together out over the Boiling Sea under the early afternoon sun.
"Luz?" Amity asked. The human hummed in reply, still looking out over the cliff with half-lidded eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Wrong?" Luz asked in surprise. She turned her head to Amity. "What do you mean?"
"I mean you're more distracted than usual," Amity said, her frown soft and her eyes sharp. "I've gotten used to your attention span like a larval fairy, but this is different." She raised a sculpted eyebrow and separated just a bit from Luz so they were no longer cuddling but still close, their fingers still woven. "So? What's wrong?"
Luz blushed and smiled bashfully. "You're amazing, you know that?"
"Well, thank you," Amity said with a faint smile, "but I'm still listening."
Luz's smile dropped and she looked up at the Grom tree. The sight of it made Luz's insides feel all warm and tingly. It had been her magic intertwined with Amity's that had brought this tree into being, life brought forth from their desire to protect each other from Grometheus the Fear-Bringer. Amity had been honest with Luz some time ago about it being her name on that note that Grom had torn. Her, Luz Noceda — average teen and wannabe witch — whom Amity had been so scared to ask out for fear of rejection. It was her that was cuddled up with this amazing witch that had broken free of the thawed shell of ice that both protected and imprisoned her.
But in the weeks since Grom night, someone else had taken up the day-to-day care of this magnificent tree.
"I'm worried about Willow," Luz admitted.
Amity blinked and her mouth fell into a faint 'O' of realization. She nodded solemnly. "Yeah, me too."
"Really?" Luz asked.
Amity's brows arched with sudden ire, like a cat's back arching. "What's that mean?" she asked sharply.
"Oh, not like that," Luz said quickly, waving her hands in front of her as she verbally backtracked. "I meant, well … when she told us her plan, you were the one who stuck up for her."
Amity's temper cooled and she looked away. "Yes, I was," she said. "I have faith in Willow, and I do think she can keep her cover." She lifted her knees to her chest and wrapped them with the arm that wasn't holding Luz's hand. "But that doesn't mean I'm not worried for her." She paused and bit her lip. "Or that I don't wish I could've done it in her place."
"In her place?" Luz asked.
"I've spent my whole life living behind a mask," Amity said. "At home and at school, I've always been able to hide what I'm feeling. And as competent as Willow is, she doesn't have that experience yet." She sighed heavily. "I just wish I could take that burden from her."
"I don't think she would want you to," Luz said, squeezing Amity's hand in support. "It's like you said, you've been hiding your real self away all this time. And even if you two have only recently begun patching things up, your friendship has grown so much since then." Luz smiled warmly. "True, you probably won't have what you had before. But I'd say what you two are getting back now is pretty great."
Amity smiled back. "And? There sounds like there's more to it."
"And Willow did what she did for Hunter," Luz added. "She wouldn't change a thing."
Amity's lips twisted into a thoughtful frown. Hunter … The Golden Guard. Her eyebrows creased as she considered the sarcastic dork that was so obviously head-over-heels for her childhood friend. The friend that was just as smitten with him. "I still wish there was more we could do."
"It's like King said," Luz assured, smiling fondly at how much the diminutive demon had grown as a person in recent weeks, "all we can do is trust in her. And in Hunter." Luz's smile faltered. "Yes, they're in danger. But they'll support each other, just like we will support them."
"And that's enough for you?" Amity asked.
"It is now," Luz said firmly, her smile set and determined. "Because I know how they feel." She leaned in and kissed Amity's cheek. "We'd do the same if the roles were switched."
"You dork," Amity giggled, lightly pushing Luz away. But not too far.
"But I'm your dork, Blight!" Luz said, finally launching herself to tickle Amity's sides despite her delighted shrieks of protest.
Hard times were here for their friend group, and no doubt more were incoming. But they'd weather these boiling rains and whatever else would come their way.
It was common knowledge that a large manor on the outskirts of Bonesborough housed the official apartment suites of the heads of the nine major covens. Few realized, or took the time to consider, that each of them had at least one other private home for when they desired privacy above all else, or where their families lived.
One such private home was situated in the city of Latissa, a port town characterized by high crime rates and more rough streets than not. A few small pockets of order were centered on the high-class part of the city, but the rest was the kind of place you would not want to get lost in.
In one of these higher-end homes sat a broad-shouldered figure in his well-appointed office, the only light coming from a desk lamp that illuminated two recruitment posters. One was for the Emperor's Coven and depicted the cross-armed figure of the Golden Guard. The other was even more recent and showed the Silver Belle flexing her bicep to the artist.
The figure drummed his fingers in thought at the sight of these posters, tracking a possible trend in the making. He was briefly distracted by the sound of someone entering the house and thumping up the stairs; his son, now doubt. Maybe even those friends of his from school. He dismissed it and returned his thoughts to his unfolding plan.
Green eyes flashed and white teeth shone in a fearsome grin. Perhaps it was time to get things moving himself.
And here we have it! As the year draws to a close, the sequel to "When Marigolds Bloom" has its beginning!
*The scene of Hunter waking and commenting "... another dream about [them]" is inspired by the very beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2.
*The only clue we really got as to what Willow does during her workouts was Dana Terrace's drawing of her lifting weights. The other stuff comes from my own imagination.
*Feronia's last name, "Romai," is derived from her first name coming from a Roman minor goddess.
*Matt's human do-dad is a plasma lamp. I think they're so cool, and Luz is right that it would blow their minds!
*A "pall" is a cloth spread over a coffin or tomb, a grim play on the name "Paul." A "piton" is another word for spike, as the spike-headed Abomination student reminds me of a blow fish.
I hope you all enjoyed the beginning of this work, a kind of "where are they now" before the plot gets rolling. If you liked it, leave a review! I adore hearing your thoughts and any support would be treasured for keeping up my momentum. May your inspirations flow freely!