Another normal day in Bonesborough, clean purple sky with some yellow clouds in the distance, some demons were running through the always crowded streets that connected the market with the rest of the town, and Camille Nogueira was running late to her extracurricular lessons of healing magic. "I really need to stop using the crow so late night" She though as she turned down a street in a hurry, just to run into another person.
"Cam?" On the ground in front of Camille was another girl, Edalyn Clawthorne, her girlfriend.
"Eda? Oh titan! Eda Im sorry I didn't saw you" She quickly bent down to help her get up again. People always like to make fun of how both girls contrast with each other since they got together three years ago. Eda was tall and somewhat thin but in good shape for being part of the Grudgby team. Camille barely reached her shoulder and had a rounder complexion from being what people would call a bookworm. Eda was a full-fledged troublemaker, always making pranks at school and getting into trouble, Camille was totally the opposite, an exemplary student who was always there to help anyone in need, one of the main students of the healing track. It was a mystery to everyone how these two had ended up together.
Eda liked to say that it was fate that brought them together when the student from the healing track leaned right over one of the doors to the Secret room of shortcuts and bumped into her as the potion track student prepared to spy the advanced healing class. Instead of giving her away, Camille offered to help her learn after school, and the rest of her was history.
"Don't worry about it, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going either." The taller witch said, "I was actually looking for you, do you remember what we were talking about last night?".
"Your duel with Lilith? Its in some hours isn't it? Maybe if I work harder I could get out of the lessons earlier- A finger touched delicately to her lips to silence her.
"Don't worry about it, Im not going to fight Lilith".
"What?!" Camille got closer, to get a good look at her girlfriend's face, examining her delicately. "Are you sick? Did Odalia finally follow through on her threat and cast an opposite personality spell on you? If she has done something I swear Im going to- this time it wasn't a finger that silence her, but Eda's lips pressed against hers in a quick kiss.
When their faces parted, both girls were red as apples and their ears flicked back and forth. Eda was the first to continue talking, "As much as I would love to see you kicking Odalia's butt, its not that, I decided that I don't want to join a Coven that makes me fight my own sister".
"Are you sure you are my girlfriend? Cause that sounded too mature to come from you" Camille said with a proud smile and her face still red like an apple.
Eda let out a loud laugh before throwing herself at her girlfriend again to prove it was indeed her.
"Eda! Eda! Eda it's me please come out!" Camille was running through the dark forest that was outside Bonesborough.
After finishing her lessons and on the way back home, she heard how the battle had gone. "The Clawthorne girl transformed into a monster and flee to the forest", "I always knew that she was into shady things", "Too bad for the family that their youngest daughter is a monster", was some of the things the people were saying, she dropped her books and ran in a hurry to find her beloved.
After nearly an hour of running around with no luck, Camille almost stopped feeling her legs. She was about to collapse in despair when a voice caught her attention, "Camille! Camille is that you?!".
"Elon?" She answered, between some trees, she saw coming out a boy of almost her age, it was Elon Park, one of their classmates from Hexside.
"By the Titan, it's good to have found you here, I knew you would also come looking for Eda. Garrick found her but she doesn't let anyone get near her." Without wasting any more time, both ran towards the direction Elon had come from. Elon and Garrick where Camille's friends since they where young, and by extension they were friends with Eda even though Garrick didn't like to admit it. But the fact that they were both there and had been looking for her too even though no one asked was proof of their friendship.
At the top of a large tree that stood lonely in a clearing, Camille could see the distorted figure of her girlfriend trying to hide between its thin branches. "C'mon Eda! Get down here before we have to get someone to make you do it!" Garrick said trying to sound threatening, but all he got was a much more intimidating growl.
"Eda!" Camille scream arriving to the place, being closer he was able to observe much better what Eda had become. Her limbs had become beastly legs with sharp claws, wings had grown on her back and her entire body was covered in a thick plumage the same orange as her hair, what remained mostly intact was her face deformed in a wild appearance decorated by two large, totally black eyes. "Wha… Why… Who…" Camille was in shock, who could have done something so horrible to her beloved? and much more important why? "E..Eda please, come down, its me, its Camille" She took a step towards the tree and received another warning growl, "Its ok, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise".
Another step, but this time the beast did not give a warning, throwing itself at the girl at its mercy, knocking her down with all its weight. Before her friends did anything against Eda, Camille raised her hand to signal them to stop. She embraced her with her arms the best she could and did not let go of her no matter how much the creature stirred. "Its ok, its ok, you are safe now, you are safe".
Only a few seconds later Eda began to relax, and as she did so, her body returned to its normal appearance. "What… Where? Why?..." Camille did not give her time to continue asking, embracing her, and keeping her as close as possible. And for once in her life, Edalyn Clawthorne allowed herself to cry in the presence of other people.
"What did you want to talk about? It must be very important to risk being seen with the future most wanted criminal on the Boiling Isles" It had been 15 years since Eda was cursed, she had decided to completely renounce the coven system and had become what they called a "wild witch", but that did not prevent her and her girlfriend from continuing to meet continuously.
"Oh! Hush, come here." For her part, Camille had to move on with her career and join the healing coven. She may not have held a very important position, but she was recognized and appreciated enough in Bonesborough that people would turn a blind eye to her seeing her with her already equally well-known partner.
And there they were, like every day, kissing carelessly under the tree where so many years ago Eda had tried to hide. The now criminal known as The Owl Lady was famous for three things, selling things from the human world that she got from somewhere, outwitting the forces of the Emperor's Coven who always tried to arrest her, and rubbing shoulders with one of the most beautiful healers in town. And of course Eda was determined to keep everything that way. Even with the curse bothering her sometimes, it was nothing that a dose of elixir couldn't repair, and although her hair had lost its vivid orange hue and was slowly turning silver, she insisted that it made her look much flirtier.
After some more minutes of kissing, Camille finally pull away, looking to the ground like she was looking for the courage to say something, "Eda…".
"What? Did I forget to brush my teeth? I swear and promise that I have stopped eating rats, this time I mean it."
"Eda, I call early today because we… We need to talk." Camille raised the hand that she had been hiding from her lover's sight, on her left hand there was a mark, the mark of an arranged compromise. "My mother has given my hand in marriage". And Eda could feel her world falling apart.
"How could you have done something like that? I'm no longer a little girl for you to decide for me!" Camille was understandably furious; she had hurried home when she felt a mark forming on her hand that she had never wanted to see there.
"As long as I am the family's head I can do whatever I want with you, and I have done what is best for us!" An elderly woman replied that she could no longer even lift herself from her chair without having to lean on her staff, "The Facilier family controls the Healing Coven, they had enough power and money to return the Nogueira name to the prestige it had in the past!".
Camille succumbed to her knees as soon as she finished telling the story, hiding her face with her hands as tears ran down her cheeks. Eda was standing in front of her without saying anything, her expression conflicting between shock and anger. Black feathers began to form on her arms, but after a long breath they disappeared into her skin again. After a few more minutes of crying, Camille finally got up again and took her lover's hands. "Even with all this, there is something I want to ask you".
"Are you sure about this? You are still in time to retire and live a life full of luxury and prestige without any guilt." Camille's ceremony was one day away, if they were going to do that this was the moment. They were again in front of the tree that had become their meeting place, Eda wore an elegant red dress that molded well to her figure, on her chest stood out her gem of the same golden color as her eyes. Camille had a beautiful blue dress according to her, inherited from healer to healer in her family for generations, but which her mother considered outdated and that is why she had decided that she would get a new one for the ceremony the next day. Camille always dreamed that she would marry in that dress and now she would make that dream come true.
"A life like that is meaningless if the love of my life it's not with me".
"Oh Titan, you are so sappy, I love you so much". She replied, and they both joined their hands to create a ring of white light, the next step was to hold hands within the halo and when the brightness completely enveloped them, exchange vows.
"Camille Nogueira, under the everlasting gaze of the Titan, and for the immense love that I have for you, I swear from my heart that when I manage to remove this curse, I will personally go to the house of that rich boy who bought your hand and kick his ass into oblivion to make you my wife".
"Edalyn Clawthorne, under the eternal sight of the titan, with all my heart, I swear that I will never stop loving you, and whatever happens my heart will always belong to you."
The ring of light closed around their wrists and was slowly absorbed into their bodies. "And with this, the engagement spell is done". They both said at the same time, and then approached to seal their trick with a last kiss in who knows how long, because among the agreements for which her mother had delivered Camille was moving away from Bonesborough to the Manor of the Facilier family. But no matter what happened from now on, both had the assurance that one way or another they would be together, forever.