Romance Awareness Challenge: Anything you write on your arm appears on your soulmate's arm.

Bonus prompt: Sea-green

Once upon a time there lived a maiden locked in a high, high tower. She was not a very unhappy princess, but nor was she a happy one. She had her books and quills and parchment, with magic to spare. But she had no one to talk to, no one save her mother who worried for her health.

For her mother had been cursed, by an object so foul that even Rowena Ravenclaw, greatest sorceress of the land, could not remove it. Her great friend Salazar Slytherin had halted the evil long enough for Rowena to be cured, but magic always has a price. He disappeared from that day, only to return on the day of Helena's birth to tell her mother of the evil facing her daughter - Helena was prophesied to be killed by the first man she met after her sixteenth birthday.

So Rowena had built a tower of glass and stone, locking Helena away because she was too scared of losing her only child. Helena wanted to learn to fight, to defend herself from this mystery man, because she wouldn't be going down easily. But Rowena had not wanted to take that chance.

So Helena remained in her tower, dreaming of the day she turned seventeen and was free from her prison. She knew that her mother merely wished to protect her, but she had deprived Helena of her father and for that she was unforgivable in her daughter's eyes. But Helena had turned seventeen two days ago, and her mother had not returned.

A cloud passed over the sun, obscuring Helena's view of the land. Idly, she turned back to her loneliness, taking up a quill of sky-blue ink and writing on her arm. Her mother had not been back for days, and there was no parchment left for Helena's thoughts.

Is anyone out there? What lies beyond the snow-topped mountains and river-filled valleys? How, I wonder, does the sea breeze smell? The calling of the albatross is merely a figment of my imagination, for no book can adequately describe all five senses.

Sighing, Helena watched as the letters faded into her skin. She wondered what kind of spell her mother had cast upon her to prevent Helena from inking her skin. Does she expect me to kill myself, to harm myself beyond the point of relief?

It had been a tempting thought, a few years past. But Helena had buried herself within her studies, promising herself that there was not long to go. Now, she felt as though she would go half mad.

It is rather hard to explain, curling writing in sea-green ink appeared upon her arm. Helena gasped as more words appeared. The sea is a myriad of colours, and smells unlike anything else on this earth. Imagine the freshest odour you can remember and add a sense of longing with a hint of bitterness. That is the scent of the sea. My question to thee is why thou cannot sense these things thyself? Art thou afflicted with some sort of curse?

I am, Helena hastily scrawled back. If this was a figment of her imagination, then what a beautiful dream it was. She would not tarnish her first contact with a sentient being asking mindless questions. I have been locked away for my own good for every day of my life since the hour I was born. Woe be the cursed one. Art thou a traveller?

Of a sort, the being replied. I live by the sea, and my father has journeyed many times to the lands beyond. I am glad to have found thee. I began to lose all hope of a soulmate. Teased I will be no longer by my sisters. Why doth thou tarry so in writing to me?

A soulmate? Helena asked, furrowing her brows. I did not know that thou wouldst reply. In all honesty, I do not rightly know whom… or what… I am writing to.

Thou hast been sequestered indeed. The writing was rushed this time, the words nearly flowing into one another. Allow me to explain. Every person born in this kingdom has the ability to write to his or her soulmate on their left forearm. If the ink stays upon one's skin, then it is the other who has the key to enabling the conversation. I tried to write to thee many a time in my youth. By now, I had given up all hope.

My mother never mentioned such a thing. Helena wiped her eyes before they fell on the fresh ink, the sting from her mother's betrayal surprising. Why had Rowena not allowed Helena this one small comfort during her time trapped in the tower.

If thou wouldst describe thy location, I may be able to free thee, the curving handwriting offered. There was a hesitation, before the words were replaced. Thou sayeth that thou art locked away for thy own good, but if thy mother has lied about this, who is to say if thou art truly cursed?

Helena had never thought of that. Could her mother have imprisoned her for a different reason? Helena didn't even know anymore. What if Rowena had decided to try her hand at black magic like the mages in Helena's books? She did not wish to risk the possibility. Better to escape now and confront her mother with the aid of this stranger. But she did not wish to tie her life to a sentient being that may or may not be who they said they were.

There was a headcount of every man, woman and child in the kingdom in her mother's tax report. As adviser to King Godric, her mother made it her duty to know everything that transpired within the kingdom. And what better place to store the archives than with her ever watchful daughter?

That would please me greatly, she replied, before reinking her quill. However, I feel as though I must know more about my soulmate before thou departest upon thy quest. What is thy name? Thou spoke of siblings?

Septimus is my name - Baron Septimus now that my father has passed away. I used to have six brothers and sisters, but three passed away from pestilence. I am close with Threia, she mentored me with my magic and taught me about soulmates. Sexta is closest to me in age, but we fight as only siblings can.

I would like to meet them, Helena replied. She would have liked someone with her, someone with whom she could have played, confided in. She had asked her mother for a female confident, since the prophecy spoke of a "man", but Rowena took no risks. Now, Helena wondered if the goal was to isolate her even more.

I live in a tower made of stone and glass. Helena waited for a few seconds for each sentence to fade before writing the next, hoping against hope that Septimus would understand her directions. It is sheer as far as the eye can see, but I believe that magic can knock through the wall. There are mountains as far as the eye can see to the North and East, but to the South I can see rolling hills with a hint of green. To the West lie forests and more hills. There are no other structures in sight, at least not the structures I know of. Perhaps there is something under the trees, though I do not believe this to be so.

A moment passed. A second. Just as Helena was going to give up all hope, the sea-green reply came swiftly, jaggedly, as though Septimus were not writing upon a flat surface.

I think I have found thee. I will not tarry. Await my arrival at dawn the next day. Might I be so bold as to ask thy name, fair lady? If I may call thee a lady.

Helena smiled at that. The King had not a wife, but a husband. She supposed that Septimus did not wish to be surprised.

My name is Helena, my Baron. I am a lady, though I fear that I may not be so fair as other damsels who have had the space to stretch their wings.

'Helena!' a voice called through her dreams.

Helena blinked sleepily. What cruel dreams I have, she thought, to have imagined such an elaborate rescue.

'Helena!' the voice called again, echoing within the tower this time.

Helena's eyes snapped open. Could it be… that it was not merely a dream? She slid out of bed and padded down the stairs to her window, opening the glass panel an inch or two - as far as it would go.

'Baron Septimus?' she called hesitantly.

''T'is I!' She could hear him more clearly this time. His voice was of a deep timbre, much deeper than either hers or her mother's. 'I have found thee!' he cried joyfully. 'Though I fear that I do not know how to rescue thee!'

Luckily for Septimus, Helena had dreamed of the day she would escape the tower for hours on end.

'Step back and keep a light upon the topmost part of the tower!' she instructed. Her plan had always involved two people.

There was a small scuffle in the half-light before Septimus called out to say that he was in place.

'Reducto!' Helena shouted, pouring all of her pent up energy into the spell.

The tower blasted into smithereens, and Helena ducked to avoid the flying glass. Her cheek was grazed and her hands were bloody, but she felt for the first time the cool of the morning dew that she had read so much of, felt the breeze lift up her dark locks to place them behind her back.

She let out an exhilarated laugh. 'It worked!'

'Now what?' the Baron asked.

'Now, you catch me!' she shouted, running into the abyss.

For a few seconds, panic took her. She had expected Septimus to catch her with a variation of the levitation charm, but perhaps he did not know it? As she prepared to face her death, she felt herself hit a pair of strong arms with a thump. The breath was knocked out of her lungs as she found herself looking into a pair of clear blue eyes.

'My Lady,' he breathed. 'Truly, thou art more beautiful than the legends say.'

'Thou knowest who I am?' Helena asked, frowning as he let her down, brushing debris from her dress.

'The entire kingdom knows who thee are, Helena,' the Baron replied, pulling out a handkerchief and gently dabbing at her cheek, his brow creased with concentration. 'The daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw, the Grey Lady who haunts her tower forevermore. The cursed maiden, doomed to remain within a tower for the remainder of her days.'

For the remainder of her days, Helena repeated in her mind, shuddering. How I am glad to have found my soulmate now.