“I want to die.”

White hair belonging to Lilium cascaded down. She made herself comfortable in a wooden chair. As it supported her weight, the chair creaked before settling down in silence.

Now, everything Lilium could hear was the pitter-patter of raindrops. Before her lay the garden she and her student had cherished together. Colors that swayed left-to-right cast away the gloom poured down by the weather, though amidst such solace, Lilium’s heart always felt nothing but tranquility. 

Her bare feet embraced the coldness of the terrace, also made of wood. Her arms rested on both sides. 

This cottage where she lived stood in the middle of this forest. It existed in solitary, similar to its owner. However, as she appeared to be alone, but with a quick glance at the figure running and brushing the flowers with her hand before Lilium’s eyes, that thought ceased to exist. 

Her one and only student. 

Beneath the trickle of water which splashed the rock and dirt, creating wet patches in many spots, that little girl–one who couldn’t be older than ten years old–beamed a smile more vibrant than the flowers around. Her golden hair showered her surroundings with this brilliant radiance that pleased the eyes. 

Before long, their eyes met. There were a good ten seconds of them staring at each other. The first one to break it was the little girl, who now crouched on the side of the path. 

Then, she ran towards Lilium, her smile persisting. In her small hand was a flower, a camelia. 

Lilium’s eyes softened. “I thought I told you not to pluck these maidens.”

“But this flower will look good on you, Master.”

“Thank you.” With thumb and index finger, Lilium pinched the stem. Each petal dropped as she raised the flower higher, now only a few inches away from her eyes. “I beg to differ, though. I bet this flower looks better on you.”

As she said that, Lilium bent forward. The chair creaked once again, rambling with the soft echo of the raindrops as if they were meant for each other, a balance that only Mother Nature could achieve. 

The white-haired woman placed the flower on the little girl’s right ear. It stayed there, adorning her adorable face with a color that oozed with elegance, though such a somber and melancholic tint didn’t match the youthful smile she had. In front of that sight, Lilium’s expression mellowed. Basking in sorrow or joy, she couldn’t really tell. 

“Haaaahhhhh….”

Her thoughts got disrupted upon hearing the little girl’s yawn. What escaped from Lilium’s mouth next was a chuckle. 

“Let’s go take a nap, shall we?”

Two doors away from where they were now, both Lilium and her student entered the room in the corner. Inside the bedroom, her student took little to no time before rushing towards the only bed. The mattress soon enveloped the little girl within its embrace, soft and comfortable like a thousand lullabies soothing her into dreamland. The blanket drove away the cold, and whenever she could, Lilium’s student would wiggle her feet and toes with a smirk carved on her face. 

“Will you stay here until I’m awake, Master?” 

“Of course.”

“That’s a promise, okay?”

“It’s a promise.”

They joined their pinky fingers, an agreement that had transpired between a teacher and a student. Not long after that, the little girl’s drowsiness took over. With her eyes closing on their own, her vision fluttered into darkness, just seconds away before she fell asleep.

Silence once again filled the gap left by the air. It was almost deafening, a sound that buzzed through her ears–both the right and left ones. There wasn’t a single second when she looked away from her student. Lying there with an innocent face almost like a blank sheet of paper, hadn’t been tainted by anything. All there she was, still adorned in gold. 

“Precious, isn’t she? As brittle as a leaf on its voyage to the world only for a hurricane to crush and grind each strand into mere dust….”

Then, a voice slipped through her head. Far from her ear canal, but the voice resounded inside her own mind, her own brain. Each word trembled her body, sending shivers through her skin, flesh, and bone. It appeared and disappeared. 

The voice of a woman that wasn’t hers nor anything–or anything, in fact–that any pair of naked eyes could perceive. 

“I can hear your thoughts, child.” That sound once again cut into the depth of Lilium’s mind. Not even by closing her ears could she muffle the sound. “What a selfish human you are. Do you think sealing a part of me inside her will work?”

“....Haven’t heard from you in a while, Arcana,” Lilium said. 

“And don’t think by doing this, my trace of existence, the bane of my meaning will cease. All you will be doing is living in isolation again. For many years, alone is all that you are–a mistake of the world, seen by others as–”

Pfu!

Lilium’s chuckle extinguished Arcana’s whisper. Her white hair, long enough that the tip of each strand brushed against her hips, swung left and right like a curtain. 

“What is it?” Lilium continued upon her giggle. “Are you saying you’re going to be lonely without me?”

“....”

“Or are you afraid to leave me alone? Making me all lonely?”

“....Insolence.”

“And for you who embody the emotions themselves, that’s rather meek of you..”

Lilium couldn’t help but flash a grin. One corner of her mouth lifted, almost into a mocking expression 

“....How cruel, fate that is. Hundreds of years and you still look the same. The same as your accursed father.”

“It’s been somewhat of a decent journey. For almost a thousand years I have lived, and you have always been there with me. As much trouble as you have given me, I’m afraid I can’t hate you.”

“....”

Lilium stared at her student. 

“After all, both of us have always been together, Arcana. Us, who have been biting each other’s throats, will not separate because of that selfishness you were talking about….Then again, it might indeed be quite lonely afterward.”

“Human assumptions, especially yours, are nothing short of insulting. 

“And yet here you are, stuck with me. But it will end today.”

“Doing this won’t get rid of your immortality.”

“Why have you been so awfully attentive today?”

“....”

“I thought all of this happened because of your curse. That’s how much you hate me, right?” Lilium spoke with a certainty that she had forged for more than hundreds of years. “That’s why I’m doing this. After this, I won’t be able to hear you, and the opposite too. Instead, you will be protecting her, next to my father’s will, won’t you?”

“....This might be your last chance to banish me. A world that doesn’t belong to me, cast me into an abyss, and instead you implore me to protect your student, a puny human I might kill one day.”

“Well….Maybe I’m the meek one, after all.”

Making hand signs, where each gesture differed from the previous, Lilium let her palms hover above the girl. One came down with a soft pat on the little girl’s head, ruffling those golden strings which tangled themselves on Lilium’s fingers, as if they didn’t want the white-haired lady to go.

“Now, I beseech a part of Arcana, the Embodiment of Emotions, and the divine protection graced by the Hero Klair himself, to live within this girl’s soul. May your existence grant her happiness that is everlasting and a protection that is indestructible. May both of you, the fragmented pieces of this forgotten world, illuminate her past, present, and future! I, the First Witch–Lilium of the Aethel Kingdom, daughter of the Hero Klair, beseech you!”

The hue painted over her pupil wove into a different shape. A clover made of four petals, each one glowed alongside her surrounding. This light washed over everything that existed in this space.

And soon, everything dimmed again. 

The room returned to its original color. 

Lilium looked around. 

“Arcana?”

No voice.

Only the little girl’s steady breathing that ….

“M-Master….” she said, muttering in her sleep. “N-no more fish….I’m sick of it.”

Hearing that, Lilium couldn’t help but smile. She knelt beside the bed, lowering her stature until those little jewels, shut beneath her smooth eyelids. 

A sigh escaped the gap between her lips. It was a bit of everything–relief, sorrow, elation, longing….Every emotion she had felt until now, all exhaled into a mere breath, as simple as that, as though every moment in her life that had built upon this was as significant as a floating dust, ready to disperse at any given moment. 

To that thought, Lilium just chuckled. 

She bent forward again. White hair that made her head fall, obeying gravity. 

And at last, she kissed the little girl’s cheek. 

“It’s time to find my resting place.” 

Her last gaze at the girl was that of a solemn one. 

“If fate’s cruelty hasn’t ended yet in the foreseen future, may we meet again, dear.”