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| title | author | date | draft | tags | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Witch and the Knight | Rose | 2023-09-01 | true |
|
Hi, my name is Rose, and I'd like to tell you a story. It may not seem like it, but it is based very closely on a true story.
Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a little girl, and she was very sad, for she believed herself to be cursed. She had been given a body that the world told her was a boy's body, and she knew that if she didn't keep the truth secret that the world would punish her.
As the girl grew older, the weight of this secret grew with her. And as her body began to change with that strange metamorphosis that all bodies undertake, the pain of her curse grew as well. Together, it was too much for her to take. One night, when the moon was high and full, she stole her brother's dagger and walked into the forest, to a beautiful glade no one else knew about. She drew the knife from its sheath, held the point to her breast, closed her eyes, and whispered to herself, "Better to be dead than to be thus cursed."
Before she could plunge the blade home, however, a hand closed over hers. Startled, she opened her eyes to see a beautiful knight of the álfar, limned in moonlight. The knight, smiling sadly at her, said, "Do not do this thing. I have been sent by my lady, the goddess Freyja, to ask this of you. She bids me tell you that you are one of her flowers, and she would prefer you remain in this world long enough to blossom. And having looked upon you myself, I find that I wish it too."
The girl was a great lover of fairy tales, and seeing one standing before her filled her with awe. But the bitterness that had taken root in her heart was a heavy thing. She scoffed at the knight, saying, "If I am her flower, then it is she who has cursed me. Why should I care about the wishes of such a cruel witch?" She tightened her grip on the knife, intent on seeing the deed done.
With a sad smile, the knight spoke a word, and straight away the girl fell into an enchanted sleep. The knight deftly plucked the dagger from the girl's hands and caught her as she began to fall. Lifting her up, the knight carried her back to her mother's house. She slipped into the darkened hall, and in moments had returned the girl to her bed. All that knight she sat at the girl's bedside, humming a melody that eased the weight of the girl's burden as she slept.
When the girl woke, the knight was gone from the hall and from her memory. All that lingered was a soothing song in the back of her mind. In the years that followed, the girl would come up with many explanations for why she returned home that night instead of taking her own life, but the truth was that she could not remember what happened after placing the knife against her skin.
Unbeknownst to the girl, the knight returned from time to time, always while she slept, and hummed that same enchanted tune. The girl still struggled, both with her secret and with the normal storms of the world, but the melody gave her comfort and strength.
But eventually the knight stopped coming. Perhaps her journey took her far away; perhaps she fell into her own enchanted sleep for a time. Whatever the reason, without the knight's magic, the girl began to falter.
Without fully understanding why, the girl had been driven to learn magic of all kinds since meeting the knight. In time, she became a witch, though perhaps not a very good one, for all her craft could not lessen the pain of her curse. And so, one year as Summer waxed, she again resolved to take her own life after the Midsummer festival.
The knight did not come to save the witch this time; she was still far away. The night of the Midsummer festival, though, the witch performed what she thought would be one last act of magic. She gazed into the well, and in her bitterness she cursed the gods, demanded that they answer for curse laid upon her.
And, for the first time in her life, the gods... answered.