“Wait, what?” the Hero of Light said. “What kind of story is that? She can’t just die! Especially to some nobody that got introduced out of nowhere, and not even for any good reason.”

Magpie shrugged. “It’s what happened,” she said. “Life is really badly written sometimes.” They were sitting on the steps at the base of the throne now, the Hero having wandered over to take a seat, and Magpie joining her on the floor out of politeness.

“But… I don’t get it. What happened next? That can’t be the end. I mean…” She waved a hand in Magpie’s direction.

Magpie smiled, pleased for some reason that the Hero was sharp enough to understand. “The next bit, I only figured out much, much later. And I’m still not sure I have it exactly right. But… The graveyard keeper found the body the next day. While I would hope he recognized the tragedy, it’s not like he had any reason to investigate the death of a penniless stranger. He got a coffin and buried it, in the hole that was conveniently still open.”

“Wait, the same hole as…?”

“Yes, just on top of the other one. And so, years passed. I suspect the mercenary wasn’t particularly good at keeping his mouth shut. Eventually someone heard his humorous tale of getting tricked into digging up a bunch of worthless bones, and realized there might be something more to them.”

“And that led to, uh, him?” She pointed at the armored body still laying spread out on the stone floor.

“Yes. Asterion. He tracked down the grave and dug up the coffin there. But not the coffin of the Necromancer Queen. The one on top, with me inside.”

“And brought those bones back to life.”

Magpie grimaced. “Yeah. It’s really nasty magic, too, you don’t even want to know what kind of horrible things were involved. But he did it. The next thing I know I’m waking up in a circle of blood, totally lost and confused.”

“But couldn’t he tell that you weren’t the Necromancer Queen?”

“I can be convincing when I want. And there’s something else that wound up being unexpected…” She held up her left hand, and then wiggled each finger in turn. One, two, three, four, five, six.

“No way!” The Hero reached out, then paused. “…Can I?”

“Sure,” Magpie said. When the Hero’s hands touched hers, moving with surprising tenderness to feel the sixth digit, Magpie tried to ignore the warm feeling spreading through her chest. “Y-yeah, so, that’s why I’ve got plenty of magic now, but also why I’m a little bit evil. Then again, who isn’t? Except the Hero of Light maybe.”

The other girl shrugged. “Maybe. But I’m just a girl who found a sword. The name’s Tiff.”

“Nice to meet you, Tiff.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Magpie.”

Magpie was acutely aware now that Tiff was still holding her hand, even though Tiff didn’t seem to realize it. She cleared her throat. “Just so you know, I kept putting off Asterion’s plans for raising an army of darkness, but I think he was beginning to get fed up. So you came at a good time.”

Tiff smiled, and Magpie was struck again by just how remarkable the simple expression was on the other girl. She shook her head, trying to clear it. She was thinking too much, winding up in a weird place and…

“Maybe you can just say you killed me?” Magpie said, the words a little rushed. “And my body crumbled into dust. I can slip out the back, and—”

Tiff’s smile dropped away. “What? But we only just met!”

“You were sent to kill me, remember? If anyone thinks you failed, they’ll just keep coming. After both of us, at that point.”

“Because of destiny. Because of some stupid prophecy.” Tiff let out a disgusted sound.

“That’s the universe’s last laugh. We can put on different masks, we can play pretend, but some things we can’t change. You’re not the Hero of Light. I’m not…” She stared off to the side. “I’m not a lot of things.”

“Hey,” Tiff said. Now she was squeezing Magpie’s hand. “That’s not true. We are everything that we choose to be. No one else has the right to tell us differently.”

Magpie’s breath felt a little shaky. “Th-thanks.”

“Of course. So what is it that you want? Do you really want me to cover for you, so you can run away and start over? I don’t like it, but I… I can do that if that’s what you need.”

Magpie knew she should say yes. She knew that it would be the best for both of them. But she paused, thinking long and hard as Tiff watched her in silence. “No,” Magpie said. “I want to stay with you.” And then, when her brain had a second glance at her words and she could feel herself turning beet red, she added, “Because, um, I’ve told you my story but you haven’t told me yours. That’s hardly fair.”

Tiff laughed. “It isn’t. But we’ve been here too long. We’ll have to save it for a later date. For now… You said you’re good with illusions, right?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Because I have a plan.”

When Tiff and Magpie stepped onto the balcony, the soldiers and peasants below immediately stopped milling around. A shout went up, and then silence fell, the mob uncertain what it meant to have both of them there together.

Tiff realized just how high up they were, and how many people were below, with all their torches and weapons. There were lots of ways for her plan to go bad. She took a deep breath, and squeezed Magpie’s hand. When Magpie squeezed back, the doubts went quiet. Tiff knew they could do this.

“People of Westholme!” she said. Her voice boomed out even louder than she expected, and she glanced over to see Magpie’s slender fingers moving at her side in the casting of some sort of amplification spell. “I come before you, bearing good news.”

Murmurs broke out in the crowd below.

Tiff raised high Magpie’s hand clasped in her own. “I have defeated the Necromancer Queen!”

The noises below grew louder, more confused. “What about my daughter?” a man in the crowd shouted.

“The girls are in the dungeon,” Magpie murmured at Tiff’s side, “but totally fine. I kept Asterion away from them.”

“The maidens are safe!” Tiff announced.

There was a scattered cheer from the crowd below, but most of them were clearly still suspicious. Tiff knew what they were thinking. They were worried about a trick, but not the trick that Tiff was trying. They thought the Necromancer Queen had bewitched her.

Which, honestly, Tiff understood, as the more she had gotten to know the other girl and the more normal she seemed, oddly the more bewitching she got, too, but.

The point was, she knew she had to make the next part good. So Tiff raised her sword high in the air.

“As the prophecy has spoken, the Hero of Light comes to purify the world. And thus, I have purified her black heart!”

Magpie’s lips twitched now with some incantation. The dark clouds above suddenly split open, and a single ray of sunlight pierced the heavens, striking the sword in a coruscating shimmer of light. Tiff could swear there was a rainbow behind them.

The whispers below turned to gasps. But still, some looked suspicious, hoisting their torches higher. Tiff got the slightest bit ahead of herself, once more leaping headlong into a decision.

“Purified by the power of love!” she said. She felt Magpie startle next to her, and then look over, eyes wide.

Tiff could read everything in those eyes: the realization, the question, the answer. She felt like Magpie could see everything in hers, too. And then Magpie’s lips curled into a smile and her head moved downwards in a fraction of a nod. Tiff’s hand slipped free and curled around the small of Magpie’s back, Magpie in turn simply reaching her hands up to trace the sides of Tiff’s face. Tiff leaned in, and Magpie dipped low, and then they were kissing.

Tiff didn’t even notice the people below falling silent. She didn’t see the clouds above disappear, or Magpie’s appearance shift slightly, becoming less ethereal as her all of her illusions faded and her clothing faded into a much more plain dark dress. For the moment, they both only had one another.

And when they parted, she whispered, “Wow.”

“I don’t remember that part of the plan,” Magpie murmured. “I’m not complaining though.”

Both of their faces were red, and their eyes kept meeting for the briefest of seconds before skittering away again. A noise from below finally broke them out of their reverie.

The people were cheering.

“I— I think it worked,” Tiff said. “We did it. This is the end.”

“No.” Magpie smiled. “This is the beginning.”

Far away, on the shores of a small lake, an upstanding young man of uncommonly dashing appearance and universally good repute stood scratching his head. He wondered again just where his fishing rod had gone. He felt guilty for sneaking out that day to visit the girl at the neighboring farm. But she had seemed awfully appreciative of his help that day. That’s why she had visited herself the next week, and why they had plans now to picnic up on the hill overlooking town. So, it wasn’t like there was any way he could see his life going better right now. If a missing fishing rod was the worst of his problems, he would surely be satisfied.

Even further away, but in the opposite direction, the bones of a great sorceress slept quietly in a long-forgotten grave. Perhaps they were even happy to be left alone.

rooibos_chai

This is a short story that I wrote a couple of years ago. It was originally part of a contest with an 8,000 word limit, which meant I had to ruthlessly cut it down, and I kept meaning to do something more with a more expanded version somehow but never found the time and motivation. Ultimately I figured I might as well share it on this site, as I get a lot of enjoyment at reading stories here and it'd be good to give something back to other people who might appreciate it.

<3