“Hey, did you hear?” A man whispered to another beside him. “Someone saw that ghostly mare again.”

“What? I thought it vanished months ago.”

“Right? First it showed up when that witch attacked, then it just vanished,” the man’s voice quivered. “You don’t think something bad is going to happen again, do you? Like, is it some kind of bad omen?”

“I hope not,” the second man grumbled. “We’ve been putting in so much work to fix the city. I don’t think Gelin would be able to survive another battle like that.” As they spoke, the sound of creaking floorboards came from overhead before the sound approached and descended the stairs. “Hmm?” The man looked over, watching his daughter come to the bottom of the stairway. “Hannah? Are you headed out again?”

“Yeah, I’ll be back later,” she answered.

“Now hold on!” The man approached her. “Where are you going exactly? You’ve been going out almost everyday. It’s dangerous out there.”

“I know that,” Hannah whispered. “I’ll be okay. I’m just scouting a new place to paint. Everything around here is… yknow.”

“You say that, but I haven’t seen you with a canvas in weeks,” the man grumbled. “I’m worried Hannah. There’s lots of scary stuff out there. I mean… your mother and I almost lost you, and…”

“And that’s why I don’t want to be idle, dad,” she stared her father down. “I almost died. I want to use the life I have left doing what I care about. So please, just let me go.”

“Ugh,” her father groaned. “Fine, but we’re having a serious talk about this with your mother later.”

“Y-yeah,” Hannah hid her frown. “I’ll see you later,” she said before heading out. The look in her father’s eyes. He was willing to let her go this time, but between that story of the shadowy horse and the mumblings about the king’s army gathering, she doubted he would let her leave so easily in the future.

She made her way through the city, weaving through strange places in an effort to avoid prying eyes and the increasing number of guards around the city. There had been so many lately, and just like Phordata suggested all those months ago, they never even lifted a finger to help the reconstruction efforts. She quietly cursed the knights and their condescending glares.

Finally, she arrived at a small gap in the city’s walls. It was a hole that seemed to go unnoticed caused by Iris’s rampage across the city. A hole that left a convenient route in and out of the city, and to the forest. Hannah made her way through the trees before arriving at the mysterious cave at the top of the hillside. She made her way in, hearing an unfamiliar sound. It sounded like the horses back in town, but something was different.

Hannah gazed upon the gallant mare, her brilliant white coat given an ethereal sheen thanks to the purple flames dancing from her mane. The mare gave a gentle whinny and then looked towards the back of the cave, as if directing the girl further in. Hannah gave a thankful bow and then made her way inside.

“Miss Phora,” Hannah called as she entered the hallway atop the stairs, “that horse in the stables, is that…” she fell quiet. The woman before her was one of the most beautiful she had ever seen in her entire life. She had always looked up to her and respected her. Her beauty always stole her breath away, and that was back when he was but a simple knight of the kingdom. Seeing the woman’s graceful curves and her more than noticeable cleavage, it… Hannah gulped as heat built within her cheeks. “Y-you’re… Oh gosh, you… you’re really her.”

“Heh,” Phordata chuckled. “Seems you have quite the fan club,” she grinned playfully at her niece, emerging from behind the princess. “Are girls fawning over you normal, dear?”

“Aunt Phora, please don’t embarrass her like that,” Xenia protested.

“She’s right though,” another voice teased from behind Hannah. “I certainly can’t argue her impeccable taste.” A beautiful teal haired elf emerged from behind Hannah. She looked at Xenia, the familiar stern poise of the princess crumbling before Hannah as her idol squirmed under the elf’s touch, giving and uncharacteristic smile and doting gaze to the elf. “Gosh, when you get like this, I just have to…” Mable leaned in, kissing Xenia.

“And here I thought Xenia was the one with a fire affinity,” Phordata laughed as she watched the human girl’s face ignite with a bright blush.

It took several moments, some stern words, and more than a few giggles before the four finally made their way to a meeting room on the second floor. Hannah trembled a little as she looked around the room. On one side sat Xenia, Mable pleasantly leaning upon her beautiful witch, Mable’s elder sister Yuel giggling beside them. At another sofa sat the demon sisters, Abbysia and Noire, with the stern and bold prince, Aurith, sitting calmly beside them. Then at her own sofa sat Phordata who gave a joyful grin.

“So, I suppose we should get our meeting started,” Phordata began. “Let’s get started with why I summoned you back here.”

“Yes,” Xenia nodded. “It’s fortunate we were returning to catch up. But I can share what we learned later. What did you call us for?”

Phordata took a deep breath and smiled. “They did it,” she announced, the others looking at her with surprise, all save Hannah who looked to the witch with confusion.

“They?” Hannah asked. “And did what?”

“Saya,” Xenia smiled gracefully, the commoner girl taken aback. “You mean to say that she freed mother?”

“Not just Elesa,” Phordata seemed to bounce in place, clearly excited by the news. “Your eldest sibling as well. And they managed to reunite with Elesa’s girlfriend as well.”

“Girl…” Mable muttered.

“…friend?” Xenia finished her thought, the others looking to each other.

“You mean, mother had…” Aurith gawked.

“Yes,” Phordata nodded. “Before she was abducted, your mother was seeing a sweet girl named Relia. They were inseparable. Knowing that they’ve finally reunited,” she smiled excitedly. “I’m just so overjoyed right now.”

“Wait, if they succeeded then…” Hannah looked to Phordata then to Xenia.

“Then it’s about time that we reunited with them,” Xenia smiled. “Will they be meeting us here?”

“No,” Phordata shook her head. “Elesa wants us to gather where she’s staying right now.” The room filled with chatter as the others muttered their concerns to one another. “Listen, I understand the concern, but I believe she’s right. From what she said in message, the location is rather out of the way and away from prying eyes. It will be a good place to create a strategy and prepare for… him.”

“Father,” Aurith clenched his fist. “If this location is out of the way, then I support this idea. I am rather discomforted with being so close to a city like Gelin. I fear more innocents may be hurt if we linger here.”

“I’m certain seeing Nerivi doesn’t factor into that at all, does it brother?” Xenia gave a sly smirk, Aurith chuckling with a nod in response. “I also agree. It would be a good place to assemble our forces.”

“Our forces?” Abbysia questioned. “Then you were successful in finding the others?”

“More than that. We found quite a few allies. Speaking of,” Xenia looked to Hannah, “I’ve been meaning to ask, but who exactly is this girl?”

“Uh, I’m Hannah,” the girl responded with a nervous smile. “I… uh…”

“Hannah? Oh, yes, Saya mentioned you before,” Xenia recalled. “You helped her learn to paint.”

“Yes. I did,” Hannah smiled.

“But wait,” Mable frowned. “Saya said that… last time you met you…”

Hannah sighed. “I said some truly awful things to her. I know that. But I want to make it up to her,” she gripped the fabric of her skirt. “I need to apologize to her.”

“But…” Xenia frowned.

“The girl is genuine in her resolve,” Phordata smiled. “She’s done more than enough to prove that. Although…” she looked to Hannah. “You do realize that we’ll be leaving Gelin to meet her. Are you okay with that.”

“I… I am,” she gulped. “I promised myself I’d do what I could to find her and apologize to her. But, to be honest, I’m scared. What if something happens to my parents. The knights have been swarming the city lately.”

“Well, when we arrive at our destination, I was intending to create another portal to connect here. You could wait until then if you’d prefer.”

“I appreciate the concern, but… I’m afraid I won’t have the choice if I don’t go with you now,” she confessed. “Between my parents and everything with the castle…”

“I understand,” Phordata smiled as she gripped the young woman’s shoulder. “We’d be happy to take you with us. Is everyone good to set out tomorrow morning?”

“Aye,” Aurith nodded.

“So long as the portal to Gelin remains, it is fine by me as well,” Xenia confirmed.

“Hmm? Is there something you needed from there?” Phordata asked.

“Not quite,” Xenia shook her head. “Rather, there’s someone I instructed to come here,” she explained. Phordata raised her eyebrow as she looked to the princess with curiosity. “One of our new allies, she needed to go to Luxur, and I had promised to meet her here.”

“They needed to go to Luxur?”

“Yes. She needed to go speak to an old friend.”

* * *

“There, that’s looking good,” a woman chirped as she peeked into a large oven. She smiled as she took in the delicious smells of fresh bread, her signature cinnamon wafting through the room. She grinned at the golden loaves and opened the oven.

“I’m home!” a younger woman’s voice announced.

“Oh, Harmony! Perfect timing!” the first woman cheered. “Would you come help me pull the bread out of the oven?”

“Sure,” the young woman entered, tossing her shiny deep brown hair over her shoulder. “Here,” she put on a set of oven mits and helped the other woman remove the baking sheet, a dozen loaves happily basking in the cool air. “Mm, they smell great mom,” she smiled blissfully. “Oh, I closed the front door, so you can take off your name tag,” she pointed to the small metal piece on her mom’s chest which read ‘Helena.’

“Ah, thank you dear,” Helena chuckled as she removed the pin. “So, how was your day?”

“Well,” Harmony grimaced. “I finally tracked down brother.”

“Oh? Don’t tell me he’s hurt again,” she fretted. “I told him it wasn’t a good idea to join the knights.”

“It’s funny hearing you say that given all the stories I hear about you from my friends,” Harmony chuckled, her mom giving an unenthused pout. “Anyway, he’s fine… a little too fine,” she sighed.

“What does that mean?”

“You remember about the news a few months ago about the battle that happened in Gelin?” Harmony asked. “With the witches?”

“Y-yes,” Helena nodded with hesitation. “How could I forget.”

“Yeah, that would be pretty hard,” Harmony nodded. “And you remember how sis was sent out on a secret mission all those months before that?”

“Yes?” Helena tilted her head in confusion. What did those two things have to do with each other? Regardless, her lips drooped slightly as she wondered about her daughter’s safety.

“Well,” Harmony took a deep breath. “Horace told me that sis’s mission took her to the far North where she met the witch responsible for that battle and…” she looked at her mother, “she betrayed the kingdom to join the witch.”

“Aria joined…” Helena repeated, slowly backing into the chair behind her. “Why is this happening?”

Harmony sighed. “It’s worse than that,” she wiped away a tear. “Horace, he… he has orders to kill her,” Helena looked to her daughter in horror, “and they came from dad.”

“Arstis,” Helena clenched her fist. “Why?”

“He said it’s because she’s a traitor. He didn’t even hesitate,” Harmony whimpered. “Mom, what are we going to do? We can’t just abandon her, right?”

“Arstis, why?” Helena shook her head. “You know the truth, so why?”

“I guess you were right, then,” Harmony sat beside her mother. “About the youngest being a witch, I mean,” she took a deep breath. “I still can’t believe that the queen is a witch too. Much less all the things his highness did to all of them.”

“I… I don’t know what to do,” Helena whimpered. “My baby is…” she began to cry.

“Mom…” Harmony frowned. Her worries were interrupted by an abrupt knock from the front door. “Who could that be? Not a customer I hope,” she rose up and went to the door.

“Aria…” Helena whimpered. “Why am I so powerless? It’s just like with Relia,” she gripped her head. “I’m learning everything too late again. And this time…”

“I never thought I’d see you in such a sorry state,” another woman’s voice chuckled, summoning Helena’s head up. Her eyes widened in disbelief.

“P-princess?” She couldn’t believe her eyes as the seeming specter loomed before her. “Princess Veria?”

“It has been a long time, my friend,” Princess Veria smiled. “I hear your daughter is in the middle of this, correct?” Helena slowly nodded. “Then how would you like to come with us and help her?”

It had been many years since her resolve had shattered. Her warrior spirit had been obliterated by so many doubts. The doubts from everything she witnessed during the war with Ethnerta which continued to haunt her. The many truths she learned about her royals. And the death of someone very dear to her. As her princess stood before her, for the first time in years, a defiant will revived in her chest. “Of course, your highness,” she grinned.

Emi_the_Fairy

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their patience with how long it took to finish this book. It's been a long and hard journey, but we're finally here. I hope everyone has enjoyed reading and are looking forward to the fourth and final book when I finally get to releasing it. I'll give more details on that further below.

The Holy Prison has been a part of the story I've wanted to get to for a while. Elise was a character I thought of back when I was writing the first book and she was always going to be one of the more tragic and harsher conflicts that Saya was going to face. Writing all the drama around Elise, her friends, and her past were some of the earliest parts of the book I wrote and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. Relia in comparison was a bit of a later addition to the story. I wanted to give some context to how Zerto and Elesa became involved while also establishing Revalsia. That was around the time I thought of and promptly fell in love with writing Relia. I had a lot of fun writing about her, and I'm excited to get back to her more in the next book.

I'd also like to talk a little bit about the complications I faced when writing The Holy Prison. The Holy Prison was initially intended to be the final book in The Witches of Floroma, but as I wrote it I quickly realized that I had too many things I wanted to include to do that. That left me in a weird position for a bit because I wasn't certain how to fill the book in a satisfying manner, but as I wrote the flashbacks with Relia I quickly found it to be a nonissue again. Noticeably, I had a huge hiatus around the end of Relia's flashback. This was actually due to some complications I ran into with the climax. It was initially lot more rushed and stale than I really wanted it to be. I had a lot more characters running around and some ultimately pointless action that I wound up cutting. I spent several months on the fight with Risia in particular, going from a fight where she had some goons fight the main cast to one where she fought Honey as the latter bought time and it was just a mess. Combine that with pressure from school and the deluge of depressing events in the world at the start of this year and I just found myself struggling for a while. I'm a lot happier with how it turned out in the final version though.

Ultimately, while I had a rough time here and there with this book, I'm still pretty happy with how it came out in the end and I'm happy I get to finally share it with all of you.

As for my future plans.

The fourth and final Witches of Floroma is going to take a while to come out. I want to give myself some time and distance to prevent the burnout I dealt with at the end of this book. I can say that it will be a book focusing on Saya and her family reuniting and confronting Zerto.

As for some other plans, I'm currently working on the second Prism Girls book and I've been making a lot of progress on it lately. I'm excited to finish it and start releasing it. I'd like to see it done and releasing in the next couple months, but it could be sooner or later depending on how motivated I wind up being.

I'm also working on a few other books at the moment, including an isekai of sorts and a space opera. The latter may take a while since its been a dense bit of work.

Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Oops forgot to share one more thing.

Last year I got some artwork of Saya commissioned!

You can find the artist here: https://twitter.com/Onua_tf