THE UNDIVINE MAIDEN OF LOVE
Freya hummed to herself as she read through the page about mimics that she was on, all while making notes detailing her latest culinary findings regarding the creature.
An oh-so-familiar voice rang in the witch’s ears, interrupting her reading session. “Reading about monsters again, Sweet Potato?” Freya nearly jumped out of her chair and turned around to glare at Vil, who had a small smile plastered on her face.
“Oh, for the love of-,” she smacks Vil with the book in her hand, “will it kill you to not sneak up on me like that?”
Vil chuckled and took the seat next to her girlfriend. “Oh, but I couldn’t find it in me to break your concentration. Seeing you focus like that is almost too adorable for me to interrupt.” Freya widened her eyes and turned her head away from Vil, avoiding both her lilac eyes and smug smile.
The blonde-lavender housewarden looks at the book once again, seeing the title‘Monsters and Beasts Across Twisted Wonderland’and replying with, “I still don’t understand how researching monsters always seems to fascinate you?”
Freya simply shrugged and responded, “I’m not really sure myself. Maybe it’s because of how they are almost always able to create so many ecosystems within a dungeon and sustain it for as long as they have. Or maybe how well they can work as subsitutions for everyday ingredients?” She looks at the illustrated mimic with a small smile. “Maybe I sound like a crazy person.”
Vil only smiled at her partner, “You honestly do sound crazy, but you also sound like you care about this. So who am I to judge you?”
“I’ll give you a pass for honesty,” Freya chuckled as she glanced at the time on her phone, “damn, I should get back to Ramshackle.”
“Really? It’s only been a couple of hours after classes ended,” Vil checked the time as well.
The young witch got up and stretched her back, “Yeah, but I’m on dinner duty tonight, and I would like to get a head start before the Sun sets completely. Let me put the book back, and I’ll just check the others out.”
With that, Freya left her girlfriend with her stuff as she went to return the‘Monsters and Beasts Across Twisted Wonderland’book to the shelf where she got it. As she does so, she lets out a sigh, looking at the practically bookmarked page on mimics. “Gods, what I wouldn’t do to cook a mimic right now, she muttered to herself, “I think I’m just craving shellfish.”
Freya carefully placed the book back in its place on the shelf and was ready to leave the aisle, only to hear a thud! Initially, she thought that someone had dropped a book, only to realize that this book had fallen behind her and she was the only one there.
Quickly, she turned her head to confirm that no one was there, but there was a book that fell on the floor, landing right on the spine and opening to a random page. Freya looked through the hole where the book fell from and saw no one on the other side.
Then…how did this book fall?
Freya slowly and carefully grabbed the book from the floor. The page it landed on felt rather familiar to her, but she couldn’t figure out why. She’s never seen this book until today.
“Sweet Potato?”
Vil’s voice was laced with concern and was what snapped Freya out of her curiosity trance. She closed the book and ran out of the aisle back to the table she was at.
“Is everything alright?” Vil asked.
“Uh…,” struggling to find the words, Freya shook her head before answering, “Y-Yeah. Sorry. I saw another book that I wanted to check out.” She quickly grabbed the other two books recommended to her before making a beeline to have them checked out.
Vil wasn’t a fool. She could tell that something was going on with Freya. But she only dismissed it as Freya not wanting to postpone making dinner for her dorm any more than she already had.
“It’d be best to leave Liebling alone for now,” she quietly told herself before leaving the library.
Unaware to both dorm leaders, something was watching them both as they left, or more specifically, watching Freya as she left. The shadowy creature’s sea green eyes were filled with determination after watching Freya check out the book that they had made fall.
“Mmm…I hope I have finally found my chosen,” the creature said, suppressing a yawn.
Closing the door behind her, Freya made a beeline to her bed and fell face-first. “Sooo tired,” she managed to groan. Days like this make the witch grateful that the next day was a weekend, meaning no school at the very least.
She felt something hop on her bed and looked up to see her cat Bastet sitting right in front of her. Bastet placed one of her paws on her mistress while giving her a look that only a disappointed mother would give their child. “Need I remind you of the unfinished homework you still have, mistress?”
“Oh, you worry too much, Bastet,” Freya replied. “I have enough time to finish what I need to do. Besides, I did a good amount of it while in the library after class ended.”
All Bastet could do was sigh at her young mistress. She should’ve expected much from Freya after being with her so long. “Besides,” Freya continued, “I plan on taking a bath before I even touch the homework, anyway.”
That was when Buttons, her other familiar, perked up from his bed, looking at the window. Whoah! Cool!”
Both the witch and the cat turned their attention to Buttons. “Buttons, I swear if it’s another bird,” Bastet grumbled. But the owl griffin quickly shook his head, “Nah, I don’t think so. It looks too big to be any birds around here.”
“Huh? Bigger than the birds around here?”
“A lot bigger. And…heading straight this way, too.”
Freya quickly got up from her bed to look out the window and saw that Buttons was right. Something was coming towards her window. And faster than she liked. “Shit!” She exclaimed as she hurried to undo the latch, opening her window.
It was record time, too, as the unknown creature dove face-first into her bed, almost breaking it in the process. Freya and her familiars all released a sigh in relief, which quickly turned into panic as they realized that the creature that crashed into the room wasn’t just any other creature, but a baby dragon with violet scales and sleepy sea-green eyes.
“…”
“…”
“…”
Bastet was the first to shout, “A baby dragon?! Why is there a baby dragon on campus? Where’s its mother? Is she far behind? What in the world is happening?”
Buttons, unlike his companion, looked at the sleeping baby dragon with curiosity. “They look pretty harmless.”
“That’s because they’re asleep,” Bastet retorted. “Has it been sleeping this whole time?” The black cat slowly raised her paw to poke the sleeping dragon. Right move to make or not, it woke the violet dragon up from its nap.
Freya and her familiars took some steps back as they watched the dragon yawn and rub its sea-green eyes. “Mmmm…,” the baby dragon groaned. “And I was having a fun dream, too. Hmm?” The dragon looked up to see a confused Freya, along with her equally confused black cat and owl griffin.
Once her eyes landed on Freya, they widened with joy and hope. “I finally found you! My Maiden!” The dragon jumped into Freya’s arms and snuggled her once comfortable.
“Eh? A Maiden? Just what are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you read that book that dropped?”
“I didn’t get to read-,” Freya froze, realizing what the dragon just said. “You knew about the book I found on the library floor? Were you the reason it dropped?”
The violet dragon shook their head, “Not exactly. That was more Page’s fault.”
“Who’s Page?”
“Hmm? Oh! I’m getting ahead of myself.” The baby dragon hopped off Freya’s arms and stood on her bed. “Let me explain. My name is Primrose, the fairy guardian of love,e and you…wait, what was your name?”
“Freya. Freya Grimoire.”
“Right, thanks. You, Freya Grimoire, have been chosen to be the new Maiden of Love~!”
“…the Maiden of what now?”
Primrose explained further, “Maiden of Love. I probably should explain after the gem claims you. But where did I…?” She looked around the bed and floor for this gem but turned up empty-handed. “I lost it.”
“Eh?”
“I lost the Gem of Love,” Primrose announced in a deflated tone. “I’m so gonna get nagged for this~.”
Buttons asked, “Well, where’d you have it last?”
Primrose pondered, looking at the ceiling and trying to remember. “I had it…in my hands…in that cave close by.”
Freya perked up, hearing the word ‘cave’. “Was there a cottage close to this cave?”
“Now that I think about it, yeah, there was. A cottage fit for dwarves. How’d you know?”
“I’ve been around and inside this mine. It’s known as the Dwarfs’ Mine around here,” Freya explained to the fairy guardian.
Bastet got between Primrose and Freya, facing the latter. “H-Hold on. Mistress, don’t tell me you actually believe what this Primrose is actually saying!” It’s natural for the black cat to be worried; anyone in her position would voice their concern. But not Freya. Sometimes being a fae has its perks, like knowing when a creature, beast, or human is lying straight to her face.
And nothing Primrose has said so far has been a lie.
Freya smiled and pet Bastet, “Tell you what. You come with the two of us to the Dwarfs’ Mine as extra security for me.” Not like she needed the extra protection, but she needed her level-headed familiar, and this would ease the poor dear’s mind.
Bastet gives a small nod, “I will come and help my mistress with whatever she may need.”
Buttons joined in shouting how he wished to join the fun and see the mines again. Freya chuckled and agreed. She then turned her attention back to Primrose, “Let’s get that gem of yours.”
After finally reaching the cave, Freya cast a small light spell just so everyone could see ahead. “Right, so while we’re looking, mind telling me what exactly a Maiden of Love is?”
Primrose quickly answered back, “A Maiden of Love is someone who is both pure of heart and is the perfect embodiment of love itself.”
This made Freya and her familiars look at each other as they remembered some of Freya’s … less than pure of heart moments during her time in Night Raven. Is she sure she has the right witch? They all thought at the same time. Buttons even asked her as much, to which Primrose only nodded her head. “We fairy guardians are never wrong when it comes to our Maidens.”
Bastet interjected, “Putting that aside, what does this Gem of Love even look like?”
“It’s a rose quartz, but it’s in the shape of a heart.”
That made sense, Freya thought. Rose quartz is known as the infamous stone of unconditional love, so it would make sense for the Maiden of Love’s gem to be that.
The dragon sniffed around, trying to remember where she had left it last. Finally, it looked like she found whatever scent she was searching for and started bolting further down the mine. “I found it,” was the only thing she yelled while still running up ahead.
“Hey, wait up,” Freya chased after Primrose, into an all-too-familiar route that she’s seen twice before today.
Finally, Primrose stopped in front of a heart-shaped rose quartz that was lying on a medium-sized rock. “This is it. The Gem of Love.” She carefully picked up the gem and handed it to Freya. The moment Freya touched it, the gem glowed a soft pink light, as if it recognized her as its new owner.
“The mana within the gem alone...,” exclaimed Bastet.
Buttons finished with, “It’s beautiful.”
Freya held up the gem in the air before smiling at Primrose, who was holding in a yawn. She pets the dragon, “Looks like I got a fairy guardian as a new roommate.”
That got the sleepy dragon’s cute little tail wagging. “Great, once we get back to Ramshackle, the first thing for you is to learn about everything you need to know. Like origins, your du…ties..”
Primrose fell over and was sound asleep in the middle of talking. Freya caught her before she could hit the rocky ground. The young witch chuckled and picked the now sleeping dragon up. She’s just like Silver, she thought.
“Let’s go home,” Freya said. As she and her familiars were about to walk back to the entrance, they heard something they never thought they’d hear again.
“Miiiiineeee…stooooones….”
Everyone froze, slowly turning around to see a Phantom Miner, clutching its signature pickaxe. But this Phantom Miner looked different. It had red and green clothing stitched together, its lantern had a green light, and even its glass head filled with blot looked like it was glued together.
Bastet hissed and Buttons growled at the sight of this phantom Frankenstein, but Freya was the first to attack. She shouted, “Ignis!” But a large fireball didn’t leave even a scratch on this monster.
“Yep, that didn’t work,” Freya muttered to herself. “Head back to the entrance!” Her, Bastet, and Buttons bolted towards the entrance with the patched phantom followed right behind them.
“Stoooones aaare miiiiine! Giiiiiiveeeee….!”
Buttons shouted, “I thought there were only two of those things!”
“So did I!” She shouted back.How the hell is there a miner still alive? That patchwork…did someone bring them both back to life?,she thought, looking back at the patchwork done on the phantom.
Soon, after running almost halfway near the entrance, Primrose hummed, “Mmm…morning already…?”
Buttons noticed Primrose waking up first, “Glad you woke up because we have a problem! A phantom-sized one!”
Primrose turned her head to see the phantom chasing the four of them, “No kidding.”
“Worst part is that the mistress’s magic isn’t working on it!”
“Giiiveeee stooooneeee…!”
The little dragon sighs, “Looks like we may have to start our Maiden lessons earlier than planned. Freya, insert some of your mana into the rose quartz and create your own chant! That’ll complete the connection.”
Freya nodded her head and did just that, but just enough mana to be connected fully. For her chant, she shouted, “Do o ia Freya, imple cor meum agape et liceat me transformare!” Once she finished her incantation, the rose quartz once again shone a soft pink light, but one that also engulfed Freya & nearly blinded everyone else in the cave.
Once the light disappeared, Freya was wearing a completely differentoutfit. It reminded her of what Aurora wore as Briar Rose, but made for a witch, complete with a traditional witch hat, to complete the outfit. Even her hair had the same bouncy curls that Aurora wore. The Gem of Love was now being worn as the jewel for a pink lace choker. “Whoa…,” she glanced at what she was now wearing before turning her attention back on the patched-up phantom.
At this point, they all made it outside the mine, and the phantom miner wasn’t too far behind. “Right, what now?”
“Mini lesson number two: abilities. You have the powers of the Three Good Fairies, which means some of your powers are connected to nature and its elements,” Primrose quickly explained.
Freya nodded her head, “Got it?” She held out her hands, an unfamiliar pink magic circle appeared, but she ignored it for now and shouted, “Fulminimens!”
Just as the phantom miner raised its pickaxe, aiming for Freya and her animal companions, a pink bolt of lightning appeared from the magic circle and hit the monster square in the chest. The lightning attack caused it to fall backward, dropping its lantern and pickaxe in the process.
Freya took deep breaths, trying to process what had just happened. “Holy shit…” She slowly walked towards the fallen monster, seeing how much the spell damaged it. There was a hole in its clothing where the lightning hit, and there are more cracks in its glass head, making puddles of blot leaking out.
But it was still alive. It managed to gurgle out,“Stooooneeee….giiiiiveeee baaaackkk….”
Wanting to put the poor reanimated monster out of its misery, Freya grabbed its pickaxe and smashed its glass head with it, officially killing it. Eating some of the blot inside, the new Maiden of Love said to the monster’s corpse, “May you both finally rest in peace.”
She then threw the pickaxe to the side, “Let’s go home.Ad normalem.” The chant she just used was what allowed her to return to her uniform, but the Gem of Love remained as a choker. Buttons yawned, “Thank you. I wanna go back to sleep.”
Primrose agreed, “You said it, Mr. Buttons.”
“Just Buttons will do, Primrose.”
While walking the forest path back to Ramshackle, Freya caught something at the corner of her eye: a treasure chest that she could’ve swore wasn’t there when she first came out here. And she could’ve swore that she just saw the “treasure chest” move slightly to the left, thinking it was too quick for her.
It was a shame that she wasn’t a greedy fool.
Not wanting to waste any more time or sleep, Freya casted a quick lightning spell on the “chest”, causing it to let out a piercing shriek of pain as it was electrocuted to death. From the now open crack of the chest lid, she could see something blue peeking out, what would most likely be the pincher of the mimic that resided in the chest.
“Well then,” the new Maiden of Love turns to her three familiars with a bright smile, “it looks like we have lunch for tomorrow figured out.”
