#arcana-amicus

I’m not quite sure this is what you were probably looking for, but I wanted to try writing a fairy tale (and the ending was a last minute idea I couldn’t let go of).

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Once upon a time there was an old clockmaker who yearned for a child of his own, but he’d squandered his youthful years on reckless adventures and never found true love or a family.

One day, while he was working in his shop, a mysterious, young maiden dressed all in blue approached him.  Not because she was in particular need of a clock, but because she’d heard tales of his loneliness and sadness from his neighbors and wanted to help.  She asked him out on a walk, so that they could meditate on his woes.

Even though the maiden was a complete stranger, the clockmaker felt oddly calm around her.  He told her everything, about his desire for a family, about how he’d wasted the time he could have used to get one, about his deep regret.

The maiden asked the clockmaker to consider that, perhaps, he didn’t truly regret his life.  He’d had such wonderful adventures, after all.  He may not have gotten everything he desired now, but he hadn’t wanted a family back then, when he was adventuring, either.  It was only after he’d grown older, experienced, and had his fill of wandering the road that he’d started his yearning.  He was not ready back then.

The clockmaker thought about this and realized the maiden was right.  He told her.  She laughed ever so gently.

When they were just about at the end of their walk, the clockmaker and the maiden came across a young, orphan girl begging for pennies with a tin can.  The maiden whispered that not all families happen in the traditional way to the clockmaker and slipped off.  The clockmaker realized what she meant.  He adopted the orphan girl and raised her as his daughter.

When she grew up, the clockmaker’s daughter developed a strong semblance.  She could levitate any object, regardless the weight or density.  She found this out one day, when their cart lost a wheel and fell on her father.  She raised it high into the air without breaking a sweat.

The clockmaker and his daughter would have lived happily ever after if it not for the Lord of their kingdom taking notice of them.  The Lord was building an army to invade a neighboring kingdom.  He wanted people with strong semblances.  He sent his soldiers after the clockmaker’s daughter, to conscript her into his army.

The clockmaker’s heart was broken.  His daughter didn’t want to fight, but the soldiers had threatened to throw him in prison and she’d do anything to protect him.

Months later, the news came that the clockmaker’s daughter had died in battle.

But this was not the truth.  Not quite.

There had been a battle where it looked like she had died, but actually had just been knocked out by the enemy’s champion.  The clockmaker’s daughter was captured, her wounds tended, and taken to the nearest city, where, for a time, she was held prisoner.  She came to know the people living in the city, used her semblance to help them in their day to day lives, and fought to protect them from Grimm attacks.

Soon, she was no longer their prisoner, but their protector.

Eventually, the clockmaker’s daughter came to decide she wanted to return for her father, who she thought of as trapped in a kingdom more restrictive and controlling than the one she’d come to love.

A traveling lady knight, pure of heart and kind of soul, was passing through the city.  She learned of the clockmaker’s daughter’s quest and joined her on it.

Together, they set off on an adventure to save the clockmaker, and, along the way, they fell in love.

…

“So, what happens next?”  The child looks at one of his mothers with expectant eyes.  “On their adventure?”

Ruby boops her son’s nose.  “You’ll just have to wait until tomorrow night to find out.  Go to sleep now, Mica.”

“But I wanna know now,”  Mica complains, although a massive yawn gives away his tiredness.  He looks to his other mom.  “Tell me more, pleeeease?”

Penny kisses his forehead.  “No, it’s time for bed now.”  She gives Mica a conspiratorial wink.  “But tomorrow I’ll do all the different voices you love.  As long as you go to sleep now.”

“Promise?”

Wait, how did the button work again? Push down all the way right- oh no