#sua fantasy

Deep within the thicket of the forest, before the moss-covered monolith stood Bora. A withered piece of parchment fluttered under the grip of her fingers while a curved silver dagger was held in her left hand. She wore a strange, concerning expression. Her gaze, laser-focused on the altar before her, was controlled yet obsessively desperate.

The sight of her was appalling.

Porcelain skin was marred with scars and cuts, purpling circles under her eyes accompanied with unkempt hair and hollowed cheeks. And her clothes; what was once expensive leather armour, stitched by expert hands, had been reduced to tatters, wrinkled and sodden with dirt and sweat. Above it all, under the presence of the eclipsed moon, she was coloured a crude shade of crimson akin to fresh blood.

Tonight will be the night she’d see you again.

For months, Bora roamed the halls of her royal library, turning pages until her fingers bled and reading line upon line of words until her head spun. Without a moment of rest, she researched for a way to bring you back to her. Her servant maids cried at her unruly appearance and begged for her to eat, while the royal court scorned her for ignoring her duties and plotted to dethrone her. With your opal pendant around her neck, none of it worried her because when you return to her side, everything will be at balance again.

She’d come close, frustratingly close, at finding you. However, you always managed to slip away from her grasp.

The first time had been on a sombre, windless night. In the large castle grounds, flames of amber and vermilion danced brightly at the hearth. Amongst the warm scent of oak firewood, she caught glimpses of your fragrance; lavender dew soap mixed with a touch of fresh soil. Tears came to Bora’s eyes as she reminisced about your touch. The smooth skin of your cheeks and lips rested on her collar to the roughness of your calloused palms from many years on the battlefield. Every inhale was overwhelming, your scent and the responding memories stronger than the one before, slowly building up as the fire grew.

But you never came.

In fact, embers sparked and crackled before bursting into colours of fire Bora had never witnessed. Taking a step back, she watched in horror as all her work literally erupted, before being snuffed out by a mystical gust of wind that chilled her to the bone. Squinting at the charred wood, she crinkled the stolen piece of parchment and threw it into the hearth. Lingering sparks caught the sheet and consumed it before resuming the calm night, unlike the tempest of despair raging in Bora’s mind.

Though the attempt showed no promising results, the enchantment Bora had used had been a success; you were there that night, she just knew it! So she returned to the library and navigated the ancient book she’d torn the page from to try once more.

This time Bora stood at the tallest spire of her castle, glistening under the light of the crescent moon. With a talisman – your opal necklace – in one hand and salt in the other, she recited an enchantment in a language long forgotten. Then she waited patiently with her eyes closed, listening and feeling the biting draught that passed the stone walls. At the touch of a delicate finger kissing her knuckles, Bora’s eyelids flew wide open. It was for nought because there was no apparition of you, instead, she was left with a low whistle carried by the howling wind which was awfully alike to your humming. Disheartened, she closed her fingers around your opal pendant. It was warm to the touch, emanating a soft glow.

Maybe the night hadn’t been a waste! That had to mean something!

Slowly and steadily, Bora found herself casting more spells, refining herself and learning. One could say she was adept at the skill, another could argue it had developed into an addiction.

Bora depleted all the magic she’d come across, wasted every ingredient, and chanted every spell in search of you– in an attempt to see you one last time.

And see you, she did.

They were fleeting moments; your form cast by sunlight filtering through the clouds, finding your vague shape constructed by ocean foam, and felt your commanding but patient presence lingering by her shoulder as she walked down the castle halls. The last was the most painful, it was those moments that broke Bora – drove her insane, because she knew it, she knew you were there!

But she could never trust her senses. Her desperation transcended the simple spells she learned– No, she needed proof! Something more significant than her sightings.

Then one day, having taken a liking to the room in the spire, she sat surrounded by torn parchment and used materials. Bora had stayed up all night and was captivated by the sunrise. Across the room, a majestic mirror with clawed feet and a golden frame stood upright. Its molten border was intricately designed, depicting three hooded women with threads of gold connecting them. It had been tossed into this forgotten room because the mirror had always unsettled Bora. Rightfully so because she definitely caught your fleeting image crossing it only to vanish as soon as she looked.

For once, Bora used her own wits before jumping to tattered pages. Her eyes never left the rising sun as she waited, feeling out the room as your necklace warmed her collar. One low creak had Bora snapping her head to the mirror just as fist shrouded in shadows smashed the glass. Shards erupted and clattered beside Bora, who scrambled back for fear of getting cut.

Once her haggard breathing stopped, Bora’s mind began its whirring; book titles and whispered cautionary tales flashed past her eyes. There was something more at play here – something greater than her weak attempts at magic.

Bora found herself in the library again, and before she knew it, in a mirror dimension. Suddenly, there were unexplored worlds, unspoken enchantments, and unlimited resources for her to gain. Her cycle began again, she ventured worlds that no ordinary mind could conjure, witnessed creatures beyond her imagination, but most of all encountered a magic-user like herself though the old woman preferred to call herself a necromancer.

After a cup of brewed tea and charming words, Bora had a spell that was promised to work. Seeing the gleam in Bora’s eyes, the necromancer had offered her warnings. That her promise, her ambition to travel the edges of the world, or to the moon and back could become her ruining. What is the moon when one has witnessed the wonders she has, Bora thought to herself but she didn’t say a word except for goodbye.

As soon as the eclipse arrived, she dived deep into the woods behind her castle.

The forest was silent save for a few hoots of an owl, buzzing of insects, rustling leaves, and a distant growl of a large animal. Bora stumbled her way through dense roots before arriving at the altar. A slab of stone, upright and covered with rich green moss which was tinted brown under the darkened sky. In front of it placed was your necklace, the opal pendant reflecting a fascinating amalgamation of colours. On every face of the monolith, there was a symbol drawn in blood glowing faintly after completion.

Under the towering evergreen and the eclipsed moon, stood Bora. Soiled parchment stuffed into her pocket, her dirtied silver dagger glinting by her feet while she clutched her bleeding forearm. Her expression was pained but undaunted. So screwing her eyes shut, Bora began whispering an otherworldly enchantment.

At first, there was silence – the rumbling of the forest had come to a stop. Then the skin around her arm began to prickle before searing pain shot up through Bora’s arm. Gasping, she opened her eyes to see beads of crimson getting soaked up into the earth and moss. Tears cleared a trail down Bora’s cheek as she kept chanting through the pain, as trees began to rustle again, violently.

The breeze of the night turned into a chilling torrent, amassing leaves as it circled the monolith and the necromancer before it. Bora gulped as she watched wet earth clump together and roll past her feet, collecting cracked twigs and crushed leaves. Slowly and surely, the shape of a human body formed leaving Bora gawking. Rising up with it was your opal pendant, which now rested around a neck retaining colour. Then your features formed as if being sculpted by a phantom artist.

Bora’s temple ached when her eyes widened. She couldn’t believe it. There you were, real, solid, formed from clay and her blood.

Speechless with awe, Bora opted to observe you. Your eyes flutter open, taking a moment to familiarize yourself with the darkness before shifting your gaze to your bare toes and then stiff fingers. Calmly, you turned your palms, your fingertips floated above them, afraid to caress the newly formed skin. Once contact was made, you couldn’t help but stroke the curve of your face, dragging it down to the fall of your neck and picking up the pendant hanging there.

All Bora felt was elation, but she couldn’t comprehend the expression you wore.

You were biting your lip, eyebrows drawn together while your hand gripped your pendant. Bora’s breath hitched at the pressure you applied, it formed minuscule fractures along your knuckles.

“Y/N–” Bora’s cracked voice stopped before it could begin once she caught your pained stare.

“What did you do?” Was all you said, rubbing your neck as anguish blazed in your irises, akin to the hearth where she’d tried to summon you. Bora opened her mouth to explain herself, but was interrupted again. “This isn’t right, Bora. This–”

You hesitated as you let your hands fall to study them again. They were hairless and unblemished by your years of toil, you’d say they were just smooth but no skin is poreless. At the junction where your fingers met your palm, there were cracks, spiderwebbed to form the lines of a hand.

“What did–”

“I found you, I finally found you,” Bora said, the back of her hand pressed to her lips as more tears and blood spilt. Stammering and choking on tears, Bora continued, voice increasing when she saw your gaze flitting away, “We can finally be together again, this– this way you can be my side again!”

“What are you talking about, Bora?”

“I can’t– I can’t do this without you!” Bora shrieked, no doubt scaring creatures lurking in the night. With an emotionless expression, you watched the trees behind her. Bora raked a hand down her face before muttering, “You have to return… Our kingdom, our citizens, those irritating royals! I can make this work! This form–!”

“Do you hear yourself?” you hissed, shaken by the state of your loved one, glimpsing at the ground. “What have–”

“I know you were there!” Bora screamed before stopping completely to allow the sobs to pass through her quaking shoulders. After she collected herself, she began, a hint of betrayal tinged in her voice. “You were there, I could feel you. In the fire, the tower, the mirror. But you didn’t … want to be?” When you stayed silent, Bora connected the pieces for you, “You sent that gust of wind to put out my spell. At the tower, you held my hand and then… the mirror. You broke it?”

The last one came out more of a question in disbelief than an accusatory statement like Bora had intended. She waited for you to say something but all you did was toy with that opal and stare off into the woods. Hanging her head low, Bora fell to her knees before you.

“Can’t you just come back to me… ” Then, with a choked sob, she asked, “Please?”

“It wasn’t me.”

The silent confession had Bora tilting her head up, the confusion clear as day.

“It wasn’t me. I never did… any of that.” You squinted at the rustling forest, the branches dancing to the wind as leaves scattered to the ground then caught Bora’s distraught stare. “It was you.”

Bora, being the educated ruler of a great kingdom, now well-versed with forgotten languages and witchcraft, eloquently said, “Huh?”

A chuckle quickly transformed into a cough as you cleared your throat. Taking Bora’s shoulders, you pulled her to your height and held her scarred palms in your unmarked ones.

“It was you, who else could it be? At every attempt, your raw emotions, your ambition – your passion – stopped you from hurting yourself. I mean look around you!” Bora glanced at the rowdy forest but didn’t pay it much mind. She attempted to interject, but you were already a step ahead, “Wondering about the mirror?”

Bora was a woman of company, there was never a quiet moment with her… at least when you were alive. So the sight of her being slack-jawed had a smile forming on your lips, though it vanished quickly when you spoke.

“Dead people are gone. Lost. They–” You pursed your lips before cautiously continuing. “We have no corporeal forms, we’re powerless. I couldn’t harm a fly even if I wanted to. I mean, even now,” you slightly raised Bora’s palms to gesture. “I’m only here because of you. Watch.”

You lifted your index finger, waved it in the air until Bora followed it like a cat would a beam of light before brushing her cut. She hissed but remained still under your touch before gasping. A small part of the cut began stitching together skin, the blood finally slowing to a stop as colour returned to her arm, all that remained was a flesh wound. However, when your gaze moved to your hand, you watched the cracks deepen as your skin turned to the colour of stone.

“There’s some power within you, some magic, something strong, that you’ve awakened.” Your movements were slow, but you ignored them and drew Bora closer to you. “You’ve cultivated it in such a short period and for me! Could you even imagine how you could help our people?”

You paused to look over the forest, and Bora followed you. This deep within the woods, the kingdom wasn’t visible but the two of you could envision the flickering lights, the horse-drawn carriages, and the worn streets with tired merchants. What you could see was your home, your castle to the north, and the tallest spire you often visited and now Bora resided in, looking majestic and haunting under the eclipse.

Exhaling, you tilted your head to the sky as you said, “The dead cannot cross over to the living again, it’s not possible… it’s not permanent.” You smirked, bringing your greying hand up. “There’s a balance that must be maintained.”

Bora bit her lips and shied away from your gaze, fully aware that you were right.

“I never left you,” you said beneath a whisper, as your hand closed around the pendant again. “My presence you said you felt… Do you always carry my pendant with you?”

“Don’t even remove it when I bathe,” Bora said, wearing a proud grin.

“Do you even bathe anymore?” Bora barked a sardonic laugh as you chuckled, taking a moment to cherish your banter before becoming serious. “But that must be what you felt, my pendant.”

There was a moment of silence between the two of you as Bora allowed the weight of her realization to wash over her.

Instead of drawing her in, this time, you stepped away from the symbols she’d drawn. Instantly, you felt the energy drain away so you made quick work of what you wanted to do. Unclasping the necklace, you secured it around her neck and centred it right below her chin. Her eyes were glassy as she looked at you, her hand mindlessly reaching for the pendant.

“I’ll always be with you, Bora.” You offered a grim smile, pointedly avoiding her gaze under the pretence of fixing her hair while Bora couldn’t tear her gaze away from you. Taking the back of her neck, you drew her in and pressed your lips gently to her forehead and mumbled into them, “Always.”

When Bora had opened her eyes, you were gone. Despite your absence, a warmth emitted from inside her closed palm. As the eclipse came to an end, a lonesome tear fell as a small smile graced Bora’s lips. Now, she really did know that you were there, right beside her.

any feedback is much appreciated.

a/n: i loved writing this one hehehe. once again, happy spoopy day !