Moon of New Beginnings, 1068 AR

  ***

  Nicola, in the guise of Holda, admired herself in the mirror. She was draped in colorful fabric with red and white floral motifs on a black background, with a black sash tied it around her waist. She lifted her arms and turned around, inspecting every single angle as her long silver hair flowed freely over her shoulder. She pondered tying it up in a bun and keeping it in place with an ornamental hair pin before, but she preferred the open looks of her long hair in this particular disguise. The clothes she wore were called a kimono, a furisode to be precise, and the sash an obi. These were clothing items from Hifumi’s world for festive occasions.

  Today, she promised to accompany Hifumi on a New Year’s shrine visit in her world, and this would in fact be the first time she visited her world in person. She was a little bit nervous about stepping outside of her domain, but she was as prepared as she could be.

  Hifumi, however, seems to be a little bit obsessed with Holda.

  When Hifumi approached Nicola to propose the shrine visit, she insisted on having her go as Holda. ‘I want to go on a date with a cute JK’, were her words.

  “I really don’t know why she seems so obsessed with this disguise in particular…” Nicola sighed. She had to concede, however, that she was cute, wearing these fabrics in the guise of the young weaver.

  Her contemplations were interrupted by the sound of bells. Alarm bells, coming from the city below.

  ***

  After hastily disrobing and changing forms, Nicola ascended the stairs to her workshop as the aristocrat, Madame Bille. From here, she would have the best view of her city to assess the situation and decide on a course of action. Just as she opened the door, she saw an explosion erupting right in front of her window; a long-range fireball, caught by the castle’s magic barriers. It took a moment for the view to clear up again, and she didn’t like what she saw in the slightest.

  Across the river, surrounding the fort from which grain and other produce from the farms were shipped to the city during the warmer months, there were large formations of soldiers. At this distance she couldn’t identify them clearly, but she saw wide usage of white in their uniforms.

  A bit further behind, another formation of similarly clothed soldiers in black stood. Obviously they were the spellcasters, as they were flinging more fireballs in the direction of her castle. Some strayed and threatened to hit the city’s buildings, but elven mages on standby intercepted the projectiles.

  “Now who’s so rudely interrupting my preparations for my date with my beloved?” Nicola asked with a little bite in her voice.

  Bernuil, the dwarven captain of the outer defense fort, looked over the battlements, assessing the situation. Three regiments of enemy soldiers were placed out of range of his garrison’s ranged weapons. They all looked like they were armed with spears, dressed in white robes with fine golden filigree work. They wore large conical helmets hiding their faces and stood perfectly still, like they were statues. The regiments behind them were of more concern right now: They were dressed in black, with the same helmets. They were equipped with bows and enough arrows for each of them, as well as an arming sword, but right now they were all focused on casting spells. Fireballs, to be precise. They shot straight towards Romystedt, where the city’s elven mages intercepted them, or they crashed into the magic barriers of the castle.

  A loud sound of thunder erupted right next to Bernuil and he flinched before he cursed in his ancestral language.

  “Arn-kara garok! Bloody hell, I hate it when you do that!”

  He cleared his throat before he looked away from the person who just teleported right next to him and added “Madame”.

  Madame Bille appeared amused by his words, so that was at least something positive. She wore a red-and-black uniform with silver embroidery and a black cloak draped over her shoulders. The uniform was a long one, so he could only see leather boots poking out from under the hem of her outfit. A longsword was sheathed on her hip, and she looked out over the battlements to take a good long look at the invaders.

  The sight of her didn’t fill Bernuil with confidence: this crimson uniform was her war dress, when she got serious. He only saw her don it once in the past two hundred years, and the results weren’t pretty. For the people who threatened Romystedt, that was.

  “Interesting. I don’t see any heraldry that would identify these forces as those of one of our neighbors. So we should assume the worst,” the Madame said, turning to Bernuil.

  “Do not engage them with the city watch, I will take care of this with my own forces.”

  Bernuil grimaced – the wooden men were a great asset for the city’s defense, but he still felt useless whenever he got sidelined in favor of their deployment.

  “Surely we can support you in some capacity, Madame?”

  “No,” she said with a little smile.

  “I cannot allow you in harm’s way, when this is probably the consequences of my own actions.”

  Bernuil sighed and relented – as the Madame raised her right hand and snapped her fingers.

  ***

  The people of Romystedt took shelter in their homes, while a hundred elven mages stood on the city-spanning wall, intercepting any and all fireballs that came rushing their way. Uncertainty spread through the population about what was going to happen, but soon relief came, as a shudder went through every building, and a thousand wooden bodies awoke to move with a singular purpose. Crates were opened from the inside in every warehouse in the city, and the ‘woodmen’ left their storage spaces. They marched down the streets, all of them carrying halberds, or pikes, or matchlock rifles, and all of them were headed for one of the many towers erected along the city walls, as the citizens of Romystedt looked on, knowing themselves safe.

  Once inside, the woodmen ascended the spiral staircases and filled the towers to the brim, where they waited, surrounded by arcane runes covering the tower interiors from top to bottom.

  The fort’s gates opened noisily, with heavy chains lowering the drawbridge over the moat, dug around the fort from the river. Nicola patiently waited until it was lowered entirely before she walked across at a brisk pace, right towards the centermost of the enemy regiments. She saw all the soldiers’ heads turn her way at once, but otherwise they remained motionless.

  Like my wooden men. Or worse.

  After a few minutes of walking through the thinly snow-covered fields, she stood right in front of the first row of soldiers, with their conical helmets. Only now she saw the holes for pointy ears which protruded, marking the soldiers as elves.

  Men and women alike looked at her like empty puppets, star-shaped earrings dangling from the right ear of every single one of them.

  Don’t tell me…

  “I wish to parlay with your leader.” Nicola addressed one of the soldiers.

  There was no response for a long time, and Nicola was about to call off the negotiations, just as the soldier who stood right in front of her shivered and shook as if he was being possessed. He regarded her again, this time with glowing, amethyst eyes.

  “Oath-breaker. Betrayer. Witch,” were the first words he spoke, and Nicola understood. She narrowed her eyes but remained courteous as she continued to speak.

  “High Enchantress. Apologies for not making the connection sooner. The fair lady who gave me my strings was your mother, then?”

  “You broke your oath. You played no music, you only sought control and brought death.”

  “You should be fair: I did play music until a vile demigod murdered the one person I cared about,” Nicola responded in a sharp tone.

  “I do not care. Mother has passed on two decades ago, and by taking her throne I intend to clear any stain on her honor, by punishing transgressions she did not.”

  Well, she had a thousand years to do so. If she never got around to it, maybe she didn’t mind? There must be another reason.

  Nicola tried to figure out what it could be, but the soldier spoke again.

  “We will raze your city, kill everyone inside and make you watch before locking your immortal body away in the oubliette. Someone who perverts a gift from the heavens like this deserves nothing less.”

  And this is why I hate people who consider themselves gods. Though, for a blessing, it appears they haven’t realized I’m mortal again.

  Nicola took a few steps away from the regiment of soldiers.

  “You can try. But you won’t find me easy prey, High Enchantress.”

  After her words a cackle erupted from the possessed man. It persisted, and soon the entire regiment fell in.

  “No easy prey? You, who never even claimed a single life with your minions during your impotent attacks on Earth?”

  Nicola blinked, and looked at the soldier, utterly dumbfounded. Then she laughed, too. And laughed. And laughed. It was the closest to an evil cackle she had ever done, mocking the High Enchantress with her laughter.

  “You had no idea! I see!”

  She drew her longsword, pointing it at the possessed soldier.

  “My dear High Enchantress… I fear you made a terrible mistake, sending your puppets this way.”

  She raised her left hand, and the black-robed spellcasters in the back attempted to stop her by raining fireballs down on her. She was engulfed in a storm of fire, and a casual observer might have been convinced that she was slain, yet she emerged unharmed, amulets carved from rowan glowing on her necklace. She snapped her fingers, and loud thunder was heard as formations of marionettes teleported in and surrounded the invaders. They immediately opened with a volley of flintlock fire from the front rows, felling a few of the invaders in the process, then pikes were readied, and the marionettes closed in, encircling every enemy regiment.

  “You confused theater with reality, like a child.”

  ***

  Bernuil could barely watch as the marionettes made short work of the under-equipped invaders, that’s how unfair the battle appeared. Their bodies made from otherworldly wood made them far more resilient against magic, and even if an elven soldier managed to get across the pikes and slash a marionette, they had to smash them, and separate their limbs from their bodies to actually take them out. The woodmen could shrug off hits which would kill a flesh and blood soldier, and the invaders’ poor strategy did the rest. Without pikes of their own or firearms, with their magic weakened, they had no answer. They couldn’t engage a pike formation.

  He saw the Madame, dressed in red and wielding her longsword. She could have simply sat still and enjoyed the massacre, but instead she was in the thick of it. Arms and sometimes heads went flying, but most of the time she aimed to yank those strange helmets off the elven soldiers, and every time she did so, the elves surrendered, as if the helmets were the only thing keeping them fighting. They were dragged through the rows of wooden soldiers and gathered in the rear as prisoners.

  Bernuil noted how eerily quiet the entire battle was. There was only the sound of metal: metal hitting metal, metal hitting flesh and bone, metal hitting wood. The only screams were those of the elves who were injured and had their helmets removed, but the helmeted ones kept as quiet as their marionette adversaries.

  The strange show continued until no one was left to oppose the Madame.

  Bernuil stepped over the corpses of elves, sighing at the sight as he approached the Madame, who stood solemnly in the middle of the carnage left behind by the marionettes. Now that the bloody work was done, the wooden men gathered the strange crescent and star-shaped earrings from every single elf invader, piling them up next to their mistress. She held one of the conical helmets in her hands, turning it around as she inspected it.

  “I acted too fast, Bernuil,” she admitted as he approached her. She tossed the helmet his way, saying “Look inside” after he cast her a quizzical glance.

  He did and saw a small needle protruding from the inside of the helmet, where it would sit flush against the forehead.

  “Poison needles, just like those used to create the ‘Enraged’, her sister’s minions. They waged war, using Tokyo and its inhabitants as game pieces, all to determine their line of succession, as well as the best method to create an army to consolidate power.”

  She sighed and spread her arms wide, turning around and presenting the field of dead, injured and imprisoned elves.

  “She had her sister killed by Sol’s hand! All only to incorporate her methods anyway!”

  She let her shoulders hang and held her forehead.

  “If I didn’t act so fast, I could have set them all free instead. They were slaves, Bernuil!”

  Bernuil considered her words and put the helmet down. As captain of the guard, he was privileged to be informed about the situation outside of Romystedt, and even their entire world – and what the Madame had been laboring towards these past decades. The concepts ‘Tokyo’ and ‘High Enchantress’ were known to him, as well as the implications of her words.

  “That’s the reality of war, Madame. Be glad for the ones who still live and give the dead a proper burial, then be more careful the next time, now that you know. It’s all we as people can do, even those as powerful as you.”

  Madame Bille sighed and nodded, then she offered him a smile.

  “See, Bernuil, this is why I keep you around. You’re keeping me grounded.”

  “Heh. Happy to be of service,” he said with a dismissive wave before he looked at the pile of earrings.

  “The magic foci of their soldiers. Just like the ones the Celestial Sisters used,” Madame Bille answered his unspoken question.

  “Hm. What are you going to do with them?”

  The Madame wore a large smirk on her face. It meant trouble, at least most of the time Bernuil got to see it. Madame Bille gestured for some wooden men to pick up the piles of earrings.

  “Interrogate our prisoners, but gently! They were slaves and will probably be happy to tell us everything we wish to know about the Enchantress. Treat their wounds and prepare clockwork limbs for those who lost their flesh and blood ones! And once their interrogation is over, determine whether they are fit to be released and given a place to live and work in our city!”

  Bernuil already expected those orders and gave a short salute while she continued.

  “I am not to be disturbed for the next hour! I am going to get ready for my visit to the other world.”

  “Yes, Madame!”

  With that, the Madame walked towards the castle, wooden men in tow and Bernuil went right to work, walking towards the elven prisoners. He stopped halfway and looked around - he could have sworn that he felt a strange breeze pass him by just now, but there was nothing to be seen anywhere around him. Just to be safe he used his communing crystal to tell the city guard to be extra vigilant today.

  January 2025

  ***

  Nicola, in the guise of Holda, arrived in front of the door in the dimensional fault. She naturally wore her kimono and carried a small gift box with her. The hooded man, the keeper of the place looked at her with an invisible smile hidden by the void under his hood.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “There we are. And if I may say this… you look radiant these days, Madame Bille! Something good must have happened.”

  She chuckled quietly, looking up to the man. She didn’t know his name, or what his ‘kind’ are even called. For all she knew he might have spontaneously appeared when the dimensions started to overlap.

  “Well, you know where this door leads?” she asked as she pointed at the handle.

  “Somewhere in Tokyo. But a different place than your usual keys would lead to. This key connects your… bedroom and… hm… oh, might it be the bedroom of the maiden who often goes the other way?”

  Nicola cleared her throat in an unusually bashful reaction.

  “The very same. I thought it might be bothersome if she had to go to that old stuffy bar and then walk through the entire city every time.”

  “And you casually created a dimensional key to achieve that task! As expected of a master craftswoman like yourself.”

  Nicola couldn’t help but smile.

  “I’ll be off, then. Thank you for your guidance, as always.”

  “Thank you for the company and conversation, Madame Bille.”

  With that, the hooded giant turned around and walked into the white fog of his strange dimension. Nicola turned the key in the lock and knocked on the door. The answer came immediately.

  “Ah! It’s alright, come in!”

  Nicola pushed the door open and entered Hifumi’s bedroom. Her lover was ready for their outing, dressed in a blue kimono, also of the furisode kind, with white lily motifs on it. She wore her hair in the usual bun, which she fastened with an ornamental pin for today. The girl grinned as she saw Nicola in her younger guise, openly admiring her from all angles as Nicola turned around to lock the door and return it to its mundane state.

  “Ahhhh! You’re so cute, little Holda! I can’t believe I’m really going on a New Year’s date with a cute JK!”

  Nicola sighed and turned around to stop Hifumi – gently, with one finger on her lips.

  “Calm yourself, my love. You can spend time with me whenever you wish, so try to ration your excitement.”

  Hifumi pouted but relented after a while.

  “Alright, but you’ll have to give me some extra love later! As Holda!” she demanded in a cutesy voice, making pretty eyes at Nicola, who sighed in return, yet she couldn’t help but smile.

  “Whatever you wish for, my love.”

  Nicola looked around the bedroom. There were a lot of books on her shelf, though all of them were so-called light novels. The kind of books Hifumi wrote. As Nicola stepped closer and pulled a few out she noticed a theme: namely, that it always featured two girls who appeared to grow attached to each other as the covers progressed, one of them even had them married with adopted children by volume 3! Never mind that despite that, the children looked exactly like their adoptive parents.

  “All of them are yuri!” she heard Hifumi declare excitedly.

  “I know what the term means by now, but I have to ask, is it yuri like the name?” Nicola asked with a raised eyebrow. “Or the flower?”

  “Err… the flower. It’s slang for fiction depicting women in love with each other. I think the term started to be used like that predominantly after 1976 when an editor of a gay magazine called female readers the ‘lily tribe’, but the association of the flower with purity and femininity vastly predates...”

  Nicola stopped her rambling lover with a quick kiss on her lips.

  “Tell me about it another time. Seika and Miori are waiting for us.”

  Hifumi nodded, showing a big, dumb, adorable grin as Nicola grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

  They made their way down the stairs and through the living room as a voice spoke up.

  “Oh, Karen. Do we have a visitor?”

  Hifumi looked like she was caught doing something bad. Her entire body jerked around, and she showed a nervous smile as she faced her mother, a woman in her forties who was apparently reading on the living room couch, unnoticed until now.

  Nicola bowed to her and smiled.

  “Nice to meet you, miss…” she looked to Hifumi, who whispered ‘Imose’, and looked like she only divulged this name because she had no other choice.

  “…miss Imose. My name is Holda.”

  “My, what a cute and polite young lady! I didn’t even notice you enter, I guess I was so deeply immersed in Karen’s newest book.”

  The woman put the novel aside and Nicola clearly recognized it as volume three of The Starfaring Maiden, which released late December, only a few days ago. Now Hifumi’s mother approached the two and had a good long look at Nicola – or rather, at Holda, as it were.

  “I guess you’re a junior from Karen’s former school, are you?”

  Nicola’s eyes darted to the side and she saw a subtle nod from her lover, so she gave her mother her cutest smile and confirmed, assuming an entirely new role.

  “Yes! I’m a transfer student from Germany, now a third year! Karen was always good to me, so I invited her to a new year’s shrine visit!”

  Nicola could see Hifumi cringe from the corner of her eye as she said the name ‘Karen’ – it tickled her sadistic side.

  That should be useful in the future…

  “Oh my! You must have been living in Japan for quite a long time! How long exactly?” Hifumi’s mother inquired. Nicola brainstormed what that meant.

  If they say ‘your Japanese is so good’ it means it’s bad, if they inquire how long you have lived in the country, it’s great. Good, this means that the translation magic is working flawlessly.

  She never actually bothered to check what she sounded like to her Japanese acquaintances and her lover – probably foolish, given that she didn’t want to accidentally say something insensitive to her due to faulty translation, so getting the confirmation that it worked as intended put her at ease.

  “About three years now, yes,” Nicola answered with a smile. Hifumi prodded her side gently with her elbow.

  “Mom, we have friends waiting for us at the shrine, so we should get going.”

  “Oh dear, who are you meeting?”

  “My editor and her girlfriend.”

  Nicola saw a gentle smile appear on the mother’s expression.

  “You should try to find someone for yourself, too. A girl, hm? If your books are any indication…” she winked as she looked at Nicola.

  “How about it, Holda? Want to date my daughter?” she jested.

  Hifumi blushed, but Nicola grinned and clung to her lover’s arm.

  “Tempting. I’ll think about it, miss Imose! But we should get going.”

  The older woman gave them a little wave as Hifumi pulled Nicola to the door.

  “Oh, do come over to visit sometimes! I’d love to hear about Germany and some of your high school stories!”

  ***

  Hifumi sighed heavily as they walked down the street, joining a few other people wearing kimonos on their way to the temple.

  “Great. Now we have to come up with convincing stories about our school life together.”

  “Wouldn’t it be easier to just let your parents know about me?” Nicola asked quietly and Hifumi shook her head.

  “If they learn that I’m dating someone from another dimension, much less the woman controlling the marionette attacks, they’ll probably have a heart attack…”

  “Hm… whatever you say… Karen.”

  Hifumi cringed again, and Nicola couldn’t help but grin.

  “…don’t use that name. Please.”

  Nicola walked to Hifumi’s side, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  “Is it connected to a bad memory? Trauma? You can tell me, my love.”

  Hifumi shook her head.

  “It’s just a lame name. I much prefer Hifumi.”

  Nicola raised a brow, then she smirked again, leaning closer to whisper.

  “Then I’ll call you ‘Karen’ whenever you’re being a bad girl and I need to be serious, my love.”

  A shudder went through Hifumi’s body, and she turned several shades redder.

  “Please don’t! I’ll be good! I’ll be good, I promise!”

  After a short train ride, which fascinated Nicola to some extent, the two of them walked the rest of the way to the shrine Hifumi had in mind. They arrived underground, and Nicola had trouble hiding her amazement as they ascended some stairs and found themselves in a busy street. She looked at these kinds of places from her crystal ball whenever she summoned her marionettes, but to set foot into these environments was something different altogether. Apparently, their destination was a shrine near a district in which her and the other women in her life irregularly spent some evenings by the name of Kabukicho.

  The torii gate of the shrine now came into view at the top of a staircase which one may have mistaken for an unremarkable side alley due to the dense nature of the streets, and two familiar figures approached the pair, as well as one unfamiliar one. The first two, naturally, were Seika and Miori. Seika didn’t change much about her appearance besides wearing a kimono, while Miori elaborately tied her hair with a hairpin – they made an adorable looking couple, Nicola had to admit.

  And right by their side was another woman – long brown hair with a single red streak ran over her shoulders, and she acted overly familiar with the two lovers.

  My, Seika, are you building a harem?

  “Seika! Miori! Ayame!” Hifumi exclaimed and hurried towards the three, leaving Nicola to catch up with a relaxed pace as her lover excitedly grabbed the three women by the hands, one after the other.

  “Aren’t Miyu and Momo coming?” she heard her ask.

  “You know how it is. They have a New Year’s show to attend and perform at. I heard this year they’re doing musical interludes for the program every two hours or so… must be exhausting.” Seika explained to Hifumi.

  The girl squirmed in place for some reason and looked to the side.

  “Ugh… right… performances,” Hifumi almost whispered.

  Nicola raised an eyebrow, looking around between the other women quizzically.

  “Hifumi’s singing during our little karaoke party impressed our resident idols so much that they strongarmed her into participating in a concert in February for a single song.” Miori explained, now turned towards Nicola.

  “Also, hello Nicola… or should I say Holda? You look adorable like this.”

  Nicola smiled and bowed. “Let’s go with Holda for as long a there might be people listening. Hello Miori and Seika. And hello, my name is Holda. I think Hifumi may have told you about me,” she added with a wink as she half-heartedly slipped into her role again.

  The woman called Ayame nodded and bowed her head. “Ayame Takanashi, nice to meet you. And indeed, little Hifumi here can’t keep her mouth shut about her ‘villainous’ girlfriend,” Ayame said with a teasing smile, making Hifumi blush before she cleared her throat.

  “I’m Seika and Miori’s longtime friend, and currently…” she looked towards the two women with a mischievous grin as they looked away with a blush.

  “Well, things happened around Christmas and I’m both their queerplatonic partner.”

  Nicola cocked her head and tapped her cheek.

  “A strange term… I’m not familiar with the meaning.”

  Ayame shrugged and judging by body language, Miori and Seika both left it to her to explain the circumstances of their relationship.

  “We’re in an intimate relationship, but consider each other friends, not lovers. That is about the gist of it.”

  “So you…”

  “Yeah, I’m sometimes sleeping in their bed.”

  Nicola nodded, now understanding fully.

  Well, far be it from my mind to judge. It is not the strangest relationship I’ve seen or even encouraged.

  She thought back to Mana and Marisa, the ill-fated pair of invocating witch and magical clone. As far as she knew, Marisa was currently contained somewhere in the world of steel while the young witch attempted to find a way to separate her from the violent spellbook compelling Marisa to hurt her mistress.

  “Shall we go, then?” Hifumi spoke up and the group nodded, following her towards the torii gate. Everyone bowed in front of it, and Nicola followed suit. Then they moved towards what looked like a basin with constantly flowing clean water from a small dragon statue’s mouth.

  Nicola observed her four hosts as they first bowed to the basin, grabbed dippers and poured some water on their left hands, over a slightly lower drain ditch. They swapped their hand holding their respective dippers, poured water over their right hands and caught some water which they brought to their mouths. They didn’t keep it in long, each one covering her mouth with one hand to obscure the act of them spitting the water back out into the drain ditch. Afterwards they poured out the remaining water, dipped the dippers back into the basin’s water and put them back upside down. All in swift, elegant motions.

  Nicola saw enough to follow their example. She felt the cold water running over her hands and fingers, then into her mouth. She put the dipper back and followed the others, feeling oddly refreshed and purified.

  Their Shinto religion believes that after death a person remains for a few years as a helpful spirit before ascending to minor godhood…

  Nicola looked at the temple they approached, then to Hifumi. She smiled to herself as she reminisced about Romy.

  I’m sure you would have made a beautiful goddess, if any of this holds a kernel of truth. But you’re just as beautiful as a reincarnated human. And much preferable that way.

  ***

  They stood in front of a shrine. There was a box with multiple slits, and a large rope hanging from a bell. Hifumi handed Nicola a few coins and gestured for her to observe and follow. The whole group tossed some coins through the slits into the box, then Seika reached out and moved the rope, ringing the bell with a sound that resembled a rattle more than the temple bells which Nicola was used to.

  Everyone bowed twice, deeply, and Nicola followed after observing.

  Then everyone clapped twice, with Nicola in close pursuit. Hifumi leaned over to Nicola and whispered into her ear.

  “Now we make our wish to the kami.”

  Nicola observed the other women, who all held their eyes closed. Making a wish to gods was incomprehensible to her, and the only time she was ever tempted to do it was when she tried to take her own life last year. She herself killed what was considered a demigod and knew more than anyone that the nature of gods was something utterly false, and in most cases, repulsive. But this was more a cultural exercise than a religious one, as far as she could observe, especially with Seika and Miori, who shared their bodies with ‘goddesses’ from an entirely different religion.

  When in Rome, as the idiom goes in this world…

  Nicola closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she held her hands together.

  I wish for a long, fulfilling and finite life with my beloved.

  She glanced over to the others and smiled as she saw Seika and Miori praying, then she added something.

  And happiness for the women who put life and limb on the line for my plan.

  After their wishes the group bowed once more and moved away from the shrine to a little stall.

  “Time to divine our fortune!” Hifumi announced with a grin to Nicola, who tilted her head as the girl handed over a coin to the person running the stall and got a hexagonal tube with a little hole on top.

  “Here you go. Shake it until a stick comes out and then you’ll receive your divination!”

  Nicola raised an eyebrow. She didn’t particularly believe in such things, but once again, she was going to follow the customs, so she took the box, shook it a few times until a stick poked out of the hole and presented it to the person running the stall, who in turn handed her a piece of paper.

  Everyone else got their turn and in the end they held their slips of paper in front of them, opening them at the same time. Nicola had a long look at hers.

  ‘A Little Lucky

  ‘Your hardest trials are over, but some hardships yet remain.

  ‘Work: Keep up your work ethic, and things will go your way.

  ‘Travel: Your number of destinations is small, but you should travel frequently regardless.

  ‘Love: You may already have what you desire.’

  Nicola shrugged. General fortunes, not really different from horoscopes. She saw true clairvoyance a few times in her life, and this most certainly wasn’t it.

  “Uuu…” the pathetic little sound came from none other than Seika.

  Nicola joined the other women who gathered around her and looked at her fortune.

  ‘Bad Luck

  ‘This year will bring challenges. Keep a clear head and you will pull through.

  ‘Health: Be mindful of your heart. Eat and drink healthily.

  ‘Travel: Seeing a new place might be the key to keeping your life on track.

  ‘Family: Your family might grow through marriage or childbirth, bringing uncertainty. Careful with distant relatives and strange in-laws!’

  Hifumi and Ayame recoiled, but Miori gently rubbed her hand on Seika’s back to comfort her.

  “There, there, Seika. Let’s tie this to the tree to dispel the bad fortune, alright?”

  ***

  The last thing they did at the shrine was to sample so-called amazake. It had a bit of a chunky texture due to partially intact rice grains swimming in the fluid, as well as a vanishingly faint taste of alcohol, which was almost entirely masked by the sweetness of the drink. Nicola enjoyed her cup while holding Hifumi’s hand and watching Seika walk over to a pine tree to tie her fortune slip to one of its branches, accompanying dozens of other bad fortunes. Nicola recalled what she knew about this tree, due to her research into wood for her marionette soldiers.

  Due to its evergreen nature it symbolizes immortality. How I have come to loathe that word.

  But there was more to it. Here in Japan, it signaled good fortune and rebirth, fitting for the new year’s traditions.

  “By the way, Hifumi. When you next see Momo and Miyu, give them this box,” Nicola said and handed her gift box to her lover.

  “Eh? What is it?” Hifumi’s confusion drew the attention of Seika, Miori and Ayame.

  “Open it.” Nicola replied with a smile.

  Hifumi lifted the lid, and everyone’s eyes went wide at the sight. Two earrings, one shaped like a star, the other shaped like a moon, were inside the box, resting on a red pillow. Even though they were inactive, everyone present could feel their magic potency.

  “They have proven that their hearts are in the right place, and that they are real Magical Girls, even when lacking their own powers. I think it is about time someone gave them those powers back. I’ve taken the liberty to make some alterations, as well, so please assure them that these have nothing to do with that terrible woman anymore.”

  ***

  As everyone drank up, they made their respective ways home, though Hifumi strangely enough took a different path than they arrived from.

  They walked a few minutes through what appeared to be a simple side road. There were many gate-like structures to Nicola’s left which gave the impression that something more exciting would lie that way. They then walked past the fa?ade of a large, white building with no way to look inside and she admired it a while.

  “What is this one?”

  “Ah? Oh, that’s Thermae Yu. A big public bath.”

  “Sounds wonderful. Let us go there one day, my love.”

  “Sure!” Hifumi grinned awkwardly as they finally arrived at what looked like a crossing. A lot of luminescent signs were shining their light on the now darkening road.

  It was a crossing, but the streets were still terribly narrow, even narrower than some of the roads in Romystedt, where carriages already had trouble passing through. A tall building bore signs showing the faces of beautiful men and women, while lights blinked around the name ‘Sophia 3’.

  Hifumi checked something on her ‘phone’ device before she turned towards the left, and Nicola followed her.

  “Where are we going anyway, my love?” Nicola asked as she admired the sheer mass of lit-up signs they slowly walked into. They passed by a sign with a beautiful woman on it, and while Nicola couldn’t read entirely what it was offering, she saw ‘40min/￥5000’ written on it before she passed.

  Wait a minute.

  “Is this a red-light district?” Nicola suddenly asked and Hifumi froze in place. She turned around slowly and cleared her throat.

  “I am looking for a hotel,” she finally answered, bashfully. “…the walls back home are paper thin.”

  Nicola understood and hid a chuckle behind her hand before she grabbed Hifumi’s hand.

  “Very well, then, my beloved.”

  ***

  They arrived at an unassuming enough building, built from black bricks, with a simple, rectangular entrance, lit by white lamps. The inside however looked like marbled and gilded halls. Hifumi chose a room from screens displaying the interior, and every room looked more luxurious than the last. Oddly enough she retrieved the key from a vending machine, without any human interaction. They arrived quickly in a room with a bed fit for a queen, on which they promptly made out, among other things.

  Then they took a bath together, in a lit bathtub, casting a blue glow through the water and on their bodies. Hifumi truly showed her attraction to Nicola’s disguise as Holda, wrapping her arms around her and cuddling her every opportunity she got.

  And when they went back to bed… Nicola’s world was turned upside-down.

  It appeared that Nicola’s ‘adorable’ appearance as Holda drove Hifumi wild. Her small frame was bent to the novelist’s every desire, and most of the past hour she spent moaning into or biting a pillow; at least when she didn’t intentionally utter the name ‘Karen’, to drive Hifumi even wilder with a desire to ‘correct’ or ‘punish’ her high school junior.

  She hadn’t been the one being dominated in… at least five hundred years, and her head felt like she was swimming in the air after Hifumi was done.

  Nicola took deep breaths and stared at the ceiling to recover her addled mind as Hifumi grinned, grabbing her hand and holding it close to her own body as she interlocked fingers with Nicola.

  “Happy New Year,” she whispered.

  “Happy New Year,” Nicola responded and closed her eyes, enjoying the warm presence of her lover to its fullest.

  Moon of New Beginnings, 1068 AR

  ***

  Nicola entered her workshop after her return to her realm. A few documents were piled up for her to read, left there by Bernuil, no doubt. In that case they were most definitely the results of the interrogation of their newest batch of guests, hopefully to be turned into citizens getting their first taste of freedom away from the Enchantresses’ control. Nicola approached her workbench quickly but stopped as she noticed something from the corner of her eye. She quickly stepped towards her little library and furrowed her brow.

  These books were moved recently.

  She extended a hand, tugging on her strings to command her marionettes to comb the castle…

  ***

  No intruder turned up after a thorough search. Nothing was stolen, no one in town was reported missing or dead, either. It was like someone came, read Nicola’s books and research notes, then left again without causing trouble.

  Her mind, however, was troubled. She stashed away significant knowledge, but most of it was related to undoing the curse of Lethe or defending herself against another threat on the scale of the forgotten king.

  She couldn’t exclude the possibility that this break-in was the work of a spy, sent by the Enchantress, but she still didn’t know to what end.

  She rifled through the interrogation reports, and all of them said the same thing in essence.

  “A famine has devastated our lands. The Enchantress offered bread in return for service, but we can’t remember anything past putting on our helmets.”

  Nicola tapped her finger on her desk, furrowing her brow as she considered the meaning of this.

  As I guessed, the ‘divine punishment’ is a laughable pretext to declare war. Romystedt is rich in fertile fields, producing a vast surplus in produce. They might be after something as simple as our harvest this year.

  Nicola kept pondering the situation for a while longer and decided to up the war readiness of her city. She started to carve. There was no telling how many soldiers she would need in the future.