A Promise

  It was an old dream. The beach, the sea, the sand, the shadow beside her—everything about it was the same.

  “Remember when you took us to the beach that one time?” the shadow spoke.

  “I do.”

  “Do you ever wonder what would have happened if we could have just stayed there?”

  “I do.”

  “I wish I could go back. Every part of me wishes I could go back. Relive everything all over again. Just so we could end up back there. Where everything began.”

  “Where everything ends,” she murmured before turning to Callie, who was staring at the sea with expressionless eyes while hugging a sword with a red ribbon tied to its hilt.

  “Can you tell me everything is going to be okay, like you always do?”

  “Everything is going to be okay.”

  “Can you tell me you’ll bring him back, like you always do?”

  “I’ll bring him back.”

  “Can you tell me that you love me, like you always do?”

  “I love you.”

  Silence.

  “I love you, too.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  Silence.

  “You’re right, I don’t. But I wonder if that would change anything. If that would save him.”

  “There’s no going back anymore.”

  “Yes, there is.”

  Callie turned to her, watching her intently with hollow eyes, tears streaming down her smiling face. She unsheathed the sword and slowly gripped the hilt with her shaking hands before directing it at Ty. “I just have to kill you, right?” she laughed, almost hysterically.

  The blade that tore through her chest was unsurprisingly cold.

  “Oh my Graces, look what you did! You woke her up!” shrieked Alex, aghast, hands palming her cheeks with her mouth wide open.

  It took a few seconds for Ty’s vision to adjust to the strong afternoon sun pelting down on them, but it didn’t take so long that she couldn’t see the culprit running away with laughter.

  “I-I’ll wipe you down,” stammered the duelist, rushing over to her with a towel in hand. “I’m so sorry, she—she splashed me first!” Pointing a finger toward a tiny figure in the distance who was waving their hands, guffawing and continuing to splash cold water at other vulnerable students, Alex could barely contain her anguish.

  “No, no, it’s alright,” chuckled Ty, pushing away the towel and nodding toward the surprisingly helpful Selene. “I’m fine. It’ll dry. Go exact revenge instead.”

  Alex’s eyes shone as she stood up straight and bowed an extra-formal ninety-degrees with her hands to her side. “Yes, tactician! I will not let you down!” she announced loudly before bolting off to catch the assailant, leaving Ty to examine the damage.

  In the middle of her typical school blouse was a cold patch of water, an ephemeral remnant of Selene’s shenanigans. It would dry in no time; the weather was warmer over in the east, especially at the beach.

  Where Callie’s sword had torn through her torso, though, was a lingering ache.

  Her eyes scanned the rest of the beach from under her umbrella. Selene was busy deflecting Alex’s retaliation while Darius, Callie, and Elias were playing ball on a rectangular court drawn in the sand. The tiny botanist was uncharacteristically separated from Kor, who was busy enjoying the sun radiating down on her as she floated on top of the water, on her back with her arms and legs extended.

  Not a few steps away, the remaining three mischievous boys were sitting lined up on a towel under an umbrella, chatting quietly amongst themselves over something in front of them. What it was, she could not see—which did not bode well.

  Feeling her joints pop as she got up from the reclined chair she had been napping in, Ty felt slightly refreshed after the busy morning. Everyone had left the cabin in groups to do some obligatory foraging at the break of dawn—some even earlier, like Callie and Alex—and though it wasn’t terribly time-consuming, it was still tiring after the late night everyone had trying to get settled into the cabin that her mother and the Headmistress had prepared for them. Ty had only finished organizing and changing after everyone finished lunch; it was then that she had set up her chair on the beach and fallen asleep.

  Which left one last thing that she wanted to get done today—but before she could even get the words out of her mouth to the three boys she was now steadily advancing toward, her jaw dropped.

  “Hey, tact,” smiled one boy, toothily and proud.

  “Oh, Graces,” breathed the middle one, immediately hanging his head in guilt.

  The last boy remained tight-lipped, but his bright—almost lavender in the sun—eyes were wide and looking in the direction of the other two.

  Ty lowered her head and stared at what looked like a giant hole in front of them. It must have been at least as wide as she was tall, and as deep as…she could not make out where it ended. “What is this?” she breathed, her voice only a whisper as she peeked over the edge. “Are you planning to plant a Soul of the Earth Mother?”

  “Well, you see—” started Cyril, smile still radiant with his hands gesturing toward the hazardous hole in front of them, “we started digging a hole, right? And then we thought, hey, exactly how big could we—”

  Theo raised his head and extended an arm out toward Cyril, staring gravely at the class leader. “Okay, no, don’t listen to this fool,” he interrupted. “Sure, it started out as that, but then it became an experiment with how much sand could be displaced, and from how far a distance.” He gestured in front of him, toward the sea.

  She turned her head but saw nothing.

  “You don’t see anything, right?” explained Theo with a hint of pride in his voice, the seriousness beginning to slip away. “It’s because we’ve leveled it. You see, if we augment a—”

  “Oh, for the love of—” started Ty, groaning and throwing her head back, prepared to scold them for using magic when the last fool of the three spoke up.

  “The hypothesis is, we could significantly elevate the rest of the beach without anyone knowing if we dug a big enough hole, but we haven’t gotten there yet.”

  Theo and Cyril, like programmed puppets, turned to Faris in unison, nodded, and then the three of them turned to Ty.

  “Yeah. What I said. Big hole.”

  “It’s an experiment.”

  “We’ll fix it up before sundown.”

  Ty took a deep breath, trying not to burst out laughing at the silliness of it all, and then sighed loudly. She would let it go, just this once, for the sake of happy memories. “Well, any of you want to go on a quick adventure?”

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  * * *

  With Theo, Alex, Callie, and Darius in tow, Ty brushed her hair out of her eyes and swallowed, waiting for what felt like an eternity outside her home up on the hill beside the beach and the sea.

  “Uh…whose house is this?” said Alex in a hushed whisper, walking to the side to see if she could peer into the cabin through the large windows. “Is this the adventure?”

  “The windows are one-way,” noted Ty with a faint smile on her face, feeling a bit of her anxiety dispelled by the nonchalance of her duelist. “We’re here to see someone.”

  “You don’t mean—” Callie started, putting a hand up to her mouth and turning to Theo with wide eyes. “It’s not—”

  Right as Theo answered with raised eyebrows and a big, mischievous grin on his face, Ty finally heard several seals breaking and stepped back from the door.

  Alex, who was still standing by a window, froze as she watched Darius, too, take a step back.

  “Must be careful,” he spoke in a gravelly voice as everyone turned to the opening door.

  “Dear Graces, what’s this?” cooed a darkly clad woman with a knowing smile on her face, a palm resting on her cheek while she kept the door open with another. “A party who dares to face the Witch of the Woods?”

  “W-witch!?” blubbered Alex, both hands to her mouth as she stepped back again, head turning to Darius and then Ty again before registering the smile on her class leader’s face. “What…?”

  “Hi, mom,” smiled Ty, nodding before waving to her classmates behind her. “Yes, we’ve come to storm your home.”

  A chuckle escaped her mother’s lips as she waved everyone in. “Well, what other option do I have other than to say yes?”

  “That’s Ty’s mom?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “You’ve seen her before, Darius?”

  “Uh…”

  Ty, closing the door behind her classmates, watched her mother hurry to set aside the books and papers on the dining table. “We can’t stay long—”

  “Nonsense,” Joanie interrupted in her usual motherly tone, rushing to the kitchen. “You all took the time to come. Come in, come in—no need to take off your shoes as long as you stay off the rug—I’ll put out some tea for everyone.”

  Without even a second’s pause, Theo started walking to the back of the cabin while the remaining three waited for Ty’s orders.

  “Is this okay?” Callie said in a half-whisper, cheeks slightly flushed.

  “This is dangerous,” added Darius in a contrasting, serious tone as he stared at Ty. “This is very dangerous.”

  You’re straying from the path, Halle’s words echoed in her mind.

  “The Headmistress authorized this—it’ll be okay,” she tried to reply reassuringly to everyone as she ushered them to the back table, where there were now five cups of hot tea.

  “People—t-they call you a witch?” stuttered Alex as she walked over, eyeing Theo drinking the tea before picking up a cup herself.

  “I’m quite the local legend,” laughed her mother in reply, leaning on the kitchen counter with her arms crossed. “The townsfolk like to tease; thought I’d poke some fun at you all.”

  “Did you…did you know we were coming?” squeaked Callie.

  “Of course, who do you think helped arrange your cabin?”

  “O-oh, I see. Thank you.”

  Ty took off her shoes at the bottom of the stairs, still listening to the conversations as she steadily ascended them.

  “I haven’t seen you before, Ancient.”

  She froze mid-step and turned her head.

  Darius nodded stiffly, head down and mute.

  “No need to be shy; I heard you speak earlier.”

  “Y-yes. I am…I am Ty classmate.”

  “You’re at the Academy, huh.”

  “Yes.”

  “Interesting.”

  Ty resumed walking and almost made it to her room when she heard her mother speak again.

  “Hey Theo, where’s that other boy? You know, the one that our little Ty’s got a—”

  The tactician spun around and leaned against the railing. “Hey! No!” she practically yelled, face hot as everyone stared.

  With a wide smile that hid nothing, Theo burst out laughing. “Ah yes, him. Yes, it’s a shame that they’re both too dense to admit anything to each other.”

  “Hey!” cried Ty from the second-floor balcony again, watching one of her worst nightmares unfold.

  “Oh, go collect your books, dear, we’re not talking to you,” chided her mother, waving her hand dismissively.

  “No!”

  “In fact, the more time you spend up there, the more I’ll consider asking Theo dearest to bring him to me. Maybe I’ll even spar with him. I hear he likes to pick fights.”

  “Ugh!” Ty groaned loudly as she headed into her room, just barely able to make out Theo’s next words.

  “He’s been…recently…so…”

  Ty shut the door and breathed in.

  Her bed. Her bookshelf. Her chair. Her desk.

  She walked over to her window overlooking the beach and craned her head to the left, hoping she could see her students.

  Small dots in the distance. Smaller than ants, but some of the most important people in the entire world. She smiled.

  Taking another deep breath, she sat down at her desk. Her eyes fell on the small set of books in the corner, and she exhaled shakily before taking a black journal out—one that she had kept since she was small—and opening it to a new page.

  Pulling a letter out of her pocket, she gently slipped it between the thin pages before going back to the very first page. Where it had started, ages ago. A past she could no longer recall with total clarity anymore.

  Mom told me to start a journal, but I don’t know why. It feels pointless. Who’s going to read it after I’m gone, anyway? What does it matter? How is it going to help anyone?

  Smiling wryly, she read a bit more before closing the journal and putting it back where it belonged, but not before she could take one last look at her room, where she had spent almost all her life.

  Silence.

  Reminding herself of her resolve, she left her room, shut the door, and took a few steps forward to lean over the banister. Her students and her mother were no longer there.

  Not too worried, she made her way down the stairs and put her shoes back on before scanning the open cabin and noticing that the backyard door was wide open.

  A half-relieved, half-annoyed groan left her lips when she heard muffled voices coming from the yard outside, stepping outside herself to see what her classmates were up to.

  “A-are you sure? This is…this is a lot.”

  “Of course I am, dear. Do you always worry this much?”

  “I—”

  “I’m sure Kor and Cyril can put these to good use.”

  “Ooh, do you think I could try one right now?”

  “Alex, later.”

  “Aw, okay.”

  “Oh, there she is!” Coming up from the garden path to her mother’s beloved greenhouse was an ecstatic, bright-eyed Theo.

  Ty put her hands on her hips, but she couldn’t help but smile. “Honestly, I leave you all for a few minutes.”

  Her mother beamed from behind Callie, who had a full basket in both hands. “They wanted to see, and I wanted to show them. No harm in taking a few things. I hear you’ve got two splendid cooks working on dinner right now.”

  “One,” all of them corrected her in unison before bursting out laughing.

  Raising a surprised hand to her mouth, Joanie laughed along. “I’m sure the one will appreciate it.”

  “Maybe Cyril’s already burned down the cabin,” joked Theo with a smirk.

  “Oh! Don’t say that,” pouted Alex with genuine worry on her face.

  “Maybe…we should get going,” Callie chimed in anxiously. “Just in case.”

  “Did you get what you wanted done?” inquired Theo kindly.

  She nodded and looked at her mother.

  “Well, it was a pleasure getting to chat with you all. Here, let’s go back out to the front,” waved her mother as she headed down another side path.

  Following them in a line back to the front of the house, Ty took one last look at her mother’s garden. The greenhouse she helped build, with the small yellow-white flowers she had planted as a child still blooming brightly among her mother’s multicolored wildflowers that stretched down the entire hillside.

  The stone flooring she stood on that had been here since she had been born. Sparring here with her mother, learning how to use magic since as early as five years old. Learning what it felt like to fail, to get hurt. To hate. To forgive. To continue, even when winning was nigh-impossible.

  “Ty?”

  Her eyes refocused on Theo, who was waiting at the edge of the path.

  “You okay?”

  “Mm.”

  With a pounding heart, she rushed over to Theo and followed him down the path until she could see the rest of her classmates again.

  “Okay, see you then, Ty’s mom!” Alex called, walking backward while waving.

  “Thank you for the food,” said Callie with a bow before hurrying off to catch up to Alex.

  “Thank you,” said Darius solemnly with a stiff, formal bow before following.

  Finally, her mother turned to her and Theo. “Don’t want to leave?”

  “Oh, I can’t wait to tell Faris about this,” quipped Theo.

  The Witch of the Woods winked. “Ha. Try not to anger your other half.”

  Rolling her eyes, Ty let out a long breath and stopped beside her mother. “Thanks, mom,” spoke Ty quietly, watching Theo make his way down the hill along with her other classmates. “Sorry for stopping by so abruptly. I hope you weren’t in the middle of something.”

  Her mother could only pat her on the head with a sweet smile on her face, more kind than she had ever remembered it being, maybe because this was truly the last time she was ever going to see her again. “I’m glad you came. You’re different when you’re around your classmates. I’m glad I got to see that side of you.”

  Blushing slightly, Ty shook off her mother’s hand. “Thank you, mom. I…I don’t know how I could ever repay you.”

  The dark umber eyes that saw through her were no longer kind, but sad. “What are you talking about? You’re my daughter. Seeing you smile is worth more than all the riches in the world.”

  Ty bit her bottom lip, wishing she had her mother’s letter with her—it was in her cloak, and she hadn’t brought it. “You’re the best, you know that, right?”

  “What are you talking about, silly?”

  Despite her vision going blurry, she kept looking at her mother. The one who raised her, the one who had shown her the world. The one person who mattered more to her than words could convey. The one person whose destiny she could not change.

  “I hope…I hope that if…” The tears fell. “I hope that if…if we never see each other again, that I still get to be your daughter in the next life.”

  Before any words could even escape her mother’s mouth, warm arms wrapped around her. “Thank you, Ty. Thank you for allowing me to be your mother. Thank you for everything. I love you.”

  “I love you too, mom.”

  After a sniffle and a long squeeze, her mother finally let her go, crouching down to take Ty’s free hand. “Tell me you’ll take care of yourself, okay?”

  Ty nodded. “Yes, mom.”

  “And…promise me something, okay?” Her mother tilted her head and looked behind her.

  She turned around as well, and saw Theo standing patiently from far away, her classmates even further. “I…”

  “Whatever you do, don’t leave any regrets behind. Not one.”

  The child did not turn back to face her mother. She just stared into the distance, past Theo, past the students who had come along with her on the adventure. At the emptiness past them all, where a single person was missing.

  “Not one.”