An Everlasting Vow

“Oh my goodness, he’s dead. Holy crap Walt, she just KILLED him straight dead.”

My best friend snatches the book from me and goes over the ancient journal entry that finishes this dusty book we found in the back of our high school’s library. We're sitting at a table near the bay windows that overlook the most beautiful lake that's ever existed. We’ve been studying at this exact table for four years now and I’ve always enjoyed the feeling of peace it gives me.

The book we found is more like a scrapbook filled with old writings, poster clippings, and letters, but I’ve been hooked all the way through. The fact that this last entry finishes it, and there’s no end letting us know how this woman’s life was resolved, leaves me wanting so much more. “I don’t know if I can really believe all of this, Ophelia. There’s no record of these people anywhere, so this might just be misplaced fiction.” He’s been searching google for any truth to our subjects, but with no results.

I groan. “That would totally suck. Princess Odette has grown on me. To think she lived with being cursed for so long, just for a man to make it go up in flames. No offense.” He smirks at me, considering he's the least manliest man I know.

“None taken, my friend. Maybe you can ask your wonderful grandma? She’s a part of the historic mages, surely she knows something.”

“Walt you’re a genius!” I close the book and we wrap up our study session if you could even call it that. The bell to end lunch hasn’t gone off yet, so I slip outside to send my grandma a message with my new ‘letter’ magic. I’ve been working hard on perfecting it so I can still talk to Walt when I’m gone. Of course, she texts me her reply, “No magic at school, I'll see you at dinner.” I can’t help but think about how old-fashioned she is.

For the rest of the day, I ponder over Princess Odette and the simple life she craved. It’s the complete opposite of me. I long for the day I can waltz down the halls of the Ivy League college of my dreams, Matterhorn. Their classes go on adventures, learn hands-on magical training out in the real world, and best of all, they don’t care about your sexual orientation, or if you have blue hair, they only care about your skills.

My parents have been best friends with Walt’s parents since they were kids, so to say they were a tad disappointed we both ended up gay, was an understatement, but they never hold it against us. When the final bell rings, releasing us from our last class Walt sneaks up on me at my locker.

“Boo!”

“Walt! Stop! I’m carrying precious cargo!” I show him the old book and he gasps.

“Taking books from libraries without permission? Who are you and where is my best friend?” I roll my eyes as we grab the rest of our things and head out.

“I just want to show it to my grandma, and I’ll return it as soon as my paper is done. Scout’s honor.”

“Oh honey, I don’t think the scouts can save you from that librarian's wrath.”

“Whatever. I’ll share my findings with you tonight using Majetto.”

“I still don’t know why you called your magical letter delivering bird that, but more power to you considering I can barely manifest a puff of smoke.”

“Stooppp. You’re great at water magic though. I’m not. My earth magic is only good for plants.”

We step out of the school’s barrier, which keeps us from using magic indoors, and he breathes a sigh of relief.

“I really hate being suppressed all day.” Walt’s dark skin always seems to glimmer when we step out of the barrier, as if all his powers come back at once, whereas mine takes at least five minutes.

“I feel you, but it’s just to appease the higher beings.”

“Higher beings my ass, the school board needs to do something to appease the corporations trying to control everyone with powers. They don’t want to suck the magic out of us anymore so this is their lame power trip.” I just nod as we say part ways to head home. It’s been a long battle for those of us with gifts, but we’re slowly getting more and more accepted. All of us with magic can take another person’s gifts away, but it usually ends up killing one of them, since they were putting it into themselves, so it was outlawed once the lack of our rights finally came into question.

This is why I’m so interested in Odette and her story. The magic involved is massive, and I need to know she made it out okay. In those days people were still getting hung for claims of witchcraft, and she was a victim between political battles and curses, but I don’t know if that would really matter if she were to be put on trial for her actions. She did kill her lover, but he was also going to kill her. I have too many questions and need answers.

As soon as enough of my magic has come back to me, I pop home, setting my bag on my bed and going downstairs to help my mom cook. She always prepares something big when my grandma comes over, but I couldn’t say why considering my grandma eats like a bird.

When she finally arrives, I run to hug her.

“Ooh, I love the blue hair.” Her white braid is a stark contrast against my aqua, and she compares the two side by side.

“Thank you! I didn’t even use magic.”

My grandma is very against using magic for everything. When she knows she can do something herself, she’ll try, but I’m lucky to have always been around it, so it’s harder for me to think that way. She just rolls her eyes at me and goes to help my mom set the table. Dinner goes by too fast as my mom and grandma laugh about some new show they’re watching, and once I’ve cleaned all the dishes, she follows me up to my room.

I close the door behind us and she arches her eyebrow up at me.

“So, who has piqued your interest, Ophelia?”

“Do you know anything about Prince Odette Danielson?”

My grandmother’s face falls, and she locks the door, then sits on my bed, patting the spot next to her.

“Why do you want to know about… her?”

“Oh well, Walt and I found this book in the library at school.”

I pull it out of my backpack and my grandma gasps, her hand going to cover her mouth.

“Honey, you shouldn’t have this.”

“I mean, I know I took it from the library without checking it out properly, but I wanted to show it to you.”

“No, I mean, I thought this went down with the Fairfax kingdom.”

“What? So it is all real? Grandma, what happened to Odette?”

My grandma sighs and then smiles weakly at me. “Odette Danielson has actually been banned from mage history since before mages were free. I’m sure you read that she was expecting to be lined up with suitors once she returned home. She ended up turning down all men until her father forced her to be with someone. She planned to kill her husband for hurting her, but instead, she found herself wading back into the lake she had originally been cursed in. The witch noticed for she was the guardian of the lake. She took pity on her, and offered Odette a choice.”

I’m sitting on the edge of the bed, tears brimming up in my own eyes. “She told her she could be a swan, this time forever, or, she could curse her to be a swan half and half again, although this time she’d be different, and much, much more powerful.”

I can already see where this was going, but I didn’t want to believe it. Odette seemed to have just wanted a peaceful life.

“Odette destroyed her entire kingdom and the Fairfax kingdom before the sun could rise, erasing them from the maps and history. We thought all records of Odette and her journey went up in flames. When the sun finally hit her again, she did not turn into a pure white swan like with her original curse, she was as black as the night, the first black swan in history, and then she flew off, never to be seen again.”

I laid down, trying to take in all this information. “She disappeared?” My grandma nods, and I just have to ask. “Did you ever meet her?”

She smiles and pulls me in for a hug. “No sweet girl, but I followed her story once. Back when I was first getting into my field, we took a trip to the Middle Ages.” She pauses, like the memories are clouding her vision, “I was rooting for her too, you know. That aside, I wouldn’t do her for any school papers considering it might get you expelled, but maybe don’t forget her. Keep her here.” She points to my head and my heart, “So that when bad things happen to you, there will always be someone in your corner.”

I laugh out loud, “Aren’t you supposed to be like, ‘don’t get in trouble, don’t let bad things happen to you!’.”

She chuckles. “Oh, honey, with what I know, I can’t expect that, especially out of you. Now get some rest before your mom grounds us both.”

I finally rest, deciding that tomorrow I’ll put the book back, and find another topic for my assignment.

During lunch, again I’m drifting through aisles in the library until I find the dark corner where I'm able to put back Odette’s book. As it slides into its spot the lights flicker, but I think nothing of it, the building is old after all. Looking around the shelves for a while I settle on history’s first female ruler, Kubaba, as my paper subject. I go back to my usual seat and have to grip the edge of the table before falling to my knees.

Outside in the dead center of the lake, is the blackest swan I’ve ever seen, and without even a second thought, I know it’s her. I don’t know how, but she is staring straight towards me, then seems to look back into the depths of the library. I look in the direction I just came and go back, goosebumps rising across my skin. Faster and faster, I walk, except I can’t seem to find my way, and some areas look familiar, but I can’t be sure. The thought settles over me as I stop searching and I know it to be fact with everything in me.

The book is gone.

I go back to the table again, and I can almost sense her calling me out to the lake. The lake is in the barrier, so I don’t know how she’s able to use magic, or maybe I do. The fact that she’s still alive makes my cheeks flush. There was a hand-drawn photo of her in the book, and I was not shy to admit how attracted I was, but it couldn’t compare to the real thing. I wonder, does she still look the same? Is she old now?

Meet me here tonight. Find out.

I jump at the sound of her angelic voice in my head and when I look back outside, she’s also gone. There's a small part of me wanting to dash outside to see if I can spot her, but there’s more of me saying, that’s probably a bad idea.

Shivering from the interaction I wonder if it was all a dream, but the sound of her voice plays over and over in my head and I know better than to double-cross her. She is a killer. The bell rings ending lunch, and I gather my things quickly, unsure of what to do. I think about telling Walt, but my intuition is saying to stay quiet, or maybe it’s her magic tough on me. Either way, I never bring myself to speak up. I part with Walt normally at the end of the day, and go home to find out my mom is working a double and won’t be home till after midnight.

My mom works so hard to be able to give me extra finances when I get into Matterhorn, and here I am thinking about meeting up with a woman who destroyed two kingdoms in one night. I know I shouldn’t go, but as I wait for the sun to set, I feel the anxiety creep in. I can’t stand her up. A part of me is longing to see her and I want to hear more of her story. I leave a note on the counter for my mom, telling her I love her, and that I was spending the night with Walt, but I’m sure if something happens, she’d be able to tell.

I click right outside my school’s barrier when the moon is high and walk to the lake behind it. There are no electric lights back here, just the natural moonlight, so as not to disturb the wildlife, but it doesn’t ease my nerves at all. I walk around the edge for a minute, looking out to where I had seen her before, but there’s not even a single bird or frog here now. I’m beginning to feel relieved at being stood up when she speaks from behind me.

“Leaving so soon?”

It’s a light sound that makes my heart pound, and I’m unprepared for what I turn around to see. It looks as if time froze for her when she took up the witch's second offer, she’s not a day over eighteen, or maybe she was nineteen? I’m in absolute awe of her beauty, despite the black dress she’s wearing seems torn in a couple of spots, one being dangerously placed above her chest. Her eyes are still the same bright green from the description, and she still has the black hair she dyed to help hide her identity when she was sixteen. I can barely register a thought so I say, “Your hair is still black.”

She smiles, perfectly terrifying white teeth flash at me, and then she giggles. It melts me completely and I feel myself smile.

“Yes, yes, it is. I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”

I point at myself. “Me?”

“Yes, you Walt.”

I feel my face scrunch up in confusion. “I’m not Walt. My best friend is Walt.”

She hisses lowly and I take a step back. “No, not that Walt. My Walt.”

I think back to her story, and Walter Bedrock was the name of her lover that thought making the vow to free her of the curse would kill her, and when he realized he truly loved her but still wanted to get rid of her, she murdered him in return. It broke her curse but created all sorts of new problems.

“Why do you think I’m Walter Bedrock?”

“I do not think. I know. He’s here.” Before I could even blink, she was right in front of me, pointing at my heart. Seeing her up close caused my heart to clench and every inch of me became tense. “It took me forever to find you. Then it took even longer to figure out how to break this barrier. To think you’d come back to me as a magic-wielding female. Well, I was surprised for sure.”

“But, how are you so sure?”

“Did you think your attraction to me is your own?” She’s so close to me that I keep having to remind myself to breathe.

“Well, I’ve always been into girls.”

She hisses again and circles me. Now I realize I can’t physically move. She’s got me.

“You may have always been into girls, but you’ve never been with one.”

My face flushes and I scoff, “Oh yeah how can you be so sure?”

“Because your soul is still linked to mine. If you had laid with another I would have perished. Such are the terms of the vow YOU made to me, Walt.”

“My name is Ophelia.” She stops in front of me and finally looks at me, the me that's standing right in front of her.

“My apologies Ophelia, but what I say is true. Walt made a vow of everlasting love, so no matter how many times he comes back, we will always be linked.” She stares out at the lake, practically glowing underneath the moon. It almost distracts me long enough to not realize what she’s saying before the fear sets in.

“Ah, so has Walt come back a lot? Is that how this works, you kill his reincarnations before they do anything dumb so you don’t die.”

She smiles at me, and it's that sad, gorgeous smile that starts to bring tears to my eyes.

“You’re the first one Ophelia. I never thought Walt would come back to me. I’m assuming it was the day you were born, almost nineteen years ago, I felt a snap within me like the piece I broke when Walt died was fixed in a sudden rush. I cried for the first time in hundreds of years. You’re the only one who can end my suffering.”

“What?!” I wasn’t expecting that and the force of my shock broke her hold on me and I grabbed her hand. She looked so surprised by my action.

“This is a world full of magic now, surely there’s a way to break your curse without killing you right away. Let you walk in the sun and live the rest of a life that you deserve.”

“I deserve to die, Ophelia. I killed my own family, Walt’s family, and so many innocent people. Children even.” She pulls away from me and sits at the edge of the lake, letting her toes dip into the water.

“Okay so then why? Why come here and tell me all this instead of letting me be so I can fall in love with someone else down the road and not know about any of this. Why tell me I’m going to be killing you by living my life?” I was angry at her for giving up. She spent almost her entire life cursed, and then she was betrayed by her lover, abused by her father and husband, and brought to the brink of insanity.

“Because I want to die sooner rather than later.”

“You’re telling me you want me to sleep with someone right now?”

She nods, not looking back at me.

I sit next to her, unable to process all of this anymore. “I won’t rush giving my virginity away because you want to die, Odette.”

“Yet if I were to offer to take it tonight you would yield to me.”

“Clearly you have forgotten your beauty and the fact that I'm attracted to you.” I run my hands through my blue hair, and sigh closing my eyes.

“I like the color of your hair.” I open my eyes to see her in front of me. I can see down her dress and my breath hitches. I can’t back away either, she has me frozen again.

“Thank you,” I whisper, and she moves closer to me, our chests practically touching.

She pulls back. “I know you might want me, similar to how I want you, but I need you to know how much I just can’t go on. Every day, especially since I could feel you out here, I’ve wanted to atone. I’ve prayed, joined cults, I’ve had centuries to try, but I never could leave this existence. I need to move on.”

I sigh again, putting my head in my hands. When all is said and done, I know freeing her is the right thing to do. I could offer her this life with me, to try and atone myself for the way my soul treated her in the past, but it doesn’t undo the guilt she feels.

However, it’s impossible to just go and get laid. Honestly, I don’t see that happening any time soon.

“I can’t use magic here.” She frowns at my statement.

“You probably could, but it is a bit difficult. You broke out of mine just fine though.”

“Let me take you somewhere else. I have an idea.” She nods, and I grab her hand, my face going hot.

We leave the school grounds, the moon giving me enough light to guide her to a park nearby. The trees are so dense that once we are in total darkness, I know we’ve made it to the right spot.

“Where are we, Ophelia?”

“I’m more powerful surrounded by trees like this. If you lose your magic, your curse will be gone.”

“Absolutely not, Ophelia, you could die.” I can’t see her glow any more in this complete darkness, but I feel her near me. I take her hands.

“If I truly used to be Water Bedrock then my soul is just as tainted as yours Odette, but I haven’t even started to atone. If this soul could come back and still feel this way about you, it can come back again.”

“I am not waiting centuries again for you.”

“You won’t, because I don’t plan on dying, but I can’t feel this way and willingly be with someone else just so you can die. I would be hurting myself more than anything.” She wraps herself around me, and I breathe her in. “Trust me to try and make things right.” I can feel she is crying, but I waste no more time.

“I call upon the gods of trees, goddesses of grass, and mother Gaia herself, please take this woman’s magic as a sacrifice for her atonement, and set her free.”

Over the next few seconds I watch my magic illuminates the area as black smoke leaks out of Odette into the ground and trees around us. She faints a moment in, and I catch her as she collapses. I know that if even a drop of her magic remains the curse will stay, but I’ve never done this before, just seen how it works on TV before it was outlawed, so I worry if it’ll truly get the job done. The black smoke begins to thin out as if there’s hardly any left, and when the stream stops, I cut off the magic, leaving myself exhausted.

“Odette?” I set her on the ground, and I realize she’s starting to fade away. She flutters her eyes open and smiles.

“Wow, you did it. Thank you. My soul is no longer tethered here. I can go see my mother again.” Happy tears are streaming down her translucent face.

“No! I thought…”

“That we could live happily ever after?” Her small hand lands lightly on my cheek as if a feather is brushing against me.

“Yeah,” I whisper. I lean over with the little strength I have left and brush my lips with hers.

“Next time for sure, my love. I’ll find you again, or you’ll find me. That seems to be our fate.” She’s practically invisible now, but her smile has stayed. “Keep me here.” She points at the same spot my grandma had, and with those words lingering around me, she vanishes completely.

I decide not to go home, not yet since I'm unsure of how I’ll tell Walt, or my mom, or my grandma, about everything that just happened. I return to the lake, knowing my black swan won’t be there but hoping that maybe one day, I’ll see her basking in the moonlight again.