She is the Tempest

Pitch black clouds ran towards each other, converging in the center in an explosion of thunder. Blue lightning rippled the whirlpool of rotated and simmering steam.

“More, Ariel!” Miranda dropped the grimoire on the sand and lifted her arms to the sky. “Give me more!”

On the horizon a sailing ship leapt through the waves like a cork. Her uncle’s ship. Of Antonio the usurper. The traitor who stole the throne of Duke Prospero, her father.

Miranda was just a child when she and her father were shipwrecked on that island, exiled from their city. When her father died, all she had left was Prospero’s magic book and a handful of regrets.

“I am sorry, daughter. I leave you alone in this distant land. I have not been able to bring you home”.

I’ll be the one that brings you back, Father.

The wind whipped Miranda’s hair, throwing them on her face. “More!”

The ship soared on a colossal wave and, after an eternal minute, capsized. The water swallowed it.

A gull withered. The sky had reopened and flaunted a quilt of stars. A diaphanous figure, all pointed cheekbones and curls like puffs of clouds, came down lightly on the beach. Not even his toes touched the sand.

“My lady, they are all alive, surfaced in different points of the island. The ship is intact and awaits you at the bay”.

“Thank you, Ariel. We’re almost there”. Miranda smiled satisfied.

The spirit of the air bowed. “Free me now”.

The sorceress bit her lower lip. Since she and her father had pulled Ariel from the tree in which was trapped by a witch, the spirit had been the most loyal of companions. Ariel deserved to be free. But Miranda still could not do without him.

“Soon, my dear, I promise. Stay with me for a while longer, I cannot bring that ship home without your help”.

The spirit nodded, sad. “For you and in memory of your father, I will wait”. Miranda reached out a hand and Ariel did the same, but it was intangible even to her touch. “What will you do with them?” asked Ariel.

“My uncle wanted to steal my father’s fate. He can also share his death on this God-forsaken island”.

I hope you rot here.

The sea was flat as a board. The ship, the sails inflated by Ariel, sailed fast. They reached the port smoothly and in a third of the time that it would have take a fully equipped ship.

The spirit descended beside her. “How will you convince them to give you the throne back?”

Miranda studied the surface of the water in the silver basin she found in the captain’s cabin. The bottom of the water returned the image of a magnificent black steed, on his head a long golden horn, and he had collapsed on the ground, too thin from hardship. It was the unicorn of the Este, the house of his mother.

“It is the unicorn who recognizes the rightful heir to the throne. Knowing that the unicorn would have shamed him, the usurper locked him up and, little by little, my uncle was killing this immortal creature,” Miranda stroked the surface of the water as if, through it, she could touch the ink black mantle of the steed. “We must free him”.

At a nod from Ariel the guards fell like empty bags, fast asleep. Miranda marched forward confidently into the dungeon, followed by the faithful spirit. Thanks to the magical arts learned from the book, no lock could resist them.

The unicorn had barely the strength to turn his head in her direction, but in Miranda’s presence the golden horn lit like a candle. The sorceress placed a bowl of clear water in front of him, which the creature drank greedily. Then she fed him heaps of a reconstituting dough she had prepared for the occasion.

“Don’t give up, old friend. With you would go all that is pure in this world too”.

No one dared to say a word when she made her entrance through the city gates riding on the unicorn, with the jewelry box that contained her father’s ashes under arm. The unicorn wrapped her in a golden aura that meant only one thing.

“The Duchess is back,” a humble laundress whispered. Then she yelled it. And that cry flew to the mouth of the shoemaker, then to that of the baker and, shortly, of all the people. The bells rang in celebration.

Only once inside the courtyard of the palace, Miranda dismounted.

Ariel came down next to her. “The time has come”.

With tears in her eyes, she nodded. “Ariel, spirit of the air, I free you from the deal you made with my father... I will miss you”.

The diaphanous figure ascended and shone with an intense white light. When Ariel landed again, feet planted on the ground, he appeared solid. Human.

“So I am free. And as a free man, I choose to be by your side, my lady”.