Linguini, as always. He had been thoughtful and considerate of others since he was young, and he showed that same kindness to her. Her steps quickened. She planned to crush the wild strawberries before sundown and make jam. The basket he had loaded her up with held plenty of warm baguettes too, so tomorrow she could get some milk and sit down to a proper warm meal.

A hum rose to her lips. She walked through the Ida Forest, trailing her hand slowly along the trees. The Ida Forest was a special place. The last place the vanished witches had stayed until the very end. As such, the power of many witches had soaked into the land, and the creatures living here could commune with witches. The forest also held magic within itself, warding off intruders, almost as though it meant to protect her, the one witch who remained.

Her reason for settling in the Ida Forest had partly to do with her fondness for the villagers down below, but in truth, this was the larger part of it. For Selene, the Ida Forest was a place that kept her connected to her sisters.

What was more, just past where her cabin stood, there was a pond.

A gate to the witches’ land.

That pond was the gate through which sisters still remaining in the human world, sisters like Selene, could pass into their land. She had no intention of going to the witches’ land at the moment, but somehow, just knowing it was nearby put her at ease.

She swept her hand through the air. She lifted the concealment spell over her cabin, and the tip of its roof came into view in the distance. From the outside it looked ramshackle, a small place that seemed ready to collapse at any moment, but the inside was actually quite cozy and lovely. 

It had a study for researching magic and a small kitchen garden for researching magical remedies. Witches who had enjoyed lavish lifestyles might have laughed at it, but for Selene it was a perfectly satisfying arrangement.

‘Above all, it’s quiet.’

Thanks to the barrier she had set around it, the place escaped human notice entirely. The rumor that a witch lived in this forest kept people from venturing too close, and even if someone happened to wander in by accident, a spell ensured they could never find her home.

So the only visitors who ever came near the cabin were small animals.

Click. She arrived home and reached for the door as she always did, and at that moment, a rustling sound came from behind her, followed by the soft thud thud of footsteps. Footsteps? Selene’s eyes darted around in alert. She scanned her surroundings, then flicked her fingers toward the tall grass in the garden.

The rustling grew louder, and when the grass parted with a sudden sweep, a small figure came tumbling out from within.

“Oh, ugh!”

It was a small child. A boy or girl of about four or five, covered head to toe in wounds, looking ready to die at any moment, lay collapsed among the grass. Selene’s green eyes went wide.

‘A young child? What is this? How did they find this place?’

Thoughts raced through her head in a flurry. No human could ever find her cabin. Any human who entered this area would see nothing but dense trees where the small cabin stood, and a spell made the large garden look like an impenetrable stretch of forest. And yet here was a child, collapsed right in the middle of her garden, and her thoughts came to a dead stop.

Had they wandered in while playing? Lost their way during a game of hide-and-seek among the trees?

She approached the child in a daze. The child’s eyes stared up at her, unblinking. Selene felt strangely drawn in. She walked toward the child in a peculiar state of mind, so much so that she nearly forgot the invisible magic she had cast on herself was still active. The child, who had been staring at her for a moment, dropped their face back to the ground with a thud.

“Oh, oh my? Hey!”

Her body moved before her mind did. She had no idea why a human child had wandered in here, or how they had ended up collapsed in this spot. But when she drew close, the wounds covering the child’s body were the first thing that hit her. The small body was riddled with injuries of all kinds. Some looked old, and others were fresh, red and swollen. The most striking of all was a large gash near the throat.

What on earth happened. Why does a child have a wound from a blade. Her eyes told her plainly it was a knife wound, but her mind refused to make sense of it. She watched deep red blood well and spill from the small neck, and then she snapped back to herself.

“Oh, right. I need to treat this quickly….”

The throat was in tatters, as though someone had set out to kill this child completely. What possible reason could anyone have to slash the throat of a child this young? She swallowed her bewilderment and gathered energy at her fingertips. 

She pressed her fingertips to the small neck, and the blood that had been surging out began to slow. She drew a little more power to clear the blood and close the flesh. She pushed a bit more force in, intending to reverse time on the torn skin and restore it to its original state, and at that moment, a sharp sensation shot up from her fingertips where they touched the skin.

“Ah!”

Like touching a bone-dry blanket, a stinging static-like pain pricked at her fingertips, and she pulled her hand away quickly. The moment she did, blood began seeping from the wound again.

“What, what is this?”

Could it be because the injuries were too severe? The magic her sisters possessed surpassed any other magic in this world, but even so, it could not defy the bounds of fate. The dead could not be brought back to life, and what had already burned to ash could not be restored. Sisters could only affect beings still bound to this earth. So when a wound refused to close, the most likely explanation was that the person was already dead.

Selene lifted her hand and watched the small creature for a moment. The child’s chest rose and fell in faint, shallow movements.

“Not dead…. Then why….”

Were they standing at the threshold between life and death? She abandoned the attempt to push her power in again and slowly gathered the child up. As she lifted the small body, the tightly shut eyelids gave a faint flutter. A labored, wheezing breath reached her, thin as a thread about to snap.

“I can’t exactly just leave them here…. But.”

Selene’s expression turned troubled. Two thoughts pulled at her at once. A small child whose body her magic could not reach. Was it safe to handle a child like that? If it was simply because they stood at the edge of life and death, there was no problem. But if the reason was something else, the one other possibility she could think of, that would be dangerous.

“Let me check.”

After a brief hesitation, she carefully examined the child she had lifted. The hair clearly did not carry that particular trait. The only hair color she needed to be wary of was one: black. She looked the child over again more carefully. This child had white hair, like a white cat. She ran her fingers through the inner layers of the hair to confirm it precisely, then let out a small breath of relief. Next, the eyes.

She gently stroked the trembling, shut eyelids and carefully eased them open.

“Mmm….”

Forcing the eyes open drew a labored breath from the child’s parted lips. It was a small, desperate sound, like a tiny animal caught in a trap.

“Oh dear…. Hmm. The eyes look all right too, at least.”

Silver-gray, just like the hair. White hair and silver-gray eyes. The child looked like a human drained of all color. And now that some of the blood had been wiped away, the child was pale, the kind of pale that came from never having seen sunlight in their life.

“What is this child?”

She murmured it to herself, and the child’s body gave a small flinch. The way they reacted to her voice reminded her of a tiny human infant, or a young animal. Without thinking, she shifted the child into a more comfortable position in her arms. The body weighed almost nothing. Has he eaten anything at all? Is this child truly dying?

Her thoughts tilted toward the hypothesis that was worse for the child but better for her.

A dying human. When someone stood at the immediate threshold of life and death, even the power of magic could not heal their wounds. The thread of this child’s fate had already been handed over to something greater, and from here on, it was not magic or a sister’s power that mattered. It was up to the child.

“They do look like they could die any moment.”

She brought her ear close to the pale child’s lips. The breath was fragile, barely holding on, but still there. They might die soon. She understood the likelihood was high. Even so, as the physician of this village, she could not abandon a child who was still alive.

Selene looked down at the child for a quiet moment, then wiped the blood from the small face with her hand.

“Still, what a beautiful face.”

Once some of the bloodstains were gone, the child’s striking features came through. Full lashes, snow-white skin, a delicately shaped nose. And the lips, with their corners ever so slightly upturned, were far too lovely for a child.

“Is this a girl?”

“…Mm, mmm….”

“Oh, goodness.”

While she turned the child’s face this way and that to get a better look, the small brow furrowed. Selene looked at the throat still welling with blood, and simply gathered the child against her body. Warmth reached her from the point of contact. This is definitely a young child. The moment she felt that very human warmth, a sense of urgency rose in her.

‘Left like this, they’ll die.’

There was no more time to think. She stroked the groaning child’s back and turned toward the door. Creak. The door, which sounded more unpleasant than usual today, grated on her nerves for no particular reason.