Hatred

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Airi peeled herself from the bed, pulling her blanket around her head. In the peephole, Marianne waved up at her.

“What is it?” Airi asked, suppressing a yawn as she opened the door.

“Good morning! I have an important question for you!” Marianne said.

“Hurry up.”

“What’s your favorite flower?”

Airi definitely shouldn’t have woken up. She closed the door, but Marianne blocked it with her foot. “Come on, Airi! Tell me! It’s important!”

“If I answer, you’ll leave?”

Marianne nodded. "Of course, of course!” She was holding a book in her hands—The Registry of Mages. There were names on the pages—names and illustrations of flowers. ‘Lydia loves violets. They match her eyes,’ one entry read. "So, what is it? Lilies? Roses?"

Airi tried to think of a flower besides violets. Roses, lilies... she didn’t like any of them. Her mind was blank. She turned around, and her eyes landed on the little yellow flowers on Mildred’s desk.

“Those.”

“Flowers in Mildred’s room? That’s new.” Marianne looked closer. “Are these Curiosity flowers? Where did you get them?”

“From a flower shop.”

“That’s impossible. Curiosity flowers don’t make it to Magisbury.”

“Because they’re so rare?”

“No, because they can’t survive far from Moss Bottom, where they grow. That’s why Curiosity serum is produced there and then shipped here on the river.” Marianne poked a bud, which opened, revealing four perfect petals. “These aren’t wilted at all. When did you buy this?”

Airi tried to remember. “Before we fought Charybdis. Why? Is it a big deal?"

“Such a drastic change can’t be a coincidence, not when we’re having all these monster outbreaks. Something must be wrong in Moss Bottom. We should go and investigate.”

“We?” Airi said. After their conversation yesterday, Marianne had a lot of audacity to be suggesting this.

“Well, there’s only one person in the palace who knows Moss Bottom well enough to investigate it, and that's me. But I can’t possibly go alone! I’m only a defenseless mage, and besides, it'll be more fun.” Marianne beamed. “It's a few days' travel, so pack some clothes and snacks! See you in front of the palace at 9 o'clock.”

Moss Bottom lay at the end of the Carmine River, the third of the three great rivers that converged at Magisbury. Soon after leaving Magisbury, the carriage left behind the rolling farmlands and entered an autumnal forest. Squirrels chattered overhead, and the air was crisp with the scent of rotting things.

"Why's it called the Carmine River?" Airi asked. "It's not because the water is red, is it?"

"Have a look!"

Airi poked her head out of the carriage window and saw fallen leaves lining the edges of the river, turning the water scarlet and gold.

The forests of Moss Bottom were the deep green of forgotten secrets, untouched by the changing of the seasons. Overhead, trees blotted out the sun, while underfoot, the uneven ground yielded to streams and waterfalls as sheer as bride's veils. Daisies lined the banks.

“It shouldn’t be much farther now,” Marianne said.

“Where are we going, exactly?”

“There used to be a meadow around here filled with flowers. I would come here with my best friend every day when I was little.”

“Your best friend?”

Marianne’s eyes searched the sky. “You know, the funny thing is, I don’t even remember what she looked like. I just remember that she would appear from the forest, just like a fairy. And after we were done playing for the day, she would go back into the forest.”

“Are you sure she wasn’t... an imaginary friend?”

Leaping across a moss-covered log, Marianne laughed. “That’s what my parents said, too. But even if she was an imaginary friend, I missed her. I went into the woods every day to look for her.” A pause. “A few months later, while I was out looking for her, my village was attacked by Nemesis. A monster.”

Airi looked at Marianne. When she’d first met her, she’d found Marianne’s constant smile a bit unsettling. But now she saw the bitterness behind it, intense as the coffee beneath the cream.

“Nemesis was a monster representing the desire for destruction. Those who hadn’t been burned alive died from the smoke. My parents, my friends... there was nothing left in my village. So the mages took me to Magisbury.”

They jumped across a crystal-clear stream and landed knee-deep in daisies.

“At least Nemesis is dead, right?”

“I would know. I killed it.” Marianne smiled mischievously. “Once I thought I had learned enough magic, I ran away to find it. It had already become a Calamity by then, but I killed it.”

In her mind’s eye, Airi saw a pink-haired girl facing off against a fiery silhouette that engulfed the forest. The air filled with acrid smoke, but the girl never wavered. Only when it was dead did she smile.

“After I killed Nemesis, I knew I was unsuited for fighting monsters. I haven’t fought one since.”

“What? But you killed Nemesis, when no one else could!”

Two birds swooped overhead, alighting in a nest in a high tree. Marianne’s eyes followed them.

“There were 22 civilian casualties in that battle,” she said. A nestling poked its fluffy head out of the nest, beak opening and closing.

“Well... that’s expected. It was a monster.”

The mother bird dropped a grub into the baby’s mouth. Marianne said, “20 of them were because of me.”

What?

Airi’s imagination changed. Now there were human figures in the burning forest, falling to the floor, screams melting into ashes. Still the pink-haired girl did not look away from the monster. Flames blazed, reflected in her eyes.

“I could have saved them. I chose to kill it instead,” Marianne said. “Don’t trip! There’s a root ahead. Now, where was I?”

She tilted her head and smiled at Airi. “So you see, it’s not that I’m afraid of monsters. I’m not like Feldspar, you see.”

“I didn’t say you were afraid—”

“I hate them.” Marianne shook her head. “I wouldn’t be able to think clearly if I were to fight one.”

“But you’re going to fight one now.”

“Yes,” Marianne said, swinging her arms as if she were on a Sunday stroll. “Originally, I was planning to go alone. But you survived Gold and Charybdis, so I think you’ll survive this, too! I do hate being alone, you know. And isn’t this much more fun?”

They came to a gap in the trees, where a giant fallen log served as a sort of tunnel. Walking through it, a golden glow spread down the tunnel. Airi’s eyes widened, and Marianne smiled as if she were coming across a long-lost friend.

“So this is where the flowers came from. I had a feeling it would be here.”

Spread before them like a painting was a meadow filled with thousands of Curiosity flowers, blooming under a picture-perfect blue sky. Yellow petals swirled across the sky, skimming the fluttering crystalwings.