Alicia

I was envious.

Envious of great-grandma, Alicia. It wasn’t in my nature to be jealous, but Alicia had it all. All my life me and the rest of the family had lived in her shadow. She had been a skilled swordfighter, a world-famous adventurer, and a hero of the nation ever since her participation in the Great Holy War. She had experienced the most fulfilling life anyone could wish for.

I meanwhile, had led a boring life in the confines of the village. But thanks to Chiyo I could now do anything I wanted. No more routines or unjust peace kept in place by an authoritarian village chief. I needed action in my life.

These thoughts ran through my head as I crawled on all fours through the long, damp tunnel leading to my destination. My back scraped the top of the passageway hewn out of stone, and my shoulders were squeezed together.

It had been built after the devastation of the village 82 years ago, to allow an escape for the village chief and their family. All who had worked on it were now long dead, and only our family remembered.

At last I reached the end of the tunnel, and pushed my head against the roof, which gave way. I was now standing in Alicia’s garden. I took a deep breath to calm my raging nerves and went in through the back porch.

As I went in, it appeared to me that no one was home. The living room was dark and cold. As the moonlight shone through the windows my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, I saw the sword I desired hung up above the fireplace.

It was wrapped in a bright red leather scabbard, with branches and flowers made out of gold leaf decorating it. The hilt was made to look like two intertwining snakes, with their heads splitting at the base of the sword to form the guard.

I took a step towards the fireplace, then I saw her.

She was sitting in an ornately carved rocking chair, carved by my father when he was around my age, by the window. The crevices lining her face starkly contrasted on her face in the moon’s pale glow.

“Grandma, you already know why I’m here, right?”

She looked away from the window and up at me. A hint of a frown was visible on her brow.

“I know why you’ve come. I know it very well. I’ve been waiting for you for some time now, young man.”

 The only thing I wanted to do in that moment was to walk away from the whole situation, to deny that I’d come for her sword and just resume my uneventful life. That’s how menacing of a figure Alicia was in that moment. Her eye sockets appeared to me as dark holes, save for two fiery lights coming from her pupils.

I couldn’t step away anymore, I’d come too far. I steeled myself for the confrontation that was about to take place.

“I can’t agree with the way you’re running this town. Killing an innocent young girl because she can use magic? You’re out of your mind! We’re leaving, and I’m going to make sure she gets home safely. I’ll need your sword to defend ourselves, so, uh, I’ll be taking it.”

Alicia let out a cold, hollow laugh.

“Is that truly how you feel? Or are you just using her as an excuse to go on silly adventures, to escape your responsibilities?”

I couldn’t accept this explanation of hers. But I didn’t know what to say. Great-grandma spoke again, more quietly this time.

“I knew you would become a troublemaker. You remind me too much of myself when I was young.”

I gathered all my courage and spoke up.

“We aren’t alike. Not in any way! Grandma, no, Alicia, I’m going to be better than you ever were.”

“Quite the bold statement!” The furrowing of her brow had disappeared. There was now a twinkle in her eyes.

“With every word you speak, and every action you do, I grow only more certain that you and I are the same. Can’t you feel it? Your blood boils, telling you to go off on a great adventure, to be the hero. Your mind endlessly fantasizes about the techniques you’d use to slay trolls and dragons. And finally, your hearts aches for true love.”

It was all true. Alicia had never shown much interest in me, but in this moment it was as if her gaze pierced right into my deepest thoughts. I felt myself shrink while what should have been a frail old lady in a rocking chair loomed over me. As expected, I was no match for her.

“Go ahead, take away Serpens Aurum, my prized sword. It’s only been collecting dust here for the past few decades. I’ve made sure to have it sharpened up at the swordsmith while you were out in the hills playing hide-and-seek.”

This confused me greatly. “What? Aren’t you going to sound the alarm and imprison me? What’s your plan here?”

She grinned. Another first for her.

“You make for a fine successor. Go ahead, walk my path. You’ll end up in this village in the end anyway. Because it’s your destiny.”

She had been ahead of me every step of the way. So this had been her intention all along.

“Frankly, I don’t want to ever come back to this rotten town you’ve created, so forget about it. And what about the witch, aren’t you going to kill her?”

Her grin disappeared.

“Yes, the witch… She wasn’t quite part of my plan. I had hoped to see you leave under… different circumstances. Witches are dangerous, Oliver. It’d be best if you remembered that. But I’m just an old lady now, there’s not much I can do.”

“What’s with you and your obsession with witches?” I boldly asked. I would show Alicia that I wasn’t to be messed with. I would take control of the conversation.

She turned her gaze away from me and stared out of the window again.

“Remember how I killed a witch, and saved the village?”

“Get to the point, what does that have to do with anything?” I was growing frustrated now.

She now looked straight at me in a way that fully illuminated her eyes. It was a thousand-yard stare. Like the one you’d see on a traumatized veteran.

“Well, I’ve never told anyone the full story, the truth about what happened that night.”