“Wait.”

  That enigmatic woman’s voice rang through the skies, interrupting all three of us in our work.

  “Don’t…”

  I did not understand what she was talking about, but in just those two few words told me more than any of the things she had said to my face. Despite how young the Hidden Witch looked, she had to be ridiculously old. A certain wisdom came with that, and her words seemed even more genuine than the Adjutant herself.

  My honored master had always been there for me, but there was a sense of depth to this woman’s words that cut to the heart of my worries, whereas Madam Silver had only told me my worries were a product of weakness. Could I have been so foolish for so many centuries?

  The Hidden Witch’s words were spoken to herself. As if she had already decided on a course of action but her lingering worries couldn’t help but spread across the land, accompanied by rain that soaked the sands around us.

  “No… I don’t want to!”

  “That—that’s the Hidden Witch!” Mudrock shouted, distraught in tone and letting her magic circle dwindle.

  “Focus!” I shouted, suddenly spurred to determination by the ancient witch’s inspiring woes. “We have to do our part, right—”

  My words were broken up as that girl’s cries echoed from the lighthouse to the shore, unmistakably in pain. Not just pain, but anguish rarely felt by those as young as myself. The kind which made the aether shake in discomfort.

  “But Madam Quartz!” I was substitute teacher for the girl once, but Mudrock never showed talent. It was true that Madam Silver had officially designated her as an expendable asset, but despite her insolence, I couldn’t help but be moved by the frantic tremble in her voice and the passionate tears which formed streaks down her chin before washing away beneath the gathering storm, “Even if she told us what to do… Even if she said she didn’t want to push herself… I just know she’s going to exceed her limits! What if she hurts herself again?”

  “I… but what are we supposed to do—” She cut me off.

  “Think about it! She’s off doing her job, but her pain blows off to shore on the winds!”

  As bright as my magic circle was burning, I could feel her tears mixing in with the soil, “What are you saying…”

  “She needs…” I turned to my apprentice, and she went silent for a moment before reaffirming her resolve, “She needs our help!”

  “Miss Shale is right!” I couldn’t believe how far Mudrock’s magic circle was burning out of control. If it was crafted to amplify one’s will using surrounding aether, it was almost as if a vortex formed in the sky bearing down on the dismissible rookie. Layers of glyphs manifested and lit up the darkened sky, like she was building on the Hidden Witch’s conjurations by sheer power of will. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing—like even my own ambition as a child was garbage. “I don’t care how powerful the Hidden Witch is—if she said she needs our help… I’m taking her word for it.”

  It was true. Despite the ancient witch’s words of advice, I tried to argue, but the meaning was clear. I left behind the most important things to me in efforts to become a great witch—to stretch my legacy beyond my own lifespan—but perhaps the girl who came up with those ideals didn’t even exist anymore. She was cut into pieces and each piece traded for power, influence… strength and the will to endure all that came as consequence.

  If only I put that will towards something more meaningful, perhaps I could have been something like the Hidden Witch—

  Wait… What am I saying? She’s a fugitive of the highest threat level. The general public doesn’t know this, but she’s basically declared herself Earth Vein’s enemy. How can I let her lure me in with her honeyed words just like she did to Madam Silver’s daughter—

  Or maybe… I always knew my master kept that child in the dark. The Titan Witch was meant to surpass her mother and take over the skies, paving way for her own child to become the Gold Witch. Eventually they would be the de facto head of the Gandeux.

  How many years has it been since my master confided this in me over a few bottles of wine? She sure doesn’t open up much these days. I thought Nanri was the apple in her eye—the not only chosen but greatly anticipated successor, the perfect child who wanted that grand, predetermined future.

  Was I wrong? If the Hidden Witch didn’t lead her astray… perhaps she tore open a hole in the sky to put the truth on full, undeniable display as she did for me.

  I can’t believe it. I refuse— “There’s no way. The Adjutant couldn’t—"

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “If I just become this island—I can make it all stop.”

  Those words made my heart stutter, and tears welled in my eyes all over again. I looked at my assistant who looked to the sky with frightful reverence and Mudrock with a hand placed over her heart.

  Impossible… Every time the Hidden Witch spoke on the wind, it was as if her words conveyed a lifetime of emotions, all of which culminating to this very moment. Become this island…? What the hell does that mean?

  But I could tell as I looked to both my junior witches, we all knew. It didn’t make any sense, but she could save this island by becoming it.

  Why…

  “Why?!” I cried in anguish, incompetence, futility, but that was all overshadowed by my egregious inadequacy. “Why would you do this?!”

  If she really needed, we could work together to move the stone off course and sink the island ourselves. There were options. Let alone the fact that becoming an island made absolutely no sense, I knew she was serious. And I could feel that she was certain that it would end this incident. Everyone would be saved.

  What would become of her? Would she become trapped here forevermore?

  But I couldn’t accept it.

  Hidden Witch…

  What are you? WHO are you?

  An impossible existence. You’ve made me rethink my entire life in hardly half an hour after spending centuries to settle on my course.

  If only I could have realized how foolishly I’ve spent my life sooner. Have I truly been so pathetic that this ancient woman has to extinguish her incomprehensibly long life to accomplish nothing more than preventing a single island from falling apart?

  It’s as if she’s made a promise to do so… but why? What is the significance?

  Madam Silver always told me passing whims which sway my fancy are to be extinguished like stray wisps. If I wanted to catch a boy who stole an apple from the stall, she told me he needed it to get by… But in the same tone she told me some mayor embezzling the difference in tax breaks granted by the Gandeux needed it to feed the people.

  “Dad…” The Hidden Witch sounded more like a young girl as her next words formed, and they brought tears to my eyes again. They were empty words for a recipient who was long gone. The girl was writing her own obituary. “I’m sorry I never ready your letter… I’ll do better in the next life, but for now… I think I’m going to stay here for a while—”

  “No!” I shouted. I almost couldn’t contain my anger. This stupid old lady had thrown everything she had at solving a problem with as little impact to the Boreal as I could think of. This was the job everyone overlooked because it was just far enough away and with so little pay that there was no way to gain profit on it. Earth Vein only sent us in to hopefully hoard some dirt before it fell into the sea. Nobody cared about this island or the one beneath it.

  So why?! Why does this stupid girl throw everything away for this?!

  “Why?!” I couldn’t help crying out as my mana condensed into quartz above my head.

  “The next island doesn’t matter…” Mudrock shifted her eyes upward at me, glazed over with worry. “If there’s a single life to be saved here, she feels obligated to do so, because it’s within her power.”

  The cerulean pillar had long since reached its zenith, but we could feel her presence all around now. The fact that her words, or maybe her thoughts, were transmitted across the sky, only felt natural beneath whatever domain she put up.

  “So… what do we do?” My apprentice looked to Mudrock for answers in vain.

  “I… I don’t know. We just need to be here for her. If we keep the island together, then maybe she’ll come around—”

  “No.” I had to cut her off. Maybe it was just because of my experience or greater attunement to the aether, but I could feel countless layers of intent beneath each line the Hidden Witch Spoke. She was not fighting a battle of will, but accepting a course of action that she didn’t put enough thought into. I can at least thank Mudrock for giving me that perspective. She really isn’t all-powerful, and she’ll make a stupid decision for the greater good. Just like I always wanted to do… “No matter the heights she has reached… We cannot abandon her. Even if she prevails, who knows what she will lose.” My two juniors seemed surprised at my resolute words. “We have to make sure…” An entire lifetime flashed before my eyes—my family, my old friends, colleagues I used to cherish… Everything came to a head in that moment as centuries of failure turned into a single moment of resolve. “It’s up to us to bring her back.”

  The pillar sprouting from the spring like a mythical cerulean beanstalk started to die down. Not for lack of mana, but in lieu of acceptance.

  What kind of stupid woman becomes an island? Damn her!

  “Madam Quartz!” Mudrock cried, probably noticing the same thing about the pillar. “What do we do?!”

  I could feel the swell of earth mana weaken, so I beckoned orders the Hidden Witch couldn’t, “You two don’t let up on the task she gave you. If anything falls to the island below, all this work could be for nothing.” There was no way I was going to watch such a prolific witch waste probable millennia of gathered power to such a petty cause. “I am the only one with the strength to help the Hidden Witch.”

  Mudrock and Shale were noticeably startled at my declaration, but resumed their work swiftly. They were nearing the same level, and I watched the island push in on itself with more force than before. There were no more cracks and it was already formed together, but now it started to becoming dense stone as they worked together.

  Without knowing when this would end, the more time they could buy the better, and the Hidden Witch’s will-amplifying magic circles were keeping us afloat.

  “Hidden wonders of the sky above,” My voice flitted over the rippling mana.

  “Marvels of the earth within,” My rivers of quartz broke up into a finer crystalline dust and swayed about like the wind had always set their course.

  “Reflections unworthy of the sun, hidden furthest from the sky,”

  I never progressed past this incantation, for the words never made sense to me. Somehow, on this day, I thought I had possibly stumbled upon an inkling.

  “To pass in grandeur or return on calm winds, from sea to sky.” I could feel my staff of enchanted crystal begin to burn up as I encanted the hurdle I reached nearly a hundred years ago, “A whim of the land and one of its ilk—”

  My chest beat; I felt hot. I could hear my heart and the world seemed to slow down. I hadn’t noticed, but each word had taken a lot out of me. Somehow, I was surrounded in the sandy glow of mana I needed desperately, but it was difficult to stay present after channeling this much into a single spell. I can’t let it end like this. Today is the day… I complete this spell. At last.