The Mother of Demonic Beasts

On the seventh and final day, Daisy still had not emerged. Neither alive, nor dead.

Franz had not yet been able to leave that spot, and was still trying, time and again, to force his way into the forest.

Matheus's family, sensing something unusual in the absence of demonic beasts, had come to the Forest of Illusions. The moment they saw Franz and Matheus standing there, they knew at once who had gone inside. Daisy had spent her childhood all but living in Lanke to hunt the beasts, and every one of them had come to regard her as their own kin.

But beyond their grief, they could only watch in dread as the Emperor kept hurling himself at the forest, again and again, until a flurry of flying leaves left him slashed deep and bleeding. Before anyone realized it, his entire body was scraped raw and covered in wounds — and still he would not give up.

Carl van der Dite, Matheus's father and the Lord of Lanke, urged him at least to return to the castle and wait there, but Franz did not so much as stir.

"You've lived in the north your whole life, so you must know the Forest of Illusions well. Is there truly no way inside?"

At Franz's desperate question, Carl shook his head.

"You know as well as I do, Your Majesty. The Forest of Illusions is ruled by the power of magic. None of the common knowledge I possess applies there."

Yet despite everyone's pleas, Franz held his ground. He looked like a man bewitched by something — or like a man consumed by some unforgivable regret.

Matheus had all but given up by now. Seven days had passed; the answer would come soon enough. No one wished more than he did for Daisy to be safe, but he could not promise that such a thing was possible.

And then it happened.

From the heart of the forest, a shaft of crimson light shot up into the sky.

It was a sight none of them had ever witnessed in all their lives. It was not flame, nor was it any illusion.

The pillar of red light blazed in every direction as it climbed endlessly toward the heavens — then vanished without a trace.

Matheus, who had been sitting with the eyes of a man who had abandoned everything in this world, met Franz's gaze. Those clear blue eyes flashed and kindled with light.

Before Matheus could say a word, Franz was already sprinting toward the forest at full speed, as if he had not spent a shred of his strength.

"Your Majesty!"

There was no time to stop him.

Matheus braced himself for Franz to be thrown back out again. But this time was different.

The Forest of Illusions did not reject him. As though its gates had always been open to him, Franz passed into the woods without the slightest resistance.

Matheus followed at his heels — and the forest refused the other man outright. He struck some unseen barrier and was flung backward, tumbling through the snow. Exactly as Franz had been for seven endless days.

"What is this?"

Matheus tried the forest's edge again, but the result was the same. There was nothing left to do but wait — for Franz, and for Daisy's return.

Was this heaven, or hell, or was she still beneath the lake?

Daisy had shut her eyes against the raging whirlpool, and when she opened them again, a breathtakingly beautiful goddess stood before her.

Her black hair, soft as spun silk, rippled all the way down to her ankles; her white skin glowed brighter than the noonday sun; and her eyes shimmered red as rubies.

"You are the Child of the Red Crystal."

The goddess spoke. She was the owner of that deep voice Daisy had been hearing all along.

"So it was you. The one who was speaking to me."

"Yes. I am the master of this forest."

"Who are you? And what exactly is the Child of the Red Crystal supposed to mean?"

Even in a situation she could not begin to comprehend, Daisy asked calmly. She had clearly been drifting underwater, and yet she could breathe with perfect ease.

"I am the mother of the demonic beasts, and the mistress of this forest."

"Then you're the one I'm ultimately meant to destroy. If I defeat you, the 7 Nights will end — is that it?"

Daisy instinctively reached for her sword, only to realize she had left it behind when she leapt into the lake.

"Whatever you carry, you could never harm me. No one can."

"What are you, exactly? A spirit? Some kind of fairy? Or are you a magician? Can magicians really live forever at the bottom of a lake?"

"Shall we talk a while?"

The goddess drifted gracefully through the water as she spoke, unhurried.

"You are only the second person ever to come this far."

"I know. The first was my grandmother."

"Ah. So blood truly does tell."

"…"

"My children and I lived peacefully on this land, once. Humans waged their endless wars, killing each other over territory, but our kind took no side at all. We lived in peace within this forest and all its surroundings."

At those words, something stirred in Daisy's memory.

"You're… a magician," Daisy said. It was something she seemed to have heard long ago, in the history lessons on the founding of the Empire. There had been few stories about magicians, but they said the lands of the Lowes Empire had once belonged to them — a race that had kept itself neutral above all else.

And then, for some reason, that neutrality had been broken. They had aided the First Emperor, and that was how the Empire came to be unified.

"One day, a man staggered into the forest, so badly wounded he was near death. The stench of his blood shook the air — I couldn't simply overlook it. By rights, I should have pretended not to see him at all. But a man weeping softly over the soldiers he had lost… I couldn't turn away from that. So I healed him."

"…"

"I'm quite capable in battle, you know, but I can do a little healing as well."

The goddess winked and smiled.

"So it was the First Emperor, Juligen Roheas."

"Clever girl."

The goddess smiled again, but the smile did not seem to come from her heart. Somewhere within it lingered a residue of sorrow and resentment — old grievances she could not quite shed.

"I fell in love with that man. I had staunched his mortal wound, but he was hurt so badly that he needed to convalesce, and so he stayed a long while. He loved the animals of the forest. He never mistreated the plants. And though he knew I was a magician, he neither tried to use me nor watched me with fear."

"…"

"Living beside him, I came to understand the brevity of human life, and all the suffering it holds. And I was swayed by his words, too — how he wished to unify the Empire and give his people a life washed clean of blood."

So the reason the magician race had abandoned their neutrality and thrust themselves into another race's war had been — love?

"What a trite story," Daisy said, with bitter self-mockery. Trite or not, that commonplace love was the very reason she stood here now, facing this magician.

"I took his side. I gave him and his soldiers the power to fight. You do know that combat is the magician's greatest gift? We simply prefer never to use it — too many people and animals end up hurt."

"…"

"In the end, he unified the Empire. He became Emperor. And the moment his coronation was over, he came straight back here."

"I've never once heard it said that the first Empress was a magician," Daisy replied flatly. Somehow, she already sensed how this love would end. And she had no wish to hear any more of the tragedy.

"No, you wouldn't have. He asked me to come to the capital with him, but I had no desire for such a complicated place. I wanted to go on living here in peace with my kind, as I always had — though I confess, I thought it would be wonderful indeed if he came to visit from time to time."

"…"

"Do you see how foolish I was?"

The goddess laughed — a hollow, empty laugh.

"I believed he was my lover, and I laid bare every secret I possessed. That if one such as I — an Archmage — were to die without naming a successor, every magician in the world would be wiped out."

"!"

"And also, how to kill me."

The goddess's red eyes flared, blazing with light.

"So — are you dead, or alive? Were the magicians annihilated? I've heard that magicians exist, but I've never seen one in my life."

"No human method can kill me. To do it, one must cut open my chest, take out my heart, and drive a blade through it."

"…"

"That man slit open my chest while I slept, and took my heart. After witnessing a magician's power with his own eyes, he had grown afraid. Why are people like that? They cannot bring themselves to trust even the one they love."

Daisy had no words to offer. The Empire had been born from a betrayal stained in blood. Was that why the smell of blood had never once faded from its history?

"And yet — I don't know why — at the very last, he hesitated. He couldn't bring himself to pierce my heart. I woke too late and threw every ounce of my strength into casting a shield over it. But that was all I could do."

"…"

"I could not leave this forest. I could never take a body again. All I could do was drift, neither dead nor alive."

"Why are you telling me all of this?"

The goddess before her — no, this Archmage — had just revealed the very method by which she could be killed. Daisy could not fathom her meaning.

"I made a decision then. Even if I could never leave this place, I would create demonic beasts without end and bring ruin to the Empire that man loved so dearly."

"If that was your resolve, why did you create the 7 Nights at all?"

She understood now why the beasts kept pouring out. But the reason this woman had made the trial of the 7 Nights still made no sense to her.

"Because I loved that man. However great the betrayal, a heart does not vanish in an instant. And his must have been the same — that's why he couldn't pierce my heart at the end. The Empire simply mattered more to him than I did."

"…"

"He begged my forgiveness, swearing he would protect my heart for the rest of his days. That is why I made the 7 Nights. I could not forgive the man — but I promised that if a valiant knight ever appeared, I would guarantee the Empire's peace for as long as that knight lived."

The Archmage's voice was thick with regret as she went on.

"Why… seven days?"

"He left with my heart, and I have been here ever since. Why seven days, you ask? Because that is how long it took — from the day he became Emperor and returned here, to the day he betrayed me."