Miss Midnight

Interlude: The Birth of a Witch

Interlude: The Birth of a Witch

Once upon a time, magic, fairies, and witches brimmed through the world, as commonplace as the oxygen we breathe. In those days, witches performed beneficial deeds, casting magical spells to chase off misfortune and using herbs to heal the ill.

Unfortunately, it would not remain that way. The world at that time was a cruel and unforgiving place. In times of mass hysteria and suspicion, witches were declared as heretics, and brutally hunted to the point of extinction. This is the short tale of one witch...a witch born without magic, who suffered immensely...and cheated death.

Witches gained their magical talent in many ways. Often it was passed down through a hereditary bloodline, inherited through one's parents or ancestors. Others, such as those who were born on Walpurgis Night, the Witching Hour, possessed red hair, or was the seventh child of a seventh child, also gained the Sight- and the destiny of becoming a witch.

But Miyu was born with none of these. She was a poor peasant girl living on the outskirts of a tiny village, born to parents who could barely afford to feed her. Her name was not originally Miyu, but it had been far, far too long to remember the name her mother and father gave her. She lived a miserable existence, with no hope for anything better...but little did she know it was about to get even worse.

A roving band of Unseelie Fairies ransacked her village, murdering any humans in sight and burning the place little Miyu once called home down to nothing but a pile of smouldering cinders and ashes. All of the children in her village- herself included- were spirited away by the fairies to work as slaves...or possibly become the Fairy King's next meal. Miyu witnessed the horrible treatment of the fairies' human slaves with her own eyes. People being whipped and beaten to death, or eaten alive by hungry beasts as entertainment for these so-called royals...it was cruelty on a scale young Miyu had never seen. Those images burned themsevles into her brain, and they never faded...not even now.

After the years passed, and Miyu grew older, she was chosen to become the Fairy King's next bride, but she refused to be the bloodthirsty, redheaded Changeling's toy. He'd soon grow bored of her and devour her, just like all the others.

So Miyu resolved to escape. She broke into the Fairy Palace's magical archive, stealing their spellbooks, potions, and wands...and accidentally laying her hands upon the Lotus Stone, an artifact possessing unmatched magical energy. Its power tore into her nerves, charging through her body, rewriting her very genetic code. The magic mixed with her blackened emotions, giving way to a cursed existence- a Witch of Dark. The power of the Lotus Stone forever stole her ability to age, essentially making her into an immortal.

With her newfound magical power, she took revenge upon her captors and escaped the clutches of the fairies- only to return to a world that wished her dead. Caught up in the witch trials at the time, she was condemned to be burned at the stake.

As the raging flames feasted upon her, tearing through her clothes and licking at her tender, boiling flesh, Miyu was on the brink of death...but not for long. The witch's dark hatred and rage toward the people who abused and wronged her took shape in the form of a ghastly beast- her very own Majo. Cloanthus, the Majo of Wrath. She rode across the sky on the back of the winged steel serpent and howled her rage to the heavens.

The land rumbled and split. Seas boiled, rivers bubbled, and lakes evaporated into steam. Plants and trees withered away, and the air became toxic and rank, killing anyone and anything caught under the smog. Her metallic serpent spit down showers of comets and fireballs, setting the land ablaze and razing everything in her path. She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to smother the world in fire, ash, and smoke. She couldn't control herself, reason was dead to her. All she craved was destruction.

But she never accomplished her goal. A group of brave warlocks took her down, tearing her from the back of her serpent and finally quelling her rage...but they never killed Miyu. She killed them instead. By the time she came to her senses and realized this, though...it was too late.

Miyu knew the world would never accept her, so she reclused herself from it. She watched the fall of her kind from a distance over the past five centuries...but even now, things were no different. Cloanthus could very well re-emerge and unleash destruction whenever it chose...and Miyu would never be able to stop it. The world would be set on fire once more...and perhaps this time, it might actually burn.

This was why she could not understand witches like Mariko Takahashi and Charlotte Sakura. They wanted so much to be brave and fight for justice, to protect the ones they cared about...but it was all for naught. Justice is a foreign, squishy concept to a witch. No matter what sacrifices you make, they will all be forgotten. Bravery makes nothing, protects no one. It only makes you dead. Miyu had watched this same scene play out before her, over and over, so many times over her 500 years of immortal life. And she knew how it ended every time.

But still...what gave her the right to tell others how to live their lives, after all of the sins she had committed? All she could do was let come what may. It was the curse she had been punished with, the curse she would have to live with for all eternity...until she eventually met the ultimate fate of all the witches who had perished before her...