Chapter 1: Glimpse of Heaven
A Devil That Looks Like an AngelShe feels herself sinking into slick coldness as she listens to the sound of flames crackling. Her vision is hazy, but she can see the thick dark clouds starting to cover the sky. She sees wisps of smoke coming from the blackening wood of burning homes, raising panic among the villagers as it swirls up in spirals.
It had been such a beautiful day before; what a shame.
It was supposed to be a great day, she was finally supposed to see her family again after quite a while. Minnie closes her eyes and she doesn’t know why, but there’s this feeling of irony that seems to be looming over her. She lets out a small laugh which turns into a fit of coughs. There’s an itch that she can’t seem to get rid of and smoke keeps scratching against her lungs as she desperately gasps for air.
It takes a while before she’s able to snap out of it, but she finally gets rid of the itch and spits a swat of saliva out. And, it’s as if a small fire was sparked inside of when she let out that last cough, yet the rest of her body feels so cold. She can barely feel her hands anymore as she brings them up to wipe her face after that last nasty spit of hers. When she brings her hands down, her vision flickers, but she can see a smear of red painted across the back of her hands. She her lips and notices a coppery tange left behind. She laughs, she laughs so hard that she coughs again and starts crying. Salty tears and blood run down her face and mix into the reddish mud she’s fallen into.
She blinks and the sky turns red, her vision drifts in and out of focus but she can see a beautiful girl get closer to her. Her hair is this wonderful shade of brown that seems so soft and her skin seems like it’s made out of porcelain just like a doll. Minnie finds it strange how the girl seems so unfazed by the chaos that led the village completely astray—her dress even looked pure white, perfectly untouched, and her face, despite the blurriness in her vision, seemed so clean. It was almost as if she was a polished statue that came to life from one of the worshiping temples.
“You’re just like an angel,” Minnie mutters.
The girl seems to pause for a second, but then her figure seems to fade away in blur. Minnie’s head starts to hurt, there’s this aching pain piercing through her forehead. She closes her eyes and she feels someone lifting her head from behind, resting it on their lap. She can tell she’s being told to open so she does and soon she feels liquid burning down . Startled, her eyelids fly wide open and she sees a golden goblet glimmering against the burning village with red liquid dripping down from it. Minnie tries to close , but the person behind her slips her fingers into , holding it open. It’s strange because as she chokes and tries to fight against her perpetrator, the touches and restraints they had, although they seemed violent, they also felt smooth and gentle. It almost put her to ease; it was like they didn’t want to hurt her.
She felt tears running down her cheeks again, but they weren’t hers. The perpetrator was gently her hair and Minnie remembers raising her left hand to wipe their tears away. But as soon as Minnie tried to look up, her vision turned white and every sensation seemed to disappear; she couldn’t feel the tears dripping down onto her face, she couldn’t hear the wails of the villagers, she couldn’t smell the smoke, and she couldn’t taste the smoke anymore.
But after a while, she hears the faintest whisper.
“Ab imo pectore…”
[From the bottom of my heart; with the deepest affection.]
---
Minnie gasps and sits up, finding herself in her bedroom with the same blue duvet she had slept with yesterday. She starts coughing erratically and she frantically reaches for the glass of water she always keeps next to her bed, but she can’t seem to find it today. The sickly girl tries to call out for her friends, but she can’t get her request across quite clearly through her coughing. So, all that comes out is gurgled gasp. Nonetheless, it seems to work as she can hear the door next to her fly open and the scurried footsteps of one of her roommates racing towards the kitchen. Not even a second later, she hears her door creak open and her other roommate rush towards her aid, patting her back as Minnie coughs with her fists tightening its grip on her bed sheets.
In what seems like ages, but were actually mere seconds, Soyeon enters the room, rushing in with a cup of water. The short girl nearly fumbles and falls over her own feet, but makes it to Minnie in flash, handing her the precious sweet liquid.
Coughing still, Minnie has trouble drinking the water on her own, so her other roommate takes things into her own matter. Yuqi snatches the cup from her hands and tilts her head slightly backwards before carefully dribbling the water into until Minnie seems to calm down and motions for her to stop.
She sighs in relief and thanks her roommates in a playful tone, “I almost thought I was a goner, what would I do with you guys?”
“Just please be more careful,” Soyeon mutters with a worried look on her face, “You should know by now, you’ve been like this ever since we met you.”
“I will,” Minnie says, remembering that day she met them.
Strangely enough, it wasn’t long after that day she had just dreamed of; she remembers waking up in this very bed of hers to see Yuqi staring at her curiously before her face sparked with pure excitement as she called for Soyeon. Minnie smiles, but a pang of piercing pain strikes her head again and she grimaces.
“You had that nightmare again,” Yuqi deduces, pulling Minnie into her arms to give her a much needed hug, “didn’t you?”
“Yeah,” Minnie remarks in frustration, feeling her voice and temper rise, “the very same one.”
“Shh, I know you’ve had it for years,” Soyeon hushes, “But calm down, your head already seems to hurt.”
The older girl nods and she takes a few deep breaths. Soyeon brings her hand up to her forehead, hovering over it slightly and looks at her as if she’s asking Minnie permission to use her power on her. The sickly girl nods again and Soyeon places her hand on her forehead, releasing a cool mask over her, slowly reducing the piercing pain sitting at the top of her head.
“Thank you,” Minnie says and she is finally free of pain, “I’m always grateful that the deities decided to gift you healing abilities.”
“You’re most welcome,” Soyeon informs, “but you know I worked hard to get my healing to this level. Although, a lot of it is just practice from healing you every so often.”
“I’m grateful for it!” Minnie announces, jumping out of her bed and startling her poor friends, “Still, I’m just a little jealous that you can heal and Yuqi can make flames while I’m stuck with such a weirdly impervious temporary state that I can’t even control.”
“Thanks, I know my flames are pretty wicked,” Yuqi boasts and lights a spark that leaves a small twirl of smoke in the air.
“Yuqi, how many times have I told you not to set the house on fire,” Soyeon warns with a frown on her face, though you can tell that there’s this fondness in her eyes when she looks at the younger girl.
“Relax, we got this place re-enchanted last month,” Yuqi reminds them, “I’m sure the roof isn’t going to catch on fire this time.”
Soyeon rolls her eyes while Minnie looks at her with doubt, but what can they do about their younger companion? The bright and cheery girl was too much for them to handle at times, they might as well just let her be and deal with life as it flows. After all, people should enjoy their peace and quiet while they have the chance to.
“Sure,” Soyeon sarcastically replies to the fired-up girl, but she doesn’t forget to turn to Minnie and point out, “Look, we don’t know what your power exactly is, but it’s not like it’s useless. It did save you from that day… maybe you just, you know…”
Minnie gives her a knowing look and affirms, “Yeah, maybe I did forget how to use it like I forgot everything that happened to me before that day.”
The room turns silent and the air in the room turns cold, the three awkwardly stand around, nervously shifting every now and then.
“I’m sorry,” the healer apologizes, “I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“No, it’s fine. Thanks for getting me that water and getting rid of that headache,” Minnie reassures with a smile, trying to shake off the sullen atmosphere, “I’m just going to get going now, I have an errand to run.”
The older girl starts to head out the door when she feels a grab her wrist, she looks behind and Yuqi is looking at her with puppy-dog eyes. She knows that look, she’s asking her if she’s sure she’s okay.
“I’ll be fine,” she tries to convince the younger girl, patting her the soft fluffy hair the pyro-user had.
“Are you sure?” the younger girl enquirers and offers, “I’ll go with you if you’d like.”
“Don’t worry, I’m just going to pick up some medicine from Soojin,” Minnie tells her as she flashes another smile at the two of them, trying to convince them that she’s well enough to go alone.
“Be safe,” Soyeon says, “I’ll be at the mage’s clinic and Yuqi will be at the blacksmith’s shop if you need us.”
Minnie nods and playfully shoos her beloved friends out of her room so that she can get ready for the day. She takes out a box full over colorful blocks and she carefully looks over all of them. Taking a look outside at the blue sky, Minnie decides to not choose from any of the darker blocks. She feels like using one that will make her sparkle, so she decides to use the white block with a couple speckled sparkles. After she puts the box with the rest of the blocks back, she splits the silver speckled white block open and a rush of wind and water swirl around her. She closes her eyes and lets the essence of the white block engulf her, she loves how convenient these magic get-ready-in-a-minute tinkers are. They have to be her favorite product the local bath and beauty shop has produced, she has to thank the helper there for the recommendation. As the magical essence subsides, Minnie feels refreshed and slips into one of her daily robes to embark on her errand for the day.
She grabs her broom and takes lofty steps out onto the cobblestoned streets. Checking that there are no incoming flying witches and wizards nearby, she takes nimble steps before she hops onto her broom and begins to float upwards. She feels a light gust of wind blow past her and ripple through her robe. Humming as she breezes through the air over their small quaint town, she watches over the lively inhabitants. She can see children playing with their wands and stirring up trouble with the little cantrips that they’ve just started learning. There are neighbors and friends who are also going about their day but paused to wave to her as well. She smiles at the mundanity of the precious little town she’s resided in for years and waves back to those who had stopped to wave at her. When she spots Soojin’s tiny corner shop, the wonderful nook and cranny that was hidden at the edge of their town near the calm river that flowed by, Minnie starts to slow her broom speed and gradually descend from the sky.
She does feel a bit airy at first when she lands on the familiar cobblestone road, but she figures it’s just from flying a bit too high today. Contemplating the state of her health, Minnie decides that perhaps it would be better for her to walk back with her medicine instead of flying. And so, as she has solved her worries, she shrugs the thought off and begins to wonder if Soojin has found any new medicine for her today. The medical herbalist has only been in town for several months, just like that soap and beauty shop assistant that works quite nearby, but she has already established her shop as a cornerstone of the village's medicinal needs. Minnie can attest to this as her aliament seems to have slightly improved since she’s gone to the younger witch for medical herbs. Moreover, Minnie also thinks that Soojin has an interesting character; what she means is that, for someone so shy and reserved, she sure does attract a lot of attention from people.
Minnie doesn’t think that’s a bad quality to have, she just really thinks that it’s a peculiar combination of traits to have. When she reaches the entrance of the herb specialist’s shop, she straightens her robe before opening the door. As she enters, the bell hanging on top of the door rings and the blonde haired specialist looks at her with a pleasantly soft smile.
“Welcome back, Minnie,” she welcomes her with an ever so smoothly sweet tone, “How may I help you this week?”
“Hi Soojin!” Minnie enthusiastically greets her as she walks to the counter, “I was wondering if you had anything new to recommend today! And if you don’t, I’ll just take the regular bag of herbs.”
“Let me see,” Soojin replies before she turns her back and starts looking at her catalog of herbs, “Have you had any new symptoms lately or any recent incidents?”
Minnie nervously laughs and admits, “Actually, I woke up coughing just before coming here. It was a bit of a disaster, and I had that dream again.”
“Oh, well you should be more careful,” Soojin warns her, turning back to look at her with some untold concern in her eyes, “You wouldn’t want the devils to take you so soon.”
Her oh-so-valued customer merely nods and tries to assure her that she’ll be just fine but the medicinal herb specialist can hardly believe her. If she is acting so carelessly now, Soojin is sure that her near future won’t be so bright and it certainly won’t be to her liking. People never seem to change, but what can she do? Soojin sighs as she continues browsing through her enchanted scroll and putting together a list of herbs for the sickly girl to take home.
“I’ll be right back,” she notes to her customer before moving to her stockroom to get all the needed herbs.
Minnie sheepishly nods and leans against the counter, seemingly preserving her energy. The blonde hair girl coasts clear from her vision when she slips behind the curtains to her stockroom. She whispers and pierces her fingertip ever so slightly with a silver dagger, letting a single drop of blood fall into the goblet. An image of a beautiful girl with soft brown hair and doll-like skin appears inside of the goblet. She looks at the herbalist expectantly and Soojin tells her everything. The girl then vanishes, leaving not even the faintest vestige that she ever appeared, and Soojin walks out of the backroom with a neatly sorted bag of herbs.
“So I’ve decided to add in some specially enchanted forget-me-nots,” the herbalist suggests, “I think they would be good for your coughing fits. These ones were blessed by both deities, the angels and the devils.”
“Thanks, I will gladly try them out and purchase them at your recommendation,” Minnie says, taking out a few coins to give to the medicinal herb specialist, “I just have a question.”
“Sure, go on,” Soojin encourages her, receiving and depositing the transaction they had just made.
“How did you get the angels and demons to enchant the same thing?” Minnie questions, “They live in different realms and often avoid each other in our mortal world.”
Soojin merely smiles.
“I have my ways,” she informs her, not even bothering to come up with any excuses or any further explanation.
“And so a business woman will never tell her marketing secrets,” Minnie jokingly interjects, taking her bag of medicinal herbs as an exchange for her compensation, “Ah, you’re a smart one.”
“Thank you, I know I am,” Soojin boasts, “Come again?”
“You know I’ll be back next week,” Minnie says as she passes through the door and onto the cobblestone streets once more.
She pauses outside just to check and peers into the bag of herbs to make sure that Soojin didn’t forget anything because she feels like she doesn’t have the energy today to make another trip across town. Curious, she picks up a petal of the forget-me-nots and holds it up. It’s blue color seems to blend into the sky, how calming. Though, there seems to be something descending closer and closer to her, covering her view of the azure blue sky
“Hey,” a girl rapidly landing calls out, “Watch out!”
Minnie flinches, dropping the petal as she tries to move out of the way. But atlas, she is moments too late. And so here comes a random girl, falling from the sky almost, and crashing into her. Whether it happens in slow motion or all too quickly, it doesn’t really matter to Minnie. All she can think of is how beautiful the girl is with such perfectly polished skin—how unfair it is for a person to attain those qualities.
She frowns, and feels herself falling while her vision starts to blacken.
“Not this again,” Minnie mutters.
A/N: I read through this once to edit because I hate editing, so there's probably stuff I missed.
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