Chapter Text
The morning of the tournament is bright and chilly where the six contestants wait in front of a newly constructed labyrinth of hedge and stone. Their preliminary interviews are done, and they’re preparing to enter at the signal. Their mission is simple, reach the center the fastest by clearing the obstacles in their path.
The signal bell rings and Rose takes off, sprinting side by side with Love into the maze. They run side by side, taking the same turns until Rose skids to stop at the edge of a pit that blocks their path. At the edge of the pit is a tall pole that could be used to vault across, but the distance is such that with only one pole, it would be almost impossible to throw it back for a second trip. Love comes to the same conclusion.
“Take it,” she says, “I’ll go the other way.”
Rose glances between the pole and Love and then nods. “See you at the end.” She says.
Love smiles. “See you at the end.”
Rose grips the pole and leverages her body weight to vault across. By the time she gains her balance on the opposite side Love is out of sight down another corridor. Rose keeps moving, running as close to full speed as she can manage.
She takes any turn that seems to lead towards the middle, trying her best not to lose her orientation. Many of the physical obstacles she comes across are similar to the boot camp challenges, and Rose finds herself grateful that she trained so hard this year to get those top scores. She finds a few dead ends, but keeps looping around until there’s a way forward. She continues in this way until she reaches another dead end but this one is different. The maze has ended with a single blue door set in a blue frame within the wall of the hedge. It is closed, and when Rose tries the handle, she learns it is locked.
As she lets go of the handle she hears a voice in her head that doesn’t belong to her.
“Speak your fear to pass.” The voice commands.
Rose looks around, confirming that there is no one talking that she can see. She looks back to the door. What is her fear now? Less than a week ago she would have said “discovery”, but that feels less scary now. She tries it anyway.
“Being discovered.” She says aloud, hoping whatever entity asked the question can hear her. Nothing seems to happen. There are still no other contestants in sight, and while she briefly considers trying to find another way forward she knows this is too important to be a dead end, she can’t give up yet.
She thinks back to her conversation with Good about telling Vier. He had asked her what she’s afraid of and everything in that conversation had boiled down to what if Vier hadn’t accepted her truth? What if he was angry and never spoke to her again? What if in knowing the truth of her, she was left alone?
“Being abandoned.” She says suddenly, and she hears the door unlock.
Rose turns the handle and opens the door. Beyond it she sees a small courtyard, a few low hedges that line a central square, and in that central square, upon a pedestal, stands a statue of a unicorn. She glances around and sees a number of other blue doors surrounding the courtyard, but all are closed. She can feel her heart beating in her throat as she approaches the unicorn statue. At its base sits a blue card and Rose picks it up.
It simply reads: Congratulations.
A loud buzzer sounds and all the blue doors around her swing open of their own accord. The announcer calls the end of the competition. “And our winner of the 2020 Greatest Competition, Sean!”
Love is the first person she sees once she’s free of the Maze and she runs to her and sweeps her into a tight hug. Rose pulls back and holds Love by the shoulders. “Come with me to the unicorn.” She says, still out of breath.
“What?” Love replies. “They won’t let me, will they?”
Rose smiles. “Hey, I’m the Greatest, and you’re a former Greatest, can they say no?”
Love shrugs, and laughs, but agrees to try.
After the whirlwind of required press is done, Rose is finally released to the spectator area. Good is closest to the door, and he’s smiling so widely she thinks his face might break. She walks straight to him and hugs him, but tries to pull back quickly, so Sean hugging him doesn’t look too strange to the onlookers, but Good holds her tight, hooking his chin over her shoulder, and she enjoys it while she can.
“I want to kiss you.” Good says in her ear and Rose pulls back to look him in the face, keeping her hands on his arms.
“When did you get so brave?”
Good looks a little embarrassed but also proud of himself. “I’m learning.”
Rose laughs loudly and hugs him again. “Later.” She says against his neck. “And after this you can kiss me whenever you want, I promise.” She pulls back again and they make eye contact. He nods at her. She smiles.
She turns to the next nearest person apart from the crowd and sees Vier waiting. He’s smiling softly but also looking nervous.
“Congratulations.” He says.
“Thank you.” Rose manages. “I’m glad you came.”
Vier nods. “Um. My friends were competing, I had to.”
Rose smiles and nods at him. “Thanks again.”
Love grabs her arm and pulls her towards the car that is waiting to take her to the forest. Rose and Love get in the car together and no one seems to stop them. It’s only about a ten minute drive from where the maze was built to the edge of the forest road, and Rose spends the drive sitting nervously, Love doesn’t make smalltalk.
They reach the forest and the driver of the car gives Rose the compass, he tells her she has to follow it to find the unicorn. One of these would have been useful years ago , she thinks, remembering all the time she spent searching the first time. Rose and Love walk a ways away from the car before Rose stops and turns to Love.
“Hey Love, I have to tell you something.”
“What is it?” Love sounds innocently interested.
“I want you to take the wish.” Rose says, offering the compass in her hand. “I won it for you.”
Love shakes her head. “What do you mean? What about your own wish?”
Rose shrugs. “I never had one, not this year. I only tried out to help you win.” She smiles shyly. “Well, Good asked me to help you win. But he was smart, I should have thought of it myself.”
A few tears drip from the edges of Love’s eyes and she wipes them on her shirt sleeve. Rose hugs her briefly and steps back again, holding the compass out the second time. “For you,” Rose says, “make your wish.” Love takes the compass.
They walk through the woods in silence, just the crunch of their shoes on the dried underbrush filling their ears. Rose thinks back to this whole school year, smiling, happy that she could do something like this for Love after all that Love has done for her. It seems like such a small payment for everything Rose has gained.
They see the Unicorn in the distance, standing regally in its misty shroud. If it’s surprised to see both of them it makes no move to show it.
As they approach Rose doesn’t hear any greetings from the Unicorn, but Love reacts as if she’s being spoken to, and Rose watches their telepathic conversation through body language, going back and forth. It seems to take Love a few arguments before she smiles and the Unicorn lowers its head in assent.
Rose sees the light and feels the warmth of the Unicorn’s magic permeating her chest, and as quickly as it came, the sensation passes. She looks at Love. “What did you do?”
Love is still smiling, and the Unicorn walks away, unremarked, into the trees.
Rose grabs Love by the shoulder. “Love, what did you wish for? I don’t feel any different… What did the Unicorn do to me? Why didn’t you wish for your body back?”
“I decided… a while ago… that I don’t want it back.” Love says quietly, and Rose squints at her in confusion. “I think… I like who I am now.” Love is smiling, and something about the expression makes Rose believe her. She’s scared that Love will regret this choice, that she wasted her wish on Rose. Love continues speaking. “So, I made the Unicorn give your years back.”
Rose’s eyes widen. “You what ?”
“Your twenty years,” Love explains needlessly, “the bargain for your first wish. I made the Unicorn return them. It didn’t want to at first, but I convinced it.”
Rose can feel the tears at the edge of her eyes spilling onto her cheeks. She wipes her face and pulls Love into a hug. “Thank you.” She says. “Thank you for doing that. Thank you so much.” Love hugs her back, holding her tight.
Epilogue:
“I’ll meet you after class,” Good says on the phone, “we can get lunch.”
Rose says her goodbyes and hangs up the phone. She tucks her phone into her bag and instinctively goes to push her hair off her shoulder only to remember that her hair is no longer long. The week before her university classes started she got it cut, and now it hangs just under her chin and swings when she moves her head.
She stands up from the bench and slings her bag over her shoulder. She’s wearing a skirt long enough that she doesn’t have to think about smoothing it down over her thighs, and there’s a pair of black slacks in her closet that she’s dying to try out some day soon.
She walks across her campus to her first class as a university student again, and she has no reasons to worry.