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Cereza had noticed the anomaly upon her return home. It was Friday night, she and Jeanne had gone out to a showing on Broadway and stayed to about 2:00 in the morning. But they hadn’t left without first tucking the girl into bed, so the light in the room being on behind the door was a troubling thing. Not wanting to cause undue worry, she made sure not to alert Jeanne to its presence, easy considering how much she’d had to drink that night. She had headed straight to the master bedroom to get ready for rest.
Sure enough, upon pushing the door open, Cereza breathed a sigh of relief seeing little Viola sitting in the center of her bed with her cat plushie. At least she was safe, still…
“Kitty?” She quietly called.
It was a slight movement, but she could tell that Viola jumped upon hearing her. Now that WAS worrying Cereza.
“…Hi, mum.” Viola said meekly, not meeting her mother’s gaze.
“What are you doing up at this hour? Without rest, you won’t perform your Sunday best, or, make that Saturday best…” Cereza asked, trying to keep her voice calm. Viola was only five years old, after all. “Have you had the lights on all night?”
Viola opened her mouth, hesitated to speak, and settled to just nod. “Since you and mom left…” She muttered, shame in her nearly silent voice.
Cereza gently shut the door and sat down by her. “It’s alright.” She nodded. “I take it there’s a reason for all of this?”
Viola was silent for what felt like forever, before blurting it all out at once…
“Last night, I… I went to sleep, and I couldn’t dream of anything but monsters.” Tears began to well in the girl’s very tired eyes, and Cereza held her. “Everything was black, or red, all the plants were dead, and- and… They all stared. There were so many…”
“Now, now…” Cereza interrupted. “It was only a dream.”
“I know! But… I don’t want to have that dream again…” She cried.
“What kind of monsters did you see?”
Cereza could see the gears turning in the little one’s mind, trying to remember while also trying to forget. “Arms like knives, or big machines, with bloody gears all over! And… There was this big furry… thing… with lots of teeth! That kept chasing me! But they all just kept looking at me, all of them had red eyes.”
“And who’s to say they were dangerous?” Cereza began, starting to grasp the exact situation Viola was in. “In a dream, there’s no telling what may happen. The only thing you can do is know that it wasn’t real, and that you’re safe.”
“But-“ Viola fidgeted. “It felt real…”
Cereza sighed, maybe her wording wasn’t the best. Her inexperience in parentage was showing, but she wasn’t about to give up.
“I know of a story-“ She nearly stopped herself, now wasn’t the time, and yet it could have been the perfect time, “about this sort of thing. Would you like to hear it?”
Viola gave a suddenly wondrous look. Cereza had usually sung lullabies to get her to sleep when Viola was younger, this would be her first bedtime story.
“Okay… Tell me.”
“Get into bed, first, kitty.”
Cereza made some preparations as Viola got under the lavish purple comforter. First, the light to the hall outside the room went on, and then the light in Viola’s room went off. Hopefully enough light to ease her fear, while also dark enough to appease her obvious sleepiness. She then pulled up the desk chair and sat before Viola, preparing her story.
Cereza was going to have to wing most of it, but all that mattered was the lesson, not to fear the unknown…
She took a deep breath…
———
Long since lost within the records of time, there lived two magical clans…
The Umbra Witches, and the Lumen Sages.
The Umbra, with the powers of darkness, and the Lumen, with the powers of light, worked day and night to protect the rest of the world who could not possess magical power…
———
“Aren’t witches bad…?” Viola asked.
“Sometimes that could be true. But the Witches, like the Sages, carried magic within them. Not all of them believed in using this unique power for evil. But you weren’t alone in your concerns…” Bayonetta reasoned, beginning to find a good way to paraphrase around the true details and history.
———
The power of light that the Lumen possessed powered grand machines for mankind. Light was the power by which understanding was forged.
The power of darkness utilized by the Witches was a different sort of power. It was the antithesis of the light, it could push mankind beyond understanding.
The Witches weren’t many, but they were just as important as the Sages. However, the people feared the darkness, and many of the Sages did as well…
———
“I thought you said they worked together?” Viola interjected.
Cereza chuckled, still attempting to come up with some sort of plot hook to deliver the story. Her eyes landed on one of Viola’s plushies sitting on the shelf, a snake. “As far as being powerful went, they did. And yet…”
———
One night, a terrible serpent descended upon the world. The Witches went out to battle the beast, but were dismayed at his challenge.
“The only way to defeat me, is to recite the Spectrum’s Spell. If that cannot be done, then this world shall be mine!” It roared.
The Spectrum’s Spell was an incantation split between the clans. However, their leaders were at a standstill. Both the lady of the Witches and lord of the Sages refused to disclose their halves of the rite. They both feared if they shared the knowledge of their paths with their counterparts, it could mean their end…
———
Cereza opened her eyes, to find Viola now listening intently. It seemed this was all coming together…
———
Two beings, a Witch and a Sage, they had met without knowing their true identities. They had fallen in love, but with the crisis, their love was in danger of ending alongside their world…
The Sage, ever wishing for understanding, didn’t wish to die unfulfilled. He revealed his role to the Witch, who revealed her role to him. Despite the danger, despite the feud, the fear between them eroded with love.
It made them wish to know each other even more.
Against the wishes of the clan leaders, they worked together, truly together, to learn and cast the Spectrum’s Spell, and cast away the evil serpent…
For the first time, the people below were celebrating the Sages and the Witches in equal measure. They learned not to fear what they could not see, and to instead cast the light of their eyes into the darkness as the Witches had…
———
”And with the knowledge gained from the two forbidden lovers of the clans, they all lived happily, ever, after…”
Cereza opened her eyes again, and smiled. “The end.”
Viola yawned.
‘Pure Platinum on the storytelling…’ Cereza thought, having successfully done the job of making the girl want to sleep.
“See, little one? You never know what you never know. If those monsters stare at you again, stare back. Perhaps you’ll learn something.”
“What happened to them?” Viola suddenly asked.
Cereza gave a confused look. “What happened to who, dear?”
“The Witch and the Sage in love. Did they… Get married? Or go on any more adventures?”
Cereza adjusted her glasses. Standing up from the chair. “We’re both still here, aren’t we? No giant serpent to speak of. So you can guess that they got on just fine…” She took another breath, recalling the many conversations she’d have with Jeanne, the many concerns… “The Witches and Sages put aside their differences. Eventually, the people put their fears aside too, and learned enough from the clans to protect themselves.”
Viola finally smiled. “So if I keep learning, I can be strong enough to not be scared?”
“Yes! You’ll grow very strong, long as you question the unknown, and do your homework.”
Viola giggled, and Cereza ruffled the young one’s hair, until the blonde eventually yawned again.
“My my, aren’t we lucky the weekend’s begun? Off to the land of dreams, with you. My guess is you’ll be there quite late into the morning.” Cereza joked. “Good night, Viola.”
“Night, mum…”
With that, Cereza slowly moved, placing the chair back at the desk, and shutting the door behind her…
———
“You do a fine evil serpent impression.” Jeanne laughed.
“Yes, yes, I had to put on a little show. Seems our little one has had her first true nightmare…”
“A bad dream?” Jeanne asked.
“One night ago. Monsters in the dark, standard kid stuff…” Cereza sighed, sliding into bed next to her love. “With a slight twist.”
“Pray tell…?”
“She described monsters staring at her, and a land of dead and desolate life. Not unlike the more decayed portions of Inferno following that disaster with Aesir…”
Jeanne, having much better account of the history at play, gave a worried huff. “Young Witches dreamed of Inferno… Our blood links us there. Times are different now, but the methodology doesn’t change. Demons will watch her soul…”
“If she truly is a Witch.” Cereza posed. “It’s a resemblance, but we can’t truly know.”
“We can’t rule out any possibilities. Her arrival years ago… What if it was no coincidence, Cereza?”
“Then it’s a good thing Luka entrusted her with us. We can give her as close to a normal life as she can have.”
“We’ll have to tell her eventually… About our history. Are you ready for that?”
“Perhaps I am, but we’ll get there when we get there. For now, I think it’s time we slept as well.” Cereza turned, feeling her partner’s arm wrap around her as she did. “Good night, Jeanne.”
“Good night, Cereza…”
As they drifted away, Cereza had one last thought.
The last thing she wanted was for Viola’s life to be uprooted by the path of the Umbra. But if it came down to that…
Cereza would do anything to protect and guide her.