Archive of Our Own

Once upon a time, there was a princess. Her parents had died, and she was all alone, on the edge of losing herself, too. A prince rescued her, and placed her in a tall tower where she would be safe. There she could grow strong, he said, and one day when she was grown, a true love’s kiss would set her free.

But she was so impressed by him, that she vowed to become a prince herself. Was that really such a good idea?

Anthy smiled to herself as she tore the page into shreds and scattered them in the compost for her roses. She wasn’t going to fall for that one again.

Anthy Himemiya, witch of the swamps, plunged her hands into the bottom of the compost heap and pulled out two handfuls of rot. She slapped it into a bucket, then two handfuls more. When it was full, she lifted it with both hands - marvellous how easy it was, now, when she once struggled to lift it empty - and squelched her way to the garden.

A tapir nosed inquisitively at the bucket as Anthy passed, and she giggled while nudging its short trunk away. “You’ve had your breakfast,” she chided, as she pulled her feet free from where they’d started to sink with a loud sucking sound. From an overhanging branch, a koala lazily opened its eyes, stared at her a moment, then turned its head away, sleeping again.

As she approached the garden, the swamp waters got deeper, threatening to flow over the tops of her knee-high gumboots. As she struggled through, she finally passed the line of tree cover and felt full sunlight on her face, warm and inviting. A few steps later she felt the ground under her feet grow more solid, and then she squelched up the slope to the little island in the middle of the swamp, warmed by the sun, and full of roses.

In the two years Anthy had lived in the swamp, she had developed a proper routine for the mornings, and she loved every part of it. At dawn, she woke in her cottage under the thick trees and had tea and crumpets for breakfast. Then she pulled on her overalls and gumboots walked the length of her swamp, checking on the animals and taking in the sights. At the end she stepped across her favourite rock crossing, balancing for a moment on the wobbly rock before she was back home and washing her laundry. And after all those beloved morning chores were done, she waded through the swamp to her rose garden.

The rose garden was as special to her as her house. While she went every day to check on the roses, it was more importantly a place to relax. It was where she read her books, where she painted, where she sang. Several fools had tried to come to her house, trying to prove themselves brave by slaying the witch, or demanding she reverse whatever curse they imagined she had put on their lives, the lives they were only ruining for themselves. But here in the roses, she was always, blissfully, alone.

Today, she upended her bucket and spread the compost around to the roses who needed it. She rinsed her hands briefly in the nearest pool of water, then took her gardening shears and got to pruning, tossing the discarded stems into the now-empty bucket. When she was done, she sat on her favourite wrought-iron bench in the centre of the garden, closed her eyes, felt the sun on her face and smelled the perfume all around her, and felt as at peace as she had ever been in her life.

“Oh, I finally found you! You’re the witch, right?”

Anthy’s eyes snapped open, her body suddenly shot with adrenaline, ready to fight or flee. In front of her was a slight girl, about her height, with her hair tied up in a ponytail. The girl gave her a smile and a small wave.

“I was looking all over for you! See, I need your help. I heard you could make me a love potion and I need it, so would you -”

Before she could get another word out, Anthy stood up, grabbed the nearest rose and pulled the whole flower off in her fist. She crushed the petals, then blew them towards the girl. She disappeared in a flurry of petals, and when they cleared, Anthy was instead looking at a donkey.

“Well that was rude!” The donkey said. “What was that for?”

Anthy was a bit taken aback. Usually they ran when she started doing magic. Also, they didn’t usually talk.

“Begone,” Anthy said. “Don’t disturb my peace again.”

She tried to turn away, but the donkey immediately trotted in front of her. “Uh, like you disturbed me by turning me into a…. what am I, a horse? That’s pretty cool actually.”

Anthy was not going to answer her.

“Maybe my prince will fall in love with me after all! He could ride me into battle and gently comb my mane.”

“You’re a donkey,” Anthy said, without looking at her. She tried very hard to concentrate on the rose bush in front of her.

Then there was a donkey in front of her.

“I’ll still need that love potion, then,” Wakaba said. “I can barter if you like, I make great lunches.”

“I don’t do love potions. I don’t do anything for others,” Anthy said.

“That doesn’t seem right. He told me the only way he could ever love me was with a love potion from the witch of the swamps, and gave me directions and everything. Why would he…”

Anthy flicked her fingers and the donkey’s mouth was suddenly sealed shut. It looked more powerful than it felt. Not that anything she did seemed to intimidate this girl, but she hid her shaking hands behind her back anyway.

“Someone told you I did that? And told you where to find me?”

The donkey nodded.

Anthy closed her eyes, then drew herself up. “You’re going to take me to him,” she said. “And we’re going to make sure he never tells anyone where to find me again.”

She turned to wade across the water again, and didn’t flinch when the donkey splashed into the water beside her.

“What’s your name?” she asked, as an afterthought, letting her speak again.

“Wakaba!” said the donkey, cheerfully. “This is going to be so much fun!”

As they walked through the streets of Ohtori, almost every pair of eyes that saw them whispered and hid away. As they drew towards the more crowded centre, the whispers blurred together like the wind, rising and falling but always there. Witch, witch, witch witch witchwitchwitchwitch witch, witch. Witch. Witch.

“Wow, everyone’s really scared of you,” Wakaba said, frowning. “That’s so rude!”

“I am a witch. I do magic. I don’t use it for kindness.” Anthy cocked her head at Wakaba. “Doesn’t it scare you?”

“I’m not scared of you turning me into an animal when you’ve already done it,” Wakaba replied.

Anthy had learned, through long experience, that when she had no retort it was best to remain blank as a stone. So she didn’t answer, kept her facade unmoved, as they carried on through the streets past the whispers of witchwitchwitch to the town square where the Crown Prince was waiting on his dais.

“The swamp witch Himemiya,” Touga boomed. “How dare you break your oath to the Rose Seal and return to this kingdom?”

“I come because another has broken it first,” Anthy said, in defiance. “Only your princes know the secrets sworn under the seal, and one of them sent someone to my swamp.”

“My princes, and the king,” Touga said, with a frown. “You know that if it was him…”

Anthy’s face betrayed nothing. “If it was him, we can do nothing. But let’s ask the princes first.”

Touga frowned and gestured to his guards. Within minutes, Touga’s princes were assembled beside him. Young Miki, his slight frame belying his power. Juri, with an air so powerful and radiant she could be mistaken for the king. And beside Juri, the face that still made Anthy itch to dash the oath to shreds and curse the man so wretchedly that he would never again -

“Oh, Saionji,” Wakaba said, with a happy sigh.

Anthy whipped around to look at her. “Saionji is the person you want a love potion for? Prince Saionji?”

“Of course!” Wakaba said, doing a little skitter on her hooves in glee. “Isn’t he handsome? And he’s so good with a sword, and…”

“And he’s the one who told you where to find me?” Anthy asked, sharply.

“Oh yes, he said he was sorry but he already had one true love, and only the witch of the swamps could brew the love potion that would heal his heart!”

It was a good thing that Anthy had a lifetime of practice at tamping down the bubbling rage that threatened to erupt from her chest.

“Your prince has broken the agreement, Touga,” she said, in an eerily even voice. “He must be punished.”

“Saionji will be punished,” Touga agreed.

“How?”

“I will devise something.”

“I will leave when you have a satisfactory punishment.”

Touga’s eyes flashed dark. “Very well. He will be barred from the court for a period of one month.”

“Not enough.” Anthy breathed in through her nose. “Why will you not cast him out from the court, as you cast me out?”

She heard a gasp from Wakaba, but did not turn her head. She didn’t even flinch.

“I can’t strip his princedom.”

“So take it to the king.”

“You know he doesn’t answer any more. He refuses to answer again. Nothing’s going to change here until we have a new king, and we can’t do that until we have a new princess.”

Wakaba reared up on her hind legs. “I’ll be your-”

Anthy flicked her fingers and Wakaba suddenly cut off, her lips sealed, and looked at Anthy with furious betrayal. Anthy felt absolutely no remorse. She knew the price of being a princess like nobody else ever had. Nobody deserved it. Not even someone as annoying as Wakaba.

“But if you found me one, I could become king and make princes of whoever I wish… and unmake them.”

“You can’t just make any girl a princess.”

“No, but there is a princess out there already. A proven one,” Touga smiled. “Travel to the mountain and retrieve her for me, so that I can be king, and you’ll get your punishment for Saionji.”

Nobody deserved to be a princess. Better to be shunned as a witch. But when Anthy met Saionji’s eyes, she knew that if she walked away now, she’d lost.

Still, she couldn’t give in that easily. “Why would such a wonderful knight as Prince Touga need a witch to fetch his princess?”

Touga leaned forward. “Do I need to? Or do you owe me for what you did to my sister?”

“Is banishment to the swamp not punishment enough?”

Touga gazed right into her eyes. With a fondness, and a sadness, that she thought he no longer felt for her, he said, “Himemiya, sending you to the swamp was a gift. I am asking for a gift in return.”

It was both familiar, from the days when they were betrothed, and completely alien to realise that he had knowingly given her the freedom she wanted, for no other reason than that she could have it. It took an effort to stop the old, familiar, cursed words As you wish from coming out of her mouth, but she stopped herself. She thrust out her hand to shake, instead, not trusting her tongue, and Touga moved to kiss it before he corrected himself, gave a firm shake and then let go.

“So you have a history,” Wakaba said, brightly, leaping through a flowered meadow behind Anthy. “You and Prince Touga! What’s that story?”

“Why are you following me?” Anthy asked, as she strode through the flowers to the craggy mountain on the horizon.

“Because we’re on a mission, of course!”

“I’m on a mission,” Anthy corrected her. “I am going to retrieve a princess and have Saionji banished from the court. You’re just… here.”

“Well yeah, if Saionji is banished from the court, perhaps he’ll forget his true love and be with me!”

Anthy remembered hands too hard on her wrists or stinging when they slapped her face. Saionji’s cruelty turning into Touga’s indifference when she was turned over, just a prize, just a thing. Until she set herself free.

Maybe she should keep Wakaba as a donkey forever.

“Is that the castle? It’s beautiful,” Wakaba sighed, interrupting her thoughts.

Anthy, once again, said nothing. She couldn’t see beauty in a castle, just like she couldn’t see beauty in romance, or in being a princess. She had seen inside them, and knew that each of these things was a prison designed to break her down and make her nothing more than a thing. But she had already given away too much of herself, and it wasn’t like Wakaba was interested.

“Let’s go,” she said, and led the way across the rocky bridge.

“This is beautiful,” Wakaba was saying, as they walked under the arches. “If I were the princess, I’d just stay here.”

“Even without Saionji?”

“Oh, what a decision! The prince or the castle… but if I were Saionji’s princess I’d have Ohtori castle, too!”

Mercifully, Wakaba’s fantasising was interrupted by the fall of heavy footsteps.

“What’s THAT?” Wakaba asked.

The ground was shaking now. Far away down the entrance hall was an orange glow, small now, but growing quickly.

“Nothing to be worried about,” Anthy said, sweetly. “This is a lovely fairytale castle, after all. It’s just the dragon.”

“There’s a DRAGON?”

All at once, a huge golden dragon burst into the hall, stomping and snarling and swinging its huge, horned head about on its long neck. It raised its wings to look even bigger as it approached them, and the first traces of flames were licking out the sides of its mouth.

“Ah, hello, Nanami,” Anthy said, calmly, as the dragon snapped at her face.

Wakaba shrieked. “You KNOW this giant spiky fire breathing lizard?!”

“You asked what I did to Touga’s sister.” Anthy gestured. “Wakaba, meet Kiryuu Nanami.”

It was strange how much Anthy’s life had changed. So much of her life had been drearily the same, always serving some prince or another, the faces changing but never the job or the boredom or the misery. Moving to her swamp had been a complete change, but a stable one. The swamp was her domain, she decided how it worked, and she had decided on a very reliable, safe routine.

Nothing about it had changed until Wakaba came along. Two days ago, she’d never heard of Wakaba, and now they were in a faraway castle running away from a dragon together.

“Stop staring and move!” Wakaba shouted, before grabbing a mouthful of Anthy’s shirt and yanking her out of the path of another huge tongue of flame.

Wakaba was not nearly as interested as Anthy was in the changeability of life, being rather more focused on staying alive. The castle was, luckily, a bit of a maze, and they could easily get lost in the many winding corridors. What they couldn’t dodge was the occasional blasts of flame.

“You couldn’t have mentioned there was a dragon in here?” Wakaba snapped, when the flame subsided.

She headbutted Anthy further down the hallway.

“I thought you wanted an adventure.”

“It would have been nice to know that there’s a DRAGON and also that is has a grudge against you!”

“You’re welcome to leave me to my quest alone.”

“Don’t start that,” Wakaba grumbled, still hurrying her along. When another nearby window exploded in flame, Wakaba stuck her head out and yelled “Do you mind? We’re having an argument here!”

Nanami roared in response. Wakaba clucked her tongue and stomped out to a balcony on all four hooves.

“Yes, it does matter!” Wakaba shouted back. “You took one look at us and came out all fire breath blazing and there was no need.”

Nanami roared, even more furious this time.

“I didn’t know she cursed you!” Wakaba yelled. “And just because Anthy cursed you, doesn’t mean you have to attack me! I’m cursed too, you know!”

Nanami stopped and stared at her, then snorted.

“Yeah, I was a human until Anthy went and made me into a donkey.”

Nanami rolled her eyes.

“Right? I just went to ask if she could make me a love potion, totally reasonable, and now I have to walk on hooves.”

Nanami lowered her head, grumbled something, cocked her head to the side.

“I’m not giving up! He could still love me! Come on, I’m an adorable donkey.”

Nanami gave a slight wail.

“Of course he’ll look at you again.”

She wailed louder.

“Well if he was disgusted by you as a human, too, then he doesn’t deserve you! You’re better than that!”

Anthy was so gobsmacked that Wakaba was getting through to Nanami, that someone actually managed to sneak up on her. She nearly leapt out of her skin when a voice behind her said “I can’t believe Nanami’s actually listening to someone.”

Anthy whipped her head around to find a girl her own age, watching in awe, long pink hair falling over her shoulders. It must be the princess she was here to find, but she was dressed unlike Anthy ever had in her princess days. She wore shorts, and a soldier’s jacket with shiny buttons and epaulettes, and in her hand she was holding a gleaming, razor sharp rapier.

“Oh, don’t worry about this!” the girl said, when she saw Anthy stare at the rapier. “I’m not going to hurt you! I heard the commotion and didn’t know what happened so I thought I should bring the sword just in case.”

“Were you going to fight me, or Nanami?”

“Oh, you know her name?” Utena blinked, then smiled. “That’s cool!”

When Anthy didn’t respond, she carried on, undeterred. “I didn’t think I’d have to fight you, of course. I’ve never actually gotten to fight anyone, although I’ve practiced with Nanami a few times when she was in an extra bad mood. She always chases people off before I get here.”

“I see.”

“Kind of a bummer, really,” Utena said, with a sideways look at Anthy. “I always liked the idea of rescuing a maiden from the dragon.”

There was a roar, suddenly, and Wakaba came flying past them. “HELP,” she said, and hid behind Utena. Then she glanced up. “Uh, Anthy? Is this the princess we came to rescue?”

Utena stared at Anthy, in her overalls and gumboots. “You came to get me? You’re my prince?”

There was another roar and a blast of flame. Wakaba and Anthy shrank back from the balcony, but Utena looked up, an expression of fierce determination on her face.

“Hang on, I have to take care of something,” she said, and with one movement she took a run and leapt onto the balcony railing with her sword outstretched.

Utena was dazzling. She leapt from the balcony onto Nanami’s tail, her wing joint, her neck. When Nanami shook her off, Utena leapt to a broken pillar lower in the hallways and faced her, fearless, armed only with her rapier. Nowhere near enough to take down a dragon, but she leapt all the same, with such confidence that she clearly had no doubt she could do this. With a swift movement she swept her sword towards the dragon’s nose and somehow, despite all the movement and thrashing, she drove unerringly for the one sensitive point that made that huge head twitch and turn away.

The dragon withdrew slightly, shaking its head and coughing. It glared at Utena, but Utena glared back.

“Get out of here!” Utena yelled. “I don’t need you any more! My prince is here!”

With that, Nanami let out a frustrated wail. She swept at Utena with one last lash of her tail - which Utena nimbly avoided with a jump - before she launched herself into the air and flew off, the wind from her massive wings nearly blowing Anthy into Wakaba.

When Anthy looked up, Utena was staring down at her, her hair a halo of pink, and grinning like this was the best thing she’d ever seen.

“Thank you,” Anthy said.

“It’s my pleasure!” Utena said. She held out her hand, as if to help Anthy up. When Anthy took it, though, Utena placed a gentle but lingering kiss to the back of her hand.

“What are you doing?” Anthy asked, her mouth dry.

Utena dropped her hand and rubbed the back of her neck with a shy little smile. “I feel like I’ve spent my whole life in this castle dreaming of meeting my prince, but I never thought I’d be rescuing her. It’s even better than my dreams.”

Anthy cast her eyes down. She hadn’t meant to look at her feet, but in this opulent palace, opposite Utena’s fairy tale beauty, she couldn’t help noticing that there was still some mud on her boots. “Ah, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. I’m no prince.”

A clip-clopping of hooves announced Wakaba’s untimely arrival, as she chimed “Yeah, Anthy’s a witch!”

Anthy flicked her fingers and Wakaba’s lips were suddenly sealed shut, and she glared. 

“Oh wow!” Utena said, impressed. “I got to rescue a witch! That’s so cool. What’s your name?”

That was not the response Anthy usually got to that news. “I’m Anthy Himemiya.”

“Cool! Utena Tenjou,” the princess said, and stuck out her hand again. They shook, firmly, and Anthy found herself a little disappointed not to have Utena’s lips on her hand again. Then Utena offered her hand to Wakaba to shake, too, and Anthy unsealed Wakaba’s lips for them to make their introductions.

“Well. Shall we go?” Anthy said, after Wakaba had gushed her appreciation.

Utena’s face fell. “Oh. I really wish I could go with you, you’re both so cool, and you’re the best company I’ve had in ages.”

“No, silly, you’re coming with us!” Wakaba said.

Utena gave them a regretful smile. “But I’m supposed to leave with my prince. He put me here when I was a child, because my parents are gone. To keep me safe, you see. And I’ve been waiting for him.”

“Oh, so that’s how you got so good with a sword,” Wakaba said.

Utena looked surprised, then glanced at the sword in her hand. “Oh, yeah. He saved my life, you see. It made me want to be just like him, when I was older. So I learned to use the sword, and I read all the stories, and look!” she grinned. “I even managed to rescue a fair witch.”

There was a storm in Anthy’s chest. What a thing it must be, to see a prince’s interest as a blessing and not a curse. What a wonderful, courageous thing to see that and take up a sword yourself, deciding to be a prince. What would become of Anthy if she had taken the sword in her heart for herself, and used it as a weapon, instead of fighting only with secrets and spells?

And what was going to become of a girl who was a prince, out in a world that only let you be a bride or a witch?

“The prince sent us,” Anthy said, her tongue heavy. “He sent us to bring you back to him, to his castle. To be his princess.”

“Oh!” Utena said, in surprise. “Oh, that’s… That’s cool. That’s the best then, right? I get to leave and I get to hang out with you both for a while. Just give me a few minutes while I pack.”

“We’ll meet you at the bridge!” Wakaba said, cheerfully. As soon as Utena had turned away, she started hopping down the broken stonework, with Anthy picking her way behind.

“She’s so cool,” Wakaba said. “I didn’t think the princess would be so cool!”

“But Wakaba, didn’t you say you wanted to be a princess?”

“Oh, I see, maybe I’m not cut out for it. I need to be cooler,” Wakaba said, frowning. “Hey, maybe Utena can teach me!”

Before she could stop herself, Anthy said, “I don’t think Utena is the kind of princess Saionji would like.”

“And how would you know?”

Anthy just shrugged. She focused on making her way through the ruins Nanami had left behind, and thinking about Utena, a princess with a sword in her hand, leaping into battle with a golden dragon, the sunlight shining rosy through her hair.

Utena met them at the gate, as promised. Still in her soldier’s uniform, just a small rucksack on her back.

“That’s all?” Wakaba asked. “I thought a princess would have loads of stuff!”

“Not that I want to bring with me,” Utena shrugged. She looked back at the castle for a moment, ruined where Nanami had burst out. “It was just stuff. I mean, it was all I had for most of my life, but I don’t want to keep much.”

“You’re not bringing the sword with you?”

Utena did something complicated with her face, and finally said, “I’m supposed to be a princess now, right? I thought I should leave it behind.”

Yes, Anthy thought, but also, no. Utena shouldn’t have to crush herself into a princess’s gown for Prince Touga. An accessory to make him king. She thought, what if she didn’t have to? What if I tell her? What if we just run away?

Utena turned and smiled brightly at Anthy. “Anyway, on to a new life, right?”

Anthy hadn’t felt the bite of a sword in her flesh for a long time, but she felt it now, sharp and cold, as Utena surveyed the path before them and took a purposeful few steps forward. Anthy took a deep breath, held her silence, and followed behind, with Wakaba trotting by her side.

“Oh, she’s so dreamy,” Wakaba said to Anthy in an over-loud whisper.

Anthy shushed her, then said, “I thought you were in love with Saionji?”

“Oh, who cares about him? you said it yourself, he’s a jerk. From now on, I only love Utena!”

Utena, paused and glanced back over her shoulder. When Anthy caught her eye, Utena started and looked away with a faint blush. She was still smiling.

The journey was uneventful. They strolled down the rocky grey face of the mountain into the forests of the foothills, where only faint dappled sunlight shone through.

“I thought the trip would be harder,” Utena said, walking along with her hands behind her head.

“What are you talking about? That cliffside wasn’t any easier with hooves, you know,” said Wakaba.

Utena laughed, and smiled down at her. “Sorry, Wakaba! I don’t mean that it’s all easy. But we got through it okay, didn’t we?”

“Yes, I’m so glad you caught me when I fell.” Wakaba did a little skip. “You’re my hero, Utena!”

Anthy resisted the urge to quiet Wakaba again as Utena laughed. She laughed more than anyone Anthy had ever met, but never cruelly, never at people. She laughed as though she were simply delighted at the world. It made sense, when Utena had been trapped in a castle for so long. It must feel much the same way as when Anthy first found her swamp, and every leaf and twig and mud puddle was a delight.

“What sort of difficulty did you expected, Princess Utena?”

She made a face. “Maybe just call me Utena? And I don’t know. The prince saved my life once and I guess I thought there’d be some perilous obstacles he had to save me from again. Giants who want to eat my bones, swamps that suck you down never to be seen again. That sort of thing.”

“If we did, you could take care of them yourself!” Wakaba declared.

“You’re right, I think I could! That would be fun,” Utena said, cheerfully.

“I suppose it’s okay that neither of us is your prince, then,” said Anthy.

“Yeah, although I was pretty excited for a moment when I thought you were. Not that I was disappointed!” she added, hastily. “You’re really nice, Anthy, and it’s so cool that you’re a witch.”

Anthy took a few steps forward to draw level with Utena, something hot and strange in her chest. “Did you really think I could have been your prince?”

Utena cocked her head. “Sure. Why not?”

“I’m… I’m small,” Anthy said, at last. “I wear overalls and boots like a farmer. And I’m a girl.”

“I’m a girl, and I’ve been trying to be a good prince all my life,” Utena said, with a shrug. “A girl can be a prince. You came for me. You were prepared to fight a dragon for me. I wanted you to take my hand and lead me away to be your princess.”

It was Anthy’s face that felt hot now, at the idea of herself as some noble prince, leading anyone, anywhere. Leading Utena anywhere. Where was she supposed to take her, the swamp? Would Utena still think she was so princely when she saw Anthy hauling manure around and talking to frogs?

“Sorry to disappoint you,” she said, softly.

“What? No!” Utena put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her, turning seriously to face her. “Anthy, no, you’re really cool. I don’t care if you’re a prince or a witch. I’m just happy to have you as a friend.”

Nobody had ever, ever called Anthy a friend before. And the first person to do it was a beautiful girl who Anthy was leading to replace her in the life she’d run away from.

“Thank you,” Anthy said, automatically, too polite to leave her manners behind. “Come on, we’d better move along.”

“You like her,” Wakaba hissed to Anthy, later, as they walked through a field of flowers.

“Wakaba, I thought you were the one who was in love with her.”

“She’s beautiful and brave and wonderful, of course I like her,” Wakaba said, impatiently. “But I know that look. You like her, and she likes you.”

“That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“True love doesn’t respect deals,” Wakaba said. “Or rules, or stations, just like me and Saionji…”

Anthy took a deep breath, inhaling the scents of the meadow. Grass and sunshine and daisies. Not exactly like home, but close enough.

“I want my swamp to myself. I want to be sure nobody else will come,” Anthy said, stubbornly. “That’s all this is.”

“Really? You’re terrible!” Wakaba said.

Anthy mustered all the frosty aloofness she could to say, “You don’t need to worry about me, Wakaba. My problems are my own, I know what’s best for me, and that’s getting home to my swamp and being able to live there in peace.”

“For a witch, you sure are scared of rocking the boat!” Wakaba shouted, and then stomped off.

“Everything okay?” Utena asked.

“Of course,” Anthy said, her mask in place.

“It’s just a shame to see you fighting. I hope it’s not me. I wouldn’t want to come between such good friends.”

“We’re not friends,” Anthy said.

“Really? Oh. I just assumed, since you were on a quest together. I was kind of jealous, actually.”

“She barged into my swamp without asking and I turned her into a donkey,” Anthy said. “Then I asked who had given away my secret hiding place, and went to Prince Touga to ask to have him punished, and he said he’d do it if I came for you.”

“Ah, so that’s why a witch came to fetch me from the castle!” Utena exclaimed. “I was wondering.”

Anthy realised what Utena had said before. “You’re jealous? Of me and Wakaba?”

“I’ve never had a friend before,” Utena said.

Neither have I, Anthy thought, and held the words close to her chest, inside, where neither Utena nor Wakaba could see. She had never wanted a friend, unlike Utena. The idea wouldn’t be so bad, if not for the way she couldn’t be Utena’s friend and let her leave.

They hadn’t slept since they left Ohtori, and eventually they realised that they weren’t going to reach the end of the meadow by nightfall. They didn’t have much to eat, but Anthy had brought some bread and Utena had some cheese she’d brought with them from the castle. As the sky grew darker, Anthy lit a fire for them, and Utena clapped like a child at this show of magic.

“I mean, of course I believed you about being a witch,” she said, through a mouthful of bread and cheese. “It’s so cool to actually see it, though!”

Nobody had ever been happy to see Anthy’s witchcraft before. It was a good thing Utena was used to her being quiet already, because she was struck quite speechless.

“I never had very interesting food, alone in the castle like that,” Utena mused. “I suppose you’re used to much better than plain bread and cheese.”

“No. I don’t concern myself much with food, either.”

“What, at all?”

Anthy shrugged.

“You must have a favourite food, though, right?”

Anthy thought about it. “I do love tea.”

Utena swallowed the last of her sandwich and stretched out on her stomach in front of the fire, her hand propped on one chin. “I’d love to have tea with you, when we’re back at the city.”

“I can’t come to the city,” Anthy said, quietly. “I was banished.”

“Because you were a witch?” Utena frowned. “That’s not fair.”

“It suits me. If I fulfil my deal with Prince Touga, he’ll stop anyone from giving away where I live, and I can live in peace.”

“Oh, I see. Because people bother you for being a witch.”

“Yes.”

Utena frowned. Then she smiled, pleased with herself. “But what if you told me where you live. That wouldn’t break the rules, would it? Then I could come and visit you. And I’ll fight anyone who follows me to try and harass you, too! So one day we can have tea together.”

Anthy smiled around the lump in her throat, knowing that Touga’s bride wouldn’t be going anywhere near her swamp. “I’d like that, Utena.”

At this, Wakaba gave a theatrical yawn and stretched like a cat. “I’m going to sleep,” she said, pointedly, and flopped on her side so hard that it sent up a puff of flower petals. Utena giggled, quietly, and then rolled over on her back, gazing at the stars. After a few minutes in silence, she patted the patch of grass next to her. Anthy, despite every instinct warning her against getting closer, lay down beside Utena under the stars.

“Do you know about stars?” Utena asked. “I liked to watch them from my tower, but I don’t know their names or anything. I used to wonder what they all meant.”

Anthy knew too much about the stars. She knew all their names, knew their constellations, knew how they had changed over the eaons. It had been her education every night, with her brother, the king, before he retreated from the world and left the princes to rule Ohtori, to fight over Anthy’s hand as thought it meant anything. She could stay up all night telling Utena the same tales Akio had told her about the stars.

Instead, she said, “Did you ever give them names?”

“A few,” Utena smiled. “When I was smaller I named them after other princesses in stories. Rapunzel, especially. That’s her over there.” she pointed. “Princes never have names in the stories, have you noticed that? Otherwie I think I would have named them princes instead. some of them I named after knights, though. There’s Lancelot, and Gawain behind him, and Percival way over there.”

“Did you join the dots? Make a picture?”

“I always found that part hard. There are so many shapes, I can’t hold them for long. There’s one I always saw, though.” She gestured to the cluster that Anthy knew as Orion. “See those three stars in a row make a head, and then a line of a body behind them, and wings above? I call that one Nanami.”

Utena had probably grown up hearing the same stories Anthy had, princes and princesses and witches. Witches are bad, princesses are helpless, princes are noble heroes. And yet here they were, two girls who were told to be princesses, and cose something else. or tried to. 

“What made you want to be a prince?” Anthy asked, turning her head to watch Utena’s expression.

Utena kept gazing at the stars. “I don’t know. It felt right. What made you want to be a witch?”

“I didn’t decide to be a witch. I just am.”

“Maybe that’s the same for me too, then,” Utena said. “Maybe I just am a prince.”

“It’s not the same,” Anthy said.

Utena turned on her side, her chin propped on one hand, so she could look at Anthy fully. It was almost too much. 

“For a long time, I only existed to be… what other people wanted me to do. It was a prison. But I knew that if I broke out, I’d be called a witch. I would be a witch, if I broke the rules. Maybe that means I chose it, but I think… I think a witch is just what people call a princess who doesn’t want to belong to a prince. If that was the only way to be free, that was what I would be.”

She waited for Utena to ask. What princes had owned her, what it was like being a princess

“It must be lonely,” Utena says. Then, “I was lonely, all those years in the castle.”

“So why did you stay?”

“I was waiting for my prince. I suppose I thought he was worth it. But maybe I just wanted someone who understood…”

She was beautiful, and she saw Anthy the way nobody ever had before, listened like no one ever had. She had forgotten the touch of another’s skin, forgotten how that could feel good when it wasn’t wrapped in obligation.

Then Utena leaned towards her, just a little, and Anthy felt immediately the shift towards the intention to kiss. There was no other time that someone’s face got that close, when you smelled someone that completely, breathed the same air. And she felt herself shrink away.

“Oh,” Utena said, awkwardly, after a moment. “I just thought…”

“Your prince,” Anthy said, stiffly. “He’s waiting for you.”

“It’s been a long time,” Utena said, kindly. “I think perhaps I waited too long for one person. I mean, can he be that great? He didn’t even come and get me himself.”

“I came to get you for him because I need my home to be safe,” Anthy said, a little desperate. “I need him to punish the man who gave away where I live. I need peace.”

Anthy watched her face fall.

“I’m sorry. I understand,” Utena said, and stood up. “Good night. I’ll leave you to your peace.”

Utena walked away, and Anthy didn’t watch her go. She heard Utena slump down on the grass on the other side of the rise, and that was when Anthy finally, slowly, let out the breath she’d been holding.

“I don’t think that’s what she wanted to hear,” Wakaba whispered.

“I thought you were asleep,” Anthy hissed back.

“I was pretending to give you some privacy. See, she likes you! I bet she’d walk out on that prince in a moment if you –”

With a flick of her wrist, Anthy zipped Wakaba’s lips again. Wakaba just rolled her eyes and flopped over on her other side, facing away from her. So Anthy was left on her own to lie there, gazing up at the stars. Even with all the memories that came with them, it was hard to stop watching. She could barely see the sky from her swamp. It felt like an age since she last watched the sky like this. She was watching so long that she didn’t even notice when she fell asleep.

Anthy woke in the early morning to the sound of hooves. Several horses, by the sounds of it, thundering across the meadow. Anthy sat up, and Utena stirred beside her… wait, beside her? Anthy was trying to make sense of it, how Utena came to be curled against her side instead of over on the other side of the slope, but she couldn’t think through the sight of Utena sleepy, yawning and stretching and rubbing at her eyes.

“What’s that noise?” Utena asked, pushing herself up to sitting.

Before Anthy could answer, there was a long shadow falling over them. Cresting the hillside, silhouetted against the sun, was Touga on his huge white horse, flanked by his other princes. Miki. Juri.

Saionji.

Utena got to her feet, facing the group straight on, while Anthy got up more slowly, hanging back in her shadow. She watched as Touga dismounted, leaving the others on their horses, and took a few steps towards them, transforming as he went from a dark silhouette to the man of long red hair and stark white coat that Anthy was so familiar with.

“Who are you?” Utena asked, puzzled.

“Don’t you remember me?” he said, his voice deep and rich. He took Utena’s hand, kissed the back of it. “Oh don’t worry, I’m not offended. It has been such a long time since I saved you, and I wasn’t so handsome then. But although Anthy was retrieving you for me, I found I just couldn’t wait to see you any longer. When the sun rose this morning I just knew I had to ride out and meet my princess at last.”

Anthy was an expert at concealing her feelings. Utena was her opposite. Everything Utena felt was written across her face, across her whole body. Utena still didn’t remember this man. She wasn’t sure of this. There was a sheen of doubt all over her. And yet Anthy knew, she could see as plain as day, how much Utena wanted this to be true.

“Let me show you,” Touga whispered, and put a hand over the centre of Utena’s chest, in a gesture that made every hair on Anthy’s neck stand on end.

The light shone from between his fingers, pale at first and then brighter, blinding. And Anthy knew what this was. She felt sick. She didn’t think there was another girl in the world who shared this curse. And if there was, she thought, as Touga drew forth the pommel of a sword, why did it have to be Utena?

Utena was entirely in his thrall now, staring at his hand on the sword. “It’s really you,” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

Touga just smiled, and gently, carefully, pushed back against the pommel, holding it to Utena’s chest until the light had faded again.

“Why did you stop?” she asked.

“Not yet,” he said, with a private smile. “Once we’re married, once we’re king and queen of Ohtori, then it will be time. For now, I just wanted you to know who I am.”

That was it, then. It was one thing to know that Utena wanted a prince, and another to know she was just as cursed as Anthy once was. Anthy was stunned into silence, and Utena looked like she was about to swoon.

“You have fulfilled our deal, Himemiya,” Touga said, with a nod to Anthy. “I have my princess. You will no longer be disturbed in your swamp. Are you happy with those terms?”

It was Utena’s face that Anthy felt watching her. It wasn’t fair, Anthy thought, that she knew what was in store for her as the Rose Bride, and Utena didn’t. It wasn’t fair that Utena kept watching her, fond and curious, as if to say, it’s okay, I know where to find you. I won’t tell. I’ll come back and meet you for tea. It wasn’t fair that Utena could say all that with a look, or that everyone but her knew that once she was married, she was never leaving Ohtori’s walls again.

It wasn’t fair that Touga had brought Saionji with him, either, and that Anthy’s skin had been crawling the moment he set eyes on her.

“What will you do with Saionji?” she asked, her voice low.

“As you requested,” Touga said. “If he ever betrays your whereabouts again, he’ll be cast out.”

That wasn’t the deal. Anthy should say that. She wanted him cast out now. She wanted to raise her hand now and curse him, to make him something tiny and weak, maybe a miniscule fish to live in a glass on her windowsill, or a worm to live in her compost pile. But under the gaze of Touga, and Utena, and Saionji himself, it felt as hard as leaving Ohtori had been. She was too tired, too scared, to keep fighting the tide of the fairy tale stories any more. She wanted, as always, to be left alone.

“That will do,” she whispered.

“Excellent!” Touga said, clapping his hands together. “Then with that settled, we must be going. My lady…” he said, turning to Utena.

Utena stared back at Anthy with one last glance, like she was waiting for Anthy to do something. But what could Anthy do, in the face of this? She just watched as Touga helped Utena onto the back of his horse, leapt into the saddle in front of her, and the whole troupe cantered away, with Saionji leaving one last chilling smirk behind him.

“What was that? What are you doing?” Wakaba wailed, the moment Anthy unsealed her lips.

“Didn’t want you bringing Saionji into this mess. I did what I came here to do,” Anthy said, and started trudging towards home. “You can leave now.”

“And you know what else? It’s rude how you keep shutting me up like that!”

Anthy’s head ached, and she ground the heel of one hand into her eyes in a way that was most unprincesslike. “I don’t even know why you talk. None of the other people I transformed can talk.”

“Well I do, and doing that shut up spell is rude! Just because you’re more powerful than everyone around you doesn’t mean you can just… just use people!”

Anthy stopped, feeling something strange working its way through her chest. She wasn’t used to feeling like this, like she had power. But she had, hadn’t she, ever since the first time she turned a trespasser into a frog?

“I’m sorry,” she said, the words feeling strange in her mouth. “I won’t do that again.”

“Wow. Thank you,” Wakaba said, with a smile. When they started walking again, she added, “Now, why don’t you go after Utena?”

“There’s no going after her,” Anthy says, stalking on towards the treeline.

“You don’t know that unless you tell her! Unless you open your heart!”

“I saw the sword. I know.”

“Oh yeah, that was freaky. But isn’t love stronger than swords?”

“That’s not what it means.” Anthy meant to stop there, but she could see Wakaba opening her mouth to ask already, and forged on ahead. “It means she’s a princess. She can’t not be a princess. She can’t escape it. And I know because that used to be me.”

Now Wakaba was silent, and Anthy turned and walked away without her.

That was the inescapable truth. Utena wanted to be a prince, but she was a princess. Anthy was a witch. There could be princesses who became witches, but no princesses who became princes. No witches who became princes, either. No witch who falls in love with a princess and comes to a happy ending. So Anthy went home, to her swamp, to her animals, to the solitude that had been her refuge these past unnumbered moons. She was safe, and she was home, and she would never be disturbed again.

The trouble was that the solitude of the swamp didn’t seem like home any more. It was still the same old place, and she still loved every part of it, but something was missing, now. When she did her morning rounds to check on all the animals, when she turned over her compost heap, when she sat in her rose garden, she was as solitary as she had ever been. And yet, she could feel, beside her, the absence of anybody else. 

Anthy had had company before, of course. When she lived at Ohtori, there was always company - a champion who possessed her, princes vying for her hand, the adoring public ready to turn on her the moment she wasn’t what they expected, ready to hiss witch! In the swamp, she had the company of all the hapless humans who had stumbled on her swamp and been turned into animals to keep them from blabbing. But she’d never had company like she’d had for the past week. She’d never had someone look at her with wonder and admiration the way Utena did. She’d never even had someone who tried to make her smile like Wakaba.

She missed Wakaba right up until she opened her eyes one morning to see that big donkey nose an inch from hers, saying “The wedding is today, you know. Are you going to rescue Utena or not?”

Anthy’s eyes narrowed. “You have no idea what it’s like to be the princess. All those princes, they said they were fighting for me, but they did it for themselves. They didn’t care about me. I was the only one fighting for me. Being a princess is a trap, it’s being a thing and Utena chose that.”

“But she didn’t know,” said Wakaba. “Nobody knows.”

“Of course nobody knows,” said Anthy. “I tried to show them, and they called me a witch.”

“Shouldn’t we tell her, though?”

“I had to fight my own way out. If she’s such a great prince, Utena will do it, too. Unless she decides she’s quite happy being Touga’s princess.”

“It makes me so mad that nobody fought for you!” Wakaba said, putting her front hooves up on Anthy’s shoulders. “You shouldn’t have had to do it alone. But I love Utena, and I won’t give up on her. You should have had someone fight for you. I can’t fix that. But I can make sure Utena doesn’t have to do it alone!”

Anthy slid out from under Wakaba’s hooves, and out of her bed. She took her overalls from the hook on the wall and started pulling them over her feet. Something to look at other than Wakaba’s determined eyes.

“Donkeys don’t rescue princesses.”

“So come with me.”

“Witches don’t rescue princesses either.”

“You were a princess once.”

“Utena was a prince until someone called her princess. I learned that the worst thing a princess can do is to try to save a prince. That’s what made me a witch.”

Wakaba sat back on her haunches. “But you like being a witch. You like it so much you went on a quest for Touga, who you hate, just to make sure nobody would bother you in your swamp.”

Anthy should start making tea. She didn’t even need to walk over to the kettle, just flick her fingers to start it boiling. She diddn’t, though. She didn’t move.

Wakaba huffed. “Well, I don’t understand you, but I’m going to try to stop Utena, even if you won’t. Maybe it won’t work. Or maybe I’ll be the first donkey to save a princess and they’ll have to tell a new story.”

“They won’t. The stories won’t call it saving, even if you succeed. They’ll call it kidnapping. They’ll call you a beast.”

“Then I’ll have to tell it myself,” Wakaba said. She bowed her head once, turned and trotted away with her head held high.

Anthy couldn’t believe her own voice when she said, “Wait.”

The wedding was being held in the same town square where Anthy had made her deal with Touga only a week ago. She heard the same whispered chorus of witch as she walked through the town, but it barely touched her now. She had nothing to fear from these people. All she cared for was the sight of Utena atop that dais, dressed from her shoulders to her toes in a white dress just like Anthy’s old red one – bare arms, ruffled skirts, high collar, gold piping. It was new and familiar and completely, utterly wrong.

Maybe Touga was the prince who saved Utena as a child. Maybe he wasn’t. But what Anthy knew, without a doubt, was that Touga didn’t see who Utena was now, and he didn’t care.

Anthy pushed to the front of the crowd just as Touga was taking Utena’s hand, and the priest was about to talk. They both must have heard the growing whispers as Anthy approached, because they turned towards her before she spoke, first Touga, his eyes narrowed, and then Utena.

And how could Anthy have ever doubted, when Utena looked at her with such gladness, and so much hope.

“You can’t be here,” Touga growled.

Anthy ignored him entirely as she leapt onto the dais and took Utena’s hand. Anthy was plain in her overalls and boots, and she was also alien in some indescribable way, where people looked at her and knew she didn’t belong. But she knew now that her muddy, witchy, ordinary self belonged here with her hand in Princess Utena’s in a way that Touga never would.

“You don’t want to marry him,” she said. It wasn’t a question, it wasn’t an order. Just a truth.

“He’s my prince,” said Utena, still wavering.

“It doesn’t matter,” Anthy said, with all the sincerity she could muster, trying to speak the truth when she had spent her whole life trying to hide it. “Just because someone saves your life as a child, doesn’t mean you owe them the rest of your life, too. Especially when they want to use to make you someone else.”

Utena glanced at Touga, then back at Anthy. “Would he do that?”

Touga said, “I only want what I’ve always wanted, for you to be my princess.”

Anthy took Utena’s hand, kissed the back of it, and then held Utena’s hand to her own chest. Utena was already staring in shock, but her eyes widened further when she felt the sword emerging in her hand.

“He would. And I know because this used to be me,” Anthy said, quietly. “I’m a witch because I didn’t want to be a sheath and a sword for a prince to use, not any more. And I don’t think that’s what you want, either.”

Utena stared at the sword in her hand, breathing heavily. She shifted, feeling the grip. And then, with a soft smile, she said, “No, I know what I want.” Then she took Anthy’s hand and put it on her own buttoned-down chest, mirroring their poses.

Anthy swallowed as the handle of Utena’s heart sword leapt into her hand. Her heart was racing. The pommel was warm, thrumming, welcoming her. Like it wanted Anthy there. Like it belonged to her.

“I don’t know how to use this,” Anthy whispered. “I don’t know how to be a prince.”

“I don’t know how to be a witch,” Utena said. “I don’t think it matters.”

She slid her hand up Anthy’s arm, to her neck and then the back of her head, and pulled them together, their hands still at each other’s chests. Anthy recognised the invitation again. It still scared her. But she recognised, now, that it wasn’t all the fear of danger. This was the fear of wanting, of having, of losing.

Anthy didn’t come here just to walk away. She surged forward to meet Utena in the middle and kissed her with everything she had, with their hands around each other’s hearts.

That was when all hell broke loose, with Touga drawing his weapon and Saionji unleashing a snarl and all the watching people snarling, “Witch!”

“Are you ready to go all the way?” Utena asked, mischievously, their foreheads still together. Then she stepped back, slowly enough for Anthy to protest if she wanted to, so that their swords were fully drawn from their bodies. Anthy’s heart in Utena’s hands, and Utena’s in her own.

“It feels good,” Utena smirked, and then turned to face Touga. 

“This is an outrage,” Touga said, advancing on her.

“Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?” Utena asked. “Lock me in a castle again?”

It began as a duel between the two of them, Utena moving beautifully, spurred on by Touga’s taunts and wheedling. Even when she was fighting Nanami, she hadn’t been so magnificent. It was as if she was alight from the inside, Anthy’s sword putting a whole new spring in her step.

Soon the other princes joined in, though, Saionji’s snarling fury and Miki’s youthful naivety and Juri… well, who knew what Juri was thinking behind that cold mask. But Anthy was locking swords with the best of them and finding, to her surprise, that she could hold her own. She didn’t have the technique, but Utena’s sword blazed with all her zeal and joy, and Anthy blazed with it, too.

Still, even their combined powers couldn’t fend off the knights who were streaming into the square. They found themselves side by side, backed against a wall, fighting against the nightmarish forest of swords that just kept coming.

“We need a getaway ride,” Utena yelled. “Like a horse or something. Can you see any horses back there? Maybe we can steal one.”

“I can call Wakaba,” Anthy said. 

“Wakaba? Will both of us be able to escape on a donkey?”

Anthy just put her fingers and whistled, a sound almost too high for human ears to hear. The fighting suddenly stopped as a roar echoed over the town square, and the sun grew dark with the shadow of the enormous golden dragon flapping its way over the walls. The people scattered as Nanami landed in the centre of the space, with Wakaba on her back, crowing and cheering.

“I missed you, Nanami,” Utena said, patting her neck once she’d climbed on. “Never thought I’d miss you! But I think you knew me better than anyone.”

“Thank you,” Anthy said, climbing on behind Utena. “I know you didn’t have to do this, Nanami. I’ll transform you back to yourself for this, if you want. I should have done it a long time ago.”

Nanami snorted, the kind of snort that conveyed that she was quite happy being a fire breathing monster rather than the prince’s forgotten little sister, actually. Then they all held on as they felt her gather her powerful legs underneath her and then launch into the sky.

Anthy had thought she’d found a happy ending when she first walked out of Ohtori’s walls. In a way, she had. She had freedom, and peace. But she’d been afraid that anything could upset her peace, even the things that might make her freedom even better. With her arms around Utena’s waist, the wind whipping through her hair, she realised things could always get even better.

“We won’t be able to keep your swamp a secret after this!” Utena shouted. She craned her neck backwards to give Anthy an apologetic smile.Anthy tilted her chin up to meet Utena’s mouth and kissed her, long and deep. When she pulled away, she kept their foreheads pressed together, breathing the same air, and she said, “Good.”

And they lived happily ever after.