The White Witch: Setsuna #1 (complete)

I can see the storm clouds over the mountains from my window. Everyday at the same time, they gather and unleash a powerful snow storm on the already frozen peaks. They say there is a witch who causes the snow storms to happen. Stories and rumors have built up in the years since the snowstorms started. Some people say the witch is just trying to keep people out. Others claim that the witch is building up her powers so she may spread her storms to the surrounding villages. 

Because of the storms, the melting ice has created a river that runs through my village. It is the purest and most refreshing water and has caused crops to grow in a miraculous way. Anything watered by the river sprouts and blossoms within moments. Within days, it produces fruits and vegetables. The once floundering village was brought back to life by this river. Because of it, my father, the King, no longer had to sell it to survive complete collapse. 

The river didn’t just urge the flora in the village to bloom so amazingly. Within the garden of the palace, my mother had planted an apple tree. The seeds she used were supposedly magic and she had been given them by a fair stranger on her wedding night. After she and my father returned home from their honeymoon, she planted the seeds in the garden, hoping they would take root and grow with me, since she was sure I had already been conceived. 

The tree never grew and my mother died in childbirth. Then the river came and my father used its waters on the small mound where the seeds were planted. It had worked miracles for others, perhaps it would work on my mother’s tree. Come morning when he awoke, the tree had grown tall and sprung a few limbs. The leaves that grew from it were pure gold. 

My father tried to pluck the leaves from the tree, yanking and pulling on it, but they never budged. The tree grew and more and more leaves sprouted, all of them pure gold, silver, and platinum. Each day, my father tried to rip leaves from the tree, hoping to use the gold to repair the crumbling palace and rebuild the gates around the village. Alas, the leaves did not move.

I was barely two when my father took me out to watch knights try and chop down limbs from the tree. All that did was destroy a few good axes, many swords, and the will of some of my father’s finest warriors. 

I toddled up to the tree, having heard stories my mother had blessed it and her love resided in it. I hugged the tree with all my strength, and the next thing I knew, a golden leaf had fallen in my hair. My father was aghast! He and all his strongest men couldn’t make the tree budge and yet me, the two year old princess, had gotten a leaf from a hug.

Needless to say, my father and all the knights attempted a hug or kiss on the tree, yet received nothing. Sir Tobi, one of my father’s best knights, picked me up and told me to pick a leaf from the tree. I did. Sir Tobi told me to pick more, and I did. 

My father soon realized that because my mother had planted the tree for me, I was the only one who had any power over it. I was the only person in the world who could pick leaves from the apple tree.

When I was five, I spent most of my time around the tree. I built houses into its roots, making small furniture from nut shells, leaves, bits of bark, and whatever else I could find in the garden. Since I felt my mother was present within the tree, I wanted to spend as much time with it as possible. 

I hated picking the leaves, but my father needed them for the kingdom. The village was blossoming and we were well known for our hearty and bountiful vegetation. My father constructed a massive wall around the entire kingdom to keep out those who would rob us of our wealth and he kept guards around the river so no one tried to steal it as well.

One day, as I was making dolls for the root houses, I heard a whispering. I thought for sure it was the wind rustling through the leaves, but when it happened again, I heard a voice. I turned, looking at the tree as the voice picked up again.

“Who goes there?” I asked.

“Who are you?” The voice sounded similar to mine.

“Are you the tree?” I moved in closer to the trunk and patted my hand over the bark.

“Are there any apples on the tree yet?” They asked me. The leaves rustled and I looked up into the many branches. 

I pointed up. “Wouldn’t you know if you were making any apples?”

“That’s not how it works!” The voice whined. “Just tell me if there are any apples! Maybe a blossom?”

I tilted my head. “This tree has never blossomed,” I answered. “It’s been alive as long as me. It makes many leaves, but there has never been an apple or blossom.”

“That is not good,” the voice from the tree grumbled.

“No it’s not,” I agreed. “Considering everything else in the village grows like crazy.”

“Who are you?” They asked again.

I shuffle on my knees closer to the tree. “I am Princess Natsumi,” I answer. “You never told me who you are.”

“You’re the princess,” they giggled. “So you’re the one who is master of the tree.”

“Aren’t you the tree?” I asked.

“Not how it works!” The voice scoffed. “Tell me how old you are.”

“I’m five,” I answered.

“No wonder. The tree won’t blossom until you’ve blossomed. At least that’s what I understand.” They sighed then. “Once that happens, you have to be careful. Someone is going to come for the apple that will grow on this tree and you must give it to them.”

“Why?” I asked.

“It’s very important!” The voice snapped. “You must give it to them or something bad might happen. You really don’t want to make them mad.”

I frowned at the tree. “Who are they?”

“I can’t tell you,” they whispered. “It has to stay secret. I shouldn’t even be talking to you now! But it’s so boring and I can’t stand it anymore.”

“What’s wrong?” I looked up back into the branches. “Are you ok?”

“Not really. I’m cursed. And don’t ask any more questions! This is all I can tell you for now.” The voice hissed.

“Will you come back here?” I asked.

“Probably not,” they huffed. 

They did come back, every day for years. We talked and played together, even though their voice came from the tree. I grew up and yet the voice didn’t. They remained a precocious child all the time I knew them. As I grew older, I became a big sister type to the voice, telling them stories, giving them advice, and talking about things I didn’t think mattered but was of the utmost importance to them.

They asked me the same question at least once a day. “Is there an apple yet?”

And to my dismay, I had to answer the same way every day too. “I’m afraid there isn’t one today.”

They would sigh sadly then perk up. “Well then, maybe tomorrow.”

Over the years, my father had gone through some changes. At first, when the tree was grown and I could pick the leaves, he used them sparingly. He only took leaves when it was absolutely necessary. He then started using more and more. He built his walls, he hired his guards, he added on to the palace. Then all at once, he forbade me to pick any more leaves. Anytime I hung around the tree, he would send someone to guard me to make sure I didn’t pick anything. He even started keeping count of all the leaves on the tree. He started hoarding his own wealth in the palace as well, keeping it under lock and key so only he could visit it. He even kept my own valuable things I inherited from my mother, locked away. If I wanted them, I had to ask him, and sometimes, even days in advance, so he could think about it. My father had changed, and I felt like I couldn’t recognize him some days. 

On my twenty-third birthday, I am sitting under the tree and reading out loud so Sir Tobi and the tree can hear. I am taking a break from the book and having a drink when the tree sighs out loud.

“Is there an apple today?” They ask.

I chuckle. “No, I’m afraid there-” I look up into the branches and stop cold. “There is.”

“There is?” The voice gasps in excitement. “There really is? Tell me there is again!”

The apple is hanging right above me, a perfect golden apple that catches the light and shimmers so exquisitely. It bobs and sways on the branch as a cold breeze cuts through the limbs. I shiver as the cold feels more bitter than a spring wind should.

“Yeah,” I gasp. “It’s there. There’s an apple!”

“Princess, is everything alright?” Sir Tobi asks as he approaches.

In awe of it, I point upward. “Tobi, look!” I gasp. “Right there in the branches. You see it too, correct?”

Tobi pushes back his visor as he tilts his head up. “By the gods,” he whispers. “I think I see it! In all these years, it’s never produced fruit. Why now?”

I lay my hand on my chest, remembering the words the voice had told me when I was young. The tree had blossomed because I had. But why now?

“You should pick it and take it to your father,” Tobi exclaims.

“What?” I shake my head. “No! He won’t even allow me to pluck the leaves. If I were to pick the apple, he might cut my hand off!”

“It isn’t his anyways!” The voice scoffs. “Remember! There is someone coming that you have to give it to. If you don’t, something really bad could happen.”

I glance back up at the apple as another harsh wind shakes every limb. It grows stronger and colder and I rush inside to tell my father the news. 

I stand before him as he sits at his table, going over ledgers and documents that need his approval. He looks up at me as I walk into the room and he waves his fingers at me.

“Come in, come in,” he sits up in his chair. “To what do I owe the honor of this visit?”

I bow my head to him. “It’s about the tree, Father.”

He clutches the arms of the chair and his brows pinch in a furious fashion. “What happened to it? Did you pick any of the leaves?”

I shake my head. “No. Of course not. Nothing bad has happened, I assure you, Father.”

He barely relaxes, his knuckles remain white as he grips the chair’s arms. “Go on then. What is it, my child?”

“There’s an apple now,” I say with a nod. “A golden one.”

My father jumps to his feet with a strange grin on his face. “An apple? Finally?” A wicked scowl then cuts across his face. “You didn’t pick it, did you?”

I shake my head again and take a step back. “No, Father, of course not! It’s still on the tree, I promise.”

My father claps his hands on my shoulders. “Good girl, Natsumi,” he says. “You don’t touch it, just like the rest of the leaves.”

We go outside and the sky grows dark and the wind has not ceased, it has only grown stronger and colder. My father stands at the tree, looking up at his precious new commodity. As he gazes at it in awe, ice joins the wind. It stings my skin and I try to grab my father and convince him to come inside.

“You’ll catch your death out here! You need to come inside, it is starting to storm!” I grab hold of his arm but he yanks it back and I stumble. 

“Leave me be! Let me admire this,” he snarls at me.

“Father, it is starting to ice! If it hails, you could get hurt!” I try to argue with him, but he is as rooted as the tree is. The wind grows harsher and I stumble to stay grounded. Sir Tobi rushes me inside and, despite my pleas, he goes outside to stay with my father and his new precious apple. 

The weather grows worse and worse over the course of the next few days. My father continues to obsess over the apple and even has a globe constructed around the tree to protect it from the worsening weather. I am no longer allowed to get close to the tree, it is part of my father’s vault now, like everything else.

A snow storm strikes the village, bringing down ice and snow by heaps and piles. While my father worries about the apple tree, I start bringing villagers into the castle. The snow and ice has driven them from their homes and those who couldn’t escape have been frozen inside. I send out knights to go and rescue those who are trapped. I have turned the ballroom into a shelter and have provided the people with beds, blankets, and three hot meals every day. I sit and read with the children, hoping to calm them during the worst of this horrible blizzard. It’s sad to say my father hasn’t even noticed this, but I know it’s all for the best.

One day, as I am helping the kitchen staff set up for a dinner, I see a man in the crowd I hadn’t before. He’s so very tall, standing head and shoulders above even the burliest of Orcs and farmers in the room. He stands with his back to me, staring out the boarded up windows with his hands braced against the wall. No one seems to notice him there, they all walk by and ignore him when someone of his stature would be a remarkable sight to see. 

He turns and looks back at me, his face covered by some sort of strange mask. He lifts his hand, placing a finger over the lips, as if asking me to keep quiet. 

“Natsumi,” the chef grabs my attention and I look at her in shock. Her smile fades and she tilts her head. “Are you ok? What’s wrong?”

I turn back to where the man was standing, and already he’s gone. “I just thought-” I murmur. “It’s nothing,” I try to brush it off. “What’s the matter?”

“Tobi is asking for you.” The chef points to the door where I see Sir Tobi waiting. As I approach him, he grabs me and pulls me aside. His expression is anxious and frightened while his face is red and chapped from the cold.

“What’s the matter?” I gasp.

Tobi clutches my arms. “There’s someone with your father! You need to go now! It’s getting violent!”

I shudder and my jaw drops. “Is it one of the villagers?”

Tobi shakes his head rapidly. “I’ve never seen him before! He says that the apple is his. Your father is trying to kill him, but I don’t think he can.”

I follow Tobi outside, wrapping myself up as I step into the storm. I can hear my father shouting and then I hear glass shatter and a horrible scream. I rush out with Tobi, entering the apple tree’s dome, and I see my father kneeling on the ground while his hand is bleeding. 

“Father!” I sit beside him and put my arms around him. “Are you ok, what is going on?” I follow his rabid dog gaze up and see the man who had been standing in the ballroom.

“You,” he points at me. “Pick the apple for me and hand it over.”

My father grabs me and forces my arms behind my back. “If you touch that tree, I’ll cut your hands off! Don’t you do it! I’ll beat you if you do!”

I scream from the shock of it. My father is hurting me and saying the most awful things. “It’s just an apple!” I cry. “Why does it matter so much?”

“Shut up! It is mine! He can’t have it! It’s mine!” My father shakes me and pushes me down onto the ground.

“Let her go, you old fool,” the man snarls. “Let her go, let her do her job.” He steps closer to us and my father drags me back.

“Stay away from us, you fiend! You monster!” My father spits and foams. “This tree is mine! It’s mine, you hear me! That apple belongs to nobody but me!”

The man’s long white hair billows around his body like the storm clouds on the mountains. A harsh wind rattles the tree and snow whips through the open door. My father pushes me onto the ground, digging his knee into my back.

“If you do not give me the girl and the apple, I will destroy your kingdom. This blizzard won’t just bury your people in snow, it will fill your walls and melt, drowning everything and you in the process.”

“Father, please!” I cry. “Just let me give it to him!”

“I was going to be fair and leave with just the apple,” the man roars over the wind and snow. “But now, because of your greed, I will take the girl with the apple and leave you your precious tree with no way to harvest it!”

“You’ll never have it!” My father screams. “Bury the village in snow! I don’t care!” He cackles. “Let it all melt and drown everything! But you will never have it!”

“Father!” I cry out in agony. “Please! Let him have what he wants! Let him have the apple! You’re hurting me! Please let me go! I beg you, Father! Why are you doing this?”

“Shut up, you! Shut up!” My father strikes my face. “You will stay silent! You are mine too and you will do as I say!”

“You fool,” the man whispers with intense anger under his breath. “I gave your bride the seeds as payment. All I wanted was the apple! And your blessed child, you treat like this?” He steps towards my father and wraps his hand around his neck. He rips him away from me and slams him against the glass of the dome. 

“You are no father,” he snarls, “if you treat your daughter like she’s nothing.”

I jump up from the ground and rush to the tree. I try to jump and grab the apple, but I am far too short to reach. 

“Princess!” Tobi rushes forward and grabs me around the waist. He lifts me up and I place my hands around the apple.

“No!” My father screams. “You pluck that apple and I will kill you!” He then gags as the man chokes him, crushing his throat in his fist.

I take the apple and pick it and hurriedly rush over to the man. “Here, please, let him go!” I cry. “Don’t hurt him, please!” I hold up the golden apple. “It’s all yours, take it and go from here!”

He places his hand over mine grasping the apple. “You will go with me too.”

I shiver and nod. “If that is what must be,” I gasp. “End the storm and I will go with you as you ask.”

Outside, the world goes quiet. The winds have ceased, and the ice becomes fluffy flakes of slow falling snow. 

“Natsumi,” my father wheezes. “Don’t you dare go.”

I can’t make myself look at him and I bow my head down low. The man steps close to me and wraps my cape around my body. “You will not see him any longer. You are no longer his prisoner.”

I shiver and take a weeping breath. “But am I yours?”

“Merely a hostage.” He pulls away his cape and we are standing in the center of an observatory. Above us, there is a spiraling staircase leading to a monstrous telescope pointing through a glass ceiling. 

As I gaze in awe, the man takes the apple from me. He steps away, laying the cape over a large chair. His long white hair then floats around him, twisting and turning until it has plaited itself into a long braid. Not an inch of his skin shows, he is covered from head to toe so none of his body is revealed. He’s so tall with such long arms and legs, I have never seen anyone of his stature before.

“Where are we?” I wipe my face of cold tears.

“The Mothdust Mountains.” He turns and looks down at me. “You can see your home from the window.” He points up.

“The Mothdust-” I stop and clutch my hands around my clavicle. “But that’s where the witch is.”

He chuckles and throws his head back. He guffaws and slaps his knee, laughing uncontrollably for what seems like an eternity. When he calms and giggles, he turns to me with a sound of glee in his throat.

“You are looking at him.” He flourishes his arms out, one hand still clutching the golden apple. 

I hate how hard I must be staring at him. All my life, I have been told stories about the witch in the mountains who wanted to bury the world in snow and ice. Yet here he was, the very creature from all the stories.

“I did not know they were calling me a witch,” he chuckles again. “How flattering.”

“Yes, but I...you-” I cup my hand around my mouth. I cannot get a word out at all. I have no clue what to even say in this moment.

He bows low and sweeps his arm across his waist. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Princess. Although, I do not plan on calling you that here. Your father said your name was Natsumi.”

I nod at him. “It is, sir. And who might you be?”

He tilts his head to the side. “Setsuna,” he answers. “I hope you do not mind that I took you. Your father deserved the punishment.”

I nervous lump has formed in my throat and no matter how many times I swallow, it will not go away. “I mind a great deal,” I tell him. “You shouldn’t have done that at all.”

“After what he did to you?” Setsuna scoffs. “He hurt you, he struck you! No man should ever harm his own child in that way. All you were to him was another key to his treasure.”

“He didn’t-” I stand still as I wonder why I am trying to make excuses for the man. “He didn’t used to be that way,” I finish unsurely.

Setsuna scoffs and turns away from me. “You should rest. I’ll fetch you when I need you.”

“Rest?” I gasp. “Rest where?”

“In the bed,” he scoffs. He shuts the door behind himself and leaves me alone.

I turn around and am startled when I see a full bedroom set where we had once been standing. I tip toe towards it, afraid it could lash out and attack me. I tap the bed gently and give the blankets a tug, pulling it away to reveal the silken sheets beneath.

“How strange,” I whisper. I look back up at the spiraling stairs and the telescope above me. I slip into the bed, laying down and covering myself up. I lay on my back and stare up through the glass ceiling. It’s starting to snow but none of it falls or even clings to the windows. It floats away, keeping the sky perfectly in view. 

I wake up to a strange sound and when I open my eyes, there is now a canopy covering the bed. I step out from the curtains and look up, seeing snow falling from the open window. Setsuna is sitting by the telescope, which is now jutting out the window.

I stumble into a table and on it is a note. “There is food for you. Just eat and ignore me.” I frown at the words but as I look away from them, another table has appeared with a magnificent spread of food on it. 

I sit down at the table, picking gingerly at the food. I sample it first, not wanting to take too big a bite just in case something were to happen. The fruit is fresh and the tea is fragrant. The biscuits are fluffy and the size of a cat’s head. 

As I am eating, I become aware of footsteps behind me. I lower a bite from my lips and look up as Setsuna stands over me. He is dressed so no skin shows again. His long hair is swept to one side and collects into a ponytail that lays over his shoulder. His mask has sharp, harsh features that create a scowling expression. The collar to his clothes fan around the jawline of the mask and then taper down into the faded blue of his clothes.

“Good morning?” I murmur unsurely. 

“You’re up earlier than I expected,” Setsuna sighs as he walks around the table. He pulls out a chair that hadn’t been there a moment ago and sits down. “I thought princesses lazed about and stayed in bed until noon.”

I frown across the table at him. “I’ve never done that.” I watch as he pours himself a cup of tea and places the cup to the lips of the mask. “I like sleeping in sometimes, but never like that. I’ve always been an early riser.”

Setsuna hums and suddenly a book appears in his hand. He opens it and starts reading as he drinks his tea, or maybe he’s just miming it. I try to return to my food, but I feel too distracted by his presence to eat.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Setsuna then asks. 

“I uh-” I huff and take the napkin from my lap. “I’ve had enough to eat.”

“Women should have a hearty appetite with all things.” Setsuna looks over the edge of his book and gazes across the table at me. “Food, education, romance, even hatred. Or did your father say something to the contrary?”

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t bring him up,” I grumble. “I don’t feel much like talking about him, let alone thinking about him.”

Setsuna snaps the book shut. I then see that there is an apple engraved on the cover. “You’re right.” He stands from the table and the chair has vanished. “I have work to do anyways.” He moves towards the door and places his hand on the handle. “Stay here,” he commands. “Don’t leave this room unless I say you can. Everything you need will be provided for you here. Understood?”

I grimace at him then nod. “Understood.”

“Good.” He opens the door and all I see beyond it is an inky black void. He steps into the darkness, fading into it while the door closes behind him. 

I sit back in the chair, picking up another biscuit and shoving it into my mouth. I do not know what to think, so instead I eat. After the biscuits are gone, I climb up the stairs, finding myself at the very top sooner than expected. I gaze out of the windows and look down upon my home below. The snow is gone and things look green again. I can only wonder what fervor my father is in, and I find myself enjoying the thought. For so long, I have been nothing to him but a key to the fortune of the apple tree. Now without me, the tree is worthless and half his wealth is meaningless.

“Good,” I murmur like Setsuna. I do feel sorry for the tree though. I hadn’t spoken to the voice that came from it in so long and I know how lonely they got. Without me at the palace to keep them company, I wonder what will become of them.

I glance down at the door below me and see green light shuddering from between the cracks. I wonder why Setsuna needed the apple, and aside from punishing my father, why he was keeping me here. 

For now I can only ponder my situation, it will take time to learn the answers.