Heroine Popularity Vote Winner: Linea

“Are you ready?”

At the gentle question, Linea turned toward Senia. The woman was wearing a neat, almost dresslike formal robe, and her long blue hair fell to her waist. Her eyes were red, like Linea's own.

Senia was an elf, born of the World Tree as Linea had been. She had once served as a great priest before becoming a guardian deity. The elves of the Great Forest spoke of her as the noblest among them and revered her as sacred.

Linea had been at her side long enough not to take those praises entirely at face value.

Senia could be blunt. She liked to boast, and now and then she made the most ridiculous mistakes. But she was kind to everyone, and her knowledge of magic seemed inexhaustible. Above all, she had treated Linea with the fondness of a mother looking after her own child.

Perhaps that was why Linea adored her so much. Every day's practice had been driven, at least in part, by the hope of hearing Senia tell her she had done well.

Today was no different.

“Yes. I'm ready. I'll begin.”

Linea faced the lake before them. Deep green woods surrounded it, and a few deer stood drinking along the shore.

“Hoo…”

It was her seventh attempt.

Linea drew in a long breath, steadied her mind, and fixed her gaze upon the middle of the lake. The usual softness vanished from her eyes.

A wind sprang up.

Ripples spread across the water. Deer raised their heads in alarm, while birds perched in the trees beat their wings uneasily. Soon the whole surface was heaving as though the earth beneath it had begun to shake.

Once the animals had fled, Linea slowly lifted her right hand.

Water burst upward from the center of the lake. The rising torrent drew together into a great rounded mass, then changed shape under her will.

A dragon emerged.

Its scales, horns, eyes, and claws were rendered in astonishing detail. Water formed its wings, and those wings moved as naturally as though the creature were alive.

“Linea!”

At Senia's cry, Linea gave a quick nod and swept her hand upward.

The water dragon roared and climbed into the sky. It circled high above the trees, following the movements of her fingers as freely as any living creature.

“This is…”

Senia smiled. Linea was handling her mana almost perfectly.

At a downward gesture, the dragon folded into a steep dive. It plunged toward the lake and struck the surface with a tremendous crash.

Boom!

Water exploded into the air. A shock wave rolled out across the shore.

“Ah…!”

The wind that followed almost knocked Senia off her feet. For a few moments, the falling spray turned the lakeside into a downpour.

Amid that rain, Linea stood laughing.

“Haha…”

Sweat shone on her face, but she did not look exhausted. She was too overwhelmed by the happiness of having finally succeeded. She hurried through the drifting spray and turned to Senia, her eyes bright.

“Master! I—I did it!”

It was impossible not to smile at that face. Senia reached out and patted Linea's head.

“You've worked hard. To master this on your seventh attempt… I believe your talent for magic may be greater than mine.”

“Ehehe… You're giving me too much credit. I still have so much to learn—”

“No.”

Senia raised a hand to stop her.

“I have no more magic to teach you. What you just used was the last spell of my own devising. From now on, you'll have to study and develop new magic by yourself.”

“Oh. I see…”

Linea's expression fell.

Senia had thought her pupil might celebrate being free of lessons. Instead, the girl seemed dismayed. That made Senia feel oddly embarrassed.

Then, as if a new thought had just occurred to her, she took Linea by the hand.

“Come to think of it, there is one last spell I can show you. Would you like another lesson?”

Linea nodded at once.

Senia led her to a great root that stretched out from a nearby tree. They sat beside each other upon it, away from the splashing lake.

“Linea. The elders tell me you're terribly interested in the human world. Is that true?”

“Yes! I want to leave the Great Forest and see it for myself.”

“Hehe. I don't suppose telling you not to go would do much good when you look at me like that. Very well. There's a forbidden spell I'll teach you.”

“Forbidden…?”

Linea stared at her.

Senia lifted one finger and began tracing lines of light through the air.

“To put it simply, this spell places a curse upon the one who casts it. That's why it's taboo. You mustn't tell the elders I taught you, all right?”

“A curse on yourself? But… why would anyone do that?”

The unease in Linea's voice only made Senia smile fondly.

“Because you might meet someone you love beyond the Great Forest.”

Her finger continued to move, slowly building a pattern of magical lines.

“An elf can live close to a thousand years. A human is fortunate to live a hundred. To love a human is to accept a sorrow whose arrival you can already foresee.”

Senia's eyes grew distant.

“I left the Great Forest for the human world without knowing this spell. I regret that now. If I had known it, I could have closed my eyes alongside him. I wouldn't have had to keep shedding tears after he was gone…”

Her words faltered. She finished the final lines of the spell in silence.

A faint sadness lingered in Senia's smile.

She lowered her hand. The completed magic circle hovered in the air, glowing blue before Linea's eyes.

“The spell is meant to be engraved upon your own heart,” Senia explained. “Hold a hand before your chest, gather mana at your fingertips and direct it inward. Picture the face of the person you love, then inscribe this pattern upon your heart.”

“And… what happens then?”

“When the person you love closes their eyes for the last time, you may close yours with them. You can rest together for eternity.”

Young Linea frowned.

She knew what the word love meant, at least in theory. But she had never experienced it. Senia's explanation sounded utterly foolish.

“I don't understand. Even if I loved someone, why would I want to die just because they did?”

“Because you haven't loved anyone like that yet. When you do, perhaps you'll thank me.”

“I won't! Throwing away your life for somebody else sounds like madness. Besides, I'm not foolish enough to fall in love with a human who lives such a short time.”

“Is that so?”

Senia watched her grumbling pupil with a faint, wistful smile.

She remembered having once denied love in much the same way. She had traveled the human world, met someone good, and discovered that affection could grow into something much deeper. By the time she understood what had happened, she loved him.

She could scarcely describe the grief she had felt when he died.

Of course, the Linea sitting beside her could know none of that.

“Well, if you truly have no use for it, perhaps I've taught you something unnecessary,” Senia said with a sigh.

Linea fidgeted. Had she hurt Senia's feelings? The thought frightened her far more than the spell itself.

“Um… Master. Does that magic have a name?”

So she had been listening.

Senia gave a small laugh and brushed Linea's rain-wet bangs away from her forehead.

“I don't know. It's an ancient spell, and no records remain of who created it or how. Even its original name has been lost.”

She could not name the first person who had conceived such magic. But she believed she understood the feeling behind it: the wish that a long-lived elf and a short-lived human might share an ending, rather than leave one of them to mourn alone.

“So I've decided to give it a name myself.”

Senia smoothed Linea's hair and spoke softly.

“The End of Fate. That is what we'll call it from now on.”

To Senia, it was a fitting name for the hope of defying the unequal lifetimes written into their destinies.

“The End of Fate…”

Linea repeated the words almost without thinking.

She still could not understand the spell. Yet the name, somehow, did not sound unpleasant.

---

Linea opened her eyes.

For a moment she only blinked at the familiar room around her, then rubbed her face.

“A dream…”

Since marrying Theorad, she no longer suffered the nightmares that had once tormented her. Even so, memories of the distant past occasionally found their way into her sleep.

Perhaps I ought to visit the Great Forest and see Senia again.

She was still thinking about it when she heard a faint rustle beside her.

Turning, she found Theorad lying on his side, watching her. He was already dressed neatly in the clothes of his house, and there was something in his attentive gaze that made her feel unexpectedly shy.

“W-what is it?”

“You slept rather late today. I was waiting here, wondering whether you were having another nightmare.”

“I wasn't. I only have happy dreams these days.”

“Then I'm glad.”

He smiled and stroked her cheek.

The warmth of his hand was so pleasant that Linea nestled against him before she knew what she was doing. She reached around his waist and pressed her face to his chest.

“Linea…”

She was being particularly affectionate this morning. Theorad did not seem to mind. He smiled and stroked the back of her head.

Birds were calling beyond the bedroom window. In the quiet, Linea whispered against his coat.

“Theorad. Live a long time. Then… I'll live a long time too.”

He gave a little laugh at her puzzling request.

“Of course. You'll live a long time, so don't worry.”

“Yes…”

Linea answered softly and closed her eyes again, surrendering to the warmth of his embrace.

She knew it was childish to cling to Theorad when he had work waiting for him.

But just for a little longer, she wanted to remain exactly where she was.