Shiori Novella One-shots

Protection of the Archiver

"How foolish of you to expect such a thing," she declares with a snicker, her voice dripping with a mixture of amusement and something darker. The legends of a witch in the woods capable of granting wishes had captivated your imagination, and in your child-like innocence, you ventured into the depths of the forest, believing that the stories held a glimmer of truth. However, the weight of your expectations now clashes with the reality before you, a collision of naive hope and the dark aura that shrouds Miss Fortune.

~~~~~

Her golden gaze locks you in place with fear. You can see a morbid curiosity, amusement, and another, darker emotion that you can't place and aren't sure you want to.

"B-but... I... I was just curious... Please... Let me leave..." you stutter, every breath agonizingly tight as you try not to provoke the woman in front of you.

She tilts her head and place a finger on her chin, looking up, thinking for a moment. You exhale heavily, finally able to take a breath. You look around a little, trying to find a way out of the situation you've found yourself in. When you look behind her, catching sight of the inky shadows warping and wavering, your breath hitches once more.

H-how....? I... shouldn't have come here...

"Oh? What's this? Trying to escape now...?" the woman, now watching you again, smirks.

"What's wrong with... those shadows...?" you ask, slowly bringing a hand up to point at the undulating shadows around her feet and the shadows warping and wavering behind her.

As the woman's smile widens, you see a field of... flowers with eyes on them spread around the two of you, all of them watching you. Suddenly, flapping and clanking noises overlap. On either side of the woman, two dark suits of armor step into formation slightly behind her as if to guard her, and a pair of small wyrms with pages all of them alight onto each of the knights' shoulders. You can't see the eyes of the knights or the wyrms, but you can tell everything here is watching your every move.

"You don't need to worry about that... It's actually convenient that you came here, I was about to track you down."

"W-why...?"

"You see... Your story needs to end. If I let you live, then terrible things will happen to stories that I happen to be following quite closely... Like those of my Novelites... And, I cannot allow that. I adore them, and they me. So, this is good-bye," her gaze turns hostile as the pressure in the area gets heavier with every word, and you're brought to your knees.

You can't even reply. Novelites? What are those...? Before you notice, she's right in front of you, looking down with an unmistakeable fury in her eyes. You blink slowly, and the moment your eyes are closed, you feel pinpricks all over your body, and you collapse as you look up at her.

The woman looks down at you, as the light of life leaves your eyes and your body crumples to the ground. She taps her toes twice, and the shadows around your body swell and swallow you down into their depths, never to be seen again.

"I will protect my Novelites... I love them, and they deserve to be happy... You would've stopped that," she whispers, the disgust evident as she turns around and steps into a different shadow, followed by the knights and wyrms. As she leaves, the flowers all blink once and look around before closing and disappearing from sight.

The silence of the forest returns, as if nothing had ever happened, and no one has ever been here.