Lady of The Knight

Chapter IV : "Eros, May I...?"

The sunflowers Love picked today is sitting beautifully on a vase by Mark Antony's head. She always picks flowers every week as a way to show her appreciation for goddess Hekate. She kneels down in front of the vanity, cleansing a mason jar with an incense stick. She then adds a red salt, cayenne pepper, bay leaves, and a Malachite gemstone ontop.

"Dear Hekate, on this night, I call on to you," she closes the lid of the jar, and seals the lid with droplets of wax from a red candle. "To protect and give me strength, for I have a long, long journey ahead of me." She places the jar on the far right end of the desk where her journal is. "Also, to let me have a beauty sleep tonight. Even if it is only short term." Love sighs, placing the candle on a plate, "may peace be on to us."

That's been her wish since as long as she could remember. Nothing's ever worked, not even constant therapy. The cold feeling of her bed when she gets on to meditate and prepare for the day ahead, never fails to make her even more uncomfortable. She never knows why she becomes a thousand times more fearful whenever bedtime is near, whenever the clock strikes midnight, she would grow more energized.

But when the dawn comes? She becomes tired.

"Might as well turn into a vampire." Love grumbles to herself just as she sits on the bed. Her gaze finds the bright moon outside that doesn't look like a moon-it is more like a giant star passing by.

A few minutes of meditation alone only grows her exhausted. There is no such thing as peace when it comes to insomniac. Maybe for some, but for Love herself-the longer she wakes, the anxious she gets. A brochure is stuck on the board wall by the stack of books she hasn't gotten a chance to put up on the shelf yet.

It's a Masquerade Winter's Ball at the end of the year that she definitely doesn't give a crap about.

Her mind wanders to the school's castle only a few feet away from the dormitory building. She gets up from the bed to approach the big window facing the backyard of the school ground. The beach seems far away now, also a lot more odd to the naked of a human's eye; it feels as if something is waiting ahead. Could be a sea creature that nobody knows about? A group of Sirens that lure men in with their magical, alluring, singing voice and eat them all alive?

A shiver runs up Love's spine as she imagines the beautiful voices of Sirens alone could bring a male man to their death. She turns to grab a book of Four Lands history; where she finds plenty of interesting facts about Oceana; a city below the ocean. It is said to be where the Kraken lives, or importantly, the guard of Oceana.

The book mentions the size of Kraken itself could be as gigantic as the mountain.

Each lands have their own protectors. Gardenia has the Goddess Artemis herself with her long-term companion, Onyx, the wolf that its size alone is described as giant as a:

"Fenrir? The son of the Norse god and Giantess? Impressive." Love chuckles to herself, "not sure if they exist, but anything could at this point."

She closes the book gently before resting her back against the side of the bed. The dim lights of the floating stars on the ceiling somehow calms her down from the never ending nerve.

The same light figure appears by her vanity, this time they have a hint of dark mist all around them. Gentle whispers can be heard, Love turns her head slightly and wides her eyes in shock to see how close the figure is now. Her mind believes that it is Hekate herself, but somehow part of her is bewitched to believe she is somebody else.

The presence feels surreal and stronger than anything. Usually the figure appears at the far end of the room, by the crossroads, at the doorsteps, anywhere that seems as if It guards Its believer.