Hortus Arcanus planēta

ACT 2

The Good Child’s Curse

And just as Ella finished her prayer and rose from before the hazel branch, the bell that marked midnight began to ring.

The very moment it sounded, she collapsed where she stood and fell heavily onto her side.

Panicked, I thought Ella had died.

“Ella!!” I cried out in alarm.

At once, her eyes snapped open.

“What is it? Must you be so loud? Those wretched women will wake up.”

That way of speaking… could it be—

“El?”

“Yes, El. Though more importantly, where is this? It doesn’t seem to be that room.”

As she said this, El glanced sideways at the small mound of earth with the hazel branch stuck in it.

Then she said,

“Ah… so Ella came here again. And to bring you here with her, Lumia… you must be someone she trusts very much.”

“Do you think so? I hope that’s true. Though… so you knew about this place too.”

“Yes. I’ve heard the midnight bell here several times. And besides, only in fragments perhaps, but I already know the story of this tale… thanks to that button.”

El said this while pointing at my button.

“So that’s why you weren’t surprised. Now it all makes sense.”

“More importantly, what exactly was your Ella doing here?”

“She was telling me about her mother.”

And so I told El everything Ella had shared with me.

To that, El replied,

“Ah. Yes, I already knew that.”

“What? You knew?!”

I raised my voice again.

“Shh! Keep your voice down. Honestly. Of course I knew. That phrase—good girl—is one of the reasons Ella and I became divided in the first place. That is why, from the bottom of my heart, I despise this fate. Truly… to place shackles of a curse upon both Ella and me.”

“A curse? Ella never said it was a curse.”

“My, are you foolish? No matter how you look at it, those words were a curse her mother placed upon her in childhood. If I were to give that curse a name… perhaps the curse of being a good girl.”

Whispering such things between us, El and I made our way back to that tattered attic room.