Snowflake hasn’t been her usual self for a while now, she feels more and more different each day as if it wasn’t herself in her own body, but somebody else. The woman heaved out a long sigh, her legs crossed elegantly as she stared out of the window. There was too much on her mind and nothing she could do to stop her thoughts from running wild in her head. It wasn’t until she was immediately brought out of her reverie by a loud knock on her door. ”Gosh, who in the world has plans to disturb me at this hour?” she mumbled to none other than herself as she pushed herself up her seat, rolling her eyes in the midst of it all.

”Who’s it?”

In front of her door was a young man who looked like he had run miles through the hail and snow that was pouring outside just to deliver a message. ”M-Ma’am, you’ve been summoned. It’s v-very urgent.”

”Really? Right now?” She almost sounded unbelievable, and truth be told, she was ready to whip his head right against the door. Her rising anger was one of the consequences of her changing personality; the growing difference within her, and she did not know how it occurred nor was she able to find a solution for it as well. Of course, she wouldn’t endanger the poor soul, he already seemed frightened enough, either from the storm that showered outside or from her formidable demeanour.

As she huffed and puffed to retrieve her personal belongings and her most trusted coat, the young man bellowed over the distance, ”The carriage is waiting for you downstairs, m’lady!”

”Good, get ready to leave.”

It was still late afternoon, yet the darkness lingered in the atmosphere, the sky washed dark grey and the clouds not even permitting sunlight to pass through. Winter was still her favorite season and it will always be, but in times like these, she wished to bask under the radiant sunlight.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

Her leather boots resounded against the wooden floorboards as she entered the room to meet one of the lieutenant of the Rune Knights, her snow coloured cloak draping over her shoulders all the way down to her ankles. ”This better be very important. I’m not really in a good mood, you see, especially when I was supposed to be on my day off.” She found herself onto a vacant seat and without any response, the lieutenant greeted her merely with a smile.

”I wouldn’t have called for you if it wasn’t this important. Urgent times calls for desperate measures.” He breathed in, the lines of his face suddenly turning grim as he clasped his hands in front of him on the desk. ”There’ve been reports of sightings of ghosts. In the beginning, we only thought it was just punks pranking in the neighbourhood but there’s been more and more reports of them recently, and I want you to go have a look.”

”Ghosts? You requested me to come all the way down her to get rid of some measly ghosts?” The woman scoffed. ”What’re all the Rune Knights that you hired for?”

”Let me explain. These are not just normal ghosts, they’re connected to a curse and I need you to identify the source of it to destroy it.” He paused, bringing out an old, almost torn piece of parchment paper and laid it out in front of her – a map. The lieutenant continued, ”There’s an abandoned tower far on the outskirts of the town. The spirits reside there, but before you go, you need to go see a witch and retrieve a magic lamp. Only the lamp will allow you to speak with the spirits.” The man quickly scribbled down the coordinates of the witch’s house and the name onto a note and handed it out to her.

”Should’ve just said that from the beginning.” She snatched the paper from his fingers and quickly exited the hall. Thank god, they prepared a carriage for her, her Pegasus was kept at the stables and she didn’t bring him with her so if it wasn’t for the extra kindness done for her, she’d have to trudge all the way to the gates of the town.

The message that the lieutenant had given to her permitted her to find the witch’s house and its coordinates, however, despite her desire to recoil away from the responsibility of a wizard. She folded the piece of parchment paper over its valleys neatly once again before sliding it into the pocket of her white cloak as she walked over to the only building that was situated in the arena. The eerie demeanor and the creepy vibes of the house already gave her enough evidence that it was truly the witch’s lair and just as she climbed up the stairs to the porch, the dark haired witch with a sun hat awaited her out at the front of the door.

"Welcome,” she smiled at her, almost sinisterly and truth be told, Snowflake was quite startled by her sudden appearance – not to mention, she looked way youthful than she had expected. She’d imagined a short stubby woman walking on a cane with large, evil eyes but instead, what she got was a beautiful woman with a curvaceous body who seemed to be in her early thirties. Perhaps it was all accomplished with dark magic, but it was none of her business either way.

”I come here to acquire a magic lamp. I was told you would have it.” She handed out the shortly written letter from the lieutenant to the witch. With a skim over the message, she looked at her with a sly smirk.

”I see. Well, just wait here for a second.”

Within a few moments later, the witch came out holding a vintage lamp with intricate designs. She wasn’t sure what the deal is with the lamp, but she sure as hell was going to find it out. From the information she had gathered from her client, the location she was travelling to next had a bit of a story: the area was cursed, which is why she was hired to identify the source and remove it, with this lamp apparently. She wasn’t sure how, but supposedly, she’ll figure it out sooner or later.

When the lieutenant the location of the tower would be in the outskirts of the town, Snowflake didn’t expect the building would be entirely located on another isle, separated by a small lake, in which she had to cross it by sailing through a moulding wooden boat that would’ve sunk the second she hit a rock in the waters. Nonetheless, it took her quite a while to get to the location, although it didn’t take any effort from her to notice that the tiny island had a monster infestation, spreading all over the land and destroying every greenery that has grown on it. The lake might have already been infected for God knows when, but at the very least, the rest of the folks that resided near the outskirts are free from infection – for now, but she couldn’t risk knowing that their lives could be in danger any moment if the curses became stronger.

The hunter landed as close to get to the tower as possible and on her way to the tower entrance, the trails were spewed with remnants of rotten bodies of humans that had been infected by the curse long ago, with no one able to save them. Swarms of flies flocked around these bodies, and as much as it was disgusting for her to be in a place like this, pity left her being at the sight of these victims, unknowing what could’ve gone so wrong to result in this.

The tower was the only structure allocated on the entire land, so it was not that challenging to get to her destination. However, upon entering the tower, it was evident that the building was thriving with an extremely high rat population that nearly urged her to get out of the building as soon as she stepped inside, if not for the responsibility of the quest that she’d signed herself up for. A long, exasperated sigh left her lips.

There was hardly any light inside the tower, so she reckoned she should put the lamp that was given to her by the witch to usage. A few steps ahead of the front entrance was a hearth that was cold in decay and with a few flicks of her matchstick she lit it up and brought warmth to the entire building, causing the rats to scurry away from the light. Though there was still fire burning bright, it wasn’t that bright enough to cover the entire area, hence she would use brought her lamp to her eye level as she walked slowly around the ground floor, taking in everything from dust and cobwebs in the corners to broken pieces of wooden crates lying around the area.

There was nothing to explore to be honest, until she shone her lamp around the corner, and there she would see the last moments of the people who lived inside the tower. The first batch of ghosts that she witnessed were two men, arguing in regards to a topic that she didn’t fully understand, though she doubted it was of much importance to her mission. Along her discoveries, she found a dead body at the basement level; fairly fresh and examining his wounds, they appeared as if he had been killed recently by an unknown foe.

The woman continued to climb up the stairs to the upper level where the lamp light caught a glimpse of a ghost of a woman, but fled away higher up the stairs again, as if she was hinting the mage to follow after her. But, before doing that, she needed a thorough examination on every level of the tower to gather as much as information as she can and figure out what happened inside the tower.

On the second floor, she watched a group of ghosts gather around the table, which she assumed were the lords and ladies of the tower, assuming by the rich clothing they dressed. So, they were in the midst of having a meal together before they passed away, she thought to herself, before searching around the floor for more clues and moved up to the uppermost level.

As the hunter climbed up the stairs – once again – she saw a glimpse of the ghost of the same woman that she just met earlier, as if urging her to follow her. And, there she goes, following the trails of the ghost woman who led her to the attic of the tower, but the ghost was nowhere to be found. The floor seemed to be of a bedroom of a woman, which she assumed was of the ghost woman that she had just seen.

What was she trying to say?, the woman thought to none other than herself whilst she scanned around the room to take in her surroundings. It was the uppermost level of the tower, so unless the ghost woman wanted her to find something on this floor, otherwise she wouldn’t have led her there – was her thought. And so, for the next half an hour, Snowflake scurried around the room, flipping over blankets, bending over to check underneath the bed, shuffling over notes and journals, which proved no significance to her search. All of that and there was nothing she could find useful to solve the mystery case of why the tower was haunted and covered with mice.

Though the population of mice was most likely because of the rotten smell of flesh, which undoubtedly disgusted her, and for the curse – that she did not know, yet. It wasn’t until she finally took notice of the levers that were located right underneath the candle tops that were placed right above the edges of the bed. Curious, she pulled the two levels on each side and finally revealed a hidden passageway behind the closet.

Everywhere inside the tower was just darkness, but thankfully, the lamp that was borrowed to her proved extremely useful, not only for the sight but also let her witness the ghosts and reflect their last moments.

There she was, finally inside the passageway that turned out to be a laboratory, which she assumed was owned by one of the people who were living inside the tower – perhaps. The light from her lamp shone before her, showing the figure of the ghost woman she had caught a glimpse of. Much to her surprise, the woman was sobbing into her own hands, unknowing why.

”Why’re you crying?” The words passed her lips without realizing it herself that what she was seeing could just be a memory of the ghost.

Instead, to her surprise, she received a response. ”You can see me?” She gasped unbelievably. Snowflake was stricken herself, she didn’t expect that the lamp would also enable her to have conversations with ghosts either, but this made her task of finding the source of the curse much easier now.

”Uh, yes! I didn’t expect this, but apparently, it seems that this lamp allows me to do that.” For a person who had just experienced seeing ghosts for the first time, she was unusually chill, even for herself. ”Are you aware that you’ve passed away?”

The unknown woman nodded sadly.

”Do you remember what happened before you died?”

And so, the story begins. She introduced herself as Petra, a daughter of a wealthy lord and a lady who owned the tower. There was a wizard working for them, to create trivial magic items such as potions and whatnot. Unbeknownst to the household, the wizard was secretly experimenting with rats for his new research and infecting them with a dangerous disease. One unfortunate day, peasants living across the isle broke into the house to kill everyone and retrieve all the goods. Despite being a wealthy family, the lord and his family were also struggling to live, but the peasants believed that Anabelle’s family had been only keeping all the goods to themselves without sharing them with those who needed.

Terrified by the attack, she drank a potion that was given to her by the mage, thinking it would kill her instantly, rather than being brutally murdered by the peasants. Instead of serving as poison, the potion was a strong paralyzing one that put her into a deathlike slumber which rendered the peasants to think that she killed herself. Days later, she awoke to her paralyzed body lying on the floor, eaten by rats alive whilst she was unable to do anything.

Anabelle believed the curse on the island was most likely because of her anger and hatred from the massacre of her family. ”If the curse is centered around you, then I suppose to lift it, your anger must dissipate – by forgiveness.” She finally says.

Giving her a brief moment to collect her thoughts, Anabelle finally makes her decision. ”Bury my bones, please. Once my bones are buried, I will no longer be here alone, writhing in anger and regret. I no longer wish to suffer anymore, I’m ready to forgive and forget and I believe it will lift the curse.”

The hunter bid farewell to the young woman, collecting the bones that piled in the laboratory and eventually completed the final request that was made to her.