Konoko sighed as she heard her father scold at her. She probably did something wrong again in his eyes. Even at the age of sixteen, her father hated her. It all began when she was born. Her mother died while giving birth to her; maybe it was because of her illness, or maybe because everyone thought Konoko had placed a curse on her mother. Why, you say? Well… Konoko was born with a wing-shaped sign on her cheek just below her right eye. She had two different eye-colors; one blue, while the other gold. Because of this, the people in the village despised her and called her a demon. Nobody ever wanted to touch her, in fear of getting cursed. Even her father kept his distance and scolded her at every little thing she did. He forbade her to go outside so nobody would get to see his cursed daughter. Therefore, Konoko stayed inside the walls of the castle. Every minute she was alone and, because of the lack of sunshine, she had such a white skin that she looked like a goddess with her light-blue hair.
  In her loneliness, having nothing to do, she practiced magic; something she thought was at last fun. She made sure her father would never get to know all this, or she could be executed. It was highly forbidden to use any magic, for a witch is one who uses it.
  Konoko would go to this room, a room in the southern quarters of the castle. Almost nobody came there so she could not be seen. It was a forbidden place; she did not know why, because it was so peaceful around there. Her very favorite practice room was located almost at the very end of the hall. There was another door, at the end of the hall, but she had already discovered she could not enter, for it was locked. Konoko was very curious of what would be inside and she was very delighted when she found a de-lock spell in one of her spell books.
  The girl waited ‘till midnight, the time everyone would be asleep. Then, when whole the castle was dark, she lid a candle and sneaked out of her room. She twisted some corridors and finally arrived at the mysterious door.

  The words slowly vanished into the air. Suddenly, a small, blue light appeared and Konoko heard a small click: the door was open. She put her hand on the handle and pushed the door open. The room was darker then the whole castle itself. Dark shadows were placed in every corridor and there was a low temperature. She shivered, it was somewhat creepy in this room, but she still liked the strange feeling.
  Using her candle, she could see some of the things that were placed in there. Most of the stuff looked ancient and Konoko thought she saw some things she had read about in one of her books. The one thing that pulled her attention most was a mirror, standing not far away from the door. There was a cloth placed upon it, so half of the mirror she could not see.