My darlings, I didn’t go anywhere today — surprise!

Still sick as hell, my cough is glorious and my bronchi are in full rebellion (like “I can’t breathe” — but we’re too refined for that here).

So instead of enjoying nature, I sucked down a massive cheesy dick. Or I would have, if there was any.

Now I’m lying in bed, waiting for a pizza delivery. Haven’t had anything to eat since yesterday. I hate spending money on food delivery, it’s ridiculously expensive in Latvia — probably the priciest in all of Europe. But I live deep in the woods, and there are no shops around.

Honestly, food prices have gone insane👏 Amazing. Our economy is apparently flying straight into the sun.

Anyway. Dasha is off kayaking somewhere near Riga, so enjoy her pretty pictures. Meanwhile, I finally finished Lullaby of the Witches!

I already wrote two parts of my review of this visual novel - https://onlyfans.com/1714395399/girloftheforest .

So, I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but closer to season three, the main character Maria starts seeing a terrifying old woman in certain places connected to her investigation — the woman is reciting a creepy little rhyme about the death of magic. And only Maria can see her.

It turns out that this old woman is the embodiment of a powerful curse that had clouded the minds of those who would later become conspirators trying to destroy magic — meaning most of them weren’t acting of their own free will. I can’t say I loved this plot twist — I was expecting more human conflict and a proper trial — but it was written well enough, so I accepted it.

I don’t remember the exact time, maybe the 5th or 6th century, but this old woman was a real witch who once lived, with a family and a grandson. Back then, the Raven hadn’t yet worn his mask — he was just an utterly unhinged Norse mage, chosen by Odin, brutal and reckless. Even his own subordinates feared and hated him.

So, the Raven — whose real name was Arnor — was leading a massacre in that village and killed the witch’s grandson, Ingvar, purely by accident. In her grief and fury, the witch cursed Arnor: he forgot who he was, became immortal and immensely powerful, and was doomed to watch as magic slowly died.

The witch’s staff, carried north by Varangians, ended up in the area of modern-day St. Petersburg. Through it, the spirit of the dead witch whispered the secrets of a magic-destroying ritual to the locals — secrets that eventually fell into the hands of Maria and Thaddeus mother.

Eventually, when Maria realized that the ghostly old woman and her rhyme were actually a curse, she managed to break it. There were more trials and political reckoning after that, but things ended in the best possible way for both the Coven and the Order.

Aaaaand of course I have to talk about Dario! The ending he shares with Maria is absolutely stunning — the best I could have imagined. After reading tons of visual novels, I fully expected that all the nuances of their personalities and the delicate shades of their relationship would be flattened by the end, replaced with something plain and cliché.

I thought Dario — an older man with a love for absolute control, cruel tendencies, and a dominant-submissive streak — would end up breaking Maria, who is half his age, dreams of love, and is deeply devoted to magic. Or, what I really expected: that Dario would just be turned into a villain, lock Maria up in his home, to//rtu//re her, or at best, harm the mages so badly that he’d be killed off.

BUT. BUT!

Dario defended Maria during the trial against the mages. He secretly climbed up the vine-covered wall to the Coven building’s balcony just to see her. He gave testimony against the church officials who had abused their power, to//rtu//red mages, and carried out wrongful arrests and executions.

Maria and Dario formed a contradictory yet delicate union — full of mutual passion and a desire to talk and talk, to discover who they truly were, both together and individually. They never got married, but Maria enjoys calling him her husband. Dario didn’t leave the Order, but he replaced his monk’s robe with the garments of the High Inquisitor, officially revoking his vow of celibacy. Maria, meanwhile, continued doing what she loved — working with curses.

They always lived close to each other, visiting one another’s homes, and over time they achieved a kind of incredible harmony. If Maria had to travel for work, Dario would cancel everything and go with her. And yes, they had kids — an adorable set of twins, a boy and a girl, just like Maria and Thaddeus themselves. They gave the kids the surname Crow, so they wouldn’t be burdened by the negatively infamous name Bartholomew in magical society.

By the end of the story, 18 years later, Maria and Dario are still together and deeply in love. And that’s a good thing. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve really come to love love — and crave happy endings. The world has become so complicated and grimy, it makes me long for something without murky brown undertones.

The only thing I regret is that we never see Dario again at the end — he’s supposed to be around 60 by then.