Copyright (c) 2023 James Milne.
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A small figure stands by a large black cauldron, stirring. On her head is an overly large brimmed hat, made of stretched and cracked leather straps. She wears a rough dress, stained by grass and roots, and tough leather boots up to her knees. Leaning against the boots is a large white cat, yowling loudly.
She stands in the middle of a desert, a dead place. In the far distance, there is a small town, but she wouldn't be in sight to anybody there. It was too far. There was her, the cauldron, and sand. Nothing else.
She pushed the cat aside, "No, you can't have any. Seriously. What is it with you thinking things that aren't food, are, lately?"
She frowned, turning to a book, and muttering under her breath. As she was distracted, the cat launched up the edge of the pot, only to be knocked backwards as a symbol appeared in the air. The cat had struck it as if it were solid. It glared up with insult as the symbol faded.
The young hedgewitch turned back, "Phantasmia organia!"
The pot instantly began boiling, and the clear liquid turned black and obviously quite thick. The witch grinned, and then stared in horror as the large spoon she had left in the pot vanished as it got pulled under.
"Crap." The witch winced, "Mothers are going to be mad with me. I don't have the pocket money to replace that."
The cat glared at her, still angry that she had prevented it from accessing the potion. Despite the fact it clearly would have dissolved him as well. Which would have been irritating to fix.
The witch muttered, raising hands over the pot, and stared as a tiny black dot pulled away from the rest and floated up between her hands. She grinned, and turned slowly, leaning out over the sand.
She dropped the gob of black liquid and grabbed the cat as it attempted to jump and claw at it. There was a fizzing sound as it hit the sand, and then a gentle fog began to emerge.
She dropped the cat, and frowned, "You smell that, Snowball?"
The cat hissed at her, and then rose up into a sitting form, and meowed out a complex set of syllables. The witch shrugged, "What do I care if you were a lord? I resurrected you. Now, you're a cat."
It attacked her boots uselessly, revealing why such a country girl wore knee high boots that belonged on someone with far superior fashion sense. She knocked him aside with irritation, and crouched, "It smells like rain. Does that mean it is working?"
Snowball sat and licked on his front paws, ignoring her.
The ground suddenly rumbled, shaking violently. The girl grabbed her hat as the wind whipped up and she giggled, stamping her feet in excitement, "It's happening! It is really happening!"
The mist was beginning to fade in some areas, revealing thick green grass, dotted with bright yellow sunflowers.
The witch danced over picking one of the flowers and grinning at it, "I did it, Snowball! I made a flower and absolutely nobody died because I did!"
"It was you!" A voice erupted accusingly, and the girl hunched up biting her fingernails. Snowball shot her a pointed look.
She turned around slowly, pulling her hat off and looking over the brim sheepishly, "Oh, hey, Kim. Fancy seeing you here. In the desert. As far from Wizz as I could get."
The witch dropped from her broom, a strange metallic contraption with handles and exhausts. Kim glared at her, "Do you know what you just did?"
The hedgewitch held out a flower. Kim looked at it blankly and then back to the witch. "Hells bells, Sin. You just blew up one of the leylines. To make flowers."
"I did what?" She asked in surprise wide eyes staring over the brim of her hat.
Kim smiled and nodded, "Yeah. You did it this time. You're a necromancer, Sin. You can't make flowers. I'm going to have to call Dan to come fix this one."
Sin launched herself forward onto her knees, grabbing Kim's overalls, "Oh, please don't. Dan is always so condescending."
"She's also an animancy. Life us her domain." Kim replied, "I can't exactly operate a magic workshop in a town that doesn't have a leyline going through it. I'm a tekmancer. I can't fix this, just like you can't."
Sin nodded weakly, tears forming in her eyes, "Okay. I get it. I'm useless."
Kim sat down in front of her and spread her arms, "You're not useless, sweetie. Who else can raise an undead army on demand to clean my shop? It's just... You're never going to be able to do the cute magic."
Sin burst into tears, hugging the other witch back. She knew she was a constant problem. She didn't mean to be. She thought that she was being helpful, undoing a desert.
"Got to say though, Sin, your godmothers will be proud. Blowing up an actual leyline? You've got some talent for destruction there, kiddo."
She sat back, looking at the green she knew would have to go away, all the life she'd yanked out of the magical pipelines on the world. "Yeah. Probably. If I hadn't completely skipped out on chores to do this."
Kim laughed, "Yep! I can imagine them now. Brooding faces, warped and stretched shadows."
Sin spoke in a nasally high pitch voice, "I told you not to use magic, little brat!"
Kim sighed, "You ready for Dan?"
Sin yanked her hat over her head and down passed her ears. "Is anyone?"
Kim pulled a thin metallic object from her front chest pocket and waved it in the air lazily, "Emeragus Dan!"
Red sparks shot forth, and then disappeared as the world swirled around them. An emergency signal sent on its way to the best of the apprentice witches in all the tribes. And she knew it.
Dan appeared in a rainbow of glittering sparks, hands already on her masculine hips, glaring, "What did you do this time, Sin!?"
The hedgewitch went into hiding behind Kim and her hat. She swallowed, and waved a hand, "I tried to make a flower."
Dan glared around rubbing at her day-old fuzz on her chin. "Wow. You actually used a terraforming spell, you utter idiot. They kill entire worlds to remake them, you know. If the leyline hadn't packed up and died, then you would have killed the world. Impressively stupid, even for you."
"Says the girl in a man's body!" Sin snapped, instantly regretting it. She knew that Dan had done it on purpose. That Dan failed to find a way to turn herself back on purpose. That this was the only way she could be herself without being disowned by her own godmothers.
Dan didn't cry, or get angry. She just looked over at Sin with disgust. "Kim... Get that corpsehumper out of here."
Sin bowed her head and stood up slowly. "I'm sorry."
She pulled out the gnarled branch that served as her wand and tapped her thigh with it gently. "Creepius summonae."
There was a brief screaming and howling as skeletal hands burst out of the soil and dragged her down into the ground.
She emerged, coughing up grave soil, and fell onto her back in front of the cabin in the woods. She should head inside. Hiding in her bedroom and crying felt like a nice idea.
But her godmothers were inside, and a real necromancer never cries. They let cry with curses. She didn't want to curse Dan or anyone else. She just wanted to create a pretty flower.
"Sin!" One of the crones screeched, "Where have you been? I asked you to scrap a cauldron, not fly halfway across the world!"
She pulled her hat down over her face. The old crone snatched it away, grinning at her. It was the tall one, "I got a letter from the uptight witch. You used the cauldron."
Sin blew out her cheeks, keeping herself from getting into another screaming match. She never won those. Not with the tall godmother, nor the fat or kind ones. She always regretted opening her mouth.
The crone smiled at her, "I wanted to toss it because the safety limiter had worn out. And then you go and blow out a leyline with it?"
Sin struggled to contain her anger. The old bat could have told her it was unstable garbage. She had a feeling that this had been a test and she had just failed it. They always did things like this to her.
"Nice work." The crone nodded curtly, "Especially forcing a life caster to clean up after you."
They dropped the hat, and Sin felt worse than ever.
She heard a soft meow and sat up. Snowball was in her lap. The cat gestured towards its mouth.