Love Letters and Thirst Tonics (Moonvale Matches Book 1)

33. Fiella

Kizzi dragged me into the park to meet with the other local witches–some of whom I knew personally, some of whom I had only met on occasion, and a few of whom I had never seen before. They must have traveled here for the occasion.

I tried to set my sulking aside to focus, but I was struggling. My mind kept trying to wander.

Kizzi cleared her throat to bring the focus onto herself. “Ladies, I know we’ve been working on the hush hush for the past few days, but I think it’s time we finally let Fiella know exactly what has been going on.”

“Wait a second. What is going on?” I asked, confused.

Kizzi patted the back of my hand. “It’s alright Fi, just breathe for a sec, we’ll fill you in. I told you I would get to the bottom of this, and I think I have. Or at least part of it. We’ll explain.”

She gestured to one of the other witches in the group, a strong and imposing woman with fire red hair cropped close to her chin. She introduced herself to me as Gertrude.

“Miss Fiella, as I’m sure you are aware, there has been a string of unfortunate… incidents that have been occurring in Moonvale. Your shop’s beetle infestation. The increased illnesses. Sprites running amok. The damaged buildings throughout town. Et cetera. As I’m sure you are also aware, given the circumstances you yourself were in, most of these incidents seem to be magical in nature,” she explained. “Now, magic doesn’t cause mischief on its own. While it isn’t sentient, magic tends to err towards causing peace and order, not mischief and strife. Something dark is at play here.”

My mind was whirling with the overload of information. “Okay,” I said slowly. “Something dark? Like dark magic, dark sorcery? How does that even work?”

Gertrude patiently explained further. “The magic of the Old Gods is naturally light, but with evil intentions and a lot of time and effort, stubborn folk can twist it to become something ugly. We think this is the case here.”

“Who the fuck would do that?” I asked.

Gertrude startled at my use of profanity, but quickly composed herself and delicately cleared her throat. “That’s what we need your help to figure out. We have been following magical trails and tracing magical signatures, and it seems as though your beetles have come from a town called Willowvalley. Have you been there, or do you know anyone from there?” she asked.

“Willowvalley… I haven’t been there in ages. It’s one of the towns my family sources trinkets from. Sure, we travel all over the realm, but I don’t think anything very significant comes to mind. I certainly don’t remember a group of evil folk there…” I drifted off as I sank deeper into thought, trying to pull out any crumbs that could be helpful.

There was that bartender who refused to serve more than one alcoholic drink to any women folk, but I think he was just an asshole, not an evil magic wielder. There were a few littles who attempted to steal my rental horse. Just the usual nonsense, nothing that jumped out as dark magic.

My attention was pulled back to the group when Kizzi’s voice rang out above the chatter of the others. “Well, you all know what that means.”

Ten pairs of eyes stared at her expectantly, clearly not knowing what that meant.

She rolled her eyes dramatically. “We’re going to Willowvalley to dig up this rotten egg! Duh!”

I let that sink in. Well, I certainly would love the chance to figure out who destroyed my shop and spit in their face the way they deserved.

“Okay, sure,” I agreed. I didn’t have anything better to do at the moment.

“Great! Let’s take off at first light. I’ve got some things to pack and some favors to call in, but I just know we’re going to catch this son of a bitch.”

I wasn’t as certain as she was, but I would seize the opportunity that presented itself. We were not sure if this perpetrator was one folk, or one hundred folk, or if this act was connected to the rest of the mischievous situations in Moonvale. It was all so mysterious.

Gertrude mentioned many magical signatures and many magical trails… but this was somewhere to start, and I latched onto it.

I would avenge my losses.