14. Fiella
“Hey, beautiful bitches!”
I glanced up from my pile of broken teacups to see Kizzi entering the shop with a very suspicious looking cauldron in her arms. I was afraid the steaming liquid was going to slosh all over her front.
Red smoke wafted from the cauldron and crept across the floor. It smelled like maple syrup, something spicy, and… petrichor? Weird.
Redd, surprisingly, hardly reacted to Kizzi’s dramatic entrance. This vampire was hard to rattle.
We had been working together on and off for more than two weeks now, and I learned that nothing seemed to faze him. It was so annoying.
“Please tell me that’s for the beetles and not something you want me to drink,” I mumbled. I still got queasy when I thought about the last time Kizzi made me sample something from her cauldron.
Charcoal, lemongrass, fish guts, and gods knew what else. And she didn’t even warn me first. Asshole.
“It isssssss!” she sang, twirling alarmingly with the cauldron lifted above her head. She was definitely going to make a mess.
Redd snatched the cauldron from her before any disasters could strike. Smart man.
Kizzi explained to us the extremely dramatic process of activating the potion, which would involve an embarrassing dancing-and-chanting situation.
I didn’t know much about magic, but I was pretty sure she was just messing with us at this point.
“Sookie!” I yelled out to the cat. She might not have belonged to me, but she always came when I called. My girl.
She meandered into the room, yawning. She had clearly just been napping somewhere.
I scooped her up and tossed her outside, quietly explaining to her that she did not want to witness this. She didn’t seem to mind much. I was pretty sure she was smarter than most folk I knew, and I didn’t want her judgmental ass around to mock me for what was about to happen.
“Okay, now I’m ready,” I said tentatively. I twisted my hair up into a tight knot, wanting to keep it out of my face for whatever was going to occur here.
“Alright, I’m the boss. Here’s what’s about to happen,” Kizzi proclaimed. She proceeded to explain the steps of the ritual, listing them off on her fingers as she did so.
We needed to burn sage, and then place crystals and herb bundles evenly around the whole shop.
We needed to join hands and skip around in a circle fifty times, to begin the energy cyclone.
We needed to all (unfortunately) drink a ladle of the potion.
The big finale, we needed to boil the potion until it reduced and burnt to ashes, while “singing the clarity song”, whatever that was.
If we did everything correctly, the remaining magical beetles would drop dead, and we’d be able to sweep them away and act like they never existed in the first place. At least, that was my plan. I shivered just thinking about it. Gods, I hate bugs.
I still didn’t know where they came from or who had sent them here, but that was a problem for future Fiella. Right now, I just wanted them gone. It had been a nightmare trying to squish the insects and shoo them away while cleaning up the mess they had caused. They slowed the process down immensely.
Redd was grumbling under his breath, something that sounded like “... got to be fucking kidding me…” but I chose to ignore him. He could grow up and prance around the room with us like a real man.
“Okay, whatever, let’s get this over with.”
“Great! This is going to be fun!” Kizzi shouted, clapping her hands and bouncing on her toes like this was the most exciting event in the realms.
She was lucky I loved her, because sometimes she was annoying.
“No, not there, there!” Kizzi called for what felt like the hundredth time. Redd was not very good at strategic crystal placing, apparently. I had to stifle my laughs.
Redd grumbled under his breath but moved the crystal to the correct location. It had taken us way longer than it should have to set everything out properly.
“Finally! Alright that feels good, I can sense the magic aligning. Now we need to whip it up and get this thing rolling,” Kizzi stated, grabbing my hand and yanking me to the cauldron in the center of the room.
Redd reluctantly joined us, looking like he’d rather be doing literally anything else. He grasped our hands and completed the circle.
His hand was warm, strong, and calloused and his grip sent a shiver of awareness through me.
Gods damned, I was embarrassingly touch starved. I bet a full-blown hug would knock me off my feet.
Looking like fools, we spun and spun and spun until I was sure I was either going to fall over or be sick. Both options were not ideal. Redd was looking a little green in the face so at least I wasn’t the only one.
Kizzi looked green too, but that was nothing unusual for her. She usually fluctuated between shades of brown and jade. Maybe she was a bit greener? She was smiling and giggling like a little, though, so she was probably feeling perfectly fine.
Before I could make a new mess on the (already very messy) floor and embarrass myself any further, Kizzi declared that the magical energy had been sufficiently whipped and we could now proceed with the rest of the spell.
I didn’t know what whipped magic felt like, but the hair on my arms was raised a bit. And there was a slight knot in my stomach, but that could’ve just been indigestion. Or a lingering hangover.
We all collapsed onto the floor, our brains spinning. Thank the gods Sookie was gone–she probably would’ve been internally laughing her cat ass off at the spectacle. It took us a few minutes to be stable enough to pass around the cauldron ladle.
This concoction wasn’t as dreadful as the last one I had tried, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant. Sea water, maple syrup, dried grass, sweet cream, and… was that fur? I tried not to think about it too hard as I held my breath and swallowed the concerningly textured mouthful.
I needed to stop letting Kizzi feed me things. She had a bad track record.
My still-tender stomach heaved, but I managed to keep the liquid down. Redd actually gagged once. Softie. I barely held myself back from making any rude comments. I was surprised that the surly vampire had stayed for the ritual, as he could have easily made an excuse and left, but Kizzi did tend to have that effect on people. It was Kizzi’s realm, and we were all just living in it.
It was inspirational, honestly.
Stomach full of a mysterious magical liquid, I was beginning to feel the magic in the shop more acutely. The magic of the potion was moth wings fluttering in my stomach, the whipped natural magic was gentle breezes kissing my skin, and the lingering magic of the beetles was pins and needles in my legs and acidic burning in my nostrils.
It must be strange to be a witch, to constantly be so in touch with the lingering magic in the world. The magic must have been overwhelming ages ago, when the Old Gods’ magic was still flooding the realm. Witches weren’t the only creatures able to connect with magic–sprites, elves, faeries, and other folk could as well, but witches and wizards were the best at it.
“Time for the final stages. We’ve got to boil and burn this stuff and repeat this tune,” Kizzi stated. “Fi and I will take the high notes, tough guy over there is going to take the low notes. Let’s harmonize.”
“Is that necessary?” Redd asked uncertainly. “Back home the witches usually just chant their spells. In normal speaking voices.”
“Boo, you guys are no fun,” Kizzi complained. “Whatever.”
Kizzi placed the cauldron on a hot plate and tossed a lit match on top. The liquid, somehow, caught fire.
We sang (or chanted, because Redd was lame) the verse for what felt like hours but was probably more only like thirty minutes. The stuff burned down pretty quickly.
I was exhausted, and my throat was hurting. I couldn’t tell if that was from my lovely singing or if thirst was creeping back up on me. Probably a mixture of both.
Redd was a surprisingly good sport about the whole situation, all things considered. He complained under his breath the whole time, but he stayed and helped, and that was what mattered. I developed a crumb or two of respect for the vampire. Not quite admiration, but definitely respect.
“So, Kiz, did it work?” I finally asked. I was so tired and overwhelmed with magic that I could barely keep track of my own two feet. The shop was filled with hazy smoke, and I had to resist the urge to cough.
“Of course it worked! It’s me!” Kizzi responded, cocky as always. “Can’t you smell the difference?”
“Honestly, I think my nose hairs are singed off. I won’t be able to smell anything for weeks.” I responded. Redd grunted in agreement.
“Well, take my word for it then. It smells much better. And look, those pesky beasts are already dropping.”
Sure enough, she was right. Glancing around, mixed in with the mess, the beetles were no longer moving. There were hundreds of them. Yuck. They must’ve come out from their hiding spots during the ritual. I was glad I didn’t realize the vast number of them before, because that surely would have given me a panic attack.
“My savior!” I proclaimed dramatically, throwing my arms around Kizzi’s shoulders. She shoved me off immediately.
“Yeah yeah, I’m the best, I already know it. You owe me one, bitch!”
“I owe you more than one,” I stated, feeling more serious than before. I didn’t try to hug her again, but I did place my hand on her shoulder. “I owe you everything. You know how much this shop means to me. I mean it–thank you. I’m lucky to have a friend like you in my life.”
“Oh, come on, don’t get sappy on me now!” She patted my hand that was on her shoulder but returned my seriousness. “I know. And you know I always have your back. We’re in this together. To the moons.”
“To the suns.” I smiled.
“Now let’s get out of here! It’s going to take forever for the fumes to dissipate and we’ve done enough work for one day.”
“Cheers to that!”
We linked elbows and walked out of the shop.
“Redd, you coming?” Kizzi asked.
I’d almost forgotten he was there. “No, you guys go ahead, I’ve had enough excitement for one day.” He stated.
I shrugged, moving on. Like I said, he was lame. Kizzi and I headed to the diner.