As I carefully collected the mint I needed, I found myself recalling the past. My mint held some memories.
Maintaining the magic levels of the Witch’s Forest was one of the first tasks my teacher entrusted me with when I was very young.
“Here we are, Meg Raspberry. You’ll be in charge of taking care of the forest from now on.”
“I don’t wanna.”
I said no to the job at first.
“It isn’t about what you want to do. This is our duty, and you will fulfill it!”
“I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna! I’m busy! Why don’t you do it?!”
“Busy with what? Watching the telly? Coloring? You need to do some work around here!”
“But I’m a kid. It’s my job to have dreams and unlimited potential. I am a god on earth.”
“You will not call yourself a god!”
I didn’t have many friends when I was little and would get picked on whenever I went into town. Thinking back on it, maybe my teacher thought giving me a job to do would give me purpose and a sense of belonging. And it was true; as I grew more used to the job, I began to perceive myself as a witch. It became my identity. I went from orphan to Lady Faust’s apprentice, not just in my own mind but in the eyes of the townsfolk as well.
Had I never become a witch, I wonder if I ever would’ve found a place or purpose to call my own or, more likely, if I would’ve gotten stuck in my lack of identity. I probably would’ve let the fact that my parents had died before I could ever know them bring me down or lost hope over the fact that I had only one year left to live. Surely I would’ve wasted my final year doing nothing.
The reason I hadn’t ended up like this was thanks to how busy I was back then. I was pretty much forced to take care of the woods, monitoring the dirt and planting herbs every day. The forest didn’t look the same back then; the dirt was barren, and the distribution of magic was sporadic. Though there were trees, it was hard to call it a forest.
My mission was to bring this forest to life, and my greatest enemy was mint. All it took was one seed for this guy to take over a corner of my forest.
“Uw-waaah, hic. Those stupid mints keep killing my forest!!”
Unable to stop the onslaught of the mint menace, I came crying to my teacher.
“One mint too many and you’ve got a weed on your hands. I told you to be careful.”
“The Witch’s Forest is dead… We should burn it down and start from scratch, scorched-earth style.”
“Enough, Meg. All things have their own lives, own characteristics, and own ways of life. You need to learn about your enemy and adapt to it. Witches must see the natural way of things in the world and live in harmony with it. Power isn’t the key to fixing everything.”
My teacher said this in an instructive tone. I felt like I could understand it now, though. Her words were not only the way of the witch but a guide by which I could live my life as well. I wasn’t to get upset whenever something didn’t go my way, but rather to make an effort to change myself for the better. This was what my teacher had likely meant.
As I put more work into the woods, it grew fuller with more trees, grass, and flowers. The soil grew richer and the expanse of forest wider. At some point, animals started populating the woods, and my teacher turned them into familiars. I tailored the forest into something the townsfolk could also enjoy, and it soon grew on the people of Lapis. Many of them would interact with their new animal neighbors, as well.
Looking back on it, my teacher had taught me how to take care of the soil, use magic, and live my life.
“Whew, this is great.”
We returned to the manor, and I drew a hot footbath using mint oil to help wash Inori’s feet. Every now and then, she’d grunt when I applied pressure to her feet as I massaged them.
“Mm, that’s some soft skin you’ve got there, heugh-heugh- heugh.”
“Cut it with the creepy voice.”
Inori sighed deeply and looked up.
“This is heavenly, though. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been able to relax like this.”
“All that Sage stuff must really take its toll on you.”
“It does. Working too much is like a poison. Actually, I think it’s been a few days since I’ve had a bath.”
“I’ll whip one up for you after this, so please take one. I insist.”
I’d better break out the strong soap for this one.
“Calm down. You’ll go bald if you get upset over every little thing.”
“Little…?”
The perplexity in my expression must’ve been obvious, because Inori smiled when she saw my reaction.
“You shouldn’t laugh when you look at a lady’s face.”
“I like you. You should become my assistant once you’ve finished your training here.”
“Your assistant?”
“In developing new medicine. We’d be partners. I work together with medical companies to find new substances with medicinal properties, test the effects, and verify their claims. We extract the substances from animals and plants, which involves breeding new species of plants, sometimes. I then use magic to amplify the effect of these substances. It’s basically what you do here. I’ve actually been searching for someone well-versed in plants to become my assistant.”
“This is all a bit sudden. I don’t even know what my teacher would think…”
“That’s why I said when you’re done here. Think about it; there aren’t many witches out there who’ve trained under two of the Seven Sages. I bet you’d be all over the telly as an up-and-coming witch.”
“You think I’d be on the telly…?”
My imagination ran wild. After I appeared on television, everyone would see how pretty I was, and I’d be an instant star. The people would find my personality entertaining, and I’d get on all the talk shows. From there, it was a television drama where I’d act alongside the main of the world’s most popular boy band. We’d fall in love and get married, then live happily ever after in the penthouse suite of the city’s tallest building.
“That could be fun…”
“Again, it’s just something I want you to think about. If you’re interested, I’ll talk to Grandma Faust for you.”
Inori spoke cheerfully, but I was very conflicted on the inside. I couldn’t break it to her that I had less than a year to live.
“How old did you say you were?”
“Seventeen.”
“So young. You’re too clever for your age to be stuck in a small town like this. When I was in my teens, I was already traveling the world.”
“You make yourself sound like a grandma when you talk about your younger years.”
“You think I sound old…?”
Her comment made me think about how the thought of leaving this town, or this manor, for that matter, had never even crossed my mind before. The town of Lapis and the witch Faust’s manor, living together with the townsfolk, my teacher, and our familiars—these were things I thought would never change.
“Traveling the world, eh…?”
When would I get the chance to do that? The most I can think about right now is the final year I have left to live.
“If you don’t have any aspirations or ambitions for the future, sometimes traveling can help shed light on what’s important to you.”
“Aspirations and ambitions…like a goal?”
“Do you have one?”
Maybe before I was told I had a year left to live. Whatever I felt before that seemed more like a fleeting dream than anything now.
I took a brief moment to recall how I used to feel, then with a stern expression announced:
“World domination.”
By the time I finished cleaning up after dinner, it was already well into the night. I quietly opened the front door.
“Come to me, White-Owl.”
“Hoot.”
White-Owl perched on my shoulder, and I sat on a stump in the garden to meditate. It was cold outside, but the night breeze felt good on my skin. The swaying of the grass and flowers in bloom in the Witch’s Forest could be seen by the light of the moon. The only sound that could be heard that night was the chirping of crickets, and it was a full moon.
I used meditation to polish my spirit. With heightened focus, I did away with all that plagued my mind.
“Sure are a lot of bugs out here.”
An unexpected voice from behind me cut through my intense focus. It was Inori.
“Are you meditating at night? Someone’s stoic.”
“It helps me focus. I have too many chores to do during the day, so night is the only time I get to myself.”
“The night belongs to the witch, so maybe you’re onto something.”
“Want to join me, Inori?”
“I’ve never meditated before. They call me the Wise Witch for a reason, after all. My ideas and knowledge are enough for me to come up with magic on the spot. I’m a genius.”
“Humble much?”
I looked up at the full moon. Seeing it high in the sky like that gave me a sense of excitement, like it was beckoning the witch blood that coursed through my veins. Although, whether there was an actual relationship between the moon and the blood of witches was beyond me.