The very thought snapped me out of my dizzy spell: I didn’t have time to be overwhelmed. I needed to get moving. And in spite of my momentary lapse, I had the perfect tool immediately to hand.
But it would require yet another spell- one that was, perhaps, worthy of a witch’s life.
“You may go,” I told Ofrse’s son. “But if I see you again, I will kill you, make no mistake.”
“My mother-”
“Her life is already ended,” I said coldly. Your choice now is merely whether yours will also end here, or instead go on.”
I was surprised when he hung his head and considered. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been- the bond between a parent and child was a strong one, as I well knew. But Ofrse surely would have taught her son greater pragmatism than to throw his life away on nothing. He was not a witch, could not challenge me with spells- and so long as he wore a toad’s form, he could not challenge me physically. It was ridiculous that he should even briefly entertain the notion of not following my orders.
In the end, he did obey. He said nothing- merely slipped into the water, and disappeared. As he left my sight, so too did he leave my mind; other things needed my attention now.
I reached into the water where the lilypad had been, and groped about until I found the gnawed-off stalk. The fish had gnawed it off perhaps a foot beneath the water, and once I had it in hand I dove beneath the water and followed it to its roots. It took longer than I’d anticipated to achieve my goal, and I had to surface twice for air before I managed to work the root system free. That accomplished, I dragged the whole dripping mess back to the shore, and got to work.
Things that have once been one piece don’t like being separated from the whole- that’s one of the basic principals of the Universe, and it’s why it’s easier to use magic to deconstruct an existing cake than it is to use magic to create a wholly new cake. The ingredients retain loyalty to their original shape. Of course, if you have ingredients that were once used to bake a cake, that has been deconstructed using magic, it’s nothing at all to cast a spell that will recreate that cake. Which is, without a doubt, an extremely frivolous use of power and blood, but how else will a young witch learn if not by experimenting? And at least there was a cake to help celebrate the knowledge gained.
My point is that the lily plant I now had draped across my lap would be perfectly willing- eager, even- to be used as a means to track down its missing pad- and hopefully thereby my Elisa. I had the basic components of a Seeking spell already in pair of eyeglasses; I could transfer the spell to the plant, along with extra power, and charge it with Ofrse’s life. With such a vessel, and such a charge, there shouldn’t been a corner in the Kingdom that the lilypad could disappear to, that I couldn’t follow it.
It was not quick work, although my impatience was soothed somewhat by the satisfaction of charging it with Ofrse’s blood: my theory had been correct, or nearly so- her toad body didn’t have quite the same amount of life energy that her witch body would have had, but it was not that diminished, really. That was an interesting bit of information I’d keep in the back of my mind for later consideration, perhaps even experimentation…
I swatted the thought away. I was retired, damn it, and anyway the spell was ready, and not a moment too soon: the sun was already approaching the treetops to the west. Time to cast.
I stood, streaming pond water and blood, holding the great mass of vegetation in my fist, and said the words. Immediately the lilies jerked in my grasp, towards downstream, and I bared my teeth in a savage grin. I would find her.
I followed the stream south and east, as the sky gradually grew full of flame, and then deepened to violet, then cobalt, and at last a rich, velvety black. I would have been weary, if I hadn’t had spells to refresh me. Even with those, however, I was feeling the weight of my pack, and the strain of hiking miles over uneven terrain. Beside me the stream had diminished to a babbling brook for a span, then become larger once more, until it was practically a river, the current moving faster than I could walk. I tried not to think about that, focusing instead of what sorts of meals I would cook to celebrate my reunion with Elisa. In my hand, the lilies continued to pull.
An hour or two after sunset I heard the distant rumble of a waterfall, and my blood ran cold. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself even as I quickened my pace. Elisa was smart; if she’d heard the falls she’d have steered her vessel to shore. True, she’d never seen a waterfall, but we’d talked about them- she understood about them.
And then the tugging in my hand abruptly stopped.
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