Chapter 10

Sajni’s Spellcaster Supply

Read the sign hanging crookedly in front of a quaint cobblestone building. A little bell chimed as Xisa and Morg followed Maisha inside. A bright-eyed woman looked over her shoulder from her perch on a step ladder, calling out a greeting. Dozens of dimly lit lanterns and lightly swaying chimes hung from the ceiling, and rolled up rugs and carpets lay stacked up against the labyrinthine rows of bookshelves, cabinets, and little tables filling the room. Books and trinkets lay scattered across every surface, along with vials and bottles and jars all filled with strange contents.

If Maisha’s hut had been overflowing with oddities, this place was a thousand times worse! Morg squinted her eyes and leaned in close to one of the shelves. Hemp string fastened a beige tag to one of the bottles. Morg read aloud the messy scrawl.

“Hu-man… teeth. Human teeth?!” Peering into the bottle and finding the contents to indeed be human teeth, Morg leapt back and clamped her lips closed, as if afraid of losing her own teeth. Maisha put a reassuring hand on the young girl’s shoulder before venturing deeper into the shop.

“Alright let's see,” Maisha muttered, fishing out a slip of paper from her satchel, “3 porcupine quills, 1 tablespoon cottonmouth venom, the eye of a stonefish… Morg what are you doing?”

Morg froze, one leg partly raised to step over a short and rather rickety looking table, and offered a sheepish smile. She had wandered well off the natural pathway through the store and now stood completely surrounded by very break-able looking knick-knacks. Maisha thought it a miracle the girl hadn't broken anything simply getting to that perilous position.

“Dodging the mirrors,” Morg answered as she looked for a place to safely land her raised foot. Maisha frowned.

“Why would you need to dodge mirrors?”

“For… fun?” Morg replied with a shrug. “If I see myself, I lose!”

“Ha! Well be careful. Anything you break, I’ll have to pay for and I’ll have you pay me back by scrubbing the dishes for the next month.” Morg stiffened at Maisha’s threat and gingerly picked her way back to the proper pathway.

“And where were we… monarch wings, dried thorax of a wandering spider…” Maisha resumed her muttering before smacking the paper in approval. “Yes this should be everything. Tabitha!”

The young woman that had greeted them earlier hopped down from the step ladder and wove her way through the rows and stacks of objects. When she arrived by Maisha’s side, she smiled and raised a set of reading glasses to her face. The glasses were attached to a chain of sunset-colored beads that hung around the woman’s neck. Taking the slip of paper from Maisha’s outstretched hands she began reading down the list.

“Right,” came a soft and kind voice, “I should have all this ready in about an hour.”

“Excellent. Thanks as always, Tabitha,” Maisha said with a wide grin before turning on her heel and ushering the girls towards the exit. Morg reluctantly set down the glittering geode she had been examining.

“Oh, Maisha,” Tabitha said as she took off her glasses and began cleaning them on her light pink blouse, “Any word from Yaga? Sajni’s been asking about her.”

Maisha paused in her step and heaved a sigh as she turned back around.

“No, not a word since she left,” Maisha responded, her brows furrowing into a look of concern and frustration, “You would think she’d have contacted me by now. If she knew she was going somewhere dangerous, she should have given me some clue as to where!”

Maisha’s voice rose with every word, her arms becoming more and more animated until her hand accidentally slammed into one of the bookshelves, causing it to begin teetering. Tabitha rushed to stabilize the shelf, meticulously righting any toppled items. Xisa picked up a rusty pocket watch that had fallen and gently placed it back on the shelf.

“Ah… Sorry about that.”

“Oh, no worries,” Tabitha responded, patting Maisha on the shoulder comfortingly. “And I know what you mean. It's just like her to disappear for months on end without telling anyone anything. It's difficult not to worry. One of these days that habit of hers is gonna come back to bite her in the… ahem.” Tabitha side-eyed Maisha’s gloomy frown. “But I’m sure she’s fine. She’s one of the Untouchables and we both know she’s just that- untouchable.”

“Right…” Maisha offered a tight smile at the young woman’s reassurance. “And how is Sajni? Any change?” This time it was Tabitha’s turn to adorn the gloomy expression.

“No change,” she replied, “No worse, but no better either. Speaking of, I should check on her soon…”

“Right. And we better be off as well. I promised Morg and Xiaoha I would show them around town.”

“Oh yes, I saw that you’ve adopted two new girls! It’s great to meet them!” Tabitha reached into the pockets of her dark pink skirt and pulled out two round candies, handing one each to Morg and Xisa. “Strawberry lemonade!” she said proudly, her hands coming to rest on her hips. “Made them myself!”

Morg and Xisa both immediately popped the candies in their mouths, savoring the sour-sweet flavor.

“What, I don’t get one?” Maisha asked with a look of dejection.

“Do you want one? I thought you didn’t like sweets.”

“Did I say that? Haha, well, you got me.”

“Here’s one anyways,” Tabitha said mirthfully, “So you don’t feel left out.”

“Aha, thanks! See you in an hour, then, Tabitha,” Maisha said with a cheery wink.

“See you then,” Tabitha smiled.

*

“I like Tabitha,” Morg announced decisively as soon as they left the shop. Maisha opened her mouth to reply to the chattery young witch, but before she could, Morg spoke up again.

“And who’s Yaga? How come you’ve never mentioned her? Is she someone like Henry, will we get to meet her? When does she get back?”

“One question at a time, remember, Morg?”

“Right… sorry.” When Maisha made no sign of answering anything, Morg repeated her most pressing question. “Who’s Yaga?”

Maisha’s expression twisted for a moment so brief that Morg suspected she may have seen it wrong.

“Yaga is… not someone you need to worry about,” Maisha finally said after a long pause. The elder witch looked down at Morg and Xisa with a gentle expression, then continued unhurriedly along the cobblestone path.

“Oh… okay.” Morg fell silent. As they walked, the houses and buildings gradually grew in number, and the jovial sound of a nearby creek could be heard.

“Ouch!” Morg cried after tripping over a stone jutting out of the path. In the blink of an eye both Maisha and Xisa were hovering over her with looks of concern.

Well, Xisa looked rather expressionless, but Morg liked to think she was also concerned.

“I’m okay,” Morg reassured them as she brushed the grit off her scraped knees and stood up.

“Hmmm. Be more careful,” Maisha scolded gently. The elder witch turned back to the path. Morg and Xisa rushed to follow her. “Most of the buildings around are peoples’ homes. But that big building across the creek there,” Maisha pointed with one of her sharp fingers, “is the school. The building with the tables and chairs out front and the plaque that says ‘The Ugly Bear,’ that’s Olga’s tavern.”

“Ms. Maisha, I think Xisa can’t understand…”

“Ah… right.” Maisha repeated what she had said in English in Chinese. After a pause, she then sighed. “Ayyyyyye the day that you two learn a common language can’t come soon enough.”

“I’ve learned a lot of words! Listen to this! Nihao! Wo bu hui shuo zhongwen!”

“Ha! Well, keep up the good work!”

Morg smiled proudly, soaking up the praise, before turning to Xisa.

“Nihao!”

Xisa rolled her eyes.

“Ah. And here we are. Salmon and Salmon’s.”

“Ouch!” Morg cried when she tripped once again, this time over the doorstep.

“Wooaaah, careful there, little miss!” Two clammy hands firmly grasped Morg’s shoulders and righted her, saving her from a faceplant. Morg raised her gaze to meet the face of her savior.

“Thank- Eep!” Fishhead! Fishhead! She thought, her eyes wide. And indeed, the man standing in front of Morg had the head of a fish and the body of a human! Morg couldn’t help but think back to the city of Wucheng where a little fish lady tried beating a frightened Morg with her cane, all the while clutching her pearls.

“Ah, Suk!” Maisha exclaimed happily, patting the fishman on the back. “It's been a while!”

“Right so, Maisha! It's good to see you!” Suk replied. The smile that had difficulty showing up on his toothy, slimy fish mouth was apparent in his voice. Morg couldn’t stop staring at the man and Xisa wasn’t much better off, similarly frozen in place with her mouth slightly ajar. The fishman slowly blinked his filmy fish eyes and wiped his clammy hands on his already damp shirt.

“And who are these younguns?”

“Ah yes. Morg, Xiaoha, say hello,” Maisha said, turning to them.

“H-hello,” Morg stammered out. Xisa merely stared.

“Rescued them from ahh… troublesome situations. Future witches, these two,” Maisha explained almost proudly.

“Ahh, future witches! For a moment, I thought Yaga had adopted ‘em.”

“Ah…” Maisha sighed, her expression turning downcast. “It would be just like Yaga to reappear with two new daughters. But unfortunately, I’ve still heard nothing from her after all this time. I’m starting to worry…”

“Awwwh, don’t fret my dear, old witches like her have lived so long, their sense of time is different from ours. I’m sure you’ll hear from her soon,” Suk comforted her in a gentle tone. Maisha offered him a weak smile of appreciation.

“Anyways, I’ve told these two that they could each pick out any book in the store, and I’ll buy it for them,” Maisha said, changing the subject.

“OOOoohh, how excellent! But aren’t they a bit green to be learning magic?”

“Well sure, but there are plenty of books here that aren’t spellbooks… and besides, it doesn’t hurt to go ahead and get them interested!”

“Right so, right so! It never hurts to start studying early! I see the beginnings of a strong master-apprentice relationship between you and these two witches!” Suk agreed in a boisterous and mirthful tone. “While they look around, why don’t I treat you to a cup of tea and regale you of my most recent adventures,” Suk suggested.

“I think that would be most excellent,” Maisha agreed, grinning her usual eerie grin, “Go on then, girls, pick out your books!”

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

*

With the distracting fishman out of sight, Xisa finally had the chance to take in the sprawling bookstore. The ceiling stretched out far above them, its bright skylight resulting in an ambience contrasting greatly to that of the dim and quaint Spellcaster Supply. A giant globe sat in the middle of the store, directly beneath the skylight, and grand statues stood by the orderly rows of bookshelves, as if guarding them.

Xisa gazed at the rows and rows of shelving stretching all the way up to the ceiling. Books were crammed efficiently into every available nook. A balcony wrapped around the entirety of the store’s upper interior, offering access to the otherwise unreachable books closer to the top.

Remembering that Maisha had said that the store held books of almost every language, Xisa set out to find those written in Chinese. As her eyes scanned for familiar characters along the spines of books throughout the store, she eventually found her way to a spiral staircase. Walking up the steps, Xisa ran a finger along the rows of books inlaid within the stairway’s central pillar, marveling at the fact that books were even stored here. Every space served a purpose.

Xisa noticed the books gravitating closer towards Mandarin as she walked up the steps and along the balcony. Some of the characters around her were even recognizable- maybe Korean? She wasn’t sure.

Ah! Xisa exclaimed to herself when she finally found a book whose title she could read. The History of Papermaking in China. Hm… seems kinda boring. Xisa moved to pick up the book anyways, but as soon as she lifted it from its place on the shelf, she heard a resounding click! The bookshelf in front of her shifted, making Xisa start.

With the papermaking book in one hand, Xisa reached out and gently pushed the bookshelf. It creaked open, as if on rusty hinges. Xisa peeked her head behind the shelf and realized- it was a door!

Xisa shimmied her way behind the shelf and into a dimly lit room. More books. Tons and tons filling the shelves, along with scrolls and magazines. And this time, they were all in Chinese.

Jackpot!

Xisa began rifling through the texts, looking for the most interesting ones. Sometimes she picked up a book to flip through, but each time she returned it to the shelf, uninterested. As Xisa trailed a hand along the titles, a black spined book with dark grey lettering appeared beneath her fingertips. She squinted her eyes to make out the words.

The Art of Shadow Manipulation; A guide to controlling the darkness with demonic energy.

Interest piqued, Xisa began flipping through the pages of her new find. Strange images of dark clouds and shadow creatures, diagrams on prisms, diffraction and reflection all filled the pages. This is it, Xisa thought to herself, this is the one! Just to be sure, Xisa continued perusing the books in the hidden room, though the more she searched, the more certain she felt.

“-isappearing one after the other,” came the muffled voice of a young man from behind the wall opposite to the one Xisa had entered from. Xisa froze. Was there yet another secret room? Xisa backed up towards the door she had entered from, not wanting to be caught in a place she maybe shouldn’t be.

“What’s the big deal?” came a second voice. Xisa thought this person sounded a bit younger- maybe about her age. The two both spoke in Mandarin. “Spirits are known for running off into the wilderness. Of course they’ll disappear.”

The voices grew closer until they seemed to be directly on the other side of the wall. Xisa quickly slipped through the bookshelf doorway, quietly shutting it behind her, and scampered back down the stairs. Hopefully they hadn’t heard her… And what were spirits again…? Had she overheard something she shouldn’t have?

“Xisa!” Came Morg’s chipper voice, making Xisa jump. She turned to look at her golden haired companion. “Did you find your book? Lemme see!” Morg demanded excitedly, gesturing at the book. Xisa, of course, could not understand the nonsensical English coming out of the young girl’s mouth, but gathered that her curious friend wanted to see the book. Xisa flipped through and opened it to an exciting page, where an image depicted a shadowy fox-like figure.

“Wooooah! That's a really cool one!” Morg exclaimed in approval. “Meanwhile, I can’t decide between these four,” Morg cried, desperately grabbing Xisa’s hand and dragging her over to a spot on the floor where several books lay open-faced. Xisa stifled a groan, gleaning Morg’s intent as the young witch plopped down and patted a spot on the floor next to her. “Help me decide!” Morg demanded before grabbing Xisa’s wrist and dragging the unmoving girl down next to her.

Xisa looked at the gibberish covering the four books in front of Morg and promptly turned her attention away, taking Yuzan out from under her shirt to play with him instead.

“Here, look at this one!” Morg half-shouted, shoving an open book under Xisa’s nose. Xisa stared at the series of images suddenly thrust upon her. Apparently someone was turning someone else into a frog and then back to normal. Xisa nodded, intending to tell Morg that this one was a great pick, no need to show her the rest of the pile. Morg nodded along with Xisa.

“I know, right? This would be super useful to me! But this one,” Morg pulled up another book, “Also looks super cool! Look!”

Another book was shoved into Xisa’s face. On the page Morg had turned to, a young woman was seemingly playing the flute to control her magic. Xisa remembered the harp that sat in their bedroom, the one Morg never took out of its case. Xisa thought the frog book would probably be more useful. Pushing the book out of her face, Xisa pointed at the frog book that now sat at the girls’ feet.

“You think I should get that one? But waaait, I haven’t even shown you the other two yet!” Morg whined, reaching for the next open-faced book. Xisa heaved a sigh, wishing she hadn’t left that secret room.

After Morg showed Xisa her other two choices- one Xisa thought to be about alchemy and another about plants, the young witch finally left Xisa alone. Xisa still thought the obvious choice was the transformation magic one- the one with the frogs- but refused to indicate this opinion to Morg; she had no intention of encouraging further conversation.

After finally escaping her chatty companion, Xisa tucked herself into an armchair beneath one of the many lamps scattered across the store and opened her book. She read through the pages excitedly, trying to understand the complicated rituals and theories attached to different spells. Minutes passed, then maybe an hour. Xisa was growing tired of her new toy.

Where did Maisha go? She thought to herself, hopping out of the chair and walking around. She peeked into all the side rooms and behind all the bookshelves but Maisha and the fishman both seemed to have disappeared. Nothing to do, then, but to continue waiting around, she supposed…

“Xisa!”

Morg’s voice made Xisa jump again. She couldn’t help but scowl when she turned around to face Morg, though her green-eyed sister remained as bubbly and unruffled as ever.

“Let’s play the frog game!” she exclaimed excitedly. Xisa responded with a blank stare. “Oh, right…” Morg muttered, remembering that her grumpy friend couldn’t actually understand her. It was an easy thing to forget- since meeting, Morg had always thought that Xisa was exceptionally good at understanding her even with the language barrier. Morg pointed emphatically at the frog currently perched atop Xisa’s head, then pointed at a moth fluttering around the room. Xisa nodded in agreement- she was also bored and looking for entertainment.

The game went like this; carry Yuzan around and help him catch bugs. Whoever helps him catch the most bugs wins the game. Yeah, it was a pretty dull game. But at least Yuzan seemed to enjoy it. Though he looked like he could hardly fit a handful of flies in his stomach, the tiny frog actually had an insatiable appetite. Xisa figured that if he didn’t so lazily stick to her side all day, he would spend all his time gorging himself on insects.

Having quickly exhausted the supply of bugs inside the bookstore, Xisa and Morg found their way outside. They enthusiastically stuffed Yuzan’s face into bushes and trees, never straying too far from the shop. Though it was still bright out, the sun had reached a low angle in the sky, its yellow beams scattered into a cheerful orange.

“Ah, there you two are! Did you pick out your books?” Maisha appeared in the doorway and the two girls rushed over to her side, retrieving their books as they did.

“Maisha, Maisha, I can’t decide between these three books!” Morg exclaimed, holding up her stack of choices. She had at least managed to rule out one of them.

“Oh my, let’s see… ahh, all excellent choices. Alchemy, though, alchemy can be tricky, might be best to learn about it after you’ve gotten the basics of magic down… then how about these two?”

“…What about them?”

“They’re both a great pick!”

“You’ll… get me both of them?

“Sure, I’ll get you both, they’re not too expensive so I don’t see why not.”

Morg stood there, momentarily stunned, before a large beaming smile spread out over her face.

“Oh thank you, thank you Maisha!” the young witch exclaimed, jumping up and down.

Suk peered over Maisha’s shoulder as she handed the two books back to Morg- one on Transformation magics and another on the use of musical instruments as a medium for mana. Suk couldn’t help but feel taken aback at the sight of the musical text. At least for demons, learning to use musical instruments to control mana was a most challenging subject. Many demons who started down that path failed to finish it. With a shrug, he dismissed his speculations. What did he know? He was no witch.

“And Xisa? Did you find a book you liked?” Maisha switched to Chinese, turning to the scrawny girl. Xisa proudly held up her book, as if showing off a treasure. Maisha took the book from the young girl’s outstretched hands and scrutinized it.

“Hmmmm. Uhmm… hmm.” Maisha turned the book over and flipped through several pages. “Mhmm… Right… this book is for demons- all the instructions are specific for those with demonic energy, not for those with mana,” Maisha said gently. Xisa looked at her with confused eyes, wondering what the difference between demonic energy and mana was- she had thought they were more or less the same thing. “In other words,” Maisha explained, “Your magic isn’t compatible with this book. Buuuut, maybe Suk has a similar text for mana users?” Maisha turned to the fishman standing behind her, passing the book to him.

“The Art of Shadow Manipulation; A guide to controlling the darkness with demonic energy,” he read aloud, “Huh. I’m sorry Maisha, similar books aside, I didn’t even know we had something like this in stock… where did you get this?” Suk asked Xisa curiously. Xisa shrank back at the attention, but still pointed a timid finger at the bookcase-door on the upstairs balcony.

“Ah, somewhere upstairs. Must’ve been Safya’s doing then. I’ll ask her if she knows of anything for mana users when she gets back. Actually she should be here any minute. Stick around for a while longer and you might catch her!”

“Oh that’s alright, I don’t mind dropping by tomorrow.”

Suk placed the book on a rack labeled ‘to be reshelved.’ With a look at Xisa’s worried face, Maisha said, “Well, I told Xiaoha she could get whatever she picked out, and her eyes have been glued to the book since the moment it left her hands. There’s no reason not to get it for her anyways.”

“Ah! Right so!” Suk exclaimed delightedly, switching back to English. He quickly handed the book back to an eager Xisa.

*

After Maisha finished paying for the books, the three of them left the shop and returned to Sajni’s for Maisha’s supplies.

“Ah!” Morg cried, tripping over her own feet. Maisha snatched the collar of Morg’s dress and pulled her back up before she could knock anything over in the cluttered shop.

“And that reminds me; Morg, did you take something from here earlier?”

Morg looked at Maisha with wide eyes. “Uh… what do you mean…?”

“I mean,” Maisha reiterated, “Did you steal something from here earlier.”

“N-no… well yes, but it was on the floor so I thought it wouldn’t count as stealing…” Morg lied.

Maisha raised a brow.

“Ok well it was on a table and I did know it was stealing and… sorry…” Morg fished a shiny coin out of her pocket and placed it in Maisha’s outstretched palm. “But how… how did you know…?”

Maisha gestured lazily toward the sign on the door. Morg read aloud, “Notice: Any thieves of Sajni’s Spellcaster Supply will be cursed with a stumble hex. Thank you.”

“Not to worry,” Maisha whispered with a mischievous wink, “I’ll teach you counter hex spells later.”

“Oi, what was that?” Tabitha appeared from the back of the store carrying a bulging paper bag. “Teaching your kids how to steal from Sajni’s shop I see?”

Maisha offered a sheepish grin. “Of course not, Tabitha! Of course not…”

Tabitha snorted. “Most of your supplies are here, though I realized we’re out of the monarch wings you were looking for- we have plenty of right wings, but all the left wings have been sold out. We do have the left wings of red lacewings in stock, which I went ahead and packaged up for you if you want them.”

“Ah. Yes, red lacewings will work perfectly, thank you Tabitha.”

With a smile, Tabitha added a neatly packaged box to the paper bag. Maisha then began to pull impossibly large jars out of the small satchel she wore across her shoulder, placing them on the counter in front of Tabitha.

“This should be enough to cover it, yes?” Maisha asked, gesturing at the jars and vials in front of them.

“Snake skins, owl castings, yarrow, fireweed, fennel … Yes, that's plenty. Although…” Tabitha scrunched up her nose, “you can keep the slugs.”

Maisha made a face like she was offended.

“I know, I know,” Tabitha said quickly, holding up her hand to stop Maisha’s protests before they could start, “Slugs for longevity. You can tell that to the rest of our customers, as they don’t seem to know.”

With a shrug, Maisha took her bag of goodies and left the shop with the girls in tow.

*

Songbai slept in the garden with her back up against the wall of the house and a book covering her face. Gentle gusts of wind mussed her sable hair and the sun illuminated the golden-beige hue of her crossed arms. A quiet snore escaped her lips.

“Laoshi, Laoshi!” Morg screamed, body-slamming the unsuspecting woman as soon as she saw her.

“Oof,” Songbai moaned, the book sliding off her face and into the dirt.

“When I grow up, I wanna have muscles like yours!” Morg shouted at the half-asleep woman, squeezing her biceps rudely.

“Is that so?” Songbai groaned, fighting off the young witch’s barrage of attacks with her eyes still half shut.

“Got you something,” Maisha said, chuckling at the scene. Songbai opened her eyes just in time to catch the small, round object hurtling towards her face. “Alright Morg, come help with dinner.” Maisha grabbed Morg’s wrist and began dragging the protesting girl inside with herself and Xisa. The door closed and the garden became tranquil again. Songbai unwrapped the object Maisha had tossed her way. It was a rosy piece of candy.

Songbai popped the candy in her mouth, the sour-sweet flavor of strawberry lemonade settling on her tongue.

Maybe… too sweet? Even as she thought this, she let the candy continue to dissolve on her tongue. Leaning her back up against the house, Songbai watched the forest’s insects chirp and buzz about. She hadn’t felt this content in a long time.