Chapter 23

Despite Suhail’s incessant tugging, the three children wound up making their way back towards Maisha’s cottage. On Xisa’s left side, Morg was stubbornly pulling her back to the house. On her right, Suhail had a firm hold of her arm and was mercilessly pulling in the opposite direction. Xisa desperately wanted their human tug-of-war game to end, so had naturally decided to help steer their party in the direction of the house.

So much for ‘keeping each other entertained.’ The two of them together is at least twice as bad as either of them pestering me on their own!

“Guyss, come onnnn~ it’s a really cool spot! I promise, you won’t be disappointed~” Suhail begged them for the umteenth time.

“She doesn’t wanna go with you! Stop talking to her!” Morg snapped.

Xisa appreciated Morg standing up for her, but she didn’t actually hate the idea of exploring whatever it was Suhail so desperately wanted them to see. The boy was insufferable, but she had found Morg pretty annoying at first, too. She just wished they would stop tugging her like this.

“I was talking to you, too, grumpy-face!” Suhail laughed. “You’re welcome to see it, too~”

“Ugh, you’re SO annoying!” Morg cried, “And my name isn’t grumpy-face, stupid!”

“Oh really? What’s your name, then? Mine’s Suhail!”

“I don’t care. Go away and leave us alone!”

Suhail sunk into silence at Morg’s words and the forest momentarily became peaceful. Though the house was now in sight, their progress towards it was excruciatingly slow on account of Morg and Suhail stubbornly pulling in opposite directions. Xisa could only hope that the peace would last long enough for her to reach the house and thus the protection of the more rational adults.

But those hopes all shattered as soon as Xisa caught a glimpse of Suhail’s mischievous expression.

“What’s that, Xisa? You say you do want to come play with me?” Suhail said just loud enough for Morg to hear, leaning in close to Xisa’s face.

Oh come on, who would fall for something like that? Xisa rolled her eyes.

Morg whipped around, nearly causing Xisa to topple into her, and looked at Xisa with the most heartbroken expression Xisa had ever seen her wear.

What?! Don’t be an idiot Morg, I never said that!!!

Xisa instantly tried sending Morg a blip of feeling to indicate that this was all a misunderstanding, but upon receiving it, Morg’s expression only grew more complicated. Xisa groaned internally- they hadn’t quite figured out how to accurately communicate with each other, so who knew how Morg had interpreted Xisa’s emotions.

“Y-y-you’re making things up!” Morg stammered, glancing back and forth between Xisa and Suhail. Even Xisa could hear the anxiety in her voice. Seeing an opening, Suhail straightened his back and adorned the most serious expression Xisa had ever seen him wear.

“I swear on my life, I would never make up such a thing. She really did say she wanted to go with me.”

Xisa stared at him, appalled. So appalled that she forgot to refute him in any way. Seeing Xisa neither confirm nor deny Suhail’s words, Morg’s expression turned even more sour.

“Fine!” Morg snapped harshly. “Then if she’s going, I’m going, too! But if-”

“Morg! Xiaoha!”

Morg and Xisa both jumped at Songbai’s harsh voice.

“Maisha has been looking for you everywhere! Just where did you girls run off to?” Songbai asked as she walked up to them, fanning herself with her folding fan. “And who is this?”

Morg answered in a hurry, worried Suhail might say something weird.

“Song Laoshi! This annoying kid has been trying to kidnap Xisa all morning!” Morg whined.

“Hey! She wanted to go with me, what’s this talk of kidnapping?” Suhail retorted with a sly grin.

“Alright, alright,” Songbai said, bending down to pry the hands off of Xisa’s forearms, “Let’s stop playing tug-of-war with our Xiaoha.” Xisa rubbed her sore arms and wrists, delighted at her sudden freedom. Turning to Suhail, Songbai switched to French.

“What’s your name, little witch?”

“O-oh,” Suhail said, his eyes widening, “I’m Suhail!”

“Off you go, then, Suhail,” Songbai continued, gently pushing his back. “Morg and Xiaoha have some work to finish before the end of the day, but I’m sure they would be happy for you to come by again sometime.”

“B-but…” Suhail protested in a weak voice, glancing bashfully over his shoulder back at the girls. Xisa stared blankly at Suhail while Morg looked at him with open disgust. Since when had this nuisance become so meek? Was it some sort of tactic to suck up to the adults??

“Oh~ what’s this? Another student here to learn of the many applications of mathematics?” came Maisha’s exuberant voice. The four witches turned to find Maisha approaching from behind Songbai’s right shoulder.

“Let’s not chase him away just yet, Songbai, everyone should be given the opportunity to learn the wonders of math and statistics!”

“Ohh nooooo,” Morg groaned, “Miss Maisha, you said we had the day off!”

“Come, come, no complaining, math is so fun it's basically like taking a break!” Maisha intoned, ushering all three young witches inside. Morg glared at Maisha, intending to rebuke her before she saw Maisha’s face. Dark circles painted her eyes and her hair looked even more unkempt than usual. She looked tired. Exhausted even. Morg sighed.

I suppose there’s no helping it, then…

*

Suhail found himself in the small cottage looking at a myriad of meaningless symbols on the piece of paper before him. Just where had this day gone wrong? He had found such a neat little hideout, but upon trying to share his adventurous findings, he had instead wound up getting coerced into doing… math? The dark-skinned woman, Maisha, had already explained over and over again the meanings of the symbols, how to add and subtract and count, and sure it had all made sense when she explained it, but… Suhail yanked on his little braid in frustration.

I’m so bored…

Suhail glanced at the girls sitting at the table with him, studiously filling out worksheets, using their fingers to count and muttering under their breath as they looked up at the ceiling in thought. How could they stay so focused on such uninteresting things? Suhail sighed and looked around for the elder witches. Maisha had her back to them, cooking something odd smelling on the stove, while Songbai sat with her white wolf on the other side of the room, reading a book.

Hehe, I wonder what I could do without them noticing.

Suhail crept out of his seat. Though Maisha, Songbai, and Morg all remained engrossed in their respective activities, Xisa glanced up from her work. Seeing Suhail’s sly grin, she rolled her eyes and promptly ignored him. Suhail’s smile widened even further.

Creeping over to one of the bookshelves that both elder witches had their backs to, Suhail began scanning through its contents with his gaze. He pilfered a random rock and hid it in his pocket, then pulled out the large banana slug he had found earlier and stuck it where he had found the rock.

Hehe, I wonder how they’ll react when they see this.

Satisfied with his work, Suhail slunk over to a little side table and opened its drawer as quietly as possible. It made a small creaking sound, but no one seemed to notice. Inside the drawer were several stacks of little papers. Suhail gently examined them, rifling through as sneakily as he could.

Filling the faces of the papers were sketches of the sky- clouds, stars, planets, the positions of the sun and moon, all labeled with a date in the bottom right corner. Suhail fiddled with the glasses on his nose and squinted at a rougher sketch of stratocumulus clouds when he suddenly felt a hand clap down on his shoulder.

“Ah!” he breathed in surprise, craning his head back to see Songbai towering over him.

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“Snooping through our home, I see?” the elder witch said in a low voice. Suhail swallowed hard.

Oh I just had to go pilfering through someone else’s house again, didn’t I? He thought regretfully as he stared up at Songbai’s stern gaze. What was so wrong with being bored, hm Suhail!?

Sheepishly, Suhail handed the papers back to Songbai.

“And the ones in your pocket, too,” she demanded, holding out her hand expectantly. Suhail fished the papers he had stuffed in his pockets and placed them in Songbai’s hands. But the little blue rock he had stolen from the bookshelf before remained by his side, burning in his pocket like a lump of hot coal.

“Hmmm, were the worksheets not interesting enough?” Maisha asked, coming to the rescue and placing a gentle hand on Suhail’s shoulder. “But math is never boring if you just understand it properly! I’ll teach you again!”

Suhail groaned internally as the elder witch wrapped an arm around him and led him back to the table.

If I can just duck around her, I can make a run for it…

But Maisha kept him in an iron grip, all the way back to his seat.

I should have just left when I had the chance.

Maisha leaned over him and pointed to the unsolved problems on the page one by one, explaining them in detail. She stood so close that the scent of woodsmoke and patchouli that lingered on her was strong enough to make Suhail’s nose tickle. He tried listening to her words, but his own thoughts soon drowned them out, and his attention began wandering again. Maisha shifted slightly to the side and he noticed something peeking out of her pocket. Unable to help himself, he took advantage of the opportunity and slunk his hand towards the object, fake sneezing as he did to cover up the motion.

“Sorry,” he said, rubbing his nose sheepishly. He had more or less sneezed on Maisha. Even if it was fake, it was still gross.

“That’s alright. So, is there anything you don’t understand?”

Suhail shook his head, but in reality, he didn’t understand most of what she was saying. His French was alright, but as soon as she started using less common words, he started having trouble even figuring out what her words meant, much less the concepts she was trying to explain. He understood the basic ideas from before- counting, adding, subtracting, etc, but whatever it was she was trying to tell him just now had gone right over his head.

“Actually, I need to get back soon,” Suhail lied, a solemn expression on his face.

“Oh? Is Dante expecting you for something?”

Suhail tilted his head and looked up at the ceiling. “Did I say I was staying with Dante…?” The boy muttered under his breath, trying to remember if Dante had ever mentioned Maisha or not.

“Haha, no. But there’s only one person in Cyewen wealthy enough to hand translation pendants out to children like candy,” Maisha said wryly, snagging a finger on the two necklaces hanging around Suhail’s neck.

“Well, come back another day, I’ll teach you anytime~” Maisha intoned. Suhail nodded shyly and scampered out the door and back into the freedom of the woods. As soon as he had gotten far enough away from the house, he took out the object he had snuck out of Maisha’s pocket.

A smooth white stone with a perfectly round hole bored straight through.

“Hum, the things I find in that house are always so weird,” Suhail mused to himself. “Do they like to collect rocks?” With a shrug, he returned the stone to his pocket and began picking his way through the forest. If he continued this way for a while longer, he should reach the western beaches.

“Haizz, what a troublesome boy.”

Suhail snapped his head around at the voice suddenly directly behind him. Songbai stood leaning against a tree, leisurely fanning herself with her folding fan. The young witch immediately turned on his heel, intending to escape, but Songbai grabbed him by the collar in a flash of motion. Suhail’s heartbeat quickened; she had caught him stealing twice now- would she punish him?

“Alright, alright, just give me back what you stole from Maisha and I’ll let you go,” Songbai promised, bapping the boy on the head with her fan when he began struggling against her grasp. “Honestly, if you don’t want to be caught, don’t steal things in the first place.”

Eventually, Suhail conceded and reached a hand into his pocket. At first he considered trying to trick her by giving back the little blue gem he had found on the bookshelf earlier. But he figured the two elder witches seemed close enough that he would probably be seen right through. The blue stone seemed more impressive than the smooth white one anyways. So he fished out the stone with a hole in it and handed it over to Songbai with a sheepish expression.

Suhail waited for the elder witch to release him, but a moment passed and the woman’s grip on him only grew tighter. Suhail tried turning his head to glance up at her, but before he knew what was happening, his back had been slammed roughly into a nearby tree, knocking the breath out of him. With one hand now on his neck and the other holding the stone, Songbai stared desperately at the object in her palm, her eyes trembling in their sockets and her face blanched of all color.

“Where… Where did you get this?” she rasped out, her grip on Suhail’s neck so tight that he could hardly breath. Suhail tried to swallow, but the firm hand on his neck restricted his movements too much. He had gone too far this time. He had gone too far and his luck had finally run out. Suhail’s vision grew misty.

“In Maisha’s pocket…” he choked out, his gut twisting nervously. “Just… Just like you said.”

The grip on his neck tightened further, causing black spots to appear in Suhail’s already cloudy vision. He felt his half-moon glasses slide down his face, but he couldn’t move his arms to fix them.

“Tell the truth,” Songbai growled, “where did you get this?”

As if bewitched, Suhail’s tongue began moving on its own, his voice coming out small and broken.

“I stole it… from Maisha… just like… you… said… When she was… teaching me, I… pickpocketed her and hid it… in my pocket when… she wasn’t… looking… I swear it’s… it’s the truth! I s-swear it…!”

Songbai’s fierce expression collapsed and her hold on Suhail loosened, though she still held him up by the throat.

“Maisha, what have you done?” she whispered shakily, staring blankly at the stone in her other hand. Suhail tried to wrench himself free from Songbai’s grasp, but as soon as he did, the elder witch’s eyes cleared and her grip on him tightened again.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you go,” she muttered. Before Suhail could even process those words, he heard a sickening snap. And a split second later, pain shot through his neck and down his spine, his already swimming vision now rendered a violent white. And then that brightness began to fade, and Suhail felt himself slipping into an endless, eternal black.

*

Sajni stared into the lifeless eyes of the young witch crumpled on the ground.

“You did not have to go so far,” she said to the elder witch who had already turned her back to the child. Songbai shot her a sour glance.

“What are you even doing out here?”

“Got lost,” Sajni shrugged. The little brown and white mushrooms growing out of her hunched shoulders trembled at the movement.

“One could walk around the entire island in a day,” Songbai noted sardonically.

“My mind is not what it used to be,” Sajni pointed out.

Songbai groaned internally. Of all the places this elderly woman could have been wandering around, she just had to stumble upon Songbai’s crime.

“Why did you kill him?” Sajni asked, crouching down to brush the boy’s ash-brown hair out of his slack face. Her joints creaked and popped as she did.

“He had seen something he shouldn’t have,” Songbai stated bluntly.

“Then restore him and I’ll erase his memories for you.”

Songbai stared at the ancient witch. Her tan and weathered skin had too many wrinkles to count, and her salt and pepper hair fluttered slightly in the breeze. She tapped her banyan cane on the ground and offered Songbai a smile.

“Are you thinking of killing me, too?”

“Yes,” Songbai replied without hesitation.

“I didn’t see whatever it was you didn’t want to be seen. Restore him quickly before it's too late. I’ll erase his memories.”

“Why?”

“Isn’t a dead body suspicious? You’ll only attract more attention like this.”

“I can hide it.”

“It will leave traces.”

“Perhaps he fell out of a tree.”

“But he did not.”

Songbai clenched her jaw and crossed her arms. Sajni wasn’t wrong. And if she was being honest, she had been impulsive. She should talk to Maisha first. Now that it’s come to this, maybe that idiot witch would actually tell her something.

“He’s only a child, Songbai,” Sajni implored softly.

If it’s between Maisha and a hundred children, I would still choose Maisha.

“If you’re suspicious of me, kill me. But revive him first. If I don’t erase his memories, you can kill us both.”

“How will I know you’ve erased the right memories?”

“I’ll erase the entire day. It will be obvious to you when he wakes up.”

“A boy forgetting a whole day won’t be any less suspicious than a dead body.”

“It won’t be any more suspicious, either.”

Songbai momentarily fell silent, her jaw clenching and unclenching as she stared at Suhail’s broken body. His neck had already turned a disgusting purplish-green, bent as it was at such an unnatural angle.

“Fine. I will fix his spine and get his heart going again. Since I made the break, and it was a clean break, it should work. But I can’t promise he’ll survive.”

Sajni smiled.

“Then hurry up,” Sajni nodded, impatiently tapping her cane against the forest floor. “Before my mind slips away from me again.”

*

Suhail’s eyes fluttered open at the sound of an owl hooting in the near distance. He let out a long, slow breath and turned his head to the side. Though it was night, he still recognized the section of the forest he was in, though he did not remember how he got there. His mind felt sore and muddled, as if someone had reached into his head and scooped out some of his brain. Beside him, the half-moon glasses that Dante had gifted him lay bent and shattered.

Suhail turned his head to face the sky once again. The rocks and roots beneath him jabbed uncomfortably into his back, but he let himself lay on the forest floor a while longer.

Maybe… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad… if I died.