Parasitic Peony

Chapter Seven

"What's up you sad bastards," Lilac greeted the multiple goblin assistants running around her lab, or as she called it, her lair.

"Teenagers," Moxie muttered.

"Witches," Honey groaned.

"Hey, neat office!" Plum hummed appreciatively.

"Thanks, you're my favourite now." Replied Lilac with a grin. Plum aggressively fistpumped the air.

Lilac made her way through the smoky, pink painted room to a huge summoning circle carved into the floor. Four pillars stood around it in a square formation. She plunked onto the floor.

"I've never performed a reverse summoning before, so tell me how it goes."

Moxie stepped forward and cleared her throat. "The firat thing you need to do is prepare an altar. Where is your Source?"

"Her what?" Asked Honey un bewilderment.

"It's a witch thing," Lilac explained. "It can be virtually any object, or even person. Your ability to perform magick is tied to it, as is your lifeline. When your Source is destroyed, you die, and that's why so many witches are immortal."

"Wands and staffs are a common choice," Moxie went on. "Mine is one of the grains of sand in my locket. It's entirely possible to perform magick without your Source with you, but a ritual of this grandeur, espescially at Lilac's age, it's dangerous."

Lilac scoffed. "Pffft, c'mon, I can handle it!"

Moxie raised an eyebrow.

"I said that once. I was thirty four and had been a witch for over half that time and it almost killed me."

"She was bedridden for months," Plum mused. "Please kid, just get your Source."

Lilac curled her shoulders in and stared at her feet stubbornly. For a long time, nobody spoke.

...

...

...

"I don't have it." She finally confessed.

The goblin assistants looked nervously between themselves.

"After my gloomwilt fit, I came to and saw that I'd destroyed a lot of the palace. Caro was furious. She threw it into one of the tar pits out back so I wouldn't have the power to do so much damage. We had a huge fight about it. It's useless by now, there's no way to get it out of the pit without climbing in."

"Oh, perfect, that's exactly what I was going to suggest!" Honey chimed in. Everyone gave her a weird look.

"Climbing into a dozen metre deep pool of boiling, corrosive sludge?" Lilac said.

"Well I mean," replied Honey with a shrug "I'm surrounded by witches talking about shit I don't understand, my ex-wife is dating a sea queen, and a goblin just handed me a cup of peppermint tea. It would hardly be the strangest thing to consider, right? By the way this is delicious, thank you!"

The goblin holding the tray flushed cherrybomb pink and smiled politely with a million spiky little teeth.

Moxie pondered for a moment.

"I suppose it could work," she mused. "Yeah, it's all coming together! Is that what we're going to do?" She was met with a collective nod/shrug of assent. "Alright then. Plum, help Lilac prepare the rest of the altar. Honey, come with me to set everything up with the princess and get ready for a swim."

"I bet you thought that line was so clever."

"I did and do and will continue to."

"This is why Pearl would rather live with me."