April's Marigold

It was an evening at the end of August. April the witch was picking marigolds for her spells in preparation for autumn, the most important season for her. The waning golden evening light was just like the end of summer going into autumn. April, despite her name, was a witch of autumn and the spells she cast not only had everything to do with the season but also were the most potent during autumn.

The shop that April ran had a variety of clients that would desperately need her services this coming harvest. The farmers needed her spells to help them with the harvest and to speed up the growth of any stunted vegetables that they had.

April had other clients from the city that would visit her for harvest spells that helped revitalize the dead. Necromancy was a school that sat squarely in her autumnal domain and she had gained a reputation for providing those services.

A majority of her clients did not ask for such black magic as that sort of thing was outlawed and looked down upon.

The marigold was a primary reagent for nearly all of April’s spells so she had a field full of them by her shop. She was out picking marigolds with her familiar, Felix. Felix was a black cat which a majority of autumn witches had. The cats kept the revitalized dead at bay and that was extremely important. The dead bore grudges to those who woke them from their slumber.

April was approached by a man while picking her marigolds. This was a pretty common occurrence for April, but it was made different by the fact that this man had not set off any of April’s wards around her shop or her field, and he had not made a sound while approaching. In fact, it seemed as though the man simply appeared next to her.

“Hello there.” The man said.

“Hi, what can I, um, do for you?” April said

She immediately knew something was up with the man she was talking to. She wanted to see his eyes, but something was stopping her from looking directly at him. She could tell that he wasn’t looking at her directly either, which was a relief, but it still seemed odd. He had a strange hat on and a grey suit.

“I would like to purchase your services.” The man said. “I need something to be alive that once was dead. I hear that you can do this for me.”

“I typically reserve that service for my more familiar clients.” April said. She could feel the air grow taut around her. “In your case, I’ll make an exception.”

“Good.” The man said. Without another word, he pulled a rather large briefcase out from behind him. Had he been carrying something before? It was so hard to tell. April felt herself losing focus around this man.

The man opened the briefcase and pulled out a beautiful painting. It was a painting of two lovers reclining on a beach with a castle in the background.

“This painting is dead. I need it to live again.”

“I cannot easily accomplish this task. Paintings don’t typically live sir.”

“I knew you could do it.” the man said.

April felt the conversation slipping away from her.

“I cannot do this for you sir.”

“As for payment, I can grant you one wish.”

April went silent. It all made sense now.

This was no man, this was a being of immense power, brought to her dimension from elsewhere. Unfortunately she had no choice but to agree to the being’s request.

“I’ll accept the task.”

“Excellent.” The being said. And it slowly disappeared until every bit of the man but the hat was there and that popped out of existence like a bubble.

Later that night, April poured over her most powerful spell of necromancy in order to reanimate the painting. She had had to make a mad dash to get all of the reagents her potions required for this spell. She was worried that this wouldn’t be enough as the month August fell in summer and not autumn which decreased the potency of her spells.

Speaking her incantation of the spell quickly, April smothered the painting with her black, oozy potion first then washed it clean with the green watery one. Immediately, the painting soaked in the potions and started to pulse with a glowing pink light.

The painting bulged outward, sand and water from the beach started spilling out of the painting onto the floor of April’s shop. The castle’s turret started to grow out of the top of the painting and the lovers grew out of the painting.

They seemed normal enough, at first, but they were fixated on April. They walked, stumbled over to her. Suddenly one of them started to grow a tentacle, the other had a talon burst from her chest. April screamed in terror as the no longer man thing lunged at her. It bit down on her arm hard and she felt whatever sickness had corrupted these beings entering her body.

“Nooooo” she screamed.

And she awoke from her vision. April was in a cold sweat and got off of her bed to get some water. The crystal snowflake artifact that she used to see the future was hanging over her bed frame. It was still intact despite the stresses of that horrible vision April endured. She was glad that she had decided to use a winter seasonal artifact to determine if she should use her most powerful necromancy on the painting. It was clear now that was an incorrect course of action.

Taking a sip of water and sighing deeply, April thought about the problem more. Felix came to her side and asked for some pets which he got. As she was petting Felix, April saw one of the marigolds she had been picking when the being, she never got that man’s name, appeared to her in the field.

A sudden thought struck her, and she rushed over to the painting with the marigold in hand. She quickly snatched up some lacquer and smeared the marigold onto the painting so that the man in the picture was now handing the marigold to the woman.

April smiled to herself. It couldn’t have been that easy, could it? But as she stepped back and looked, the beach seemed more real and the sea seemed to have fish in it now. The castle looked grand, was that a king behind one of those windows? And the man, the man was now smiling coyly. April saw that the woman had an expression on her face of pure joy.

April had only a few moments to admire the masterpiece when the being popped into existence.

“Ah, I see that you have completed my task with nary a day in between! I am impressed! Now, what wish would you see fulfilled?”

April smiled as she had known what she would ask for from the moment she had heard about beings like this appearing in her dimension. “I would know your true name.”