Necromancy and Marigolds

Nadia was the third oldest in a family with nine children, eight girls and one boy. She was wedged right in between her sisters Lavender and Hestia in age. All of her siblings were different in both little and big ways, but they were all very close. This being said, there was perhaps no two closer than Nadia and Lavender.

So, it was much to Nadia's dismay that day when she came back from tending the chickens, to find lavender already curled up in bed. Her damp hair was splayed out on the pillow behind her and when she lifted her head, her face was tear soaked.

"What on earth!?" Gasped Nadia, running to her sister's side. "I thought Micheal would be proposing today and I would come home to find you in high spirits. What's happened? Tell me. Please."

Through barely controlled sobs, her sister began to tell her the whole sorted story. About how she had gone to meet Micheal, about how he had scorned her for her family's reputation of being witches, how she had accidentally lost control of her magic and hexed the chocolate cake she'd given him, causing him to choke. When she got to the part about his death Nadia had to make her stop and take some deep breaths to stop her from outright wailing.

"... and then Mathias and Rose buried him out behind the pig pen...I had to h..h..h..help dig his grave." She stammered out.

Nadia stopped herself from gasping just barely. This was worse than bad. Micheal had been the son of the town minister and although he had kept his relationship with Lavender a secret, something Nadia had always found unacceptable but was now grateful for, surely it wouldn not take long for the town to suspect them. Nadia might have been sweet and gentle like Lavender, but was a little more wise to the ways of the world than her older sister, and she knew that nothing was ever really secret. He had told someone about their relationship and once he came up missing it would be put back to them. The town hated them, he had been right about their reputation. Thankfully, Mathias had been involved. He had no magic of his own but had committed himself long ago to helping conceal his sister's talents, at least when it came to incidents they wished not to tell their parents.

"Did Mathias have a plan as to how to cover this up?"

Lavender nodded miserably. Nadia sighed with relief but dare not push further. She feared her sister's tender heart had been pushed to the absolute limit as it already. She helped her to lay back down and tucked her in. She brought her up tea with a splash of brandy, which she drank all of, and a sandwich which she ignored. Finally, when she had cried herself to sleep, Nadia went to look for Mathias.

She found Rose instead and asked her what the plan was but Rose was reluctant to share.

"The less everyone knows the better. We don't need anyone letting something slip."

"Slip?" Said Nadia half incredulous, half disgusted. "Slip to whom? I keep to myself thank you very much."

Rose smiled indulgently at her indignance and it seemed to soften her resolve.

"Alright, fine, but no telling Lav. We thought it would be too upsetting for her so we didn't tell her everything."

Nadia raised her eyebrows but nodded.

"So, Mathias had this brilliant plan to play into the suspicions they were going to have anyway. If they were going to blame magic and devil worship, then we'd give it to them. Scare them so bad, they'd be afraid to look."

Nadia was horrified, but before she could question her, Rose continued, apparently revelling in the shock and scandal of it all.

"So, before we buried dear Micheal, Mathias cut off his hand, I wrote a delicious little note blaming the devil for Micheal's disappearance and viola! A manufactured, little ghost story for the town, wrapped in a nice neat package and delivered to their doorstep."

Rose looked so pleased with herself, Nadia almost hated to share the glaringly obvious truth.

"Rosie, darling." She pinched the bridge of her nose slightly. "Don't you think that since we are who always gets blamed for any strange goings-on that that was all quite….well, stupid?"

Rose looked taken aback.

"Nadia! Why, no! They have suspected what we are for years and mummy and daddy have always been able to worm us out of it somehow. This will be no different."

"Rosie! This is different because this time you and our dearest brother have delivered them exactly what they always wanted before but never had... evidence!"

Rose was unphased and when Mathias returned after nightfall, he too, failed to see the fault in their brilliant plan. So, Nadia had no choice but to just go to bed, hoping against hope she was wrong.

Nadia would later ponder how youthfully ignorant it had been to assume, even at that more critical of times, that nothing was truly too big for her parents to solve. She had thought they would be angry but in the end, they had always been their shield against outside harm and dangers. Imagine the shock the children felt. From eldest Rosie with her careless abandon, to the youngest Jerrica, when the very next morning, officers came barging into their house to arrest their parents.

Their dad was outraged, their mother was terrified, she kept shouting,

"But the children, what of my children."

"Yeh shoulda thoughta that before you sent the Preacher's son to the devil. Now, come on you ole screw!"

He shoved their mother entirely too forcefully which caused their father to break free and punch him soundly in the face, and Nadia was quite sure he'd broken the man's nose as blood spurted everywhere. The other men were finally able to restrain him and drag him out the door. Just as he disappeared out of sight he called back,

"Don't worry my babies, we'll be back before you know it. Don't you worry one bit. Just listen to Rosie and Lav and we'll be back soon."

Another one of the men said something snide Nadia couldn't quite make out and there were more sounds of the men struggling to subdue her father and then after a long while all was silent. None of them had moved. They all stood there in shock. Tears and noses running. Rosie looked stricken, and the expression seemed foreign on her usually confident face. It made her look younger somehow…

The day had come and gone. Mathias had gone into town to try to see their parents but had been turned away. Their parents were to be burned at the stake in the morning. Apparently, Micheal had told one person about Lavender, his cousin Dupree. If the town needed evidence to confirm their suspicions of the Braselmire involvement, that was it.

What was worse, is with their parents gone, it would not be long before the town would come for them too. In fact, Nadia had pointed out, the only reason she suspected they had not gone for Lavender directly was because they were too afraid of their mother and father to do so. Their father was extremely wealthy and their mother had always been mysteriously very influential and thus, their reach was quite far. That, combined with the rumors about their family, had always kept the townsfolk at bay. The game had now changed, it seemed. Their long-harbored hatred and suspicion combined with the outrage over the proposed sacrifice of the priest's golden boy had sent them into a frenzy.

It was dark now, and Nadia had taken to her room to think. Lavender was finally sleeping. Felicia had given her a sedative and it was quiet and she could consider the situation more clearly. No matter how she looked at it, Nadia came back to one conclusion...her gift…

Nadia, possessed magic like her mother and sisters but, her's came with something a little extra. She was a necromancer. It was truly impressive as it sounded, she admitted to herself. She had only ever done flowers, trees, and the occasional baby bird before. The more complex the creature, the more it cost her to do it. In fact, after a particularly large hardwood had nearly killed her in her effort to resurrect it, she had realized sometimes she needed to draw on the life force of other things to fuel the transition. With the birds it had just cost her a few potatoes but with a person…

But...she thought, getting to her feet, what else was there. Micheal needed to make some sort of appearance. He would not be in the best of shape, but at least he would no longer be a corpse. That should be enough to free her parents.

"Mathias." She hissed in a whisper to rouse him out of his reverie of the fire. Little Florence had her head in his lap and was sleeping soundly.

He looked up at her and raised his eyebrows. She gestured him to her saying,

"I need your help. Can I talk to you for a moment?"

He gently laid Florence on the hearth rug and tucked her blanket around her and crept over to her.

Two hours later, Mathias, Rose and Nadia stood in the middle of a huge field of marigolds. All three of them, muddy and worse for wear. Rose had been particularly disgruntled at finding herself knee deep in the mud behind the pig pen for the second time in two days, and it still showed on her face. Mathias was silent and determined as always.

Nadia, looked down at the corpse before her. She had never brought anything back that was this far gone before. She had thought, before seeing him, that the entire field of flowers would be enough, but now she wondered. She pushed those thoughts away. No sense in second guessing herself now.

She knelt down next to the body. Then, looking up at her brother and sister for a moment said to them,

"It's very important that you do not touch me while I'm doing this. If you do, I could pull on your life force instead of the flowers, and I cannot have that. Promise."

She pinned them with a serious stare until they both nodded, Rose looking stricken again, Mathias, displeased and hesitant.

That'll have to be good enough. She thought to herself.

There was no time to squabble. Her parents were to be burned at dawn, and this was their only chance of saving them.

She placed one hand on Micheal's forehead and the other on his heart. She had taken off her shoes and wiggled her toes into the soil, focusing all her energy on tapping into the life force of the flowers in the ground around her, picturing their roots growing into the earth below, she closed her eyes and began to chant. Warmth crept up her toes. Her heart began to beat fast and hard. There was a ringing in her ears. She heard Rose scream and sensed movement around her. She felt warmth grow beneath her hands and felt the distinct rise and fall of breathing and the fluttering of eyelashes. She began to tremble and felt drips of what felt like her own warm blood from her ears, nose and eyes. Then she tasted copper as well. Rose was screaming again, hysterical. Nadia felt a jerk beneath her hands. She ripped her hands away. Her eyes opened to see Mathias restraining her sister, both of them looking terrified. She sensed movement on the ground before her, but her vision was already blurring. She just had time to notice that all the marigolds around her had become scorched and brown, then her world went dark and she knew no more.