by Simon Archer
11
Vila
I waited for the car to pull away before settling myself on the bed in one of the guest rooms. Glen, Lottie, Andi, and Bennett would be gone for several hours, and the house was silent. The particular room I’d chosen had windows facing the ocean. I didn’t want there to be any possibility of interruption, including me hearing people on the beach and worrying they may be able to see in the house. Memory magic wasn’t outwardly visible, but it did take quite a bit of concentration.
I laid down and cleared my mind with a few deep breaths, then cast the spell to take myself back to a memory where Gisele, the old witch who raised me, and I were picking spinach out of the manor’s gardens.
I watched the two of us chit-chatting away as though we didn’t have a care in the world. It was one of the few chores we’d had that didn’t involve someone screaming at us to hurry up or calling us names. I had to wait until Gisele’s spirit felt I was here before I could interact with her. Until then, I could simply watch and enjoy remembering how she made my young life bearable. I lost myself in listening to her show me an easier way to get the spinach leaves off when I felt a wrinkled hand slip into mine. Turning my head, I looked into Gisele’s bright blue eyes.
“Hello, pretty girl,” she said with a smile. I hugged her instantly.
“Hi,” was all I could get out. I’d come to see Gisele dozens of times since I’d figured out that I could, but each time, I still cried.
“When are you going to stop that?” she whispered, wiping a tear from my face.
“I’m going to predict never,” I replied with a choked-up chuckle.
“I thought I’d see you soon,” she told me.
“Why?” I asked, though it didn’t surprise me. Gisele was powerful in her witchery and tended to know quite a bit before it actually happened.
“You are living close to the lightning stones now. You were bound to have questions.” She tugged on my hand, and the two of us started walking around the garden border and out into the field.
“I really did just want to see you,” I told her. “The stones haven’t changed and have given us very little information.”
“They did give you something though, didn’t they?” she asked, swinging our hands forward and backward like we were little kids.
“They showed Bennett that the spellbook gains power with each soul piece captured inside, and something about the wall that was up at the mouth of the cave,” I informed her.
“Being stingy with information, I see.” She laughed. “What is Bennett doing with that information?”
“He realized he might be stopping his history readings short, and he was right. He read the history of the book again and saw how it was made repeatedly, and how many souls were inside currently,” I answered. “We aren’t sure what it all means yet, but these things seem to unfold, eventually.”
“That they do,” Gisele remarked.
“Can you tell us anything else about the stones?” I was hoping she may know a little something extra that may shed some light on the tiny bit of information we had.
“Just the legend,” she said. “I’m not quite old enough to know more than that.” She nudged me with her shoulder as she joked about her age.
“What legend do you know?” I asked, giggling with her.
“Putting aside the fluff that seems to pop up through years of hearing different versions, the one thing that seems to repeat is that the stones don’t have any loyalty to good or evil magic,” she relayed. “As you’ve guessed, they are extremely powerful. The rumor goes that original magic made them.”
“What does ‘original magic’ mean?” I wanted to know.
“The very first magic on earth. Nobody, of course, knows where it came from or who created it, but it had to have started with something.” Gisele let go of my hand and looped her arm through mine as we approached a hill on the other side of the field.
“Do you want to rest?” I asked her, spying a downed log nearby.
“No, I don’t need to,” she answered matter-of-factly. “Tell me, how is Bennett’s weather program coming along?” I often forgot that Gisele visited my memories occasionally to check on me.
“He made some recent discovery about the patterns made by the weird energy,” I told her. “I’m not sure if it has given him anything that has advanced his progress, though.”
“I had an idea about that,” Gisele said softly.
“An idea about how to get his program to work?” I was a little surprised at how interested she was about an artificial intelligence weather program.
“Maybe, maybe not. I was thinking about the different energies used to predict the weather. Perhaps Bennett should try to find one that closely mimics the strange energy he can’t identify,” she suggested.
“There’s another energy that is the same?” It surprised me to hear of the possibility since Bennett had described his mystery energy as being unusual and undocumented.
“There must be,” Gisele answered. “Everything in life is connected in one way or another, isn’t it? It would stand to reason that different forms of energy would have a connection of some sort.”
I thought about her hypothesis for a moment.
“I’ll let him know. Do you have any idea what other types of energy he should be looking at?” I was hoping for a suggestion that would help point him in the right direction.
“My guess would be the tides or the sun,” Gisele told me.
“Why those types?” I asked, marveling at her wisdom.
“Those are two forms of energy that took man the longest to even start to understand, and even now, they aren’t fully understood,” she answered.
She had a point. Bennett would be better off starting with the most mysterious forces to figure out his own mysterious energy. I smiled at Gisele as she glanced up at me.
“What are you smiling at, girl?” she asked, amused.
“Your unending wisdom,” I told her.
“Careful, now. You are going to make me feel old!” she joked.
The two of us laughed together and then walked quite a way in silence. Her presence made me feel safe and relaxed. I didn’t have to worry about anyone finding out I was a genie inside memories. I loved being magical, but it did come with a small, constantly nagging need for caution. We walked over the hill and stood on the top, overlooking a small valley.
“Do you want to go down to the river?” I asked her, not sure how much time she had to spare.
“Actually, yes. I remember a little fire pit tucked away in the trees. I think we should try to cook a fish,” she answered, sounding a bit mischievous.
“Why a fish?” I had never known her to be particularly fond of fish.
“I was watching you cook a while back, and you used this shiny stuff in your oven. It gave me an idea for a different way to cook it. Want to give it a try?” She knew my answer would be yes because she immediately started walking down the hill. I followed, and before long, the two of us strolled beside a narrow river at the bottom.
“Where are we going to get a fish?” I asked. “I didn’t bring a pole.”
“You use a spell to travel back to a memory from centuries ago, and you are worried about how to find a fish?” Gisele joked with me.
“Ah, yes. I forgot I have a fishing-witch with me!” I laughed.
About fifty yards down the river, Gisele made a left turn and walked into a small grove of trees. I walked after her, making certain to stay close as the brush was so dense. It would’ve been easy to get lost. Twenty yards in, the foliage stopped, and we entered a small clearing. Directly in the center was a circle of stones, and each was charred on the inside. It was the fire pit she’d referred to earlier.
“How did you know this was here?” I inquired as I picked up twigs to start a fire with.
“I slipped away one night and built it here on the off chance of escape,” she said nonchalantly.
“If you were going to escape, why build it so close
to the manor?” I was curious.
“If we were to escape, they would never have expected us to stay close to the manor,” she explained. “The brush here is so dense that they wouldn’t have been able to see the fire. We could’ve hidden out for the night and made our way by the next day.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me about it?” Gisele’s reasoning for her actions often surprised me.
“There was no reason to until I saw a clear opportunity for us to make it out,” she answered casually. “I had decided to tell you when I saw you make it past the stone garden that last time you tried to run away. That way, if you ever did make it on your own, you’d have a plan.”
I didn’t have to ask why that conversation never happened. My ‘owners’ had caught me because I sliced my foot too severely going over the rocks. By the time I had healed and woken up, Gisele was at death’s door. That was when she’d made me a genie.
We went on gathering twigs and sticks until we had a large pile in the firepit. We stuffed some dry grass underneath the stack, and Gisele snapped her fingers. A tiny flame shot through the grass, and it started to spread. We stood together and watched as the flame grew and caught the smaller twigs on fire. I felt the heat intensify with every branch the flames took over. Soon, flames engulfed the entire pile.
“Time for the shiny stuff,” Gisele said happily.
“Do you mean tin foil?” It was the only thing shiny I could think of that I’d ever put in the oven.
“Yes! Thank you! I couldn’t hear what you had called it,” she chimed. She walked over to a nearby tree stump that had a flat top and snapped her fingers again. Two large squares of foil appeared on top of the stump. She looked back at me and smiled. “Do you want to do the fish?”
I joined her at the stump and snapped my fingers. I wasn’t at all sure I could conjure a fish in a memory, so it pleasantly surprised me when a large salmon appeared on top of the foil.
“I did it!” I called out excitedly.
“Of course, you did, idiot!” she told me. “Hundreds of years later, and you still doubt your abilities! I’ll get through to you one day!”
I rolled my eyes and laughed. Gisele always had told me I was better at everything than I thought I was.
“Okay, so now, what do we do with it?” I stared at the fish laying on the foil.
She knelt down and started folding the first layer of tin foil up around the fish and sealed in with tight folds. Then she started doing the same to the second piece of foil, but stopped when it looked like a little boat. She held her fingertips up above the wrapped fish and started rubbing them, as though she was sprinkling spices. However, instead of spices falling from her fingers, water fell. Soon, the tin ‘boat’ was half full of water, making the wrapped fish look like it was in a sinking ship. She stopped, sealed up the outer layer of foil, and stood up.
“There we go,” she said, satisfied at her handiwork.
“You wrapped a wrapped fish in water?” I had never seen her do anything like that before, and we’d cooked plenty of meals together.
“Yep! Now we put it at the bottom of the fire,” she answered. She moved the fish to the fire, plopped it in, and used a sturdy stick to push it under the coals. Then she found a log and sat down. “Have a seat. This shouldn’t take too long.”
I sat next to her and laid my head on her shoulder. “I wonder what life would’ve been like if we had made it out,” I pondered. “If we had escaped, stayed here by the hidden fire, and then ventured out on our own together.”
“I imagine it would have still turned out to be an adventure, just of a different nature,” Gisele answered gently.
“At least this way, I’ll always get to see you.”
I sighed. Gisele stroked my hair, and the two of us sat, watching the fire and waiting for the fish to cook. Then a thought crossed my mind.
“Can you take me into your memories?” I asked. I knew how to get into the memories of someone living, but I had never considered trying to view those of someone who had already passed.
“I can, yes,” she answered bluntly.
I sat up, suddenly energized. “Will you? Can you show me where you grew up as a girl?”
I was wildly excited to learn more about Gisele’s life before I’d met her. She was already old in my first memory of her. In fact, I didn’t know how old she really was.
“I’ll think about it,” she replied nonchalantly. “There’s nothing too exciting to see, honestly.”
“How could that be?” Her claim amazed me.
“My dear Servilia, my life started when you came to me,” she replied quietly. “Everything before that was the universe getting me ready for you.”
“I don’t see how such a long life can only have a purpose that comes in the last little bit,” I told her.
“Some people never find their purpose in life. I did, and for that, I am grateful,” She patted my face and smiled.
“I’d still like to see your childhood home,” I whined.
Gisele waved her hand dismissively. “I’ve told you about it before. Just a mud hut with a fireplace and some pigs.”
“How did you end up at the manor?” I asked her. I realized that I didn’t know if she was raised as a slave or sold into it.
“I went to the manor willingly, my child,” she told me, as though I should’ve known.
I sat up with a start and almost yelled, “Willingly? You mean, you weren’t a slave?” I felt like my entire world stopped.
“No, I wasn’t a slave. I was there for so long, though, that most of the guards and staff had just assumed I was. I was an indentured servant.” She spoke calmly, and I almost thought she must be trying to pull my leg.
“If they indentured you, what bound you to stay? You should’ve been able to work your way out!” I turned to sit facing her.
“I had no interest in leaving unless it was with you,” she answered. “Once you came along, I chose to stay. I never wanted any of the slaves to feel different around me, so I never told anyone different.”
“You stayed because of me?” I whispered.
“Of course I did, silly girl,” Gisele told me, chuckling a little.
“I would’ve never wanted you to stay in that place if you could’ve left,” I told her, tears in my eyes. A sadness ran through me that I wasn’t expecting.
“I wouldn’t have had the life I wanted anywhere else if you weren’t in it,” she said, cupping my face in her hands. “Don’t cry over an old woman’s choices. I lived the way I wanted. I lived to see you grow up. I was happy. For me, it was the who, not the where, or with what material possessions. You are my home, Servilia.” She smiled at me, then wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly. I tried to imagine life at the manor, as a slave without her there, and the idea made me shudder.
“Thank you for staying with me,” I whispered with all the gratitude possible. “I love you.”
“I love you too, cry baby,” she giggled. “Straighten up now. The fish is done.”
Just like that, I felt better. I wondered, for a moment, if she’d used her magic on me, but that wasn’t her style. I stood up and helped her pull the fish out from under the burning logs. We scooted it over, away from the fire, and let it sit for a few minutes before attempting to open it. When we did finally peel back the top piece of foil, it was dry inside. All the water had evaporated. When we opened the second layer, the one with the fish inside, a huge puff of billowing steam rose up. We had to stand back to avoid having our faces burned.
“I guess we know where all the water went!” I laughed. We waited for the steam to clear, and Gisele lifted the foil, and the fish, up onto the tree stump.
“Shall we give this a try?” She peeled off a long strip of fish and handed it to me, then pulled one off for herself. “One, two, three!” We both popped the fish in our mouths. It immediately fell apart. It was the most tender fish I’d ever tasted. Flavor-wise, it was rather bland because we hadn’t spiced it, but it was coo
ked to perfection.
“This is amazing!” I complimented her.
“It’s the water. It kind of steams the fish without making it too watery,” she told me, still chewing.
“Where did you see this done before?” I asked, taking another bite.
“I didn’t, really. It just made sense to try it after I saw the foil stuff,” Gisele answered.
“Of course,” I laughed. “It just made sense.”
She smiled over at me, her mouth full. We finished the entire rest of the fish in silence. It was absolutely delicious. When we’d picked the bones clean, the two of us sat back on the log and took a deep breath.
“Thank you for staying for dinner,” Gisele said.
“Thank you for the cooking lesson! I wonder if that would work in a dishwasher?” I was joking at first, but then I thought more about it. If I could keep the foil tight enough, it just may really work.
“You’ll have to let me know,” Gisele giggled. “It’s time to go.” I never enjoyed hearing those words, but they always came.
“Do you have a hot date you need to get ready for?” I asked, trying to make light of my disappointment at having to end our afternoon.
“Yes, absolutely. My gentlemen callers are waiting, and it is rude to be late. My dance card is full, and it just seems cruel to have the stragglers waiting around for me when they don’t have a chance!” Gisele went on, making me blush. It was odd to think of her on a date.
“Alright, but I’m coming back soon,” I told her, sounding as stubborn as I could.
“You’d better. I miss you,” she replied. She wrapped her arms around me one more time and squeezed me tight. “You go tell Bennett what I told you and tell Andi I said ‘hello.’”
“I will, I promise,” I assured her. “Goodbye.”
“For now,” Gisele said, then she let go of me, and I opened my eyes. I was back on the bed in the beach house. I sat up slowly and wrapped my arms around myself, holding onto the feeling of Gisele’s hug. I already couldn’t wait to see her again. Right then, I heard the front door open, and Lottie, Andi, and Bennett came in.