Top Posts Tagged with #kaithol

Forever Breakfast

After Oleander reveals a secret about his past to Edomie and The Plum Witch in the mountain core, the trio converges at Plum Pocket to avoid talking about it at all costs.

LexiDriftander - Oleander jordan.nova - Edomie boblins - The Plum Witch

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LexiDriftander Ollie inched a bit closer to Edomie as they stood on the doorstep to Plum Pocket. Admittedly, he feared meeting the young witch again, and not only because she openly raged against Kaithol every chance she got. Edomie radiated a rather comforting presence. He knew he'd never come talk to Plum on his own.

But, there was something they needed to talk about, wasn't there? So much, in fact, that no single topic came to mind, just the fact that they needed to talk. So he waited, and he let Edomie knock on the door, even though they'd entered Plum's house unannounced before.

For some reason, this time, it felt like their arrival needed to be announced.

jordan.nova As Edomie knocked on the door, she felt Ollie pressing close to her. She turned to give him a reassuring smile.

It felt a little strange to stand awkwardly outside Plum's door and wait for her to appear. She was to the portal network dropping them directly into Plum's enchantment room. Edomie recalled being somewhat disoriented the first time she had ever seen the massive structure from the outside.

Edomie took Ollie's hand and gave it a light squeeze. Somewhat to comfort him, and somewhat to steady her own nerves. She tried to crane her head to see inside the massive windows on either side of the door, to see if there was any sign of Plum inside.

boblins The Plum Witch fell out of bed with a start. Had she heard something outside? Using one of her shelves as leverage, she pulled herself shakily off of the floor. One of several stacks of textbooks teetered precariously on the edge of her mattress. A knock gave it permission to heed gravity’s enticing call, scattering books and journals across the tile.

Scrambling back up the rungs of her bunk bed, the witch peered warily out the window. Her bleary eyes focused on the identity of the knocker, widening in shock as she recoiled back from the window sill and back-pedaled off the edge of the bed again. It’s those two, of course it’s those two, why does it haVE TO BE THOSE TWO-

Maybe if she stayed really still, they’ll think she’d gone out. Maybe if she stayed quiet, she could creep her way up to the portal and pray that a stray piglin didn’t notice her wretched, pyjama clad form crawling onto their turf.

Another knock.

She couldn’t answer it. She wasn’t going to answer it.

LexiDriftander "She's not home," Ollie said with a shrug.

He angled his head toward Edomie and willed her to agree. Already a sense of foreboding crept up his spine. Plum could curse them too, right? That was something she could do?

...was that something she would do?

Yes, Ollie decided. Yes, she would.

jordan.nova Edomie frowned uncertainly. "Hmm... maybe not..." she reluctantly agreed.

She slipped her hand out of Ollie's and stepped over to one of the windows and cupped her hands against the glass to peer inside.

She didn't see any sign of Plum on the first floor. Just that big, twisted up knot of prismarine and Plum's spooky bubble that lived in it.

"Where d'you think she is?" Edomie said against the glass. "I haven't seen her around anywhere lately."

LexiDriftander "Could be in the ocean," Ollie murmured. "Working on...whatever that is."

He peeked in the other window, his breath fogging up the glass. With a jolt, he stepped back and rubbed away the fog with his shirt sleeve. Wouldn't want to leave behind marks or anything.

jordan.nova Edomie frowned at the weird bubble floating in its watery glass chamber. It looked different lately. Used to it was just a little blue ball tucked in a seashell. But recently it was... open. Like an eye that was staring at her.

She liked that thing less every time she saw it.

Edomie pushed off the window and stared up towards the higher stories. Not that she could see anything from the ground. "I've been at the Waystation, and I haven't seen her around there. I feel like I would have seen something... or. Maybe she would have said something to us..."

Edomie glanced around the surrounding shore, looking for any evidence Plum had been or was currently lurking around. A little frustrated, Edomie turned back to the upper windows, cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed "PLUUUUUUM WIIIIITCH! ARE YOU UP THERE?"

boblins The Plum Witch stood frozen in the middle of the floor, eyes darting frantically back and forth across the room, searching for…for…something-

The sound of Edomie yelling her name jolted her out of her stupor. She darted behind Sweev’s shrine, dislodging the little terracotta offering jar from its pedestal as she did so.

“Brilliant.” She thought, squeezing her way through the narrow passage behind the statue, “They definitely heard that.”

She tumbled out into her potion storage, mangling her poor netherwart bed on the way. She’d fix it later, she resolved as she scaled the ladder to the rafters. It was fine. Slipping a couple bottles out of a nearby chest, just in case, she picked what she hoped was the least noticeable support beam, and settled herself awkwardly onto it.

jordan.nova Edomie continued squinting overhead at the unhelpful quiet. "Huh. Maybe she is gone. I don't hear anything."

She made her way over to Ollie to check in his window with another skeptical squint. Nothing helpful here, either. She glanced at the door, pondered it curiously, then turned to Ollie. "I think we should look inside," she said, in a more hushed voice. "Maybe she left a note or something."

LexiDriftander Words of disagreement poised on his tongue, Ollie suddenly froze. "Uh, wait, Edomie," he said. "Did you hear that?" One hand nervously flew to his mouth, where he nibbled on the tip of his thumb. He angled his ear toward the door.

Something like pottery being knocked about. Did Plum have pottery? She liked to decorate with eccentric things, surely there was a pot or two about.

"I think someone's in there. Maybe we should, uh. Not go in?"

jordan.nova Edomie spun on her heels in a small circle as she scoped out the surrounding area again, and her gaze landed on the upper story windows again. "Hear what? Something inside?"

Edomie jogged to the door and tried the handle. It didn't feel locked or otherwise obstructed. "We should go in and check, then," she suggested, pushing the heavy door open and lingering in the doorway. "Maybe Plum is here."

LexiDriftander Ollie grabbed Edomie by the hand. It was something she used to lead him around, so maybe he could lead her away from potential danger. "It sounded like something moving. Uh. Pottery, or something. But Edomie, what if it's not Plum? What if someone snuck into her house?"

jordan.nova Edomie halted when Ollie grabbed her and spun to face him. "If it's not Plum, she could be in trouble. Something could be after her!"

She grimaced as a thought struck her. "When all those cursed monsters were crawling, a bunch of skeletons showed up in my cottage... Maybe something weird is going on. Or something with her portal again. Something coulda come through."

LexiDriftander Ollie couldn't help a tiny whimper of trepidation. "Do you really think so?" He shifted on his feet, anxiety showing in his knitted eyebrows. "That....that, uh, that wouldn't be good."

He stole a glance through the window. "Or...or maybe something with her magic went wrong..." That eye in the prismarine had to be staring at him.

jordan.nova Edomie followed his gaze to the prismarine structure, and she fidgeted uncertainly. "Could be. Witch magic's scary stuff. And she's... she's looked kinda sick lately..." Her hand twitched in a restless manner at her side, then snatched her pickaxe out of her satchel.

Her diamond treasure was hardly a makeshift weapon on a good swing, but she felt more secure with it clutched to her chest.

"She could have hurt herself or something. We need to check. Let's go," she decided, striding for the ladder in the corner and dragging Ollie inside behind her.

LexiDriftander "Oh...we're going!" Ollie's sentence ended in a yelp as Edomie dragged him inside. He clung to her once they got to the ladder, and then slowly released her once he realized she'd need her limbs to climb. "Um. Sorry. Uh. You go first."

jordan.nova Edomie hooked her pickaxe in the strap of her satchel. She'd rather keep it in hand, but at least it would be a quick grab.

"Stay close to me," she advised Ollie in a low voice. She jumped up the first few rungs and began climbing.

LexiDriftander Ollie nodded obediently and grabbed the rungs of the ladder as soon as Edomie’s feet were above his head. He scrambled up to the next level and gave the room a quick once over.

Plum slept in this room, and so did the Wraith at one point. But neither of them were to be seen at the moment. He inched into the room, catching the sound of the portal in the room above. He hoped they wouldn’t have to go any higher. “I don’t see anyone,” he whispered to Edomie.

jordan.nova Edomie secured her pickaxe in hand and crept further into the room, tensed and ready to swing it at any skeleton that may or may not be lurking to jump out at her.

Some disarray of books and pages around Plum's bunk bed caught Edomie's eye. The askew blankets threatening to fall from the bunk on top of the pile also seemed quite out of place, compared to the Monster's pristine bed, and the neatly maintained cots that Plum had once set up for Edomie and Sweev to sleep over. She must have never taken them down.

"I don't either" Edomie whispered, her voice carrying through the room anyway. "Looks like she was though - look at her bed."

boblins Despite her half-expecting it, Plum flinched at the sound of the downstairs door unlatching.

This was a stupid, stupid hiding spot. Maybe she should relocate. Go sit in the conduit frame or something. No, that wouldn’t work; her two uninvited guests were on the ground floor at the moment, so she’d probably get caught on the main ladder. Besides, judging by the way they were staring at the conduit right now, they’d probably notice right away. She couldn’t help but feel a little offended at the side-eye the two directed towards it before moving on to the second floor.

No, no, it was fine, she concluded...as long as they didn’t look up.

LexiDriftander “It looks like she left in a hurry,” Ollie said, noting the disarray. “Maybe...going after whatever else is in here...” He took a half-step closer to Edomie, and then closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the house.

Portal upstairs, conduit pulsing downstairs...the light sound of Edomie’s footsteps, but nothing else. The enderman he heard in the distance was probably a trick of the mind, and besides, they wouldn’t be a threat to Plum.

Whatever was scary enough to jolt her out of bed was either long gone or very quiet.

Or...?

His eyes sifted over the contents of the room, searching for a proper hiding place.

She’d been avoiding them for the past few days. Of course, she wouldn’t want to see him after...after that. Of course. She was afraid of him.

He was about to confess to Edomie and suggest they leave her alone when his gaze struck the terracotta pot on top of the Sweev shrine. He grabbed onto Edomie’s hand— “Hey, Edomie—“ and pointed at it.

jordan.nova Edomie startled when Ollie grabbed her hand, but she managed to halt the reflex to take a swing at him. Her gaze followed where he was pointing to the little Sweev shrine. The ceramic dish that usually sat in front of Sweev's effigy was overturned, spilling a few spooky red mushrooms on the floor. Edomie felt her stomach twist. That felt like a very bad omen.

She gave Ollie an apprehensive glance, then squeezed his hand to keep him close as she hesitantly approached the shrine. She craned her head around the pedestal to the tangle of scarlet vines that hung decoratively around the effigy. "There's a crawlspace back there," she recalled. "Hid back there probably, if we don't see it here."

LexiDriftander Ollie eyed the crawlspace warily. “I’ve been back there before,” he said. “Sweev and I were...curious.”

He crouched down next to it and decided not to mention how many times he’d come poking around Plum’s by himself...with their nether portals so close, it was easy to travel here. And he always wanted to learn how to brew potions but he was too afraid to ask her for lessons.

“She’s got a lot of storage back there I think. But, uh, there’s a ladder you can use to get out. She, or, or whatever is in this house, might have gone out that way.”

jordan.nova "Or might still be there!" Edomie said, steadily forgetting to keep her voice low as stress began to creep up on her. The pulled Ollie along as she clambered awkwardly behind the shrine. "It could get in her magic stuff, what would we do then?"

Edomie tugged Ollie towards the small opening as she crept inside, but released him to ready her pickaxe. The vines hung so thick and tangled it would be too easy for something to sneak up on her.

She used the diamond tip to part the tangled curtain and peer cautiously out into the room. The storage chamber loomed expansively, chests stacked on walls between tiny planted gardens and hanging stashes overhead. Lots of nooks and crannies for something sinister to lurk in.

"Coast clear so far," Edomie called as she crept more out into the open, eyes darting anxiously around.

LexiDriftander Of all the times Ollie had come in to check out this room, this time was decidedly the worst. He was glad Edomie had offered to go through first, but if something in the house came to get him while she was in the crawlspace—

He crouched down and followed her as closely as he could, casting paranoid glances behind him all the way.

A creeping vine tickled the back of his neck and sent him hurtling into the netherwart beds with a panicked howl.

jordan.nova Edomie shrieked and leapt out of the way when Ollie startled her by throwing himself into the netherwart. She lost her footing on the edge of the planter box and tumbled to the floor, rolling over her shoulder.

"Ollie!" she shouted in alarm, stumbling up to her feet. "What- what is it?"

LexiDriftander Ollie rolled onto his back and stared up at Edomie with wide eyes before averting his gaze elsewhere. “Vines. Uh. Scared me. Sorry.”

He caught sight of something dark blue up in the rafters and froze, his hands clenched in the dirt beneath him. Was that...?

boblins The witch scooted back as far into the shadows of the rafters as she could, watching as a tuft of blue hair suddenly poked itself though the gap in the wall. Cool. Yep. Great. The rest of Edomie slid cautiously into the room, and the Plum Witch craned her neck to see what she would do next. A sudden shriek made her jump, smacking her forehead on part of a beam as a coat fell into the abused netherwart with a resounding whump. Hissing under her breath, she watched Edomie regard the coat with concern. It made a baleful noise in response, before rolling over to reveal a rather shaken Oleander. Oh.

Far too quickly, he glanced up towards the ceiling, and she froze. To her dismay, recognition flashed across his face, and the witch grit her teeth and steeled herself for the inevitable.

jordan.nova Edomie huffed and yanked her tussled hair back out of her face as she glanced around the room. "It's okay. Spooked me, though," she said.

She hooked her arm into Ollie's elbow and gave him a gentle tug to offer help out of the netherwart planter. "Here, c'mon, get up."

LexiDriftander "Edomie," Ollie whispered, still staring at what was definitely Plum Witch in the rafters. "Look. It's Plum."

jordan.nova Edomie tilted her head up to the ceiling, staring between the hanging light fixtures and support beams. At first she didn't see what Ollie's stare was fixed so firmly on, then all at once she spotted it. The little spot of color that was Plum Witch's bright hair and brighter eyes.

"Plum!" She shouted excitedly. She released Ollie to run over and stand directly underneath the beam Plum was perched on. "We were worried something gotcha! What're you doing up there?"

boblins Well, the game was up. The Plum Witch leaned forward to get a better read on Edomie and Ollie’s upturned faces, her eyes two pinpricks of light, glinting amongst the maze of joists and beams.

“Oh hey.” She gazed down her nose at the pair of them with a tone that she hoped conveyed aloofness and mystique. “Didn’t see you there.”

LexiDriftander Ollie stood and brushed soil off of his coat. Plum's tone of voice, aloof though it was, put him on edge. She should not have been in the rafters. Why was she up there?

"Are you stuck?" He asked, desperate to say something in the presence of Plum and her eerie, glowing eyes. They may have been glowing before, but in the gloom of the rafters, the light stood out like the eyes of an enderman. A shiver tensed his shoulders.

boblins The witch threw up her arms in a show of mock helplessness. “Yeh. Oh no. What a tragedy. n o, I’m not s t u c k.” She snapped, braking this brief facade and raising an eyebrow in the boy’s direction.

“What are you two doing in here?” Never mind that she’d had absolutely no issue with the entire population using through her house as a major thoroughfare on a daily basis in the past. Shut up. “I don’t see an order form for any potions anywhere, what gives?”

jordan.nova Edomie flinched at Plum's tone, and threw an uncertain glance back at Ollie for a second.

"We were worried about you," she explained, raising her voice a bit. "We haven't seen you since - I think since that - that ender got me."

She swept her arm out and gestured to the secret passage with her pickaxe. "When you didn't answer us, and it - things are all knocked over in there - we thought maybe you were in trouble! You scared us!"

LexiDriftander Ollie averted his gaze and bit at his thumb. Words stuck to his tongue and muddled before they could exit his mouth, so all that came out was a tense sigh.

Part of him knew she was up there hiding from him, and knew she was only pretending to be unaffected by his presence. He just knew it. He took a half-step toward the crawlspace. Maybe he should just leave. Edomie was good at talking, she could talk to Plum.

boblins “Yeh. Welllll. Had stuff to do.” The Plum Witch retorted. It was technically true. She had no end of stuff to do, of rewriting every single plan she’d had for this thing. Of studying the same stacks of books, despite the contents of which being rendered completely useless since Edomie and her recent revelation. At the rate of her progress, the witch thought with a sinking heart, she’d have “stuff to do” until the end of linear time.

LexiDriftander "Sorry to bother you, Miss Plum," Ollie muttered, inching closer to the low opening every second. "We, uh, don't have to stay if you're, uh, busy."

jordan.nova Edomie gave both of them an exasperated look and blew her bangs out of her face with a frustrated huff. "If you're busy, we can help you out! C'mere, let's talk, we can't hear you all the way up there."

boblins The witch didn’t budge. “Uh, no! Thanks!” She said, sounding absolutely nowhere close to thankfulness, and proceeded to become very interested with her nails as she continued, “Something this complicated is going to be wayyy over your tiny little heads. And I need to be sure that I get every detail just right.” That was good. That was a good excuse. She should stop talking now.

“I can’t just poof out major spells over night. These things take time. S’a process, yeah?”

She needed to stop talking.

“How long? Who knows. Could take days. I could do it faster if I wasn’t being pestered constantly. It’s a highly advanced process, you wouldn’t understand-”

Stop. Talking. She hated the way her voice was getting progressively shriller as she rambled, so close to betraying the sheer panic this interrogation was producing.

jordan.nova Edomie narrowed her eyes and frowned. Wasn't the first time a witch had told her to mind her stupid, nosy business, and it probably wouldn't be the last.

"Plum," she snapped in an exhausted tone. Her fist clenched a little tighter around her pickaxe. "Come down here and talk to us. Is this about Kaithol? We said we would handle this together!"

boblins The witch’s voice turned icy. “Oh? Together is it? We’re handling this together, yeah? When were you going to tell us about what was in that book, huh? When were you going to share that little nugget of information with the class, since we’re ’a l l i n t h i s t o g e t h e r ?’"

LexiDriftander A gasp leapt from Ollie’s mouth. His head shot between his shoulders in a turtle-like flinch. Something cold and heavy flooded him from head to toe, curling up into a writhing ball of nausea.

The walls pressed in on him, taunting him with their lack of doors. The crawlspace suddenly seemed too small to escape through, any ladder too far away, the rungs too spaced apart. In a desperate search for something to tether himself to, he reached for Edomie’s hand, but she was too far away due to his earlier shuffling.

jordan.nova Edomie flinched at Plum's comment and staggered a reflexive step backwards. She glanced uncertainly between the two of them, and she caught sight of the way the blood had rushed from Ollie's face.

She saw his hand flinch towards her desperately. She staggered backwards to him and grabbed his hand with a firm, hard squeeze and tugged him closer to her.

"That's, uh- what we wanted to talk about!" Edomie supplied, returning her gaze to Plum. "We couldn't find you the other day. Or... any day... since then..."

boblins Plum felt a pang of guilt at Ollie’s reaction, but quickly replaced it with indignation. “Well, I’ve been right here,” she proclaimed with a sweeping gesture, wobbling slightly on her perch, “trying to study exactly what you asked me to.”

jordan.nova Edomie blinked. She tilted her head, in a quiet invitation for Plum to continue or elaborate. When she did neither, Edomie pressed, "Okayyy... So, whatcha got? We can talk about that weird book, and see what you're studying, and maybe figure something out. Yeah?"

boblins “Like I said. I had a plan.” The witch responded, levering herself up into a standing position. “At least until somebody neglected to mention that, oh, look, they didn’t suddenly stumble across Kaithol on the mountain after all. Oh look,” the witch continued, her feigned surprise giving way to something much more resentful as she paced along the beam. “You’re from like 70 years ago!”

“And oh! Look! How about that?” She gave a bark of laughter, ugly and insincere, before snapping her head towards the other two,

“We don’t actually have any idea what Kaithol is!”

LexiDriftander "I don't know either!" Ollie yelled, straining his voice to raise it above a whimper. "That's...that's the only clue I had! So I--"

He leaned into Edomie, shivering. "I have no idea who Kaithol is. I don't even know who to hope he is. But that's why-- Why I asked for help..."

Daring to look back up at Plum, he whispered, "I knew it would make you mad. That's why I hid it for so long."

boblins “Well it’s a biT FLIPPIN’ LATe now!” The witch snarled, her sharp voice reverberating across the ceiling. “I could’ve been less mad! I could’ve! If you’d just gone and told me! How do you expect me to work like this? You...” she cut herself short, inhaling shakily, “You’re asking me to fight something that I can’t even touch.” The witch swallowed with a click, throat suddenly very tight.

“I can’t fight your personal demons, Ollie, if I can’t shove my wand through their blinkin’ faces. I- I- What do you want from me?”

LexiDriftander "I didn't-- I didn't mean--"

Ollie wanted out. He didn't even want to look at them anymore.

"I didn't ask you to fix me. I know that's hopeless. But--"

What are you doing here, boy? Get back to work.

He froze. And then, very slowly, he turned his gaze to the ground and shuddered.

jordan.nova Edomie felt the delicate trembling run up her arm as Ollie shuddered. She twisted her hand out of his grasp and hooked her arm around him, squeezing him against her side. "Ollie, it's okay, it's okay," she said in a strained, hasty voice. "We'll figure something out."

She turned back to Plum with a hard stare. "Plum, you said you wanted to punch Kaithol in his face! You say that a lot! All the time! That's what we want your help with - we wanna get rid of him! So he'll quit torturing Ollie like this!"

boblins “Yeh guesswhat- whether I want to punch or not makes no difference if there’s no Kaithol to punch.” No. Bad phrasing. There was definitely a Kaithol, that wasn’t the issue here. There were only so many sudden tempests and mysterious falls you could pin on random happenstance, and the Plum Witch knew better. You didn’t just blink off the face of a mountain because oh, one time you imagined a scary voice. She tried again. “If there’s no punchable Kaithol.” Tangible? her brain supplied helpfully, about four seconds too late.

jordan.nova Edomie's eyes narrowed hard. She squeezed Ollie closer, her tense fingers digging into his arm a little.

"Yeah. It's hard. We know." She said slowly, her voice tightening. Edomie felt plenty tired and frustrated and scared herself, that she could understand. But Plum's jabs felt aimed at the wrong threat. At not a threat at all. At Ollie.

"Nobody could punch - that - you know, whatever that other curse was. Whatever sent us spooky notes, and protected monsters, and ate your portal." Edomie snapped. "But we beat that thing. So we're going to beat this, okay? Come down here already, let's try to figure out what we're dealing with."

LexiDriftander Ollie had practically gone limp in Edomie’s arms at this point, especially after the mention of the other thing they’d fought.

That was where this had all started, wasn’t it? If all of those terrible things that happened before had been because of some other thing, who exactly was Kaithol? What were his powers? If Kaithol wasn’t responsible for that, was there ever a Kaithol to begin with?

Or was it just him, hearing voices again. Just him, never knowing who to trust. Not Kaithol. Him.

boblins She despised everything about this situation. Sitting here, trapped in her own house, again, unable to remedy anything, again….only this time she was stuck in here with a boy who was two seconds away from fainting and a girl who was bent on getting to the bottom of this faster than Plum could dig.

The witch scrunched up her face in protest, but Edomie was right. There was nothing else left for her to do. “f i n e.”

She grabbed one of the cords suspending her storage chests, and slid down it in a show of acrobatics that would’ve seemed impressive if she wasn’t one, definitely about to fall off, and two, still in her pyjamas. The witch dangled precariously for a moment, feet struggling to gain purchase on the rough wood of the chest, before giving up and letting herself fall the remaining distance onto the tile below.

jordan.nova Edomie exhaled loudly, the sigh ruffling her hair again. She'd considered climbing up there to get Plum, but she was relieved she didn't have to try that. It likely wouldn't have ended well for her. "Thank you," she said, sincerely.

"Okay... let's think of what we've got. What do we know so far..." her gaze flicked around the room at the expanse of chests. She jostled Ollie a little, rubbing her hands firmly up and down both his arms. He felt like he was sleep walking. Or sleep standing, rather. "Where's - do you have a book? I can write things down."

boblins “Okay, gonna stop y’there.” Plum interjected, calling off Edomie’s little book quest before it had even begun. “First off, we’re not doin’ this in here.” She strode towards the hole in the wall, lightly nabbing Ollie by the arm of his coat in an attempt to drag the other two back through the passageway.

LexiDriftander Ollie flinched away when Plum came at him, expecting her to do more than just tug at his coat sleeve. He regarded her with wariness as she passed toward the crawlspace.

He looked back at Edomie, eyebrows raised in an is she really going to help me? Expression.

jordan.nova Edomie grinned brightly, and a surge of excitement shot through her. She nodded in reassurance to Ollie, tightening her grasp on his arms and gently steering him back towards the crawlspace. They ducked inside and followed Plum back out into the bedroom area.

boblins The Plum Witch glanced back at the statue to ensure her companions were still in tow, wincing as Oleander’s pale face emerged from behind the shrine.

He. Did not look good. He looked like a bag of frightened rabbits pretending to be a human, which, while arguably Oleander’s signature look, was definitely starting to take a toll on the shivering boy. She sighed, the feelings of irritation slowly becoming dampened by pity. “Ollie sit down before you blinkin’ crash into something.” She directed, dragging a rickety chair towards him. “No faintin’ on my floor I swear to Notch.” The witch added, looking around for something they could use as a table, and silently cursed herself for overlooking this gap in her collection of furniture.

With Oleander's pending nosedive temporarily remedied, the witch rummaged around in her kitchenette for a moment, pulling out a little painted kettle with a small hum of triumph. Seemingly distracted from the task at hand, she removed the top of one of the nearby barrels to reveal an assortment of little jars. The witch paused for a second, running her fingers contemplatively across their multicoloured lids, before picking one out and methodically ladling tea leaves from it.

LexiDriftander Ollie watched Plum with skepticism that slowly gave way to curiosity. What was she doing over there? Was she brewing a potion or something that would internally punch Kaithol out of him?

Gripping the edges of the chair Plum’d sat him in, Ollie stared on in silence.

What is taking you so long?

jordan.nova Edomie settled herself onto the floor and leaned against Ollie's chair. She knocked his arm with the top of her head and gave him a reassuring grin.

Her wide eyes followed Plum as she fussed around the tiny kitchen area, and she tried to somewhat crane her neck to see what the skilled witch was brewing up. "What's that, Plum?" she called with an excited edge. "Are you making something? Is it a potion?"

boblins The witch continued to dole heaping teaspoons of the blend into the kettle, eyebrows furrowing as she felt Edomie and Ollie’s eyes boring into her. “N- It’s not- I’m makin’ a tea…weirdo.” She muttered, tapping the spoon against the rim of the pot to rid it of any remaining leaf bits. “Potions come later. Shush. Have you eaten anything.”

LexiDriftander Ollie could have lied and said he’d eaten, but the truth was he’d hardly eaten at all since he’d...theatrically presented The Note to the other two occupants of the room.

“...no, I haven’t.” He continued to watch Plum work. The way she mixed together the leaves suggested she made tea much like she made potions—scientifically. “Um...what about you, Edomie?”

He looked down at where she’d sat next to him. He felt calmer in her presence, but he couldn’t squash a twinge of guilt at all the trouble he’d put her through.

jordan.nova Edomie shrugged at Ollie. "Yeah, I had- wait..." her eyes went down to her lap, her face scrunched in thought.

She was starting to get so mixed up. The last few sunsets felt like they had dragged on forever, but also like she blinked and they had happened all at once. "No, that was... No. Not today, no," she decided.

boblins The witch narrowed her eyes. “Really. You march into my house, have a go at the way I’m doing things-“ The witch pulled out a loaf of bread and began to saw at it aggressively, “and you haven’t even had breakfast?” A large pan was shoved onto the fire with a clang, showering sparks dangerously close to the wood floor. “Are you serious?” A few eggs landed in the pan with a resounding splat. “Are you kidding me right now-“

jordan.nova "Oh! You don't have to do all that, Plum!" Edomie said hastily. She scrambled to her feet, grabbing Ollie's arm to hoist herself off the ground, and bounded over to the kitchen. "Here, I can cook, lemme help!"

LexiDriftander Ollie jerked himself to his feet. “Sorry! Uh, here, let me help!”

boblins The Plum Witch wheeled round at her two breakfast assailants. “Oleander sit the h e c k back down! I’m not having you pass out bang in the middle of my frying pan.” She shot him a challenging look before turning back towards the hearth to check on the eggs. “Now. How many toasts can you eat?”

LexiDriftander Oleander sat back down like his life depended on it. (Did it?) He thought hard about how much toast he could reasonably eat and eyed the size of the loaf Plum was working with.

"Uh. Just one, thanks."

boblins The witch looked thoroughly unimpressed with this response, and proceeded to cut six slices of bread whilst staring directly at Oleander. “Edomie. Toasts. How many.”

jordan.nova "Four please!" Edomie chirped. She shuffled around Plum's other side, closer to the warm hearth. "Here, I can finish the eggs for you?"

LexiDriftander "Um, Miss Plum, I'm really not going to eat that many..." Ollie tried to reason.

boblins “THAT’S more like it.” Plum replied, suddenly more cheerful, adding four more slices to the bread tower and ignoring Ollie's protests. Edomie’s offer, however, was only met with an eyeroll. “NoO-uh.” She said, exasperation seeping back into her voice. “I can make eggs. Mitts off.” She slid a spatula under said eggs, whose golden yolks had reached a jammy consistency, depositing them on a plate before tipping part of the bread stack into the pan.

jordan.nova Edomie recoiled a little and made a face. She didn't doubt Plum's ability to prepare breakfast by any stretch - everything looked and smelled delicious. But she also felt like if she reached for the pan, Plum might try to bite her. Maybe not. But she might.

"Yeah, it smells awesome!" she said, honestly. Edomie folded her hands behind her back, having to physically keep them to herself, and rocked on her heels in an exaggerated sort of way. "Whaaaaaat can I do? You don't have to do everything by yourself."

LexiDriftander Ollie frowned at the increasingly large pile of bread, knowing he was about to disappoint at least Plum with his current lack of appetite. Left alone to zone out, his gaze found a particular knot of wood in the floor and stuck there, while his mind flew universes away.

What am I doing here?

boblins Plum sighed, flipping a few more pieces of bread over. “You can sit there and prepare yourself for toasts.” She said, turning her attention back to the hearth. Why couldn’t they just let her make breakfast for them? What was so hard about that? She placed the last of the slices onto the pile, before thrusting the bread mountain in all of its glory towards Edomie. “Just- put it over there or something. It’s- fine.” She waved a hand distractedly in the direction of the bookshelves, before turning back to rescue the tea.

jordan.nova Edomie accepted the teetering stack of bread with a grin and made herself scarce.

"You're so sweet to cook for us," Edomie called. She sat the platter down on a clear spot on top of one of the bookshelves, then grabbed the back of Ollie's chair and dragged it closer to the makeshift table with him still on it. "You two should visit the cottage sometime! I'll make lunch for us!"

boblins The witch grimaced at the saccharine compliment, before beginning to pour the scalding liquid into a few mismatched cups she’d retrieved from one of the shelves. Lunch....lunch sounded pretty great right now, if she was honest.

“I can’t remember what this one tastes like,” Plum admitted, peering into one of the cups. “But it’s the one with the little stars in it, so.” She started to pass it to Ollie, only to find that he’d zoned out again. She wiggled the cup precariously in front of his face in an effort to get his attention. “C’mon,” She enticed, her voice losing its edge, “everything tastes better with little stars in it.”

LexiDriftander Ollie's gaze flicked from the floor to the cup in front of his face. Oh. His chair had moved. His hands jolted away from his sides and slowed just in time to accept the cup from Plum's hands.

"Thanks."

He looked up, found the plate of toast, and remembered what he was doing here. He looked beyond the toast, found Edomie, and worked up a ghost of a smile.

Experimentally, he took a sip of the tea. He didn't have much of a preference for tea, but Plum had made it for him, and there were little stars in it.

jordan.nova Edomie hopped up to sit on the adjacent bookshelf, so she wouldn't have to bother locating a chair, and crossed her legs underneath her. She picked up a slice of toast, stuck about half of it in her mouth, then picked up another slice and offered it to Ollie. It was less an invitation, more a firm suggestion, as she extended her entire arm and came close to pushing it right in his face. She was cautious not to startle him into spilling his tea, however.

LexiDriftander Ollie's stomach protested even at the sight of food, but he figured he'd better eat, even if only to keep the other two appeased. He gingerly took the toast from Edomie, keeping one of his hands curled around the cup of tea. He bit the toast and chewed slowly.

Maybe he could make it look like he was eating. If he just took forever to eat one piece, maybe the others would finish the rest.

boblins The witch lifted a generous helping of both eggs and toast onto her plate, and eagerly bit into her creation. She leaned back against the counter, tension beginning to leech out of her body as more pressing matters were pushed to the side to make room for this. This being, Oleander and Edomie, for reasons that were beyond her, willingly sipping tea in her living room, hazy mid-morning light filtering through the cherry red vines, and the taste of really, really good eggs.

She couldn’t think of the last time she’d done anything like this. Had people over for a purpose other than haggling magical items or spelunking preparations. Or dragging someone in from another dimension, but she wasn’t going to dwell on that.

jordan.nova Edomie's eyes glanced over her companions as she took a deep gulp of tea and consequently scalded her tongue. She recovered by shoving too large portion of toast in her mouth. The fresh bread was delicious, and she hadn't realized how starving she was. Plum Pocket was somewhat of a hike from Castle Kaithol, and Edomie had forgotten to eat before their trip in her haste to meet up with Ollie as early as possible.

Lately, Edomie found herself with an increasing list of excuses to pry him out of that castle.

At least Plum seemed less frazzled and shouty while they were eating. Edomie decided to prod her momentarily, and returned her attention to Ollie. She gestured towards his hardly nibbled toast with her cup before taking a more cautious sip. "You feeling okay, Ollie?" she gently prompted. "I can't believe you're not starving."

LexiDriftander Feeling okay?

Oleander thought about it. He really thought about it. Feeling okay implied that everything was fine, and he couldn’t remember the last time everything was fine. Not ever on this world, at least.

He looked up at Edomie and the concern on her face, and then over to Plum, noticing the way she’d finally started to relax a little. He took a deep breath, forced another bite of toast, and wrenched out a smile.

“I’m okay.”

boblins Still combing through her memory, the Plum Witch absentmindedly turned towards Edomie, just in time to catch a glimpse of her cramming a gargantuan wad of bread into her mouth to soothe her burning tongue. It jerked her out of her reverie with a cackle that quickly turned into a cough as she involuntarily inhaled a mouthful of tea. She spluttered, desperately straining her ears over the sound of her own laughter and choking to make out whatever Edomie was saying to Ollie. That’s what she got for reminiscing, she thought, ruefully wiping her tea-covered face with her sleeve.

jordan.nova Plum coughing on her tea seized Edomie's attention. At least she wasn't hiding from them in the ceiling anymore, but she didn't seem very intent on cozying up in the makeshift breakfast nook either.

Satisfied Ollie was eating, she raised her voice to call out to this missing breakfast mate. "Plum, c'mon... we came all the way here to talk, at least come sit with us. We don't bite!"

LexiDriftander If any one of them were to bite, Ollie figured it would be Plum. He stole a glance at the young witch and sipped his tea. It was good, and it wasn’t just the stars.

The toast wasn’t half-bad, either.

boblins Still gasping for air as she recovered from the tea mishap, the Plum Witch scanned her immediate vicinity. Ollie was sitting on the only chair, where did Edomie want her to sit? Was it not enough for her to lean against the counter in a nonchalant manner (Sweev’s beans, she hoped it was nonchalant)? She slid to the floor, resigned, and gestured at her newly seated position. “There, y’happy?”

Bound and determined to finish the rest of her meal, the witch lifted an arm over her head and felt around the counter for her plate, gingerly lifting it down and studying her last piece of toast intently. “Hm…d’you two….know where to get jam over here?” She began, avoiding the topic at hand. She tilted her chin to get a better look at where Edomie perched on the bookshelf. “I haven’t been able to find jam in this world so I’ve been having sad, jamless toasts.”

LexiDriftander Ollie perked up a bit at that. “You’re right,” he said in between sips of tea. “I’ve never seen jam here. But then, you can’t exactly walk to the nearest grocery store and pick some up. You have to make everything yourself.”

He bit his toast contemplatively, giving in to the hunger that finally made itself known. “There are berries. Maybe we could make some.”

We. As if Plum would let him anywhere near the jam-making process.

jordan.nova Having consumed all the toast in her hand, Edomie hopped off the shelf and fetched another piece from the remaining tower. "What's a groshie store?" she asked, clambering up onto the tea barrel as her new seat. She still felt close enough to Ollie, but she didn't have to crane her head to see Plum sitting on the floor this way.

boblins “Oh yeh….the grocery store.” Plum murmured, as if remembering the remnants of a dream. Wait. “….OH YEAH THE GROCERY STORE?” She flung an accusatory finger in the direction of the poor boy. “You know what grocery stores are, don’t you!“ She paused, the full force of this new revelation hitting her like a train. “You know! The grocery store! You know what that is!”

“You…you know…because-“ She trailed off, excitement wearing off as fast as it had arrived. After her numerous attempts to steer the conversation away from anything to do with the contents of that horrid note, she was the one broaching the subject. “….You know what August is.”

LexiDriftander Ollie nodded along as the witch spoke, his expression melting from enthusiasm to confusion, and then to pure horror.

“Yeah...I know what August is,” he said guardedly. “I uh, I know all of the months. It’s January, by the way. I’ve been keeping track. It’s not October anymore.”

He glanced at Edomie, recalling how she’d said she didn’t recognize some of the words in his book. Is this what she’d meant? She didn’t know what months were?

jordan.nova Edomie glanced back and forth between the two of them, her eyes wide and brows pushed together. Ollie had turned to her at that last statement. Like he'd said something extremely important and profound. They both were acting like that.

"Wh... what's October?" She said cautiously. She knew the word, at least. Plum wrote it in her journal in front of her counting numbers. But that was the first spot she had seen it. "Is that... is that important?"

LexiDriftander Ollie, even though he'd seen the question in Edomie's eyes before it left her mouth, still had no idea how to answer her.

"It's...it's like...it's a month. Do you know what months are?"

jordan.nova Without meaning to or really being able to help it, Edomie felt her knees curl up to her chest. She wrapped her arms around them and propped her chin there, trying to look like she was making herself comfortable, and not like she was uncomfortable.

It felt a little like talking to Alastair suddenly. Back when she would ask things and he would think she was stupid for not knowing. Everyone in the room knew about it, so why didn't she? What was wrong with her?

"Mmm... no..." she admitted. Her voice wobbled just the tiniest bit. She picked at a stray thread on the knees of her pants. "I don't know... what, uh... those... no."

LexiDriftander “Oh. Edomie.” Ollie’s eyebrows raised as Edomie curled in on herself. “It’s okay if you don’t know. Er, sorry, I...I’m still getting used to, uh, the whole different worlds thing.” He took a longer sip of tea and took another slice of toast.

He scooted his chair closer to Edomie. “It’s really hard to explain, but, uh, it’s pretty much a longer length of time. Most months in my old world had 30 or 31 days. They all have names, and, uh. One of them is October. There’s August, too, and a lot of others.” He stared into his tea, feeling like he wasn’t making any sense, and feeling rather like Miss Plum would laugh at him for his lack of eloquence.

boblins “Months is-“ The witch began, floundered abysmally in the grammar department, and was about to start over when she realised that, wonder of wonders, Oleander had beaten her to the punch. She blinked in stunned silence as the boy uttered the longest sentence she’d heard out of him all morning. No, no, this was definitely the same Ollie she’d been shoving tea at a minute ago. It took all of her concentration to keep her jaw from dropping when he voluntarily took another piece of toast and continued to wrestle with how to explain the concept of months. As if it was the most normal thing in the world.

She halted her scrutiny to chalk the mental toast tally she’d been keeping for Oleander up to a resounding two. It's the little victories.

jordan.nova Edomie tilted her head in Ollie's direction, listening carefully. It wasn't like talking to Alastair. Ollie's voice was very small like Alastair's, but never sharp or mean. He explained it very patiently to her, and he never asked how she hadn't known this to begin with.

"Oh, well..." Edomie's eyes searched the floor momentarily. It still sounded pretty confusing. A little like what she called moons, but she couldn't imagine what someone would want with so many of them. She decided eventually not to press it, and her bright brown eyes flicked back to Ollie with a more excited spark. "Maybe I haven't heard of where you're from at all. What was it like there? Was it amazing? You have to tell me about it."

LexiDriftander Ollie drew his arms closer to his chest clutching the tea and toast closer to his chin. Seeing the look in Edomie’s eyes, Ollie wished he could tell her it was amazing.

“Well,” he began, not even sure where to begin his explanation, “It wasn’t the best. Even...even before. All around the world, people hated each other. There was a lot of fighting, and, uh...separation. Between people.” He didn’t know how to explain his world as he’d left it. Maybe Plum would know more.

boblins “Uh...yeah of course it was amazing? you could just, go get jam?” The witch blurted out, as if it was foolish to even question such an obvious truth.

“I didn’t really do any fighting? I mean, aside from the usual.” She did not elaborate on what “the usual” was. “I was mostly in school doing....school things. Like maths, and tipping juice into Ben Stafford’s notebook because he called me a witch,” she laughed at the irony, “y’know, that kind of rubbish. And then on break I’d go home and-“ and....and....the witch scrunched up her face. What on earth did she go home and do all day? She pictured the front of her old house, concentrating on it as if it would give her some sort of answer. The house, being a house, gave none. She shook her head, deciding to interrogate the stubborn brain-house another day.

“Yeh I’ve changed my mind it was dumb and boring actually.”

LexiDriftander Ollie tilted his head in Plum’s direction, eyes narrowing slightly. “Actually...are, where are you from? Because there weren’t witches in my world.” He cleared his throat. “Well. I mean, a long while ago there was...but, ah...”

Nope, no way he was going to tell Plum about that if she didn’t already know about it.

boblins Oh. Oh no, they were not about to take that route, if the Plum Witch had anything to say about it. “I’m from Wolvercote. And- and that’s what you think. D’you think we just….um….walk around hexing people on our way to the park? Some of us have tact." She retorted, turning defensive. “What about you, I always thought you popped out of Aesops Fables or something. Where're you from?”

LexiDriftander “You think I did?” Oleander asked, trying not to let the imaginary implications cut too deep. “You’re the one who can use magic. And, um, no, I haven’t heard of Wolvercote. I’m from West Virginia. Maybe you’re from a different world entirely, and, and we just happen to have the same months.” He tugged at the sleeves of his coat. Embarrassment burned bright enough for him to feel it on his cheeks.

jordan.nova Edomie quietly sipped her tea, wide eyes flicking between the two of them as they bantered back and forth. It was getting increasingly harder to follow their vocabulary, but she felt like she was collecting the general gist of it.

"Wait, so... where you two came from... was it not like here?" she finally said. Stor'Sweev was very different than Poshi, but mostly in landmarks and population. These two were talking about things she'd never even read about. She turned to Plum, since she had a little more experience with witches than humans. "Plum, I thought you were, like, from a place witches came from. You had humans there too?"

boblins The witch’s eyes lit up. Was that….a touch of indignation in his voice? Plum leaned forward, a devious grin spread across her face. “I’m in England, silly. And you’re from…Virginia? Like America? I- This is like learning that Oliver Twist wore a cowboy hat. Oleander. Ollie. You understand how funny that is right.”

Without giving him a chance to answer, she threw back another gulp of glittering tea and turned towards a very lost Edomie. Were. Were the witches she knew not human? Truth be told, she’d never gotten close enough to other witches to be able to tell. “We’re all humans over there, mostly. There’s prolly fairies 'n elves and whatever, but if they’re there they don't want us pokin' around in their business.”

LexiDriftander Oleander shook his head incredulously as Plum began speaking. His confusion grew the longer she talked, and eventually he couldn’t hold back a “What?”

He shifted forward on his chair and stole another toast. “No, there are not fairies and elves or whatever,” he grumbled. “There’s not, Edomie. I’ve never seen anything like that in real life.” He turned back to Plum. “England? Like, across the ocean?”

jordan.nova Once again the two of them had confused Edomie infinitely more than either of them had answered her question. "Well. Don't feel bad, Ollie, I've never seen... uh, fairies'n elves either."

Edomie's eyes followed Ollie's hand to the stack of toast, and she tried to hide her smile behind her teacup. She had worried at first that he wouldn't even finish his first slice. "What do you mean 'we', Plum? Did humans live near you? Alastair and his witches were always trying to run me off - they hated having humans around. I thought all witches were like that."

boblins The witch started at Edomie as if she’d grown an extra head. “What. What are you talking about. No. I’m human.” She squinted, baffled as to why something so obvious seemed to require any stretch of the imagination, “You two know magic, why is that so weird all of a sudden?”

jordan.nova Edomie's brows pushed together. "Oh, you - wait. I thought... you were a witch?" Her hands dropped into her lap, sloshing a tiny bit of tea onto her lap. She glared at a distant spot on the floor, her lip curled into a baffled sneer. "Wait, can - can you be both? Can a witch also be human?"

LexiDriftander "I can't actually use magic, no," Ollie said. He shook his head. "I really don't think we're from the same world, Miss Plum. There's not magic in America, and as far as I could tell, there wasn't any in Europe, either."

boblins The witch gawked at her guests in disbelief. This conversation was getting nowhere. In fact, it was going backwards, something she would’ve been grateful for a good half an hour earlier. “Um yeah? Why wouldn’t I be? S’like a job, isn’it? An- and what do you mean, you’re not magical? He’s ‘not magical’.” she scoffed. So Oleander could crack a joke after all. Life was full of surprises today. “Pff, yeh. Right. Edomie, are you hearing this?”

jordan.nova Edomie startled when Plum said her name. She gave a confused frown and glanced at Ollie for help, entirely unsure what Plum expected her to say. "Uh, I haven't seen... you're the only one of us I've seen do magic, Plum. Well, maybe Sweev... but I think Sweev is just Sweev."

boblins Plum’s teasing laughter died in her throat as the penny teetered on the edge, wobbled, and finally dropped. “Wait, you’re actually not magical.” She searched Edomie’s face, it was apparent that she wasn’t joking in the slightest. “And you’re not magical. So it’s just...meee...” A considerably more nervous chuckle bubbled out of her as she trailed off. “Great. Well. Guess we couldn’t form a coven to boost our god punching chances or anything….We’d be- we’d be more of an un-coven…..an unven, heheh….if anything, so that’s off the table.”

She cleared her throat, making an effort to backtrack and stave off the sense of unease that had crept back in. “So uh. What’s this Alistair guy’s beef? Why did he tell you to clear off? Breaking and entering?” It was a halfhearted jab, and she didn’t mean it. She was more interested in the name mentioned. Alistair. She’d seen it during her discovery of Edomie’s cottage, in a journal that was, to be fair, laying out in the middle of the open. Anyone could stroll past and accidentally read a page out of it. Or two. Or twenty five.

LexiDriftander “So...you’ve been able to use magic your whole life...” Ollie murmured. He knew the conversation was past that now, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that Plum was hiding something. “No...there’s no way.”

Well. Unless.

No, no. He didn’t need to go down that particular rabbit hole again. His eyes flicked lazily to Edomie, awaiting her answer.

jordan.nova Edomie's eyes went to her lap, and she pouted at her now empty teacup. "Yeah. I guess so," she muttered darkly. "He always acted like I wasn't allowed to be there, and I was ruining everything just by showing up. I didn't go there on purpose - I never mean to go anywhere."

She sighed loudly and yanked some tangled curls out of her face. "But, I dunno. He wasn't so mean after a while... We got to be... sorta... friends?" Her voice trailed away, getting steadily softer. "So... maybe he got over it... I'm... not really sure..."

LexiDriftander "He doesn't sound very friendly," Ollie observed absentmindedly. He set his empty tea cup on the barrel and went for yet another toast. Was it his fourth? He'd lost track. "Are you sure you want him, you know, here?"

He regretted the words almost as soon as they came out of his mouth. If Edomie thought this person was her friend, he didn't need to question her.

Still, something about the way she described him... didn't give him a very good impression.

boblins “You don’t sound very friendly.” The witch shot back, purely for the sake of it. “Hang on, go where? His house?” The notion that this wasn’t the first time Edomie had trespassed her way into a breakfast didn’t feel totally outside the realm of possibility, but it definitely explained some things.

jordan.nova Edomie's eyes flicked quickly between them both, suddenly extremely self conscious. She grabbed another piece of toast as well, so she could have something to do with her hands. "No, not his - well... he didn't like me to show up there either. But, uh... he didn't like me being in Poshi. The, um - that's the world I landed on before... I came here..."

Edomie tore a bit of her crust off, lost interest in eating it, and dropped it into her empty cup instead. "He's, uh... yeah, I guess he was never a very good friend..." Her shoulders sagged and she felt her lip tremble. "But, he was all I had. I miss him. And I'm... I'm worried about him..."

LexiDriftander Oleander reached out to touch Edomie on the shoulder, hoping to offer some sort of comfort. He narrowed his eyes at Plum for her comment, but didn’t engage in her jab.

“Well, if he does make it here, I don’t think he’ll have trouble finding you.”

jordan.nova Edomie managed to give Ollie a wobbly smile. "Thanks, Ollie. I... really hope so."

boblins “And if he does, he’ll wind up at the mountains. They always do.” The witch added, darkly. Who knew the reason. Aside from Aldewhat’sit being the largest landmark for miles around, nothing else about this geological marvel looked inviting. That hadn’t been enough to deter anyone, apparently, as wanderers, scholars, and adventurers flocked to start a settlement at its base. No, not flocked. Ended up there. As if they were supposed to. It was the jaws of Oleander’s monster and they’d built a town on its teeth.

Her own appetite finally sated, the witch leaned back against the counter, slouching as she gave into the post-breakfast haze. “Anyway, he’s on our turf now. We were here first, so if he’s got a problem with that, ‘e’s got another thing coming.”

LexiDriftander “Was I...the first one to go on the mountain?” Oleander asked in a quiet voice. He hid the end of his sentence behind his toast.

A sudden chill hung over his limbs, weighing him down.

jordan.nova Edomie smiled politely at Plum, assuming it was likely meant to be reassuring. She sounded like she was already prepared to fight Alastair, and Edomie certainly didn't want that.

Her heart sank, and her lip wobbled into a frown. "Thanks, Plum... but, I, uh... he wasn't anywhere around when I showed up... and I haven't seen... if - if he doesn't just show up... I don't know how - what I can -"

A sharp sob cut Edomie off, and she bit into her knuckle hard to stifle the noise. She squeezed her eyes shut so the little pinpricks of tears wouldn't roll down her cheeks. If she just didn't think about it too hard, it didn't hurt so bad. They had more important things to figure out right now anyway.

She took one more shuddering gasp and pulled it together.

"I thought it was your mountain, Ollie," Edomie said, raising her voice purposefully and turning to meet his gaze. "The Warden acted like everything up there was yours. Even - ...even the curse."

boblins Instinctually, the witch started to get up, hesitated, and started to ease back down before reconsidering her reconsideration. Trapped in a position that truly was the worst of both worlds, she aborted both decisions to face more pressing issues. This girl was crying- she was crying- they were having a perfectly nice time for a whole gleaming couple of minutes and now- What was she supposed to do with this? She didn’t know what to do with this-

“Stop-“ the Plum Witch said unhelpfully, from her un-seated position. It was almost a question, a plead more than anything. “I-“ Come on. Use words. Better words. “I- so what? The Warden talks a load of rot, and you know it! He’s too busy being high n’ mighty to know anything about Ollie’s situation.”

LexiDriftander Ollie flinched as Edomie cried, his hand sliding down her arm to cover her hand. He wasn't in the proper mental state to provide any other form of comfort, though his heart ached to see his friend so upset.

"I'm just wondering..." Oleander sighed. "If...someone else had gone inside the mountain first, would...would Kaithol have chosen them? Why did he pick me?" His voice petered out into a whisper.

jordan.nova Edomie startled a little at Plum's reaction, and she rubbed her fist against one eye to wipe stray tears away. The last thing she wanted to do was make Plum upset with her. And this wasn't about her. She came here for Ollie. "You're right, yeah. He doesn't know anything about it," she agreed with a nod. "I guess... we don't really either..."

Edomie turned her hand and grabbed onto Ollie's when she felt it lightly rest across her fingers. She stared at him very carefully, very gently. "Didn't Kaithol... ever... did he say why he picked you? Picked you for what - what does he want with you?"

LexiDriftander "He never said why he wanted me," Ollie said. He set his toast down so he could busy himself with a sip of tea.

Why did Kaithol want him? It didn't make sense. Wouldn't it be easier to believe this was all in his head? That the only danger to him was himself?

"He just wants me to build. That's all he ever wants. And, and he wants me to stay on the mountain."

boblins The witch eased herself up onto her knees, cocking her head slowly. “….What did he offer you?” She chewed on the inside of her lip contemplatively. Power was the go to, obviously. Or knowledge, but that led back into power again. Maybe it was a purpose? The chance to be a part of something big? Or maybe it was none of these things. She studied Ollie keenly, still absentmindedly worrying away at her lip. What exactly would someone like Oleander want to get out of all of this? What made this boy tick?

LexiDriftander Ollie furrowed his brow and chewed at his own lip. Was there supposed to be some kind of exchange?

"I...get to live on the mountain," he mumbled.

boblins “And?” The witch looked thoroughly unimpressed. Anyone with eyeballs could see that mountain life wasn’t doing Oleander any favours. “C’mon Ollieboy. Seriously. What’s in it for you?”

jordan.nova Edomie narrowed her eyes, brow beginning to furrow in concern. "Yeah, Ollie, he... doesn't seem very nice to you. And you're-" she hesitated, and leaned towards him to lower her voice a little, eyes darting up to the ceiling for a moment. "-you're not happy there. Or you wouldn't have asked me for help."

Something twisted in Edomie's stomach. Her eyes widened slightly. "Oh. He's... you don't get anything. But you said bad things happen if... you don't..."

LexiDriftander Oleander ducked his head and averted his gaze to the little vase Plum had replaced on the Sweev Shrine. He blew out a breath and closed his eyes for a few moments. Absentmindedly, he flexed and unflexed his hand in Edomie's grip.

"....at first, I just didn't care." He swallowed, paused, and then continued. "He just told me what to do. It-- It wasn't...any different from before, and I figured, you know, I have nothing better to do here... But... then, I realized he would get angry when I didn't do things, you know, exactly right. I would have to fix them. I would have to."

His voice softened. His words melded together.

"So, I did. I just did it, without caring about it for the longest time, because I still thought, eventually, I would be going back."

boblins “Oh. So it’s a threat.” She shouldn’t’ve been surprised. “Well,” she began, getting to her feet and starting to clear away her plate. “What do we say to threats?” She raised her eyebrows expectantly towards the other two, as if they were going to recite it along with her, before answering her own question with a juvenile grin. “Things that get us into trouble with our mums.”

Going back. That’s something she was trying to do. Was…still trying to do. Wasn’t she? Wasn’t she?

She set her little pile of dishes on the counter with a decisive clack, halting that train of thought before it left the station. “Why do you have to do this? Is Big Baby up there all talk, or is he actually followin' through?”

jordan.nova "Storms," Ollie shrugged. "He...I can tell when he's unhappy. Just... I just know."

He searched the room for somewhere new to look that wasn't Edomie or Plum. How could he explain it to them? Plum, at least, didn't seem to understand.

boblins “And what’s so bad about him being angry? Good! Let him! Let him stew! See where that gets him.”

Wait. Maybe there was something there.

“Think.” She said eagerly, “Use that little brain of yours that I know you have.” She continued to grin, but there was no hint of a joke left in it. It was a challenge. “Why is he so angry when you stop working. When you stop thinking about him. If he’s so sure he’s got you, why does he throw tantrums and storms all over the place the second you’re not playing his game? Maybe he’s scared,” the Plum Witch stopped to take a much needed gulp of air. “Maybe he’s scared, because that’s all he can do: storm.”

She fixed the boy with a piercing gaze, trying to pry out that side of him she’d been so delighted with earlier. “You, Oleander, can outlast a storm.”

jordan.nova "Yeah - yeah!" Edomie cheered, suddenly excited by plums energy. She gripped Ollie's hand a little harder, shaking his arm excitedly. "Ollie, you've dealt with SO much worse than a bad storm. He can't keep you up there forever. Maybe he knows that."

LexiDriftander A flicker of that spark lit Oleander's eyes for the briefest moment. Then it burned out again as he sighed the fire away.

"That's your plan, Miss Plum? I just deal with it?"

Just deal with it. Don't talk about it. Pretend it isn't there. It's easy, isn't it?

He actually scoffed. "Like I haven't heard that before."

jordan.nova Edomie's eyes narrowed at him. "NO, Ollie -" she suddenly snapped. "She's saying you don't have to deal with it. If you just - if you just leave he couldn't STOP you! What's- I mean- what's he gonna do? Come down off the mountain and get you?"

She doubted the words as soon as they left her mouth. She knew better than that. She had already paid for mistaking what powerful, controlling order-keepers were capable of doing when they started to feel betrayed and vengeful.

Edomie looked to Plum for help, her gaze almost desperate. "Right? We've fought... worse has come after us than Kaithol. We can handle him. Right?"

boblins “Um right? Thank you?” The witch agreed, matching Edomie’s irritation. “Not- ’you just deal with it’!” She said in a poor imitation of Ollie’s voice, rapping a teaspoon on the counter for good measure. “Did you not hear a single word I said? Look-” the spoon was obstinately jabbed towards the mountain. “‘Just deal with it’ is marching back up there and doing as you’re told. ‘Just deal with it’ is stacking blackstone in frozen sleet halfway up a cliff while this high and mighty thundercloud screams at you from a mystical deckchair!“

“I say we leave him to deal with it. Leave him to crumble in his own miserable tower. If he’s going to have a problem, he’ll have to go n’have it on our terms.”

LexiDriftander Oleander let go of Edomie’s hand and stood up with such force that his chair tipped over backwards. He fixed the two of them with a desperate glare.

“He doesn’t have to come down from the mountain! He won’t crumble in his tower!” He jabbed a finger at his own head. “He’s in my head! He comes with me wherever I go! It doesn’t matter how far away I run, it doesn’t matter how long I wait, he is always. With me.”

His hand fell limp at his side. He took a step to the side, giving himself some space.

“I will have to deal with him. Wherever I go, I will have to deal with him.”

boblins The spoon clattered to the floor as Plum rose to meet him, taking two forceful steps in his direction. “Then make him pay. Make him feel as trapped with you as you are with him.” She hissed through her teeth, face twisted into something between a grin and a grimace. “Make him pay and thrive.”

jordan.nova Edomie jumped to her feet as well, half to join Plum and half to put herself between the witch and Ollie. She felt a little like Plum was one flash of rage from just jumping on Ollie. Her hand reached towards Ollie, braced like she might need to catch him, but she didn't grab for him.

"Okay, okay wait. Ollie, you said he chose you. Cause you went up the mountain first." Edomie babbled quickly, mentally counting the moments she had to reason before one of them exploded. "Something had to happen to get him in your head. Maybe we can push him back out."

Edomie's gaze flicked to Plum with a nod of confirmation. "Plum's right. We'll make him pay. He's not gonna get away with how he's hurting you."

LexiDriftander Oleander gritted his teeth, overwhelmed and on the verge of collapse. It was all too familiar to him, and the urge to give up tugged at his limbs like thick swamp water. He wobbled and sat back down, his meager fire already out of fuel.

“I want to. I want to fight him.” He pinched the fabric of his sleeves and pulled at the cuffs. “But it feels so much...So much like before. They’d always ask, you know, ‘where’d the voices come from?’ ‘When did it start?’ ‘What caused them?’ But I don’t know. I didn’t have an answer then, and I don’t have one now.”

“The...the truth is...” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and hunching his shoulders. “I don’t even remember when he started to talk to me. It’s already hard to tell which thoughts are my own. When I first arrived here, I didn’t care about...well, anything. Kaithol could have been speaking to me from the very beginning. I don’t remember. There was no spectacle. No ritual. No revelation. He just. Was there. Like the others.”

boblins “And? Nobody knew anything the Prologue, and we- we tore its sorry plans a p a r t.” The witch’s eyes glinted with something….fond, as if she was reminiscing on golden days gone by and not baby’s first apocalypse. She snapped out of it, tilting herself to the side to get on the same level as the stooped Oleander.

“What if you don’t need an answer to fight, Ollie. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got one voice or a hundred voices that you can’t give dates and times for. It matters that we’ve got them here, now.” She leaned in a little further, chuckling darkly as she spoke.

“And I can guarantee I can shout louder than em.”

LexiDriftander Oleander tried and failed to hide a snicker at Plum’s statement. He had no doubt Plum could shout louder than Kaithol.

At that thought, a thin smile pulled at his lips. The Plum Witch, who spent her days studying magic and powers far beyond his comprehension, who dodged questions about herself like an enderman evading an arrow, who’d hid in the rafters to avoid talking to him this morning, was offering to help him fight his ‘personal demons.’ The very same demons she’d claimed to have no hold over.

She’d offered him tea. She’d forced him to eat toast (very good toast, in fact). She’d spent the last five minutes convincing him his situation wasn’t hopeless.

The Plum Witch.

He met her green-glinted gaze and couldn’t hold himself back. Following an overwhelming urge, and definitely against his better judgement, he stood and gently wrapped his arms around Plum, enclosing her in a loose embrace.

“...thank you.”

He had friends now. He had people who could help him fight, who could encourage him. They talked to him about it, instead of telling him to hide it.

For Edomie and Plum, Ollie could not have been more grateful.

jordan.nova Ollie's thin, genuine smile made Edomie's heart flutter. When he stood up and had the nerve - the nerve - to hug The Plum Witch of all people, Edomie couldn't help a little excited squeal that slipped out of her.

She bounced in place, then she couldn't help herself. She threw her arms around both of them, squeezing her friends in the tightest hug she could.

Edomie couldn't come up with any words. Not any real ones, anyway - just an ecstatic squealing sound that bubbled up out of her again and got buried in Ollie's shoulder when she pressed her face close to him. For the first time, she felt less anxious about what they were supposed to do to help Ollie, much less how they were going to do it.

Plum sparked something like hope in him, and she riled it up in Edomie too. They could do this. They were going to be okay.

boblins Whatever the Plum Witch was about to say next died on her lips as two arms circled around her. She went rigid, all pending strategies, all brazen challenges gone in an instant as her heartbeat pounded dully in her ears. The witch swallowed thickly, stubbornly trying to keep her knees from buckling as a second pair of arms joined the first.

She was shaking. Why was she shaking. Stop it. Stopit now. But she wouldn’t, she just stood there in a stupid tangle of limbs and shook and shook and shook. She dug her teeth fiercely into her lip in an effort to stop a slew of pitiful little sounds from slipping past her throat. And clutched desperately back at Oleander’s boney arms as her vision turned wet and blurry.

Thanking her lucky stars for Edomie’s much firmer grip holding her upright, she opened her mouth to acknowledge Ollie’s own gratitude with a watery click, “Shut up.”

LexiDriftander Ollie sputtered with laughter when Edomie joined the hug, but fell silent when he noticed how Plum was shaking. He loosened his grip further, afraid he’d hurt her somehow. But then she latched onto him like she was struggling to stand upright, and he pulled her a little closer to keep her from falling over.

Wait...was she crying?

“M...miss Plum? Are you okay?”

boblins Plum said nothing, too focused on steadily forcing breaths through her nose, too focused on everything suddenly being far too close and far too tight and gripping onto the claustrophobia and holding it as tight as she possibly could. An unhinged kind of security, she thought, vaguely questioning the familiarity of that statement.

jordan.nova At Ollie's question, at the edge of concern for the witch in his voice, Edomie shifted so she could nudge Plum's shoulder with her forehead.

"I knew you'd be perfect to help, Plum," she said, in a way she hoped sounded half as grateful as she felt. "I told Ollie you'd help us. You're great, Plum, really, you're so great."

boblins “Okayokay that’s enough you wet blankets, geddoff.” The witch croaked wetly, shoving Edomie’s forehead off of her shoulder with a clammy hand, and attempting to worm her way out of the pile. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision, thankful that her constant flow of “tears” masked the appearance of any real ones.

LexiDriftander Oleander released Plum as soon as she started making her escape. He didn't stare at her, and he pretended like everything was fine, as he often did with Plum. He sat down in the chair again and offered a smile.

"Thanks for breakfast, Miss Plum. And, and thank you, both of you, for offering to help me. I...I feel much better knowing I'm not doing this alone."

jordan.nova Edomie wobbled on her heels when Plum pushed her away, but she allowed the two to untangle from her.

She grinned down at Ollie. "Of course, Ollie! Whatever you need. We're a -" she paused, and her grin took on an absurd giddiness to it. "...team. We're a team now."

Edomie tried to shake off her daze and beamed at Plum. "Oh- yeah! Thanks for breakfast! Like I said, I'll pay you back with lunch at the cottage sometime."

boblins The witch rolled her eyes to the ceiling, the onslaught of sentimental pleasantries pulling her out of whatever that moment was. “Yeh, yeh, whatever y’babies.” She retorted with a softer smile, no real malice behind her grumbling. “Now get out of my house.”

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