#one of five

Magical plagues are a lot like regular ones. In the past, they were thought to be one and the same: random acts of divinity or revenge or unseen evils. We only isolated the difference much later between magic and mortal things, mortal weakness and magical fickleness. Witches can’t catch colds, but they can get things like Red Slipper-- the illness that makes you dance until you collapse or worse. 

Red Slipper wasn’t something you could catch by breath or blood or all the tiny beasts we eventually witnessed under microscopes. Entire villages plugged their ears with wax when Red Slipper was passing through for anyone who hears the tune will succumb and start warbling the song themselves. And dance and dance while their loved ones watch on and the ground soaks red.

Have some roses (I’ve been out there watering and feeding and weeding them this year. Once it cools off I’ll trim them).