The Midnight Moon [ONC 2024]

Chapter 3: The Case of The Missing Witch

To this day, I maintain I had no choice but to take the case. They had already driven away three potential clients, and sent home the old gentleman with the missing goose (which I hadn't known about until they told me). By the end of the day, my reputation would have been in tatters. By the end of the week, I would have been ruined.

When Tomasina, the Crow and the Cat were once again settled in my office, I asked if anyone wanted tea.

'I'll make it,' Tomasina said, standing up so fast that I didn't have time to tell her no, thank you, this is my establishment and I sort out the refreshments (in lieu of a clerk, at any rate).

'So what do I call you?' I addressed the question to the Cat which was sitting quite comfortably before the fire now, whilst the Crow was perched on the window sill, admiring the view outside.

The cat reluctantly turned from the hearth. 'My name is Isabella, but most people call me Bella.'

'I am Jack,' the Crow said, his gaze fixed on something on The Green. Perhaps the Witch's cottage, I mused.

Soon Tomasina returned with a tray laden with tea, and a small basket of biscuits I had been saving for that afternoon. The young woman must have gone through my cupboards, I thought, aggrieved.

'Why don't you have a clerk? Don't all people in offices have clerks and scribes and archivists and such like?' she said, placing the tray carefully on my desk.

'I have yet to replace the last one.'

'How come?'

'Because she went through my cupboards and helped herself to my best biscuits.'

Tomasina coloured, but did not offer to return them to the kitchen. Instead, she poured four cups of tea, passed three of them round the assembled group, and then took her own - and three biscuits - back to the chair she had sat in before.

'First, we drink our tea,' I said to the room. 'Then you will all tell me everything you know. I will make some notes, and probably ask a lot of questions, which I expect you to answer honestly and to the best of your ability. Everything you say will remain between us. Do you understand?'

The three clients agreed. Then I pulled out a couple of sheets of parchment from the drawer and moved my ink pen and bottle closer. At the top of the first sheaf I wrote, The Case of The Missing Witch, Mistaria Heath.

'Go on, then,' I encouraged. 'Let us begin.'

And they spoke at length, and I made a lot of notes.

Mistaria Heath was a born witch, though she only became a professional one on the death of her mother, who was the town witch before her.

(At this point, I should quickly explain that a town could only really sustain the one witch, not only because the demand was not usually high enough to warrant more than one, but also competition in the market brought out the competition between the witches - and that was bad for everyone.)

Mistaria specialised in charms, spells, tonics, potions and herbs, and as far as anyone knew, she had never received any complaints about her witchcraft. Within the magical elements of Morteton society, her craft was well-respected and she was held in high esteem.

'What was she working on most recently?' I asked.

'A dispersion spell,' Bella answered.

Jack added, 'An accumulation of negative energy had occurred in someone's house, and it needed banishing.'

'Is that what you were helping with?'

'Yes,' they both answered at once, though it was Bella who continued. 'Mistaria cast the spell that turned us into her familiars. When dusk fell last night we went to the house in question. Our job was two-fold. The first was to ensure that the charms had been used correctly. They had. Then we were to wait and stand guard to ensure the energy didn't decide to try and counter the magic. But nothing manifested and the negativity faded until it had completely gone. At this point, we left. It was perhaps around one hour past midnight.'

'Did you return to the cottage?'

It was Jack's turn to speak. 'Yes. Like always. Mistaria waits up for us. We arrive through the back garden, and she is waiting for us in the kitchen. I usually fly up to the window where she can see me from her herb table. Then she lets us in. She immediately breaks the familiar spell, and we regain our human form. After that, we have a small meal together and tell her how her witchcraft fared.'

'But that didn't happen last night?'

'No,' Bella said sadly. 'Jack flew up to the window, but Mistaria wasn't there. Between us, we looked through all the windows and searched the garden, but there was no-one there. The house was shut up and empty.'

'And you can't think of any reason why that would be the case? What would happen in an emergency?'

'Whether an emergency arose or not, she would not have gone without breaking the familiar spell. The longer the spell is cast, the more danger it is to us.'

'She wouldn't have gone anywhere without breaking the spell,' Jack echoed, adding his insistence to Bella's. 'If we remain too long as familiars...we will stay this way forever.'

'Mistaria wouldn't do that to them.' These were the first words spoken by Tomasina. 'The friendship between a witch and her familiars is sacred.'

I put my pen down for a moment, and reviewed my notes. It did look like there was a case to answer after all. So where had Mistaria got to?

'What did you do once you realised Mistaria was not at the cottage?'

'There was only one place we could go, only one place where someone knew us and knew the gravity of the situation. There are a great many benefits to being a form shifter, and plenty of benefits of being a familiar.' Naturally curious, I wondered what those were, but said nothing for fear of offending either of the familiars or committing a breach of etiquette I did not know about. 'However,' Bella continued, 'being taken seriously by those outside of our circle is not one of them.'

'So you terrified Tomasina all night in the hope that in the morning she would come to me on your behalf.'

'Yes,' Jack said, with a bob of his head.

'We didn't terrify her. We were upset, as you can now appreciate, I'm sure,' Bella commented. Then turning to look at Tomasina, the cat said, 'Are you really sure you're cut out for witchcraft, my dear? You really are too sensitive.'

Tomasina sighed. And although I was loath to admit it, I found myself agreeing with the cat.

At that juncture, the door to the agency opened and someone stepped into the hall. I stood to see who it was and what they wanted, but Tomasina told me to continue with what we were doing. She would handle it.

'I want to see the cottage,' I said to Bella and Jack. 'Can we get in?'

The familiars exchanged a glance. 'We're not sure,' they said in unison.

'It's a witch's cottage.' Jack explained patiently, as if it was such a silly question to ask.

'Meaning?'

'It's wrapped in charms and spells.' Bella's tail swished. I was beginning to notice that happened whenever she thought someone wasn't quite intelligent enough to grasp a very easy point.

Perhaps it was a silly question, I pondered. After all, if it had been as straightforward as turning the door handle, they would have got Tomasina to do it, or for that matter, any one of the crowd who had gathered that morning on The Green could have gone in to check nothing was amiss, and they hadn't.

'Still, we need to try,' I said to the room, as the front door closed and Tomasina returned, placing a small handwritten note on the desk. I chanced a quick glance at it and noticed how neat and legible her handwriting was. I had assumed that she, like at least two-thirds of the town, was illiterate.

'Try what?' the young woman asked.

'To get into the cottage. I need to try and determine if I can whether any foul play has occurred, or if Mistaria Heath went wherever she has gone by her own free will.'

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Chapter word count: 1367

Story word count: 3859