Mutante: Chapter 27
Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs
To begin the potion, she first had to cleanse the cauldron. Fortunately, as the cauldron was self-cleaning, the magic for that came from the cauldron and not from her. But once everything but her blood was added in, starting the fire was—even with that small spell, she was nearly as tired as she’d been before her nap.
Thomas agreed to keep track of the 20 minutes and now they just had to wait.
“What now? Maybe you should lie down again,” Robert suggested.
“I’d rather spend time with you, but you may be right.” Trying to look as though she wasn’t on the verge of collapse, she made her way back to the hammock and attempted to recline gracefully.
Almost before she could credit it, Robert was back up. “Thomas says we just have 5 minutes, so you’d probably better come back.”
Rosie feigned wakefulness, despite having drifted off. “Of course.” Her head felt like it was stuffed full of sea grapes, so reading through the spell again would probably be a good idea.
Thomas once more studied her when she arrived. “You are quite pale, Miss Rose. Are you certain you can perform this spell?”
Rosie pulled herself up to her full height. “I can’t guarantee success, but I have to try. I’m sure I’ll be fine, and even if I’m not, Robert is here to get the potion to Grandma.”
“Madam Essie would never forgive me if you gave your life for hers,” Thomas said fiercely.
“No, but she would forgive you if I gave my life willingly for Aquaria. I doubt it will come to that though.”
Robert eyed her. “If Thomas is worried—”
Rosie waved his objection aside. “If I had more time to rest, we could discuss it further. However, I don’t. I’ve already used our extra time resting and dealing with Rina’s spell. Besides, the potion needs to be completed now—it’s not like we can wait around.”
“I—are you sure, though?” He grabbed the vial of her blood and clenched it in his fist. “I don’t want—we can’t lose you. What if Rina has other traps? It would be ridiculous if you gave your life for a spell.”
Rosie held his gaze, wishing that her fatigue was less obvious. She couldn’t not do the spell. Maybe she would have preferred to hold off. Maybe it wasn’t exactly safe. But there was no other choice. And if it didn’t work, well, they would at least be safe here for a little while.
“Robert, you know that I would never choose to leave you and Thomas. I’m not doing this to prove anything. I—both our families will be at risk if Rina has her way. We can’t let her win. Let me do this. I can do this.” I hope.
Slowly, he handed over the vial of blood. Rosie suppressed a sigh of relief. For a moment there, she had thought he would choose her definite safety over the hope of saving Aquaria and their families. His care lit a warm glow in her, but still . . . . They didn’t exactly have time for it right now.
“How long do I have left, Thomas?”
“One minute,” the mirror replied promptly.
Rosie took a deep breath, trying to remember exactly how it had felt to fight Rina’s magic. She would need every ounce of determination to pull this one off. But she could do it. She was a mutante—even if the circumstances didn’t seem in her favor, she changed circumstances simply by being there. So . . . .
“Now, Miss Rose,” Thomas said sharply.
Rosie unstoppered the vial and poured the blood into the cauldron, stirred it five times counter-clockwise and twice clockwise as the directions stated, and then began the spell.
“Take this potion, make it strong.
Don’t let it take all day long.”
The exhaustion crept forward as though it were consuming her bones from the inside out. She pushed it away.
“Wake the drinker from enchanted sleep
Safe from harm or danger, them do keep.”
Rosie grabbed hold of the counter, her vision beginning to blur. She blinked her eyes and willed them to focus.
“Sound in life and sound in limb.”
Only three more lines left. Her head began to pound and she almost couldn’t hear her own voice past it. Robert put a hand on her shoulder.
“Let them wake with vigor and vim.”
The power that had felt so great after the fireworm’s blessing dwindled, the merest drop left in her. Maybe she couldn’t do it. What if she gave her life and the spell didn’t even work? She needed more power—now.
The ocean.
Rosie glanced over at Robert’s hand, still solid on her shoulder. Maybe it would be a fate worse than death. But she refused to let the mistake she had made ten years ago harm him, doom Aquaria, or destroy their families. Rosie clenched her jaw for the barest moment and then sent out a plea to the ocean, begging it to let her draw from its strength.
The potion stopped bubbling. The fire stopped moving. Robert’s hand grew rigid on her shoulder. Rosie gulped and tried to open her mouth for the last couplet, but couldn’t pry her jaws open.
Darkness swept over her, and all at once she was alone in front of an enormous presence, hanging in some other space. For a moment, her heart quailed, and she considered rescinding her request. But no, she had to go through with this—for Robert and Thomas, if nothing else.
Her mouth still refused to work, so she sent out a searching thought towards whatever was lurking in the darkness. “Hello?”
The glowing outline of an old man’s face appeared in front of her, bits of it shifting with the ocean’s movement, long beard and shaggy eyebrows shimmering. “What have we here?” an echoing voice boomed at her.
Rosie’s soul shrank from that presence. “I have come to ask for help from the ocean.”
The face laughed. “The ocean is just a thing, my child—I am the ruler of the ocean. You must have meant me or I would not have heard your cry.” He studied her. “It has been some time since anyone magical has requested my assistance. I had begun to believe I was free of such pesky requests.”
Lacking any idea of what to do, Rosie fell back on the social graces her mother had drummed into her since before she could remember. “I apologize, sir. I did not mean to address you incorrectly. What would you like me to call you?”
“The ocean is fine. You could not pronounce my name anyway,” he said indifferently.
“Very well, Mr. Ocean.”
The face shifted, and a chuckle broke loose in her mind. “What is your request, child?”
“I need to finish a restorative potion to save my grandmother.”
Mr. Ocean’s empty eye sockets narrowed, and her soul shuddered.
“Such a potion hardly needs my assistance,” he said, annoyance lacing his tone. “Unless, of course, you are an extremely incompetent witch.”
Rosie grimaced. “Extremely untrained, sir. Maybe I am incompetent—I wouldn’t know. I just learned that I have magic yesterday after an encounter with a fireworm.”
“Ah yes, I see the fireworm’s blessing on you. Curiouser and curiouser. And you are a mutante. What brought you to such a place of requesting my assistance? Were you not warned of the dangers?”
As Rosie explained exactly how she had concluded that calling on an unknown entity was indeed the safest option, despite the threat of a “fate worse than death,” she studied the creature.
Mr. Ocean’s “face” appeared to be made entirely of plants and animals, all being held in place by glowing ocean currents. It was as though it were manifesting entirely for her benefit. Then again, they didn’t seem to be in a physical place—at least, she was no longer on the verge of collapse and the parts of herself she could see were a bit translucent. Hopefully, this wasn’t a terrible mistake.
However, the more she talked about the situation and about her grandmother, the more she realized she might have made such a choice even if Aquaria hadn’t been at risk. She did love her grandmother. The love might have been buried under the years of regret and hurt, but it was still there. So much of who she was today had come from Grandma Essie: Would she have just given in and become her mother’s puppet without having had the contrast of how Grandma Essie had treated her? Would she have learned kindness towards others, regardless of what favors they could offer?
Traipsing through the kelp forest and fighting sea monsters, gaining the fireworm’s blessing, and talking to Mr. Ocean were terrifying, but . . . maybe she was built for adventure. She might have withered away from sheer boredom if she hadn’t gotten a bit of Grandma Essie’s adventure-lust and her magic.
Bottom line: she loved her Grandma and wasn’t ready to give up on her without a fight.
Mr. Ocean’s face shifted as she finished her story.
“You are an unusual one,” he mused. “Most of the time, people call on me for their own power, not out of love.” His eyebrows furrowed. “And you are a mutante . . . I have not encountered one of your kind for many generations. Perhaps . . . .” The face, large enough to swallow her whole, drew nearer, and Rosie forced herself to remain still, despite the trickle of terror down her back. She lifted her chin, unwilling to be cowed.
He chuckled. “Yes, I will give you a bit of my power on the condition that you owe me a favor. You may be just the right size for the coming storm.”
Rosie blinked. “Coming storm?”
Mr. Ocean’s face shifted, the currents reversing directions several times. “Nothing for you to worry about. Yet.” A small snail shell dislodged itself, and another current floated it towards Rosie and settled just below her throat. Tendrils climbed out from the shell and wove around her neck, creating a sort of claspless, living necklace.
“This will ensure that you have the power you need and that I can find you when it is time for my favor.”
Rosie suppressed a shudder. A deal with the devil indeed. But it was the ocean, right? The ocean might be heartless at times, but it was still overall life-giving. “Thank you.”
“You may change your mind about that, but you are welcome, child. Good luck with your grandmother, and tell your friends not to worry about the aftereffects.”
“The aftereffects?” Rosie exclaimed.
“The cost of channeling my energy.”
With a jolt, she was slammed back into her body and nearly crashed to her knees. She grabbed hold of the counter, her fingernails digging in as she scrambled to regain her wits and keep from passing out.
“Don’t forget to finish the spell,” Mr. Ocean’s voice advised inside her mind. “And hold onto the love you have for your grandmother—it will keep you from going awry.”
A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I know I did 🙂 Thanks for reading! If you have any thoughts about how to strengthen the story, pass them along 🙂 See you on Tuesday!
