A Life for a Life

Adair owned an apothecary shop in Abhainn, one of the Elvin realms, though she herself wasn’t an elf. Actually, Jess had no idea what or who Adair really was, only that she had been around forever, never seemed to age, and had the purest inner light Jess had ever sensed in another person. And she was a friend.

Abhainn was one of Jess’s favorite places to go. There were multiple other realms that anyone could go to if they knew where to look and knew the spell to get in, though that didn’t mean you should go to some of them. Abhainn, however, was a place of light and water. Literally. There was water everywhere and Abhainn itself meant “river”. The streets had about two feet of crystal-clear water with moving currents. To travel them, all you had to do was stand in it and the current would pick you up, kind of like the moving sidewalks you see in airports. To change direction, a person simply had to lift their foot and the current would let go until they reached the next current and stopped moving again.

There were also sidewalks, but those only had a couple of inches of standing water and no currents. They were meant for walking, same as any other sidewalk. It just happened to have water on it. The water stayed at the perfect temperature, no matter who you were or where you came from, as the magic adjusted it to the traveler’s needs. Jess was often amused to see one of the creatures from the frozen lands of Athlis moving through the streets with a ring of ice around their legs, while half-naked Elvin children played in the warm waters right next to them. Most of the businesses and buildings had simple spells on them so that as soon as you walked through the door, you were dry. No one was ever uncomfortable and the water somehow never got dirty.

Jess reached the gate to Abhainn, a large painted mural under a city bridge depicting a waterfall and several dancing nymphs. Humans commented on it as a pretty piece of graffiti and had no idea what it really was. Checking that no one was looking, Jess whispered a spell of power and the gate shimmered into existence. The gates to the faerie lands all looked the same, a tall glowing arch made of two trees with their branches meeting in the middle. The only thing that changed was the color. The arch to Abhainn, unsurprisingly, glowed light blue.

Jess stepped through the arch and felt the water swirling around her lower legs. She let the current take her through the alley leading from the arch and emerged on the brightly lit streets of Abhainn. She walked to get the direction she needed and then let the current move her, absentmindedly watching the different species going in and out of the shops. Some carried their purchases on shallow boats that trailed behind them on the water with attached ropes.

Soon Jess reached Adair’s shop, the gleaming gold letters spelling “Adair’s Apothecary” across the top. Her symbol, a white camellia flower, was painted on the storefront windows.

“Hey Addy, you in?” Jess called as she walked into the shop but didn’t see anybody.

“Be right there!” Came a voice from the back. Content to wait, Jess inhaled deeply. The store always smelled like a combination of open forest and baking cookies to Jess. When she asked Adair about it once, she shrugged and said life took different forms for different people and her store was about life.

Jess had no idea what she was talking about with that cryptic answer but there was, indeed, a lot of living things in the store. Dotted around the store was a huge variety of plants, most living but some dried herbs hanging on the walls, and various odds and ends used in spell-casting. Jess could see healing stones, bird feathers, pestles and mortars used for grinding herbs, and specialty items like virgin elf tears and werewolf fur. There were also a few roaming animals, never the same ones two visits in a row. That is, except for Midget, a tawny white and orange cat that looked like it had seen more than her fair share of fights. Midget stayed with Adair, but the others got adopted out regularly. Today there were three other cats, two birds, and a baby pig that Jess could see.

“Hey Jess, good to see you,” Adair said as she came through the beaded curtain separating the back storage area from the rest of the shop. The two women hugged and Jess followed the stunning redhead to the far corner behind a display of pre-made potions.

Adair was every man’s fantasy woman. Her hair was thick and wavy, combined with the pale skin and light freckles common to redheads. She had a curvy figure that rivaled Jess’s own, with mile-long shapely legs she liked to show off with tight jeans or short skirts. Today was a jeans and heels kind of day, which she paired with a dark blue top that showed off her ample cleavage. She didn’t look older than Jess, maybe early thirties, but Jess guessed based on previous conversations that Adair was older than she looked.

“Come in, have a seat.” Adair gestured to the two comfy overstuffed chairs and small table where she sometimes sat down her customers and explained a spell or a use for an herb. Adair took one seat and crossed her long legs, resting her hands comfortably on her lap. Jess noticed her long nails were painted a soft pink, an interesting contrast to the wicked-looking black stilettos she wore. Though how she could run a shop by herself in stilettos without her feet bleeding was a mystery to Jess.

“So, business or pleasure today?” Adair asked.

Jess snorted. “Don’t you know?” Adair’s lips curved into a smile. She always knew what Jess needed, even if Jess didn’t.

“Maybe, but it’s polite to ask.”

“Okay, fine, it’s business. Have you been in the real world lately?” Jess asked. Adair rolled her eyes but didn’t rise to the bait.

Once upon a time ago, Jess had referred to the place she came from as the “real world” and the others as fairy-tale lands. It was during a WISP picnic as a casual remark to a coworker, but Adair had overheard it and they had gotten into a heated debate while mowing down barbecue chicken and cold beer. Jess conceded the matter quickly, but her co-worker was both stupid and a misogynist and he had never been to a faerie realm himself. He continued to argue it was all a load of crap until Adair opened a portal right in the middle of the park, scooped a cup of the clear Abhainn water and dumped it over his head.

“Is that real enough for you?” she told him. Jess nearly fell off her seat, she was laughing so hard. Her male co-worker spluttered and left the picnic, and his career with WISP didn’t last much longer either. It was after that Jess and Adair had gone from being working acquaintances to friends. Jess knew the places beyond the magical gates were as real as the world she came from, but she still liked to say it just for the fun of it.

“Actually, yes, and something is definitely afoot,” Adair said. Jess’s mouth twitched.

“Afoot?”

“Yes, afoot, you smartass.” Adair swatted Jess’s leg. Her smile faded.

“This is serious so pay attention.” Jess sat up straighter. “Something or someone is messing up the natural balance out there. I can’t tell exactly what they’re doing but it has to be something that goes directly against nature to be causing this kind of energy.”

“Directly against nature. What does that mean?”

“Exactly that. Most spells still follow the natural order, even if someone else is causing it. Witches can create fire and do terrible things with it, but the fire itself is still a normal part of nature. See what I’m saying? This upset is unnatural, involves things that just aren’t meant to be.”

“Do you know of any things that are like that?”

“There are a few things that qualify,” Adair answered, lacing her fingers over one knee. “Influencing a person’s luck. Forcing animals to do something against their nature, like really against their nature, like a fish walking on land. And, of course, the big one, bringing something back from the dead. If I had to guess, that would be the one I’d suspect, but as far as I know, no one has ever been able to do it.”

Jess frowned. “Never? What about necromancers?” Necromancers were a special kind of witch or warlock who could communicate with the dead. Most preferred interacting with ghosts, but it was possible to raise a dead body to ask it questions, or so Jess had understood.

“No, you’re thinking about re-animated corpses. Necros don’t bring bodies back to life, they just cause inanimate objects to be able to move around and complete specific tasks. That they happen to be bodies is just a matter of convenience since something with the ability to talk and opposable thumbs can do a lot more than, say, a china plate could.”

“Wait, if that’s true, why can’t all witches do it? Plenty of witches can move things telekinetically but they can’t wake up a corpse,” Jess pointed out.

“Okay, well it’s a little more complicated than just moving a body around, but that’s the important part for the point I’m trying to make,” Adair said impatiently.

“Raising the dead isn’t that natural but it wouldn’t upset the balance to this degree, otherwise necros wouldn’t exist and we both know there are enough of them out there.” Jess knew that was true. Just a year ago she’d tracked down and arrested a necromancer who was disturbing the graves of wealthy recently deceased. The necro was manipulating the bodies to lead him to their family home so that he could rob it. Despite Adair’s analogy, human bodies still retained their memories from life for a short while, including things like combinations to the family safe. Memory retrieval and corpse questioning was how reputable necromancers made their living, helping the family with closure in an unexpected death or with closing out the estate.

“The exception might be if someone was raising an entire army of the dead,” Adair continued, jolting Jess back to the present.

“An army? Why would anyone need an army of bodies?”

Adair shrugged. “I have no idea, chica. And like I said, I don’t know that’s what’s happening. I’m just offering possible theories here.”

“Okay, well, unfortunately that doesn’t line up with what’s happening in my case. My victims are alive and then killed. Not the other way around.” Jess told her about the three emaciated homeless people they found and what they knew about their lives. When she finished, Adair was quiet as she thought it over, tapping her fingers along the edge of the chair.

“Hmm, well, that sounds more like someone is stealing life force. If that were true though, you wouldn’t need to cut their throats, the theft itself would kill them. This is a mystery to me.”

“But you like mysteries, right?” Jess asked with a grin. Adair chuckled.

“Yes, I do. I’ll do some research, maybe ask around. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

“Okay, thanks Adair.” They stood up and hugged briefly before Jess said goodbye and left. She found a different current that would take her back to the gate and floated down the river without seeing it, mind absorbed by the information Adair gave her. Unfortunately, she didn’t know any necromancers, other than the one she had arrested and she didn’t think he would be feeling that helpful to her. But finding one and talking to him or her would be a logical next step so she’d have to ask around.

Jess walked the last block to the gateway and muttered the incantation to activate it, coming out dry on the other side.