The Tolling Witch

“There’s a story they tell about my hometown. On the day that the planet was populated, everyone who’d ended up in that area ended up clustering where the center of the town is now. Apparently, they said that the moon was closer and brighter than it ever had been on the old planet. It was like a pearl, perfectly smooth and white, but they still knew it was the moon. Those humans founded a settlement underneath, and they called it Undermoon. When I became a witch, I threw away the name my parents gave me, but I didn’t want to lose everything I’d come from.”

July nodded. “Unlike me, you kept something.”

“You still remember?” Undermoon asked.

“From what you’re saying, I only lost the memories that gave me confidence. My parents are still completely intact.” She leaned back onto her palms, gaze far off into the distance. On some level, it was clear that the July Daniel knew was still there. Only, she was missing something important. Something he couldn’t put his finger on just yet.

While July was deathly calm, Undermoon was all nerves. Fidgeting silently, they slurped up some noodles from the feast of takeout Lace had supplied. It was salty and unfilling; the kind of thing you could scarf down forever— and Daniel was enjoying it. In better circumstances, he would have found this very relaxing. The four of them scattered around in front of the museum’s little stage, eating and sharing a moment, all his worries set aside for the moment. But that wasn’t the case tonight. Tonight, they were gathering their strength after a disaster. July’s memory, and Undermoon’s status as a witch— both had been snatched away by that LaChance fellow and his demon.

“What did you call this again?” Daniel asked Lace. The silence was too much to handle.

“They call it Chinese.” Lace replied.

“That was a country, wasn’t it? On the old planet?”

“It’s a bit complicated,” Undermoon said. “There were people from that country who emigrated to another country. Since they had a shared history, they helped each other. These recipes were invented and passed around in their communities, intended to appeal to the locals. One way or another, that specific subculture ended up on this planet, and here in Starlight.”

“Another history buff,” Daniel sighed.

“No. It was Miss July who told me that story.”

She frowned, as if upset with her name being mentioned. “I don’t recall any of that. Why would I have lost some trivia about food?”

There was something arresting about the question. Daniel knew the answer. He knew it, and she didn’t. This wasn’t just a memory, but a value that she’d lost. “It’s because you knew everything was important,” he said. “You said it yesterday: history is a process.”

She sighed. “I’ll trust you on that. You’re the only one I can remember knowing, after all.”

About a second after she said this, Daniel realized the implication. And she’d even forgotten Lace, who she’d only met yesterday. He, like her parents, was a source of grief and uncertainty for July. And now, precisely because of that, he’d become a source of comfort. His emotions were embroiled in a bloody civil war.

Undermoon placed a cardboard container on the floor in front of them. “You probably didn’t remember me in the first place. It was an important episode in my life, but you must have been so many places and talked to lots of other people.”

“Tell me the story anyway. It was a good memory, right? I could use a few more of those.”

“And for my part, I’m just curious,” Lace added. “This is your famous trick! After your trip to Undermoon, they started calling you the Tolling Witch.”

Daniel just sighed. This felt like it could be important, or it could be a waste of time. “I’d like to know, too.”

“Okay,” said Undermoon. “It’s not really a secret, after all.

“It was fifteen years ago, now. I was just a teenager at the time, so I still lived at home. Uh, I woke up one night in the summer. I never checked the time, but it was definitely hours before daylight. Everyone was still asleep. I left my room and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. While I was standing here drinking it, I looked out the window and started thinking the outdoors looked so peaceful. Usually, I’d be nervous thinking about being in the streets at night, but I wasn’t. I felt that there wasn’t a single person or animal out there. If I went out there, I’d be completely isolated. I wanted that.”

“Why?” Asked Lace.

Daniel shushed him. “Magic, obviously. Even I know enough to recognize witch stuff by now. It was calling them outside.”

“I think you might just be inclined to blame everything on magic.”

"I don’t know if it was magic or not,” said Undermoon, “But I went outside. It was a warm night, comfortable even without a coat. There was no good place to see it from the kitchen window, but when I got out into the street I had a good angle to look at the center of town, where the bell tower was.”

“I thought it was a clock,” Lace interrupted.

“Nope! It’s was just a stone tower with a hanging bell at the top. I’d say its about two stories tall, or so. The only way up was a ladder, but then there’s this little balcony, so a couple of people can stand on it at once. They used it to call meetings a few hundred years ago.”

“Everyone always calls it a clock tower in the stories.”

“Well, in the story I’m telling, it’s a bell tower.”

The ferret nodded vigorously. “Alright, I get it! Sorry; keep going.”

Clearing their throat, Undermoon did so. “The street lights were off, I think. That might have been what felt strange about that night, but I don’t know why it would have happened. I could see the moon so clearly. Demonic magic aside, I’ll never forget that sight— the waxing crescent. It framed the top of the tower perfectly. Standing inside of the curve, nestled in it was… well, it was Miss July. I wouldn’t learn her name until later, of course; I just saw a dark shape. A dress billowing in the night air, and her magic staff and her tail and…” They trailed off, looking suddenly uncomfortable.

“Go ahead,” she urged them.

“I… stared for a while. I don’t know how long. At some point, though, the shadow… shifted. I felt sure that you were looking directly at me, and I panicked even though you wouldn’t have been able to see me clearly from up there. I ran back inside, jumped into bed and pulled the covers over my head like a little kid. My heart was pounding, and I only fell asleep when I was too exhausted to keep my eyes open.”

—

The morning after her first trip up the tower, Bella July relaxed near the town center of Undermoon, laying under a tree. It was a lovely little village, but a fairly dull one, and that was what made it interesting. There weren’t any sages in town, and just about everyone was fully human. Like the moon itself, it was isolated from the rest of the region it lay in. A place like this had stories, if you knew where to look. That said, she didn’t know where to look— yet. For now, she was catching up on some reading instead. A fantasy novel— a terrible one, but enjoyable.

It was becoming abundantly clear to Bella that being a witch meant a lot of waiting around. She had her instructions, and her patron would likely not disturb her unless something changed. That meant she was free to pursue her own projects.

And there was one of them now: he was wandering up the path from a better-off part of town, nervously glancing up at the tower every few seconds. Her scrying had shown her what he looked like, but he seemed even younger in person. Though, probably not much younger than she’d been when she made her pact. His clothes weren’t cheap, but they were entirely practical and unadorned, and when he noticed her he halted and displayed a blank expression of panic. Bella had seen plenty of kids like this in another life.

Ah, but she was making too many assumptions. He could just be a boy with little interest in fashion— Those existed all over. In order to know for sure, Bella had to talk to him. She shifted her gaze to meet his: a look that couldn’t just be ignored. She flashed a warm smile, and with her hand she waved him over. “Come here,” she said out loud, though at their current distance it was only the shape of her lips that really conveyed the message. If he turned and ran, then that was his choice.

He didn’t run, to his credit. He looked at first like she’d pointed a gun at him, and then ran in her direction like he was worried she’d change her mind. It was… adorable, actually. Poor thing. She bookmarked her page and laid it in her bag.

“Um, good morning!” The kid presented himself to her as if to be inspected. He was a few years younger than her, for sure, but puberty was having its way with him, judging from the pathetic stubble, half managed on his face. She sympathized in her way: Those had been rough years.

“Good morning!” she maintained the friendliest smile she could muster. “You’re curious about me, I take it? Or am I just that beautiful?” She immediately regretted the joke. This kid wasn’t confident enough to detect it, and began stammering an excuse. She had to correct.

“I’m just kidding! I wanted to make sure you aren’t afraid of me, since I’ll be in town for a few days. I’ll be up in the tower again, too.”

“I’m sorry,” they said immediately, head bowing low. “I didn’t mean to spy on you, I just-

She cut him off immediately. “No apologizing. I was out in public and so were you. Neither of us did anything wrong.”

The boy blinked once. “Nobody is supposed to be in the tower, though. It’s locked up.”

“It wasn’t always, though,” she replied. “Are you planning on telling anyone?”

He shook his head no. “Are you a witch, Miss?”

So, her instincts were on point. A little pride flared in her breast. “Yes.”

“I thought so,” he said. “I’ve never seen a sage, but they wouldn’t have any reason to be up there. An artificer might, but you’ve got that squirrel body, and they don’t usually like to change. And there aren’t any sorcerers anywhere near here.”

“Firstly, I’m a chinchilla, got that?”

“Yes, ma’am.” They flushed bright red.

“Secondly, calling me ma’am makes me feel old. My name’s Bella July, and you can just call me Bella.”

“Okay… Bella.” Calling her by her first name looked like it cause him physical pain.

The kid went on to introduce himself by his own name, as it was given to him by his parents. Of course, in our narrative, we know this soul only by the name of Pewter Undermoon, a name that had not yet been concocted.

“Good. Thirdly… there are plenty of artificers with modified souls. If you’d used that reasoning to eliminate sorcerers, it would have been another thing— they have more of a culture of purity.”

“I wanted it, though.”

She stopped. “Wanted what?”

“For you to be a witch. I didn’t know that you were, I just hoped it was true.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I wanted to meet a witch.”

She smiled again without even having to think about it. People told Bella she came across as uptight, but this kid had a certain disarming quality that made her relaxed. “Take a seat, then. You’ve met one, and I’ve got plenty of free time.”

Pewter dropped to the ground like a stone, as if their legs had just given out from under them. They spent almost a full minute working their way up to a question, and when they asked one, it was safe. “What were you doing up there?”

It was a good question, though. Only reasonable that they’d be curious about that. They’d work their way up to what they really wanted to know in time. “I was ringing the bell.”

Their face compressed into concentration. “I didn’t hear any bell.”

“Naturally. I was ringing it into the future. My patron is a god of time, you see.”

The expression continued, but the gears turned. They were trying to guess the reason, and they were unlikely to succeed. There was too much they had no way of knowing. After a moment, they gave up. “Why?”

She could answer. She would answer, eventually. “Why do you think? I’m curious what’s going through your head right now.”

Pewter blinked hard. “Nothing! I mean, nothing I think is right.”

“You have some guesses, then?”

“I didn’t want to waste your time with those.”

Bella was trying to be careful about laughing when dealing with them. They might take it the wrong way, after all. It was proving difficult. “Unlike myself, I bet you get good grades in school.”

“Uhm. Y-yes. I mean, why do you say that?”

“You’re too eager to please.” She shifted her legs underneath her, getting comfortable again. “Right now, you’re trying to decide what I want, like me being older than you makes me an authority figure. You’re afraid of punishment.”

“Sorry,” they said immediately and reflexively. If they were a friend of hers, she’d have hit them with her staff for that.

“No apologies. Here’s the thing: you want to get to know me, and I want to get to know you. If you’re afraid of me, then I’ll never get the pleasure.”

For a moment, Bella thought the kid was about to burst into tears. She actually started worrying that she’d really overdone it, but then the spell was broken. “Can you teach me how to be a witch?”

There it was. The question that she’d known was lurking within from the very moment she’d seen them standing there, a vague blotch of blackness in the night.

“I can help you with that, in theory. That’s why I want to get to know you, first.”

“To make sure I’m… worthy?” A voice and a sentence that spoke hope and fear equally.

“Worthy has nothing to do with it. I want to make sure you’re ready before you take that step. A lot of witches… don’t know what they’re getting into. It wouldn’t sit well with me to let you be one of them.”

“I wont,” they said with real conviction. “Whatever you tell me to do, I’ll do it.”

This one needed a lot of work. “I’m more interested in what you’re willing to do for yourself. We’ll get to it. I have one week in this town, and by the end of it, you’ll understand why I’m here.”

“Got it,” they said. “Can you… show me a ritual?”

“I already have.” She gestured upward to the tree, where the leaves were turning to vibrant shades of autumn, months in advance.

—

Daniel only just swallowed his chicken in time to make his guess before the conversation moved on. “Time stuff. With the bell, I mean. The… ding dongs. She was sending them back in time.”

“Forward, actually. You have the right idea, though.”

He couldn’t help but feel a little good about his guess, even if he only got half marks.

“This feels so strange,” July remarked. “These are stories about me, but it’s like I’m learning about someone else. I don’t even know the things that everyone else read about.”

“Well I didn’t read about it,” Daniel cut in. He didn’t want anything to diminish his guess. “One thing bothers me, though: you said this tower didn’t have a clock. I assumed the whole Tolling Witch thing was about a clock. Time, clock, striking midnight— You know?”

“That’s why everyone started calling it a clock tower, I’d say,” Lace said. “It just made too much sense, you know?”

“It’s wrong, though.”

Undermoon looked at him sternly, reciting from memory: “There are two realities that matter. One is created by the physical universe, and the other is created by belief. Magic is the art of blurring the lines between those realities. Miss July was the one who taught me that. Even when it bothers me, I have to respect it as a witch.”

She looked dejected, hearing this without remembering.

“We spent most of the week together. I had to… lie to my parents a little. I didn’t think they’d appreciate me hanging around with a strange adult woman. I, uh, I was a little worried, though. It wasn’t a big town, and she stood out. We tried not to be super obvious about it.”

“Did I tell you much about my past?” July asked.

“Not a lot, no. I got the impression it was… private. I tried not to pry. We talked about magic and witchcraft and the town’s history. Things like that.”

The chinchilla sank back, supporting herself with her arms as she looked up at the ceiling above.

Lace kept the conversation going. “When did she tell you why she was in town? Seems like she dodged the question the first time.”

“It was obvious as soon as I looked up. Some of it, anyway. On the first day, you had to look really hard to see it, but by the second, anyone would notice the outline of the moon in the sky right above us. It was easiest to see at night. I mean, at night there were two moons: the normal one and the big one that was hanging right above the tower.”

“A moon from the past?” Daniel guessed. He was on a roll, after all.

“Well…”

—

“It’s not the past; not really. It’s the idea of the past. If this was magic interfering with time, then I could stop it directly. Instead, my patron is cleaning up for someone else.”

Bella was looking down over the town from the hotel balcony, and Pewter was hanging well back, sitting in a chair. They obviously didn’t want to be seen with her, and the sad thing was that she didn’t entirely blame them. People didn’t like witches, and there was a good reason for that.

“Who’s magic is it, then?” The kid asked.

“Dunno. Haven’t been told. You’ll never know every god in the world. Point is, this is the afterimage of all the stories shared about history.”

“I think I’m starting to get it,” Pewter said. A lie, definitely. Even Bella didn’t really get it. Pewter would ask questions only after thinking things over, because that was how they were. At the moment, they looked over at her with their trademark puppydog eyes and waited for more.

Puppy? No, they weren’t that type. Not outgoing enough.

“If I was to take a guess, I’d say that those stories are at least a little bit fabricated, and this was created by that difference. The gap in perception vs physical reality is very important.”

“But, people tell stories all the time. Shouldn’t things like this be happening more often?”

“Good question,” she made sure to praise good instincts like that. “Maybe this is an example more potent than most. Or maybe things like this happen every day and this just happens to be a particularly destructive example.”

Pewter’s face dropped instantly. “Destructive?”

“Don’t worry,” she reassured. “I’m here to make sure nothing happens. But when that moon finished materializing at the end of the week, it’ll behave like antimatter. It’s going to try to return the surrounding area to the state of its creation.”

“As in… before the town was founded?”

“Yes. Every person and every building could be stricken from existence. Being a witch can sometimes mean dealing with things that like.” She gave them the most pointed look she could muster.

“Whatever I need to do, I’ll do it,” they said grimly, picking up on the subtext. “But shouldn’t we warn people?”

It was more than a little hypocritical for her, of all people, to be preaching about the silent responsibility of a good witch, but the the point was to prevent the kid from going through her own growing pains.

“I don’t want to cause any more panic than I have to. If I…” She caught herself before she said anything too revealing. Beginning a sentence with ‘if I fail’ would make them worried, and it was too early for them to be taking on that much of a burden. “If I do this right, then nobody will even know anything happened.”

“But that means they’ll never realize you saved them.”

“This isn’t the line of work for glory, kid. You don’t get any pats on the back, and nobody thanks you.” They couldn’t understand the stakes, really. For them, it was a matter of fairness, and that was admirable. She knew the cost of being recognized already. People expected things of you, good and bad. She was deflecting, though, and she knew it. Avoiding the point. It was still too early for Pewter to consider every little thing.

“It’s not about that,” they complained. “If nobody ever knew witches did things, then I… I’d never even have heard of them!” They were agitated. A little more than she’d expected. She was missing something. Were they really so eager for fame?

“The powers of the universe need us, so stories about us get out. That’s fine, but you have to be careful. There are patrons who’ll try to lure you in with promises of fortune and glory. Ones that’ll ruin your life. Other people’s lives, too.”

“I know!” They yelled far too loudly. Bella stopped and looked them over. They were shaking— fear. Now she understood. In the kid’s eyes, she was attacking something fundamental to their desires. The fantasy of being a witch they’d built in their head depended on something here. It wasn’t fame, though. No, Pewter was too anxious to want that. They disliked attention. So, what was it? She didn’t want to ask. It was a reminder— she was still new to this. If she wanted to teach, she would have to keep learning.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” she took the seat across from them. “Have faith, though, alright? Just like I have faith in my patron. If you find the right one, anything’s possible.” She smiled as reassuringly as she could, and it seemed to have some effect.

“I think I have to go now,” they said, not meeting her gaze. “But… have you met many other witches?”

“Some. A couple famous ones. I’ll tell you about them next time.”

The only witches she’d met in person were the kind that were broken and dangerous. Her only goal with this kid was to prevent them joining that number. But they smiled and excused themself and seemed to have calmed down. That gave her time to think. What was it that made this kid tick? She couldn’t decide on an answer.

—

“You weren’t very nice back then, Miss July!” Lace laughed.

“I was a stupid kid,” Undermoon said. “I couldn’t understand what I wanted, or put it into words. I’m lucky I met you before I got desperate enough to turn to a demon or something.”

July shook her head. “Not luck. She— I mean I… I’m sure she was thinking the same thing. I don’t remember, but I still have the memories that must have motivated me back then.”

“Like what?” Daniel asked. He was keen to poke at her memories, hoping that something might somehow jar the others loose.

“It’s funny,” July sighed. “If I told you, I’d be giving up her secrets. The better version of me.”

“If she was perfect, we wouldn’t be here,” Daniel countered, but his heart wasn’t in it. In his mind, Bella July was always confident and in control, even if she wasn’t always easy to get along with.

He was a lot like Undermoon in that respect— she’d dropped into his life like an anvil onto a seesaw, and he’d been standing on the other end of it. Life had been clearly bisected into the era before her, and the era after her.

Undermoon sighed and relaxed, their form shifting before his eyes. He’d heard of this, but never seen it: they retained their ears and tail, but were otherwise fully human again. “We kept talking throughout the week. I knew a bit about the town’s history and some witch stories that even Miss July didn’t know, and you told me a lot about what makes a good ritual. I relaxed a little too much. My parents got a little suspicious, I think, but I didn’t worry about it at first. I only needed to lie a few times, after all. As far as I was concerned, they didn’t even know we had a witch in town, and they had no idea I wanted to be one myself.”

“Didn’t anyone notice?” Lace asked. “A witch skulking around the bell towers at night should have attracted attention. None of the stories ever really focus on that part.”

“Honestly? They probably did. It was the moon that really caught their attention, though. Every day it got clearer, and it was… close.” It was about five meters across, and if anyone had gone up the tower they’d have been close enough to throw rocks at it.”

Daniel had to ask. “Did anybody… do that? Throw rocks?”

“No. The tower was kept locked. When you looked at the moon, it just felt wrong. Like it… hated you. Wanted you gone. There were some sorcerers called but nobody arrived before the last day. My parents were planning to pack up and flee town, and they weren’t the only ones. But I still had my last day. That morning, I snuck out early. I went straight to the hotel.”

—

Three men. One had a bat and another had a knife, though the latter wasn’t openly brandishing his weapon. Rather, it was still strapped to his hip. Not a direct threat, but a visible reminder that violence was an option.

When you’re a witch, sometimes people try to pick a fight with you. It wasn’t always unjustified, and lubricated by the liquid courage of alcohol. This was different— it was still morning and these guys were sober. These three were acting with forethought, motivated by fear and desperation. Bella sympathized to some extent, but she wasn’t pleased to see the owner of the inn was the ringleader, and he was planning to press the matter before she’d even had breakfast. How unfortunate.

“Gentlemen.” She pretended not to have noticed anything as she sat on her usual chair at her usual table.

“Miss July,” the Innkeeper, a boney dark-skinned man, skipped the pretense. “We need to talk. You have something to do with that big ball in the sky.”

“What makes you think that?” She’d already slipped a small ritual carving knife from her bag to her hand. It wouldn’t be much use for defending herself, but that wasn’t the plan. Instead, she’d carve a ritual symbol into the underside of the table and use it. She didn’t like resorting to vandalism, but it was better than someone getting killed.

“You’re a witch!” The man with the bat shouted, and the Innkeeper raised a finger to shush him. They’d either arranged this act beforehand or the bat man was an idiot.

“I am a witch,” she agreed, “But that really has nothing to do with that… thing up there.” Obviously, this was a lie. Bella wasn’t terrible at lying, but she was under no illusion that she could convince them. She needed to stall. Carving an intricate seal into a wooden table, blind and without making noise, was going to take some time.

“Please, Miss July, be serious with us. Things keep happening around you. Things like that tree turning to fall leaves in the middle of summer?”

She leaned forward, bracing her staff with her free hand. “Yes, because I’m a witch. My patron is a god of time, if you’re curious, and that business with the tree was something I did to show off. None of that has anything to do with the moon.”

The third man, lithe and twitchy and paler than anyone should be in the summer, spoke up at last. “A moon? Is that what it is?”

He meant to use this as a gotcha. Another idiot. “I’ve heard about your local legends, and I think it looks like a moon. If you disagree, that’s fine.”

The creaking complaint of an unoiled hinge made all four of them tense up like they were being caught with hands in the cookie jar. The front door was opening slowly, tentatively. It was Pewter, stopping by unusually early for once. Bella recovered quickly and went back to carving, but she’d need to add to her sigil to exclude them from the magic.

The kid wasn’t quite as observant as Bella. They focused entirely on her, smiling and walking that way. The man with the bat swung his around so that he could lean against it like a cane, the whole trio adopting a casual posture. Cowards, honestly.

“Miss July! I need to talk to you.”

The innkeeper stopped them. “Hang on, son. We’re discussing something.”

“He’s been hanging around the witch,” said the bat-wielding man. “What is it that you’re up to with him?”

Pewter stepped back and then stopped, only now sensing that something was wrong. They had frozen up, neither running nor fighting nor demanding information. They might need some better instincts in the future, but in the moment, this was causing a delay that she desperately needed. These men weren’t bloodthirsty enough to hurt a teenager.

The knife-man moved towards Pewter, hands showing as if to pretend he wasn’t armed. At least his knife was at his hip, too far to cause an immediate panic. “Hey, relax,” he said. “We’re just trying to figure something out here. Would you like to help? I think you’d have a valuable perspective.” He extended a hand for them to shake. “Name’s Greg. You?”

"Leave the kid alone,” she snapped at him. “What kind of adult threatens a teenager?”

“Who’s threatening? I’m being neighbourly.”

Pewter said nothing, their eyes darting down towards the knife, just briefly.

“If you were a good neighbour, you wouldn’t try to keep a scared kid trapped in here,” she jabbed. “What kind of adult are you?”

“More than you. What have you been doing with this kid all this time?”

The innkeeper touched the arm of the knife man. “Calm down, alright?” He smiled sympathetically towards Pewter. “Sorry. We’re all a little tense right now. I think we should all just… take a breath. Isn’t that right?” He swung his arms a bit, making a big production of breathing and relaxing his muscles.

“Sure,” said Pewter, not actually releasing any tension at all.

“What are you doing?” The bat man suddenly asked. He was looking right at Bella. She only needed another few seconds. How the hell could she stall just a little longer?

“What do you mean? I’m sitting here waiting for breakfast.”

“No. Under the table.” There was a long few seconds of uncertainty, and then he lunged in her direction. Too late. With a tap of her staff on the wooden floor, he lost the next five minutes of his time, painlessly and with no lasting damage.

—

“I’ve seen that one!” Daniel found himself getting excited again, and then feeling embarrassed about it. “Uh, I guess you might not remember.”

July just shook her head. She looked gloomier than ever. The reminders were taking a toll. Maybe this story wasn’t such a good idea after all.

“Finish it,” she suddenly said, once again as if she’d read his mind. “What happened after that?”

“Well… I ended up going home again. Miss July waited up on the tower itself for nightfall, and I couldn’t really come with her.”

“Is that all?” Asked Lace. “What was it you’d gone to talk to her about?”

“Oh.” Undermoon shifted uncomfortably a bit. “I wanted to tell her to talk to the rest of the town about what she was doing, but seeing those men about to attack her made me change my mind. Sort of.”

Even Daniel could tell they were hiding something. “’Sort of’?”

“I can’t remember the exact conversation, but I wasn’t able to change her mind about anything. She agreed to meet me the next day, after all the moon business was finished. It didn’t end up happening, though. Things were actually still hostile by the morning. It was people outside the town who ended up making her sound like a hero later on.” They paused, but quickly realized a mistake in their words. “Which she is! Miss July was definitely a hero that night.”

Lace’s long body dipped to his left. “So you never saw her again until now?”

“Actually…”

—

The sun had finally retired for the night, leaving only the fading embers of the day in its wake. Now was the time of the moon, the true original and the false. In truth, both were real; they simply represented different truths. The illusory moon was an in-between truth formed of history and belief— featureless and almost achingly bright. The real moon had so much more texture. Bella had read that the moon in this world was an exact copy of the one on Earth, the old planet. Perhaps it hadn’t started that way. Perhaps it had begun as a smooth ball and was carved by the thoughts of those first transported.

What a shame that the second moon was so full of anger. The very bricks of the tower were trembling as it manifested fully before her. Within ten minutes, it would have reduced the town below to a fiction, if not for her intervention. If only she could have dealt with the thing hours ago, but nobody truly believed in being saved before the last second. They had to feel the danger and believe in the end of all things before they could believe in a savior. She wished that she could allow some damage, to leave the memory of this moment on the town more permanently, but that was too risky.

Bella had remembered to pick up some earplugs before heading up the tower, and she slipped them into her large rodent ears. Grasping her staff firmly, she raised her hands and recited.

“O ages forgotten, luna fortold. Time is the end of all things. Ye who have ceased to follow the paths of history, to thee I say: begone from this now! Recall no more, but hear the proof of your falsity!”

She hoped she never had to dabble in rhyming for things like this; Her incantations were not nearly as grand as she’d like. Banging her staff on the ground, she looked to the false moon, and all at once, thousands of missing bell tolls came to the present, all focused on that moon. It was a cacophony, a monstrous racket of all the weddings and funerals and middays and calls to action that a town could ever have on the new planet, all concentrated into one blast loud enough to burst eardrums if one had been caught directly within it. The false moon shuddered and shimmered, wavered, and finally dispersed into sparkling particles that burned themselves out over miles of night sky in every direction. Thousands of people saw some part of it, and the stories began taking shape.

It wasn’t the sound that did the trick. It was the history that sound represented. That second moon had wished to deny the physical reality it found itself in, and Bella had given it proof too complete to ignore. It had no place in this world, and so it ceased to exist in it. The whole thing had taken less than five minutes. Those citizens of Undermoon who’d witnessed the dispersal of the moon were murmuring amongst themselves, but they were not so close that Bella could hear them.

Despite this, her world was not silent. The distinctive sound of exertion floated up from the ladder down. In fact, it was a voice she knew. She almost called their name, but decided against it: they might someday take a new one, and this was a memory best left untainted.

“Hey, kid,” she called down the ladder. Pewter was nearly at the top, but not quite. They must have been very close to the blast of sound. Another metre of climbing and they’d have been in real trouble. “You okay?”

The future witch was shaking. “I… can’t make it!”

“You’re almost there. One step at a time. I’ll grab you and help pull you up.”

They nodded, and they tried. It took several minutes for them to make it, pausing with each rung. As promised, she took hold of them and helped pull them up to the balcony once they were close enough. They lay on their back, panting.

“So high. That noise. Oh god.”

Bella sat beside them and lifted their head up onto her lap. Slowly, their breathing slowed to a normal rate. They said nothing, but just stared up at her.

“You shouldn’t have come,” Bella said. “I bet you didn’t even see anything from the ladder.”

“I didn’t. I mean, I know. It’s just… I realized that… a witch shouldn’t be afraid of a climb.”

She just shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Everyone’s afraid of something, witches included.”

“I felt brave. I was, for a moment.”

“You are. You did good.”

“I told my parents about you.”

“What?”

“They didn’t like it. I ran away from them, actually. When I go back, I’m really going to get it.”

She looked down at them, her hand rolling through their hair. She was probably giving them some strange feelings, right in the middle of puberty. Nothing was going as she’d intended. “Why did you go and do that?”

“Because those guys told everyone you were the one who caused the moon in the first place. They were wrong.”

“I don’t care about that,” she shook her head gently.

“I do. I hate it when people believe things that aren’t true. How are they supposed to do the right thing if they believe so many lies? And… how are you supposed to know who you can trust when nobody trusts you? What if you were doing something wrong? Wouldn’t you want to be able to trust the people around to stop you?”

Pewter had clearly thought about this.

“I guess so. Do you want me to teach you how to be a witch now?”

“You gotta find a patron first, and then they tell you, right?”

“Yep. I mean, I had some tips. Did you know that all along?”

“Yeah.”

All she could do was laugh. “What a strange kid you are.”

“I know. I’ve always been this way.”

“You’ll make a good witch. I mean that.”

Pewter closed their eyes and rested, just for a moment.

—

"She helped me go back down the ladder, which wasn’t easy. Then I said good-bye, went home and was grounded for the rest of the summer. That was the last time I saw you until today.”

July heaved a great sigh. “I wish I could give you the reunion you want. I can’t even imagine being the woman you met back then.”

“It was a long time ago,” Pewter replied. “Neither of us is the same person we were back then.”

“I’m not even the same person I was this morning.”

Everyone lapsed into an uneasy silence for the moment. Everyone except Lace, who had always been impossible to discourage. “Well, I’m glad for the opportunity for all of us to make new memories with everyone. If we had time, I’d listen to stories all night.”

July remained stoic. “I don’t have any stories I want to share.”

“It might be helpful,” Lace said. “Especially if you don’t get the old memories back.”

Daniel rushed to cut the thought off. “That won’t happen. Undermoon even had a plan, right? We’re just gathering our strength before we fix everything.”

“Ah. Well…” The cat-person shuffled nervously. Daniel was already used to this— they didn’t think he was going to like their answer. “There’s still time, technically. I would expect the demon won’t have digested our particular traits until tomorrow morning.”

“That’s good news,” Daniel replied flatly, anticipating the coming ‘bad news’ portion. “How do we do that?”

“This was my fault. Even though I knew everything about the demon, I still let myself get scared. I lost my confidence, and Mister LaChance took advantage of it.”

So, Daniel had been operating under a mistaken assumption: he had only thought of things in terms of the game. In his mind, losing the game meant the demon attacked. In reality, it was Gin LaChance alone who decided when the demon fed.

“I suppose I must have guessed who you were,” July added. “Something made me lose my nerve, seeing you affected.”

“I don’t understand why it affected you both so differently,” Lace said.

Undermoon answered without hesitation, loving the chance to explain something. “The demon ate up the source of our confidence. In my case, it’s because I’m… I was a witch. I believe in the gifts my patron gives me. Gave. You know what I mean.” Daniel was suddenly worried that the moon might be gone from the sky, but maybe that was too much for even a demon to accomplish.

“For Miss July, it’s her experience, I guess. Every accomplishment was a reminder of her own ability.”

Daniel had to try asking again. “How do we fix it?”

They stopped, gears turning behind their bright blue eyes as they searched for another evasion. Daniel maintained the harshest stare he could manage, which turned out to be pretty harsh.

“We might not be able to,” they finally admitted, voice significantly lowered.

“You just said there was a way a minute ago.” For some reason, Undermoon was starting to lie to him. He wasn’t going to allow that.

“I said there was time. Technically, it could happen. Only…”

“Only what!?” Daniel was about ready to spring on them and start punching, but he felt the slightest touch. It was Lace, tapping his shoulder.

“Chill. We won’t get anywhere if we start swinging at each other, yeah? Let’s take our time and walk through it. If we need extra help, there’s plenty of people in this city who love solving problems.”

How was Lace so composed? Was it because he’d only met July yesterday? This must all be a game to him. A chance for him to meet a celebrity.

Daniel took several very deep breaths.

“You’re right. Sorry.”

“Alright!” Lace clapped his hands cheerfully. “Here’s what I think: we should get a full explanation of the difficulties from Mx. Undermoon, and then address them all one at a time. Sound good?”

Daniel and Undermoon both turned from Lace to each other at the same time. With a shrug, they answered, still in unison.

“Sure.”

“Alright! So, Mx. Undermoon: what was the plan for dealing with our little demon problem?”

"Well, um. Mister Daniel would pretend to be playing a real game against Mister LaChance, but he’d know he was going to lose. And then when he did, he’d act upset about it. That would trick Mister LaChance into calling out the demon, but it wouldn’t be able to get anything out of Mister Daniel. So, normally at that point it would devour the soul of its host and then leave this plane, but I was going to use a ritual to banish it to the moon instead. If we did that now, Mr. LaChance would be doomed.”

“Who cares?” Daniel said without hesitation. “It’s what he deserves.”

“Even so…” The ears drooped.

Lace interjected again. “I understand your feelings— Both of you. Isn’t it possible for you to remake your pact, Mx. Undermoon? We might still be able to pull this off.”

They shook their head. “It’s a new moon tonight. No waxing crescent.”

They way they’d blown off the suggestion so quickly got under Daniel’s skin. “What difference does that make? It’s the same moon!”

This, in turn, threw Undermoon into a panic, and they started pulling on their hat and generally making a scene. “It’s a big difference! You just don’t understand how it with witch things! Plus, I have no idea what will happen if my brand comes back when I have another one!”

“So we just let her stay like this because you don’t want to hurt some rich bastard who doesn’t care who he fucks over!?”

“Both of you, shut up!”

It was July who stopped them, speaking with sudden and surprising conviction. She looked serious. Almost like her old self. For just the briefest split-second, Daniel thought that she was back. That some miracle had occurred. But when she spoke again, he detected the sadness. That defeated edge in her voice.

“None of this matters. I just spoke to my patron, and it told me that… it wouldn’t have worked. A demon’s ability to devour its host isn’t dependent on distance.”

Undermoon had the look of someone who’d just had everything torn away from them. “But… my patron never told me anything like that.”

July shrugged. “I’m just repeating what I was told. I don’t think you’d have saved him if things had gone according to your plan.”

“I…” Whatever sentence they’d planned on speaking failed as it passed their tongue. Wordlessly, they walked towards the door. Lace, being himself, moved to stop them, but this time it was Daniel’s turn to take him by the shoulder. He shook his head at his cousin— Undermoon wasn’t going to be much help at the moment. In fact, he wanted to say ‘good riddance’ but he still had the self-awareness to refrain. The door opened, and then shut again. The so-called Cosmic Witch had removed themself from the premises.

“They’re handling this poorly,” July said. “Give them a bit.”

“Feeling better?” Lace asked, walking around a bit now that he was up. “You seem a little more… resolute?”

“My patron gave me something like a pep talk. I’m going to knuckle down and do what I can until things are resolved. One way or the other.” Her words were so cold. The normal July should be more angry, Daniel thought. But then, what did he know?

He decided to ask questions to get his mind off it. Gathering information was the only way he knew how to solve problems. “When did you get the chance to talk to it, anyway?”

“Hmm. I went into a sort of trance while you were talking. Just for a moment.”

“And that’s what it’s like?”

July turned to look at him directly. “You’re also handling this badly.”

“I know.”

Lace started gathering up empty food containers, though plenty of them were still half-full. “I’m going to start making calls. Like I said, this is a city full of magical people, and that includes the Great Sage who put Undermoon up to this in the first place. Plus, we have a time god on our side! You two should both get a little rest, I think.”

It was difficult to imagine relaxing at a time like this, but he didn’t have anything else. No skills and no knowledge to contribute. “I’m going out for some air.”

Lace flashed him that usual smile, still recognizable on a ferret’s face. “Sounds good. Don’t do anything unwise, okay?”

“Of course not. You know I can’t do anything on my own.”

“I know you, cousin: You can do plenty. Needing other people isn’t something to be ashamed of.”

“Yeah.” Daniel hated magic, he realized. Before, he’d thought people who hated magic were stupid. He’d thought magic was just a part of the natural world like weather and wild animals. He’d been wrong. Magic was a tool. People thought they could use it, but it wasn’t for them at all. It was for the gods and the demons.

He pushed open the door and let the cold night air take him.

—

Three men had tried to attack Bella— or at least intimidate her— but she’d managed to lock them down. It was her first time using a ritual like that on an unsuspecting target. They looked rather eerie, standing perfectly still, but still breathing and swaying slightly. They weren’t turned to stone or anything like that, just unaware for a few minutes. Not long enough.

She reached her hand out to Pewter. “Let’s go.”

“What did you do to them?”

She resisted snapping at them in her haste to get out. A single deep breath while she considered her answer. It was, after all, a reasonable question.

“They’ll be back in a few minutes. It’s just time stuff. Complicated.”

The look Pewter gave her suggested that they didn’t believe her.

“Look,” she shrugged. “I can’t be here when they wake up, and I don’t want to leave you alone with them, either. You don’t need to come with me if you don’t want to, but we should leave.” They said nothing, but followed her out.

“So, what was it you came to say?” Bella tried to get them talking once they had vanished into maze of streets. It wasn’t exactly safe, given how much Bella stood out, but there were other people around.

Theirs was a small voice, even for their usual soft-spoken standards. “I wanted to say that… that my parents were getting ready to flee town for a while. I think you should tell everyone why you’re here.”

“Would be nice, but it’s not a good idea. People tend to assume the worst of witches. Those guys back there, for example. They assumed I was the cause of the problem.”

“Did you tell them you’re not?”

A few unpleasant seconds of silence passed over them. Bella sighed heavily. “They never listen.”

“So you didn’t.”

“No.”

More silence. Other people passed by them, looking agitated but paying them no mind. Most people hadn’t connected her to the false moon, apparently. Ordinary people going about their business, trying not to think about the thing hanging over them. An orb of death that viewed these people as intruders in reality. Bella was able to look at it more easily than most. She was used to it.

“I need to grab a bite to eat, and then I’m going to wait at the top of the tower. Want to join me?” It was a long shot, but some company wouldn’t be a bad thing. She’d be waiting for hours, after all.

But Pewter shook their head. “I don’t think I could climb the ladder. Plus, my parents are going to miss me soon. I… I’d make a bad witch.”

“I wouldn’t go that far. It’s a tough climb.” She smiled as best she could for them. Part of her was shamefully glad, though. If the kid actually gave up on this, that was one less responsibility she had to bear.

They didn’t play along. “You were right before. If I… when those guys in there were… I don’t think I could handle it.”

Pewter shook, deep sobs beginning to tear free from their breast. Bella felt even worse for her feelings. How stupid was she, anyway? She leaned down and embraced them tightly. It had been such a long time since they’d touched another person.

“Listen, it’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with being scared.

Even now, passerby were paying only a little more attention than before. It was a lonely day in a lonely world, and Pewter wet her sleeve with tears and snot, wailing into her shoulder. It was only for a minute, and then their mask returned to them.

“Does the time god care about you?” They asked at last.

“I think so.”

“I wanted that. I’m such a shitty excuse for a human, I wanted something else. Something powerful enough to love me. It was stupid. I’m not like you.”

“I’m not special. Just lucky,” she told them.

“You’re amazing. Or at least, you’re normal.”

A puff of air, the slightest laugh, escaped her lungs. She couldn’t help it— this was the most absurd and unexpected thing she’d ever heard. She pulled back, keeping her hands on Pewter’s shoulders. “You’re the only person who’s ever called me that, kid.”

The spell was broken, and they looked away. She felt bad for laughing, but it’d been entirely involuntary. “I don’t know how to explain it,” they complained.

“I know. I know exactly what you mean. You think I’ve got something you don’t. You can’t figure out other people. You don’t know how they think or feel. You think that something must be wrong with you because you feel alone. You think that even if you found a sage and grew some fur, you’d still be too human and not human enough.”

There was another pause. Another endless moment of consideration where they didn’t look her in the eyes, but they didn’t run away. “Yeah,” they finally said after long seconds.

“The difference between you and me is just this: you think you’re wrong, because everyone else must be right. And me? I decided that it was everyone else who should change.”

Having heard something that completely challenged their world, they finally looked at her. “You can’t change everyone.”

“Of course not. It’s their problem. I’m just living, same as you. But the world I was born in wasn’t the one I was meant for. That’s what makes us witches.”

Pewter’s eyes were wide and bright. It was as if they were seeing an entirely new world. “Do you really think I could be a witch? Find a good patron?” They were begging for hope. No, hope was what they already had. Despite having tried to convince themself that they weren’t fit, it had taken only this much to bring them back. Hope. Bella July suddenly understood herself in a way she hadn’t before. To teach really was to learn.

“Yeah. You’ll be a fine witch.”

“You think I can… change?”

“Everyone changes. Change how you are, but not who you are. Not what you are. Understand? If you find a patron who wants to change you, then run away. People, too: don’t trust them. Find the ones who want to make you more of yourself.”

She stood up; Let them feel the weight of their own presence again. “Or, you might find something else you’d rather do along the way. That’s not a bad thing, either.”

“No. This is what I want.” Their look was tired, and melancholy, but it was hopeful.

“Come see me tomorrow then,” she said. “I’ll tell you what I know. Until then, I have to prepare.”

They watched her walk off towards the store. It would be food first, and then going up the tower to wait. She wasn’t entirely sure that all of her decisions were correct, but Bella July had, for the first time, the sense that she was actually able to help the people she truly wanted to help. She’d remember that.