"The scent of moonlight?"
Pushing open the door panel was a silver-carved, two-headed serpent's head, its eyes encrusted with glittering rubies, exuding a chilling gaze in the darkness.
The door was unlocked, and the owner of the walking stick revealed wrinkled fingers covered in gemstone rings of various colors, making one wonder about the weight of that hand.
As the man was about to enter, a little girl behind him screamed, "Granny Mary, you can't go in there! There are big wolves in there!"
The girl's warning was matched by a low warning growl from the old hound.
Granny Mary let out a hoarse smile, sounding like an older woman.
"That would be great, I happen to have a gift I'd like to give to Mr. Big Coyote, Lily, stay outside the door if you're afraid."
The door panel was opened with a soft rasp, the flashy velvet dress raising a bit of dust, but the aristocratic old woman didn't care.
A gray-faced woman lay sitting on the floor, her bleeding face lifeless, and the old woman could not help uttering a very deep sigh at the sight.
"Betty, why didn't you call me sooner? You and little Cole are so stubborn."
The fireplace beeped and burned with a nasty residual fire. The old woman frowned and pointed the tip of her cane. An elusive wind rose in the room, and the fire was silently extinguished, leaving behind a wilting cloud of smoke as she mourned the deaths of her loved ones.
Not far away from the corner came a strange sound; the cane on the snake's head flashed, and the old woman's sharp eyes swept over, only to see a living woman half lying on the ground, struggling to breathe. Theosophy did not seem to be sober.
The tip of the cane quietly fell in front of the woman. The old woman did not hesitate to use the hand full of jewels to catch the other side of the hair, the action was not at all laborious.
"You, who are you?"
"That's what I'm going to ask you; tell me everything you know."
Without waiting for the woman to struggle, the old woman flicked her cane around, the red eyes of the twin snake-headed heads flashed with an eerie light, and the woman's eyes suddenly glazed over, her tongue like a small snake with a consciousness of its own, vicious schemes and cruel thoughts pouring out of her mouth like venom.
Including her love for the dead Mr. Cole, her jealousy and loathing of Betty, and the deliberate introduction of Lily into the rushing river in an attempt to drown the little bastard.
And then, of course, there was most importantly her role as the Alarmist's undercover agent, assisting Shuck and the others in maintaining the village's ancient and cruel scam: every few years they would throw useless old men or crippled children into the forest, fabricating signs of a werewolf infestation in exchange for an unending stream of aid from the church and tax breaks for the territory.
"I understand; you sleep in peace." The old woman smiled kindly, as if she had merely listened to an amusing fireside tale.
With a light shake of her cane, the woman fell to the ground with a touch and fainted.
The old woman stood up to catch her breath when a noise behind her made her turn back.
The little girl stood right in front of her mother's corpse, her big green eyes bewildered.
"Lily." The old woman sighed.
"Grandmother, mother is asleep."
"No, she's dead." Aunt Mary made no attempt to comfort her niece.
"Dead? What is death?"
"It's the cruelest and greatest thing in the world. Come here, child."
Lily looked at her mother reluctantly for a few moments before taking small steps to her mother-in-law's side.
Granny Mary wiped the tears from the girl's face, her rough fingers brushing over the black birthmark on her face as if she were caressing something nostalgic
"My dear, you are the luckiest child in the world, you escaped death three whole times, the first time it was me, and the other two times a powerful witch was protecting you."
Lily forced a smile through her tears, "That was the Moonlight Fairy."
Blue eyes filled with watery tenderness, Aunt Mary couldn't help but smile, "Lily wants to be a Moonlight Fairy?"
Lily immediately nodded "I want to be like my sister." That way she could wake her mom up.
"That's good." She pulled her grand niece's hair back with satisfaction and watched as the girl's eyes were even brighter and more beautiful as her tears washed them.
"You have green eyes, that's a symbol of powerful magic."
Lily blinked, seeming to understand.
Aunt Mary wasn't in a hurry to explain, instead, she looked around, "We can't stay here for too long, there's a bad smell nearby and I'm just an old woman of a certain age, I can't even fight a dog. But before we leave, I can teach those greedy coyotes a lesson for your parents."
At the mention of coyotes, Lily hugged her old hound, Jack, in fear.
Aunt Mary gave an impish grin, but not at Lily.
She glanced at the gloomy night outside the window and gently touched Lily's little head, "There is no moonlight tonight, it's a bit hard to ask for help from that goddess, it just so happens that that Moonlight Fairy has left a very powerful blessing on you, lend it to me a little."
Not waiting for the girl to reflect, the pointed double snake head lightly tapped her head, and then one or two, countless firefly-sized points of light flew out from between the girl's hair and danced. The room was filled with starlight, and the dots of light created a small galaxy around the old woman, leaving Lily dumbfounded and crying out to the elf in a small voice.
The wrinkled hand gently caresses the snake's head, and as the points of light seep into the skin like moisturizing rain, the wrinkles slowly dissipate, the skin returns to its whiteness and softness, and the hunched-over body gradually stands taller and taller.
Lily couldn't make a sound for a moment with her mouth open as she watched the old woman, who not so long ago had to hold on to her cane, turn into a beautiful young noblewoman. The woman winked at her and made a shushing gesture, a look that reminded Lily for a moment of Maki, the young girl who had made the same gesture to keep her secret as she lulled the old hound to sleep.
Realization dawned on Lily.
Aunt Mary was a fairy, just like Sister Maki! The realization made the girl forget her grief for a moment and just gaze at her fairy mother-in-law with good-natured devotion.
The child's clean and innocent gaze made the elderly witch a little weak, after all, she borrowed this moon magic, not to save people like that moon witch, but to harm people…
But what's done is done, you can't do things by halves, the witch came to the ground in front of the cups of water, the fuchsia liquor was thick as venom, and in fact, it was, as long as any witch who was good at magical potions could smell what nasty stuff had been added to it.
She plunged the tip of her cane into the wine-soaked version of the ground, and the twin snake heads at the head of the cane looked as if they'd had their fill of the wine, and the mechanism of the snake's mouth clicked open to reveal a pair of sharp, glistening fangs.
The witch bent down and whispered to the head of the serpent, her sweet tone was like pouring out love words to her lover: "Queen of ghosts, goddess clad in night clothes, rising in the moonlight of the trident of hell, please listen to the cries of the wasted dead of this land, and turn the life of the new moon into the death of the underworld moon, and when the mouth of the poisonous snake bears the fruits of calamity, and the curse of the pestilence spreads to every corner of this place, let the sinners have no place to run. Let there be no place for sinners to flee."
A tiny green root burrowed tentatively out of the fangs, then like tiny green snakes possessed of life, the green vines quickly spread and stretched along the entire cane, the twin serpent's heads mouthing several purple-black plum fruits.
The witch picked one with interest and put it into her mouth, the taste of revenge was unparalleled sweetness, making her unable to help but look intoxicated.
"You've already eaten this one." The witch plucked away the girl's restless hand, "Eat it again and no one will be able to save you."
Lily quickly shifted her attention as she looked at the vines that had grown wildly to her feet.
"It's fairy magic!" The girl struggled to pick up the old hound, careful not to let the dog touch the vines.
The witch couldn't help but smile as she watched the vines slowly cover the woman on the ground, "Yeah ah, like it, huh? Too bad we won't witness the next, more interesting part."
Without waiting for Lily to ask more, she tapped the floor with her cane.
"We have to go, and your mother, we can't leave her in this dump."
She pointed her cane the other way, and by some miracle, Mrs. Cole, who had been stiff and unmoving, slowly got up and followed them, Lily couldn't stop squealing with delight as she dove over and hugged her mother's cold body.
The witch couldn't help but sigh as she watched. After all, she was not a Moon Witch, barely borrowing the black magic of the Goddess of the Undermoon, she could only spread small plagues and manipulate corpses, and all of this still relied on the mana left behind by the true Moon Witch.
That unseen witch was so powerful that she could even heal the dying, and if she wanted to, she might even be able to perform true Stygian Moon magic to return the souls of the already dead. Mary couldn't help but wonder what made that moon witch leave so hastily.
In any case, it wasn't good, and it was better for her, a late, old witch, not to delve too deeply into it.
When she closed the door, the vines had reached the crack in the door, eager to poke their heads out. The witch knew they would continue to grow until every corner of this place blossomed with the poisonous fruits of the plague.
But if the mysterious Moon Witch knew about it, she probably wouldn't be able to see past her own little tricks.