Aiden took a step back, out of the witch's earshot, and turned to the wisps for a last minute meeting.
"What do we ask for?" he asked them. "Should we ask her to slap me? She looks strong."
Caelum made a barfing sound. "Ew? You're okay to get slapped by those gnarly hands? I mean... look at those nails."
Aiden took a moment to reconsider, his eyes pinned towards the witch's hand that sat on the disgusting scepter. Just seeing how dirty her foot-long nails were, and the warts that enveloped her fingers, he slightly had the idea to reconsider.
"I mean..." he pondered for a moment. "It's the easier route from all that we've tried."
He had no choice anyway. Either he gets kicked and punched by a few gold-capers, or he gets slapped by his so-called-father, both ways were just as troublesome. At least the disgust could be over in a matter of seconds, he thought.
"No, let's not waste our one chance in getting you slapped," Lucius said. "We can always teach you words to trigger even the greatest saints in history."
Aiden's face twitched, imagining himself spending restless nights practicing profanities instead of practicing useful spells. He was already exhausted just from the thought.
Riven bobbed himself. "Tell her we just have some questions. That must not cost a lot... I hope."
Aiden nodded his head, and immediately went back to sitting down on his couch of bones, face to face with the witch.
"We don't need anything," he said. "We came here to ask some questions."
The witch nodded her head, her dirty finger scratching the single strand of gray hair that sat on a huge mole on her chin. "Alright. A single favor for a single question."
Aiden's eyebrows furrowed. "What favor?"
"You ask your question first," the witch said, a mischievous smile playing on her lips. A smile so sinister Aiden became wary he was about to get tricked. "And then I'll tell you the favor I need."
"Okay. Please excuse me again for a minute."
He stood from the seat once again, and held a conversation with the wisps. "I don't feel so good about this deal."
Caelum flickered in agreement. "Me too. She's probably not gonna ask you to help her scratch her back, will she?"
"Well, thanks for the idea," Aiden snarled. "Now I fear she might ask me to do that."
Riven remained quiet, and they all waited for him to gather his thoughts.
"Alright," he said. "We'll think of one question. What do we need to know about the most?"
"Only one question?" Caelum asked.
"Of course, you imbecile," Lucius replied. "One favor's suspicious enough. What's she gonna ask next? For Bastardsson to wash her feet?"
All of them gagged from the disgusting image Lucius painted inside their minds.
"Focus!" Riven snapped them out of their thoughts. "What's a question we really have to ask?"
Aiden took a moment, but got nothing. There wasn't really anything he was curious about rather than his apparent misfortune. Why, of all things, he wanted to ask the witch, were he given a power that could only be activated after getting beat up?
"You thinking of anything, Bastardsson?" Lucius took notice of Aiden's silence and hovered closer to his nose. "What do you got?"
The three wisps gave him a moment, and he scratched his head before expressing his idea. "I don't know. I just wanted to know why I was given such cheap power."
"Oh," Caelum said. "You mean, how you're supposed to get mogged to make your powers work?"
Aiden's face went slack. "Yes. Thanks for the reminder."
Riven flickered in agreement. "Alright, we'll ask her that."
"What?!" Caelum objected. "We can't waste our question for that. Maybe, Bastardsson here is just... born to be unlucky. Let's just ask her how we can get our bodies back."
Lucius beamed a bright color yellow. "For once you're making sense!" he said, hovering to Caelum's side to show whose side he was taking. "I miss my ever glorious physique. I can't wait!"
"No." Riven said sternly, dimming the lights of the two wisps. From the tone of Riven's voice, they knew the conversation was settled. "You ask your question first, Aiden."
Aiden nodded his head and walked back to the bony seat, facing the hideous witch once again. "I'll tell you a story, and then I'll ask my question."
The witch's laughter echoed around her cabin. "Well, that better be entertaining. Or I'll charge you more."
Aiden began his story by telling the witch about the book for infants and their attempt to open up his meridians for magic. The witch didn't seem to mind his intro, even leaning forward with intrigue. Aiden continued his story, telling her about their plans to get him punched by some random people, and how their plan succeeded when he got beat up. The witch laughed at this part, giving mean comments about how dumb they were, before urging him to continue. Aiden told her about the tingling feeling in his fingertip then jumping to what happened inside the classroom when he was reading random spells and all of a sudden, the lightbulb overhead got busted, and the tingling sensation in his fingertips was gone.A hint of deeper intrigue flashed in the witch's eyes. From the looks of it, they knew she had the answer they needed.
"Interesting," she said. "I'll answer that for a small price."
Aiden's eyes lit up, and immediately dulling down after realizing he was talking to a not-so-trustworthy person. "And what could you possibly mean about by a small price?"
"Give me one of your friends."
The silence was loud inside that cabin, only the sound of the cackling fire and the shadows it drew across the witch's face making the setting more intense.
"But... I don't have friends." Aiden said, earning a deathly glare from the witch. He took another moment before his eyes went saucers, understanding what she meant by friends. "Oh! I get what you mean."
He raised his hand and pushed Caelum forward, his fingers only passing through his wispy form. "You can have this one. Take him," he said. "You can have him for as long as you'd like."
Caelum burned a bright fiery red. "Hey! How dare you condemn me to an eternity of doom, you mere mortal!"
Lucius, on the other hand, was laughing so hard, the witch almost felt his presence.
The witch shook her head. "I don't have use for... whatever that is," the witch said, earning another angry rant from the whatever in question. "I'm talking about the friend you left behind."
"The friend I left behind?" Aiden pondered on her question, his eyes going saucers upon solving her riddle. "You mean--"
"Yes, little boy," she said. "That donkey of mine had been enjoying his freedom too much lately. Send him home and I'll answer your question."