"You're Mr. Busty's owner?" the words slipped out of Aiden's lips, his face showing apparent surprise.
"Yes. I asked that bastard to buy some milk for my porridge, but he never went back!" the witch said, her eyes darting toward the bubbling cauldron of atrocity by the fireplace, before flashing a dangerously red color. "Hold on a minute... That donkey had the audacity to change the name I gave him?!"
While the witch threw a bunch of curses, Caelum got between Aiden and the witch. "No! You can't sell Mr. Busty out. I won't let you!"
Aiden swatted Caelum away. "I'm not gonna let that happen."
"Well," Lucius murmured. "It's your fault the witch didn't want you. Now Mr. Busty's in trouble."
"Me? How is it my fault?" Caelum said angrily. "Maybe she wouldn't have demanded for Mr. Busty if Bastardsson offered to scratch her back!"
"Enough!" Riven silenced the three, his voice loud enough to even silence the witch. "We're not giving away Mr. Busty. We'll ask her for another favor."
Aiden nodded his head and caught the witch's attention. "We can't give you Mr. Busty..." he said, his eyes flying all over the place. "He got bitten by snakes on our way here and died."
Lucius hissed. "Damn, you're a bad liar."
The witch's eyes grew a dark shade of red, and the skeletons around her shook, the cabin enveloped in an eerie glow.
"You dare lie to me, you mortal?" she stood from her seat, the shadow behind her back taunting. "I know everything that happens in this forest. I've been watching you ever sense you stepped inside!"
Aiden swallowed the slump on his throat. Obviously, lying was a bad idea.
The witch slammed her hands on the makeshift tree table, and drew her face closer to Aiden, so close he could swear her breath almost made him unconscious. "This deal is over," she said. "Now get that donkey back to me... or you're never getting out of this forest alive!"
The wisps threw out some raunchy curses. If the witch could hear their voices, they would have long perished inside this cabin after calling her hideous a good amount of times. Caelum spent his time rambling about Aiden being a bad liar and losing their chances, but he ignored him rather expertly.
Aiden thought of ways to get out of the situation. He didn't want to sacrifice Mr. Busty. Not when the donkey said he'd rather live a thousand years than see the witch ever again. Tricking the witch in any way was also out of the question. Aiden's eyes had been darting back and forth from the witch to the bubbling cauldron. He'd already learned his lesson by lying one time, if he gets caught again, he might just find himself as another piece of meat in her disgusting stew.
"Ouch!" Aiden hissed, his hand immediately reaching out to empty his pocket, pulling a spider that crawled inside it out, sending it flying to the witch's lap.
"Oh, that's where you 've been all this time," the witch said while petting the spider on the head. "I've been looking for you, Gerome."
Aiden rubbed his thigh that's been bitten while sending deathly glares toward the witch.
"Oh, don't worry," she said, rolling her eyes. "You'll live. He's not venomou- "
The witch glanced at Aiden's hand and her eyes went saucers. Both her hands flung to the side out of surprise, accidentally flinging poor little Gerome directly to the bubbling cauldron with a loud swish!
"You!" she marveled. "Where did you get that coin?!"
Aiden looked at his hand and found himself staring at a rusty old coin--which was the only thing he pulled out of his pocket when he pulled Gerome out.
"I don-"
He remembered the ugly maid gave it to him on his first day of school. He never really put much thought into it, judging from how it seemed like an old coin fished out the sewers. But looking at the witch's face, he knew this could be the very thing that gets him out of this danger alive.
"Do you want it?"
The witch's dark eyes lit up, her expression child-like despite having a thousand-year-old-rotting physique. "No one asks that question, you fool!" she squealed. "Of course, everyone wants it!"
"I'll give it to you," Aiden said, making the witch's squeal even more ear-breaking than it's supposed to. "If you promise to let me and my friends go, especially Mr. Busty."
"Screw that donkey!" the witch said. "I'll take that coin in his stead!"
Aiden stood from his seat to assert his authority, raising his hand. The witch crouched beneath it, hands cupped like a beggar. Her eyes sparkled with excitement, but when Aiden closed his fist, panic flickered across her face.
"And we get our question back," Aiden said. "No, scratch that. We want two questions."
The witch began to cackle, her eyes darker than ever despite looking amused. "Fascinating," she said. "A mere human dares to negotiate with me."
"You don't want to?"
"Fine!" she sat back down on her seat, forcing out the composure she had lost. "I'll tell you the answer to your first question before you ask for whatever."
Aiden gripped the coin tighter in the palm of his hand before sitting back down. The three wisps hovered closely on his shoulders.
"You're a calix whose meridians had been severed," she said. "You absorb someone else's power and use it as your own. But with severed meridians, a power used is a power spent. You can never cultivate it."
Aiden's eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?
The witch clasped her bony fingers together. "Is that your second question?"
"No!" Lucius interjected. "We know what she means, we'll tell you later. Tell her no!"
"No!" Aiden replied. "I'll figure it out on my own."
The witch nodded. "Next question."
"Ask her how we can get our bodies back!" Caelum exclaimed, but Riven washed his question off.
"Why is the mortal realm shrouded with celestial energy," he said. "Tell her about how the mortals even had copies of our scriptures."
Aiden relayed Riven's question to the witch while Caelum murmured his complaints.
The witch shook her head at Aiden's relay of Riven's words, "I can tell you what I know, but I don't know the exact answer you're looking for."
Aiden furrowed his brows. "We'll decide if it's enough once you're done."