Prologue
To the Witch Who Kindly Left Me All Her Things:
Your people are a real nosy bunch, huh? Here I was, thinking this nice secluded cottage out of the way of the major roads would be a great place to lie low for the night (or two... or three...), when all of a sudden, your village’s mother-henning, friendly constable shows up?!
Thankfully, you left a lot (and I mean this sincerely, a very suspicious amount) of notes regarding you, your profession, and how to do said profession. I, not wanting to spend my first night indoors in a while behind bars, very calmly and elegantly (if I do say so myself) introduce myself as the new village witch in place of dear, dear old late Malvina. That is a rather witchy name, by the way. Were you born into witchhood?
Anyway, I obviously didn’t let on that you were missing/dead. Sorry, love, I really don’t want to be potentially implicated in that. Just that you had sent me, your witch penpal (is that a thing? The constable definitely thinks so now, anyway), to fill your place while you go on a lovely adventure. The constable seemed to take the nonsense story with no suspicion whatsoever. Does your village see any crime at all?! In any case, I think I’ll be able to at least pretend my way through a few of these diagnoses with your, frankly, EXCESSIVE notes. I am not a witch, nor have I ever shown any capability towards being one, but the current ailments the constable was saying a few of the villagers have seem to be in your notes. I’ll just sneak out once the ailments get more difficult and find my way to the next secluded cottage.
Think of these letters to you as a sort of penance for me taking over your life for a bit. There are a lot of notes here, though, Malvina. Did you intend for someone to show up at your house and take over?! Should I be worried that an actual replacement witch will show up soon? Luckily, I’m really good at talking my way out of things, so we I should be okay if that happens.
Well, I should probably get ready for this sleep I so desperately wanted. I’m sure we’ll speak again soon.
- Juniper (Obviously not my real name, but I don’t think we’re close enough for that yet, love)
