Chapter 12

We walked through the endless forest and arrived at a small cottage. Despite the vast greenery, I felt as if the forest itself was deserted. I heard the odd sound of wildlife but there was an obvious lack of human life in the surrounding area. The smoke that I had spotted earlier, was coming from the small chimney that sat at the top of the cottage.

I had attempted to speak to my supposed mother, but she requested that I hold all questions for now and that she would explain everything, when we arrived at the cottage.

In spite of the similarities in some of our key features, I could tell that I had inherited most of my appearance from my father. My father was a relatively rugged and handsome man. He was the strong and silent type, and was a popular target for marriage in the village, despite raising a child from a previous partner. However, I was certain that if I had inherited my alleged mother’s looks, I’d overtake the village head’s son, as the village’s most eligible bachelor.

I was not totally convinced that this woman was my mother, but I was so far out of my comfort zone with this whole situation, that I had no choice but to go along with what she said for now. I was also weary of the creature that continued to prowl near us. It was still staring me down, but it never came within striking distance.

We stood at the door to my mother’s cottage. I could make out a large vegetable patch to the left of the small hut. The soil looked in good health and the produce seemed to be growing steadily.

However, something bothered me. She was growing broccoli alongside asparagus. It was near impossible to achieve a good companion crop with these two vegetables, because both of them are heavy feeders and require a large amount of calcium for a healthy crop. My mother opened the door and walked in, I stood in place and continued to ponder this anomaly.

“Are you coming in Calcifer? Don’t mind old Cat Sith, his claws aren’t as sharp as he wants you to believe. Besides, he is in service to me at the moment, so he can’t harm you.”

“Eh? Ah no, I mean that thing is pretty terrifying, but I was just admiring your vegetable patch.”

“Ah, I see. It's wonderful isn’t it? Giving life to something and watching it slowly develop and grow...There isn’t a day that I regret not being able to do the same with you, son.”

The solemn expression that accompanied this statement, made me question my initial reluctance to accept that she was my mother. I tore myself away from her perfect plot of land and followed her inside. The moment I stepped through the arched doorway, my mouth dropped.

The inside of the cottage was strikingly different to what I had expected, it was bigger on the inside. I backtracked outside and walked around the entirety of the small hut, there was no mistake, it was definitely bigger on the inside.

I regained some composure and walked back in, this time, I heard the door close behind me. I looked up and was met with high ceilings. There was even a lavish looking staircase that led to a number of upper floors, it was even larger than the Inn.

“Purrrrffft, if this is enough to startle the boy, we may as well give up on the whole thing mistress.”

Cat Sith, or whatever my mother called him, just talked. He stood up on two legs and spoke, just what was going on? None of this made sense to me. The cottage was bigger and strikingly lavish on the inside and the bloody cat just spoke.

I knew I was a glorified country bumpkin, but I had never heard of a talking animal, and I was certain that it was impossible to make things bigger on the inside, even with the help of the Elementals.

I looked toward my mother for help, but she just signalled for me to follow her again. She led me to the living area and asked me to make myself comfortable. She returned shortly after with some tea and what looked like stew.

“Well, dig in son.”

I reached for the plate of hearty looking stew and took a bite, it was gross. Despite looking like a normal serving of stew, it tasted really bad. I swallowed the first mouthful and reached for the tea, thankfully, it was drinkable.

“Well, what do you think?”

“It’s um, really nice, I had a big lunch though, so I think I’ll save the rest for later.”

“Hahahaha, you’re a bad liar Calcifer Hemlock. Unfortunately, your mother was never really good at cooking or general domestic duties, It never bothered your father though. The first time I cooked this very stew for him, he just silently ate the whole pot. I could see his face turn increasingly green as time went on, yet he powered through. He insisted on doing the cooking from then on though.”

My mother smiled and poured me some more tea.

“How is Tom doing? I made him promise to give you the locket when you came of age, but you look a lot older than 13.”

My heart sank. She didn’t know, she didn’t know that my father was dead.

“He, he passed away, just before I turned 13.”

“W-what?”

My mother looked taken aback, she sunk into her seat and was motionless, a few moments passed and she finally spoke.

“H-how? Tom was fit and strong enough to plough his whole land by himself, I also ensured that he was free from the effects of any epidemic or disease, how did he die?”

The news hit her hard, she was visibly shaken. I decided to put aside the many questions that I had for her and fill her in on what happened. There was still a part of me that didn’t quite trust her, but she had shown no hostility to me so far and she ultimately had nothing to gain from pretending to be my mother.

“There was an invasion. They docked off the coast of a few nearby towns and villages. It was a horde of goblin and orc. They attacked us in the dead of night. It would take a while for help to arrive from the capital, so able men and women were asked to volunteer and fight. Father decided to fight.”

“...I see.”

I gave my mother an opportunity to digest this new information and then proceeded to explain everything that had happened since then. I mentioned how there were rumours of another invasion and that a so called Warlock was at the centre of it all. I told her how the Verdant Royal Family were sending out Mages and soldiers to gather willing recruits. I also told her why I actually decided to open the wooden box and how I felt about the current state of affairs.

“So you see, I thought that I could get answers as to why I lacked any sort of affinity with an elemental by opening the box. I didn’t expect that I would somehow end up here. Nor did I expect to meet my deceased mother, is this a dream? It’s a dream right? That purple haze made me faint and I’m somehow dreaming this whole thing?”

“This is no dream Calcifer.”

“Eh?”

“The only person that could open that box, was you. If anyone else attempted to open that box, then they would suffer a terrible fate.”

“What do you mean?”

“Only by unsealing the latch with a blood offering, does the box open.”

“Blood offering?”

“And only the blood of the son or daughter of the Witch or Warlock that sealed it, will suffice.”

“W-wait...”

“The reason why the Elementals shun you, the reason why you were able to open the box and avoid a painful death when you made contact with the locket, was because you are my son.”

“You're a…”

“That’s right, I'm a Witch.”

"Which makes me..."

"That's right, you are my son. Calcifer Hemlock, you are, a Warlock."