September 8 - The Sign

This town was perfect. Rows of whitewashed houses with lovely terracotta roofs, clean windows giving brief snatches of homey domestic life. Smiling children pilfering small pastries from their mothers’ kitchens, jocular men returning home from work and kissing wives on rosy cheeks. The town fairly shined in the sunlight. A cool breeze swept in from the wide bay, a bay that encircled the gentlest patch of ocean that Audrey had ever seen, gentle blue waves that lapped at the pearly sand encircling it. Everyone she passed tipped a hat, nodded her way, or smiled warmly. In the centre of town was a tall clock tower, and as she walked through the main square it tolled, a mellow brassy sound, signalling the start of afternoon. Audrey smiled a little smile. This town seemed just lovely, and the only thing she had noticed that might be out of the ordinary was that all the houses were built of darker stone than those in all the other towns in the area. They must have mined from a different quarry, and that certainly wasn’t going to stop her from claiming this town. She had liked it more and more as she had walked around, and the best part, the part that was giving a smug twist to her lips, was that she hadn’t seen a single hint of a Sign. Not one, not a single flowering shadow. This town was simply lovely, and it was going to be all hers.

Audrey was a witch. She’d just turned eighteen, and as such had finally, at long last, ended her apprenticeship to Ms Laughersley, the old hag. Always Ms, never Mrs or it was a week of scrubbing the pots. Hateful, spiteful old woman. She’d had to stay with her for the full apprenticeship time, no matter that she had been ready years before. No-one seemed to get that Audrey was simply better than everyone else. She had mastered the alchemies faster than all the other girls, had perfected the magics long before they could even cast them, and bound a familiar when she was only fifteen. But despite how brilliant she was, they had made her stay with the doddering old hag until her birthday. They were jealous, of course. They were trying to keep her around because they didn’t want her settling into a town and becoming competition. Well, they couldn’t stop her now. She’d just found a perfect town, one that was miraculously unclaimed, and she meant to make it hers.

Audrey climbed the belltower, all the way up, and started unpacking her ritual bag under the great bell. She would put her Sign right here, in the centre of town, and soon it would grow and encompass the entire town. The Sign was many things. Most people couldn’t see it, but to those with the sight it was an intricate pattern of soft shadow, spreading slowly from some central point. It was a witch’s way of staking claim to territory, to warn off other prospective. It was a symbol of the witch’s power, for as she grew in power so too would her sign grow, sending out tendrils through her town and connecting her even more closely to the land. Every witch’s sign was subtly different, and you could use them to distinguish between them, if you knew who was who. Ms Laughersley’s had looked like a bougainvillea, and even though she’d lived in Shipley for twenty years hadn’t even grown over half of it. Audrey would be different. Her sign would be a thorned rose, because she was beautiful but dangerous, and would blanket the town within a few years.

With all her reagents placed correctly, Audrey was ready to start the ritual that would lay claim to this land, and the town that stood upon it. Something made her hesitate, just for a moment, her heart speeding up and the tang of fear in her mouth. She shook her head to dismiss it. She was powerful, the best apprentice in a thousand years, and this town was empty of other witches. She had been careful about spotting any Sign, and hadn’t seen a single thing. She took a deep breath, and when she exhaled gathered her power and set her Sign upon the stone beneath her. It was exactly as she’d imagined. A small, delicate rose tendril, curling softly, already with tiny thorns on it. This was the moment she had been waiting for, she had finally done it! But she couldn’t shake the dread that seemed to hang over her, looming ever larger, making her neck prickle. She heard a step behind her. A wizened old woman stood upon the top stair, looking at her with mild surprise.

“Well well, this I never expected. You know, there are not enough witches to have one in each town any more, and so the ancient ways haven’t been invoked for about two hundred years now. I never expected to see another duel, let alone be challenged to one.”

What was this crazy old lady talking about? Audrey put a stern look on her face.
“So, you obviously have a little bit of knowledge, or at least think you do, if you know about witches. I don’t know what you’re blathering on about with duels and whatnot, but I have just claimed this town as my own, and you will have to get used to me living here. You’ll soon realise it’s for the best, and that it would be best to be on my good side. I am a powerful witch, you know.”

The old woman looked unfazed, and insultingly she seemed rather amused/

“Little girl, do you have any idea what you’ve just done? You might know how to brew a few potions, cast a few little spells on unsuspecting villagers, and you even know how to place a Sign. You know a little bit, I’ll give you that much. But only a very little bit. I imagine you were told about the Significance of a sign, that it symbolises a witch’s growth and power?”

“Well, of course I do, and furthermore I don’t appreciate your...”

“AND do you know what it means when a witch places her Sign upon that of another?”

That gave Audrey pause. This detestable old lady was being horribly rude, and obviously needed to be put firmly in her place, or obviously she would cause trouble down the track. But what she’d said had sparked a memory. A snatch of one of old Ms Laughersley’s interminable lectures, a part she’d actually bothered listening to because it sounded interesting. Way back when, there hadn’t been enough towns to go around, one witch could place her Sign over the top of another’s, thus challenging her for possession of the town. But that was ridiculous, there was no Sign to be found here. She said so, and now the lady was wearing a grim smile. 

“Oh no? Look again, girl, and this time look closely.”

Audrey looked at her own sign, still small and fragile. For some reason it almost seemed to fade in and out of the stone, blending in with something. As she looked closer, she got the impression of brambles, of nettles, of oak trees and reeds and watercress and countless other plants, all laid over the top of each other again and again. She looked at the walls, and saw the same thing there, layer upon layer of soft shadows, all blending in with each other until the wall itself looked darker. With dawning horror she remembered her walk through the town, seeing no Sign whatsoever. The stones of this town were no darker than any other. It was Sign, it was all the Sign of this old witch, countless different patterns of it twining around every building and curling around every fountain, staining the entire town with her presence without a single gap. To have such age and power, it boggled the mind.

Audrey raised her hand, and so did the other.