Errant looked at the chalkboards he had set up in the parlor. He fiddled with the

numbers with his wand. He frowned and gave his head a shake. Fixing this would not

be as easy as he had assured the girls.

They had committed themselves to a ritual to be mothers of monsters. Magic didn’t

care if the reasons were lies. It only cared that it worked like a machine being told to

go.

And the magic gathering would turn these four girls into a collection of people eaters

in no time.

Sonya Konstatin’s house was slowing the effect, but it was going to happen unless

he did something. But doing something could be just as bad for the girls as not.

He had condemned people to fates worse than death, but never accidentally.

“Could you check my math, Woody?,” said Errant. “I don’t want to make a mistake.”

The wooden dog approached the boards. He sniffed the numbers. Some of them

glowed as he worked his way across the board. He barked softly. One number

changed.

“Forgot to carry the one?,” said Errant. “Not good.”

Woody agreed.

“Think it’s all right now?,” he asked.

Woody flicked an ear. It should work but he didn’t want to be the one responsible for

the go ahead.

“Let’s try it on,” said Errant, clapping his hands together. “What do we have to lose?”

Woody shook his hand and went to lie out of the way of things.

Wood and fire did not mix in his opinion.

“Do you know what you’re doing?,” asked Sonya.

Errant was tempted to lie. He winced at her expression. A lie would not go over well

at the moment.

“My associate and I,” began Errant. Woody barked what he thought of the blame

sharing. “My associate and I, if someone would not be so rude, think there is a fair

chance of things going as planned.”

“The dog is smarter than you, isn’t he?,” asked Tilda. She smiled a bit.

“Maybe, but I will never admit it,” whispered Errant. Then louder to carry across the

room, he said,“Never. He’s a dog. What does he know about rituals such as this?”

Woody barked twice to show how much he knew about rituals such as this.

“What are we doing?,” asked Verne. She looked at her group. She had brought them

in. She was responsible for them.

“Do any of you know anything about magic?,” asked Errant. He stood in front of the

chalkboards, hands in his pockets.

“Not really,” said Mo. “I don’t think any of us had enough potential to get into the

magician track at school.”

“I have some alchemy training,” said Debbie. “Getting the suit just made me better

at it.”

“The suit?,” asked Errant.

“It’s what we call our other selves,” said Verne. She raised a hand. Her school

uniform turned into a set of gray armor with black stripes. Cat ears protruded from an

open helmet on her head. She wore blades built into the back of her gauntlets.

“The transformation powers the change,” said Errant. He held up his wand. He

frowned at the reading it gave him. “The more you change, the faster you will

change.”

“We’ve been fighting witches for a while,” said Tish. “You’re saying one of us could

have changed into a witch while getting ready to fight another one.”

“Depends,” said Errant. He put the wand away. “It’s likely that something bad would

have happened eventually unless you killed the eight witches without changing

yourselves. A secondary plan might have been enacted if you got that lucky.”

“Can you fix this?,” said Verne. “I like helping people. I like being able to change

into something that lets me be more capable than what I usually am.”

“Do you really think this makes you more capable?,” asked Sonya.

“Yes,” said Verne. “We’ve killed some of these witches, saved lives, helped the city.”

“You want to keep fighting?,” asked Errant. He looked the girls over. He had taken

off his prankster mask for a moment. Tilda could believe this was the man who had

turned a section of land into a desert populated by desperate people and monsters in

the ground.

Verne flinched back. Something had come into the room that wasn’t quite human

enough to be comforting.

“I would like to use these abilities to help people,” said Verne. “I think I have done

a good job with them.”

“What about the rest of you?,” asked Errant. His sharp gaze focused on each of the

girls in turn. “You won’t be human afterwards. Are you willing to give that up?”

The girls huddled together. Errant went back to his chalkboard. He placed his hand

on some of the numbers and they changed places.

“Are you sure about this?,” Sonya whispered at his side. Tilda joined them, keeping

an eye on the girls.

“It’s their choice,” said Errant. “If we tried to remove the curses, and they fought us,

we might has well turn them into witches ourselves.”

“I’m not happy with this,” said Sonya.

“It’s out of our hands,” said Errant. “It’s better to have cooperation over coercion. A

warning is the best we can do.”

“We could do more,” said Sonya.

“We can’t protect everyone,” said Errant. He smiled. “We can only improve their

odds.”

“He’s right,” said Tilda. “As long as they are no longer a threat to the city, they

deserve to pick their poison.”

“So we help them keep being cursed instead of returning them to normal?,” said

Sonya. “That doesn’t seem reasonable.”

“It’s the best we can do,” said Errant. “We’re not meant to be gods to change the

world to make ourselves happy at the expense of others. That never works.

Sometimes people have to find out on their own what they are really getting, and not

what they imagine they are getting.”

Sonya nodded.

“All right, ladies,” said Errant, turning from the chalkboard and clapping his hands

together. “Have you decided what you want to do?”

The girls looked at each other. Worry and fear rode their faces.

“We would like to keep using our powers to help people without becoming witches,”

said Verne.

“You won’t get your humanity back,” said Errant. “Is that something you want to give

up?”

“We’ve already given it up, haven’t we?,” asked Mo.

“I suppose,” said Errant. “But there are degrees. I guess we can get ready and do this.

Afterwards, you’re going to have to stay here until we have things worked out. Sonya

will explain everything to your school.”

“I will have to explain things?,” said Sonya. “I do not think so.”

“Jason will deal with that,” said Tilda. “The Guard love him after what he did on

the train tracks.”

“All right,” said Errant. “Let’s see what we can do with the jars Mistress Konstantin

provided.”

He handed each of the jars to the girls. He searched until he found some tea brought

in to drink while they worked on the problem. He poured the tea into the jars until

each one was half full. He looked at the chalkboards. He pulled out his wand,

pointing the jewel on the end at the girls.

“This is going to be a bit messy,” Errant said. “I would close my eyes if I were you.”

“What if we don’t want to close our eyes?,” asked Mo.

“Suit yourself,” said Errant. He looked at the boards, and wrote the lead number in

the equation in the air with his wand.

The numbers and signs vanished from the chalkboards. They wrote themselves on

the girls, forming a spell cutting into their spirits. Alvas chains broke apart as fire

surged upwards from their eyes. Bile ran from the girls as magic reshaped them into

what it wanted.

Tiny specks flopped from the personal devastation and fell into the jars of tea. Steam

rolled into the air as the liquid cooled the keystones of the enchantments.

Errant stepped back, putting his wand away. He gave a sigh.

“I think they will need baths and clean clothes, Sonya,” said Errant. He ran his hand

through his brown hair. “You might want to explain they’re immortal now.”

“They don’t look the same, Errant,” said Sonya. She hurried forward and turned

Debbie over. The girl’s face had become animalistic, almost bird-like. “They look like

members of the Rheim.”

“I know,” said Errant. “That’s one of the problems with leaving your humanity

behind. I am going for a walk. Woody will stay and keep an eye on things. The Alvas

will probably know these pawns are off the board. I expect we will see the others

before the sun goes down tomorrow, unless Pavel and Jason can find him first.”

“These girls will be dismayed by this, Errant,” said Sonya. “They will not accept this

change.”

“I’ve done the best I can,” said Errant. “I have to take a minute to get my breath back.

I’ll be back in a few. If there are any problems while I’m gone, Woody can handle it.

He’s the best dog in the world.”

Woody barked.

“I’m fine,” said Errant. “I’ll be back soon enough.”

He left the parlor, head down, hands in his pockets.

He left the house. He made sure to close the door and lock it down. The ladies

would be busy trying to get the parlor clean, and taking care of his mess. He didn’t

want problems for them because he was wallowing in depression.

He walked down the street, not really watching things, but letting the city talk to him.

Bern had problems. He couldn’t fix them all. He had probably wrecked the girls’

futures by letting them choose how things should go.

He should have thought of something to show them the possibilities of their choice.

He should have done things better.

How many more mistakes would he make before he reached the end? How many

more lives would he ruin?

Something hulking walked behind him. He could see the shadow off to one side. He

smiled. It appeared to be aping his walk as well as a giant egg could imitate a human.

Errant glanced over his shoulder. A giant, round bunny walked behind him. It grinned

when it saw him looking back. He smiled.

“You were at Mim’s tower,” said Errant. “You and the small furballs.”

The Rhiem nodded. It raised its arms and howled into the sky. The two of them lifted

off, sailing straight up out of the city. Errant laughed. He rarely flew anywhere. This

pushed adrenaline through his system as he looked around.

The Rhiem pulled an umbrella from its fur and opened it. It held on to the handle with

one hand. The other held Errant so they could float over the buildings laid out below

them.

“This is really lovely,” said Errant. “I don’t get to fly that much nowadays. I usually

use the secret paths.”

The Rhiem nodded. It did the same thing normally, but tonight it wanted to fly

around.

They dropped down toward a series of buildings set up in a U inside a wall. Errant

realized the Rhiem had brought him to the girls’ school. Why had it done that?

He noticed Pavel and Jason standing at the gate. He waved at them as the Rhiem

dropped out of the night breeze. It let go of Errant when they touched down.

“Hello,” said Errant. “Toto, I’m sure you remember Pavel. This is Jason, a local finder

and monster hunter.”

Toto howled quietly. He shot up into the sky, waving at his new acquaintances as he

vanished into the night.

“How are the girls?,” asked Pavel.

“They’re fine,” said Errant. He put on a smile. “I see you are one short on your party.”

“Arlo had something he wanted to examine before we headed back to the house,” said

Jason. “He should be along any minute to tell us what he found.”

“Where did you find Toto?,” asked Pavel. He gestured at the empty sky above them.

“He was outside your house,” said Errant. “He might have been looking for Sonya.”

“Really,” said Pavel.

“I was taking a walk and ran into him,” said Errant. “He didn’t have the furballs with

him.”

“Maybe they grew up without him,” said Pavel. “How bad was your exorcism?”

“Not bad at all,” said Errant. “It went better than I expected.”

“At least they are alive,” said Pavel.