Gunwitch

Something was different, and it wasn’t the snow. It wasn’t just the cathedral that wasn’t how it was before—the whole area around it had changed. How long had we been gone?

The way the place looked before had been, well, shit. And now it looked definitely not shit. The ground had been cleared of all the debris and rotting vegetation. The random stinky mud puddles that had been there were gone, and not because they were frozen, they had disappeared entirely. It looked so clean!

And the cathedral itself. Wow! It looked like it had been repainted, but how? The roof didn’t have any holes in it anymore. Every single broken window appeared to have been replaced. It almost made me think we were in the wrong place and had found a different cathedral, one that hadn’t been forgotten and swallowed by the swamp.

The only thing that hadn’t been fixed was the statues. Though they had been cleaned, they were still a bunch of armless, faceless people and other things that were hard to tell due to the state of them. Maybe looking like this gave them character, added to their personality. Maybe they didn’t need to be fixed.

“What happened here?” Kasia asked.

“I’m starting to think maybe Skelly and Kuba have been busy,” I replied. “I don’t think this is the work of a bwotnik.”

That got a small laugh out of her.

Vasil poked his head out of the satchel. “What are you—oh. Oh. This looks nice.”

“So it didn’t look like this before?” Bogumir asked.

I scratched the back of my head. “It, uh… No. Definitely not.”

“So you were lying about how nice it was?”

“That depends on how you choose to interpret my words. As you can see it looks quite nice, so I was telling the truth.”

“But you thought it would look like shit.”

I flashed him a big toothy smile. “But it doesn’t, so a liar I am not.”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I will give you this one, but reluctantly, you understand? Very reluctantly.”

“I’ll take it. Let’s go inside and get out of the cold. Hopefully everyone is alright.”

So we headed over to the entrance and from a distance I could already tell the once rusted bell was rusted no more. That too had been cleaned of the rust and moss that used to cover it. When we got closer I realized that not only did the cathedral now have doors, but they appeared to be covered in carvings. Did Kuba do this? How did he know I loved carvings?

When I stood in front of the doors I gasped. These were not just carvings—it was me and Kasia and Vasil! Both doors had the exact same carving: It was me wearing the same dress and Bies in her painting, a halo of some kind around my head, a gentle smile on my face. In one hand I held a flower, in the other a revolver—my revolver. On my left shoulder sat Vasil. To my right stood Kasia, gazing at me with an expression full of appreciation.

The carvings were so intricate, so incredibly skillfully done that they looked like they were real, like they could jump out of the wood at any moment. It truly was a work of art. Had Kuba been capable of this all along?

I exhaled and turned to Kasia, who was staring at it in awe.

“Kuba?” I asked.

“Kuba.” She nodded and smiled.

“Cool doors,” Bogumir said. “Looks like you guys, haha.”

“Because it is,” Kasia said. “My brother did this. I’d recognize his carving anywhere. He’s very good at it.”

“Your brother did this? Wow. Yeah. He’s very good then!”

“Let’s go inside,” I said, putting my hand on the door. “Let’s say hi to him. He must have missed you, Kasia.”

When I pushed the door, it opened smoother than any door I’d ever opened in my life. The doors were thick and heavy, and despite that they still felt like they were made of paper, sliding on the slipperiest of ice, offering practically no resistance. It didn’t even make a sound. I almost oohed at the smoothness of it all.

Inside, the cathedral had been transformed as well. The smell of decay was gone, replaced by the scent of sweet flowers. Gone was all the dust and grime and rotting plants. Everything looked clean and pristine. Beautiful flowers stood and hung everywhere. Vibrant green trailing plants hung from above. All the rotted wood had been replaced by beautiful dark brown wood that looked almost glistening.

“Oh my,” Vasil said.

“Oh my,” I echoed.

In the distance, I heard cheerful humming and the clattering of bones, which could only mean one thing—Skelly. I nodded in the direction of the sound and started walking toward the main hall which had the altar and the painting. When we got there, Skelly was sweeping the floor in front of a huge wooden throne. It had been carved to look like it had been made entirely out of shrunken heads. Wow. Kuba really knew me better than I had thought.

I could tell the exact moment Skelly realized someone was there, because he stopped his excited humming and sweeping and froze. His body stayed in the exact same position, but his skull slowly pivoted toward us. When he noticed who we were, he dropped his broom and stared at us with his jaw open.

“Skelly!” I said.

“H-Hecate?” he asked.

“Yeah!” I fistpumped.

“Yeah!” he fistpumped. His body twisted to match the angle of his head and he stumbled toward me. When he reached me, he drew me into a tight bony hug.

He pulled back slightly and looked into my eyes with his empty sockets. “I missed you! I’m so happy you’re back! Did you have fun?”

I laughed and stroked his skull. “I missed you too. We had some fun, didn’t we, Kasia?”

Kasia smiled warmly. “We have so much to tell you, Skelly!”

“Ooh! Exciting!” He let go of me and pulled Kasia into a hug as well, accidentally squishing Bogumir, who she was still holding.

“Hey!” Bogumir said. “What the hell is this? Watch it!”

Skelly stepped back and looked at him. “Did you bring me a new friend?”

“Two new friends.” I nodded at Vitek. “The little guy is Bogumir, and the big one is Vitek.”

“Pleasure to meet you, friends!” Skelly said with a wave.

Vitek grinned, grabbed Skelly’s hand and vigorously shook it, rattling his bones. “The pleasure is mine, my osseous friend!”

“Right. Hi.” Bogumir gave a weak little wave, possibly still not recovered after being squished.

“Well, well, well.” I heard from the altar, and who else could it be but Phisto, lounging on top of it.

“Oh! Phisto!” Skelly said. “You’re back!”

Skelly turned to me. “He disappeared around the same time you left. What a coincidence that he returned at the same time as you did!”

I squinted at Phisto. “What a coincidence indeed.”

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Vitek suspiciously eyeing my cat. I turned to him. “Vitek, that’s Meowphistopheles, but you can call him Phisto. He likes licking his butt and sleeping.”

Instead of facing me, Vitek kept staring at Phisto. “That’s an interesting cat.”

Phisto grinned. “See, Hecate? Other people find me fascinating. I’m not boring at all! And you would lick your own butt too, if you could reach it. I can hear the jealousy in your voice. If it’s really such a big deal to you, you should work on your flexibility.”

“Woah, there,” I said, raising my hand. “He said interesting, not fascinating. And I’m plenty flexible, thank you very much.”

His grin spread wider. “Did you bring me a gift?”

Uh oh.

“I… uh… Well, funny story. I got you a chaos seed, but you know how these things go. I kind of offered it to upgrade one of my skills. Sorry? I meant to give it to you, but, you know. I hope you don’t feel too bad.”

“Why, Hecate, that is the greatest gift you could have given me. A chaos seed is the perfect offering for any skill. You will rarely find anything that grants better enhancements, and as always, it is my wish for you to be the best and strongest version of yourself. That was very clever of you.”

That was unexpected. I expected him to be upset, but instead he was happy that I used his gift for myself?

“So…” I said. “You’re not angry?”

“Oh, no,” he said. “You did the right thing. Should you find any others, I’d suggest using them to upgrade your skills as well. You won’t regret it.”

“I won’t?”

I wasn’t sure if he was messing with me, if he was trying to make me feel guilty, or if he really was happy that I used the chaos seed. With him, you just never really knew. All I knew was that he thrived on spreading chaos and… Oh.

The sound of heavy footsteps behind me snapped me out of my thoughts.