“..... um..... can I ask you some questions? Mistress? About you and witches and stuff?”
Elspeth shrugged, smiling. “Of course. I’ve honestly nothing better to do.”
James swallowed, nervous to risk annoying or offending Elspeth, but his mind was whirling with questions. After all, having just been turned into a toad by a witch who had purchased and then transported him from a magical shop where another witch had been working in exchange for normal English currency instead of something like silver or gold was something that left him a bit curious in a few areas.
“How old are you?”, James asked. A wave of panic swept over him as soon as the words escaped his mouth, but Elspeth didn’t seem to mind much, if at all.
“I’m seven hundred and fifty-five, dear.” An unusual feeling of comfort and happiness swept over James as he heard her call him ‘dear’. It felt warm and sincere, kind and considerate, despite the fact that the woman had bought him and turned him into an amphibian.
“Wow. So, over three quarters of a century?”, James commented. Elspeth nodded. “I’m in the prime of my life. Most wizards and wizards live to be three thousand years old.”
“How many witches and wizards are there? How long have you been around?”
“Oh, hundreds of thousands, dear. Maybe millions. There were more of us, but..... ah, never mind that. Let’s just say that..... mistakes were made. And to answer your second question there, almost as long as humans have been around.”
James found himself utterly fascinated by the witch’s talk. There was still the uneasiness he felt from being a toad and from potentially being trapped as her possession forever, but..... this was indeed an interesting revelation on what he had otherwise viewed as a normal world that he lived in.
“Why are you so willing to tell me all this? Isn’t your guys’ lives a secret or something?”
“Oh, naturally. But you’re not exactly in any position to go out into the world and blab to anyway. And even if you could, I doubt anyone would believe you”, Elspeth said with a smirk.
“What about that shop? That woman that owned it? And who was that wizard guy?”
“Don’t you worry about that. Meredith has been running that place without hitch for two hundred and seventeen years this July. She’ll never be found out so long as a bat has wings or a wolf howls at the moon. And as for Jasper. He’s a tad bit of a lecher, I’ll admit, but he won’t do anything to your friend aside from admire her..... figure.”
James suddenly remembered (he couldn’t believe he forgot) about Nicola. What was she getting up to? Where was she? What would happen to her? Almost as if she could read his mind (though James wouldn’t have been at all surprised if this had been the case), Elspeth reassured him. If it makes you feel any better, the next time I see go to Jasper I can take you with me to check on your friend. If you behave yourself.”
“Yes, mistress,” James chirped almost instinctively. The lack of hesitance in his response and his compliance in addressing her as “mistress” pleased Elspeth. Not to mention, being asked all these question by someone so genuinely and wonderfully interested in what she had to talk about was a refreshing change from her mundane conversations with Silas, who already knew everything about witches and wizards and Elspeth’s life. So far, this seemed to be £5000 very well spent.