"Quite a bit of time has passed since I last did this, so forgive me if things don't go quite as planned." Gertrude placed the necklace around her neck. She stood up from her seat and looked down at the jewel that rested on top of her dress. "Ah, memories are already coming back."

"You going to transform like those two girls back at the tavern?" Narrita asked while leaning back in her seat. 

"Don't know. Like I said before, my power isn't what it once was. I'm sure there will be some kind of reaction once I press the jewel to my chest, but I have no clue to what extent it would be." The witch clutched the jewel of the necklace in her hand and closed her eyes. She lifted it up, ready to put the stone to her chest until the abrupt sound of a door opening made her pause. The witch's eyes opened wide as she turned to her side. 

Edith stood next to the table with Mister Cuddles cradled between her arms. Everyone in the room looked at her as she stared at her mother with tired eyes. "Are we going to eat something soon?" she asked the witch.

"Of course, dear. Let me get something for you to eat right now." Gertrude lifted up Edith and placed her on top of a large chest in the corner of the room. She kicked her legs back and forth, bumping the chest with the back of her heel. "You three don't mind if we hold off on our discussion for a bit, do you? I'm sure a little snack will send her right to bed."

"I'm not tired!" the girl called out.

"You look tired to me, kid," Narrita said. 

"Am not!"

"You can barely keep your eyes open."

"So?" Edith pouted.

"So? That means you're sleepy.”

"Mother!" Edith looked towards the witch as she sorted through a pantry. 

"Don't mind her, dear. She's just trying to get you to leave so we can continue our conversation." Gertrude turned around holding a loaf of bread. She broke off a chunk and handed it to her daughter.

"That's not true," Narrita snapped back. "I'm just messing around with her."

"Oh really? Then you won't mind her staying here while we talk about you and your dearly departed." Gertrude gave the child a piece of bread and then patted her head. Edith eagerly bit into the food and smiled. "What do you say? Are you fine with staying out here? You said you're not tired."

"Mmm-hmm." Edith nodded while chewing her food. 

"Don't you think that this kind of subject matter is a bit too much for a little girl like her to hear about?" Narrita asked.

"No. Not at all. She has been living with me all her life. She's familiar with my powers. Edith even has a bit of magic of her own." The witch then looked at Edith. "Isn't that right, darling?"

"Mmm-hmm!" The girl continued to nibble on her portion of bread.

"Mister Cuddles was her very own work." The rabbit's lone eye twitched as he gave Narrita a long, blank stare. "As you can see, she's still learning. But I'm proud of my little necromancer's first steps!"

"How… did Mister Cuddles die if you don't mind me asking?" An uncomfortable Narrita tilted her head away, staring back at the rabbit with narrow eyes. 

"Edith found him half eaten just outside our property. Any number of the wildlife could have gotten to him. But I played no part in his revival. Edith came home holding him just as you see now. Could you imagine my surprise when I saw her walking into our little home with her beloved pet back to life?"

"You didn't mind bits of him of dripping on the floor, did you?"

"Not at all! Cleaning up a small mess every now and then is well worth seeing my daughter practice her natural-born talent."

"Right..." 

Gertrude leaned towards Narrita and put up a hand between her and her daughter. Both watched Edith be too focused on eating her snack to pay any attention to their conversation. "Don't worry. If everything goes right, Pierce will be in a much better condition that Mister Cuddles over there," the witch whispered.

"Whew." Narrita let out a sigh of relief. 

"Hey miss,' Horace said as he pulled out a chair and sat himself down at the table. "I got a question for ya."

"What is it?"

"You know, you look like you could be that girl's great grandma. But she still calls you Mother. She adopted or something?"

Narrita stared back at him with utter embarrassment. "Horace!"

Despite the statement, Gertrude made a placid smile. "I had a feeling someone was going to bring that up eventually. And the matter will play an important role in bringing your friend back, so I suppose it would be best to address the topic now." The witch moved next to her daughter and with her long and bony fingers, stroked the kinks out of the girl's hair. "Yes. I am Edith's mother. I gave birth to her."

"Must have been dangerous for you to have a child at that age then," Horace remarked. Narrita reached over and smacked him upside the head. He grunted and rubbed the point of impact. Despite the brief act of violence, Gertrude maintained her calm demeanor.

"Edith wasn't born seven years ago, despite her appearance. I met her father, Lynwood, about fifty years ago. I was twenty-two then. The year after we met, that's when Edith here was born."

Narrita and Horace looked at Edith and then Gertrude before looking back at the child. "What?" Narrita cried. "How is that possible?"

"Have you already forgotten of the power that runs through my family?" a smug Gertrude replied.

"You're telling me," Horace began, unable to finish his sentence as he watched the young girl calmly finish the last bit of bread. She hopped off the chest and yawned. 

"I'm tired mother," Edith muttered.

"Oh, so it seems like Narrita here was right. Go head back to your room then. I'll make sure to keep our guests’ company."

Edith walked past Narrita and the other Cutthroats, giving them a friendly wave before vanishing off into the depths of the shack. "Now," Gertrude said, facing Horace as she took back her seat at the opposite end of the table. "What were you getting ready to say?"

"Dead?" Horace muttered.

Gertrude went quiet for a moment, looking in the direction of Edith's room. "Technically, yes. She was once dead."

"For almost fifty years?" Narrita whispered. "Couldn't imagine how hard it must be for a mother to live without her daughter for that long."

"No, no,” Gertrude said while shaking her head. “I couldn't have lived without Edith for more than a day." Gertrude paused, blinking a few times to stop tears from escaping. "Gertrude died when she was seven. An illness came over her. No matter what medicines and potions we tried, her condition worsened. She died in her bed one night. Of course, my husband was distraught as well."

"As I imagine any good parent would be," Narrita said.

"Well, my husband understood my powers. He was the one who suggested bringing her back. But as you can see by the wolf I summoned outside as well as Mister Cuddles, bringing the back the dead doesn't make them the same as they once were. Once life leaves the body, it is almost impossible to replicate the person as they were when they were still breathing."

"Almost? Not completely impossible?"

"Exactly. Even then, my aptitude with necromancy was far greater than even some of the most adept. I knew various techniques and spells that allowed me to do things that no one else could. One of the first things I learned was the power of sacrifice."

Narrita's face remained serious. She stayed focused on each word that came out of the witch's mouth with unease. 

"Through sacrifice, it is possible to bring back someone as they once were before their passing."

"No problem then!" Horace said gleefully. "We just find some animal out in the woods and we trade it in for Pierce!"

The witch shook her head. "Oh, if it were only that simple. Simply sacrificing something like a bird or a fish for a loved one is not enough. The exchange must be comparable. A mere life for a life is not enough. It's an emotional exchange. There will still be suffering. Someone must feel the loss for the spell to work properly."

The Cutthroat that brought Pierce's body in began to tremble. He slowly backed away towards the exit until every other pair of eyes all honed in on him. "Leaving without your friends?" Gertrude said. 

"W-What?" he stammered. "I liked Pierce as much as the next guy, but I don't wanna be the one you chop up to bring him back!"

"Why are you acting like we'd ever do that?" Narrita called out. "You're going to make Gertrude think that we're a bunch of savages!" 

"Don't worry. I didn't believe that you'd sacrifice one of your men for Pierce. At least not involuntarily. But I will say this. If you do go through with the sacrifice, things might not turn out as you expect. As you can see, Edith doesn't age. She came back as she was, a young girl. And for the past forty or so years that's how she always has been."

"You're saying that girl is older than me?" Horace blurted out, gesturing towards himself with his thumb. 

"That is exactly what I'm saying."

"Her mind doesn't mature either?" Narrita asked.

"No. She is eternally seven. Well, according to her, seven and a half."

"And is that what's going to happen to Pierce if we bring him back? He's going to live forever at the age of when he was killed?"

"Possibly. There are other side effects as well. All I can say for certain though is that something will be different. If you were expecting to live through life with your friend as if he had never been killed, you will be sorely disappointed."

Narrita hung her head low. "I get it. There's a lot to take into consideration What made you decide to go through with bringing back Edith if you don't mind me asking? I could use any bit of guidance on this."

"Lynwood was the one that was really sold on the idea. He was more than willing to offer himself in order to bring Edith back. I didn't want to, of course. Ideally, I would have liked for it to have been all three of us back together. Not to mention the possibility of Edith not quite being herself after the revival. But Lynwood insisted. Ever since he lost his arm in the war, he had been struggling to get accustomed to life without it. I suppose that played a part in his eagerness to offer himself."

"I'm sorry," Narrita said quietly. 

"Don't be. It was long ago. I wasn't anywhere near as wise then as I am now. Looking back, I never would have agreed to the idea. But I was so stricken by the loss... I didn't think straight."

"The spell..." Narrita said. "What was the spell like? How exactly did you have to sacrifice him?"

"It's not as gruesome as your friend makes it out to be. No chopping up of bodies is necessary. All that's needed is the blood of the sacrificial target. Remember, it is an emotional exchange, so simply using the blood from a living subject won't do. They must be deceased."

Gertrude then pointed at the large black cauldron she had in the opposite end of the room. All three Cutthroats turned around to look at the empty oversized bowl. "I can whip something up in there. However, it has been a long time since I have ever done a sacrificial summoning. The other familiars you've seen, like the wolf and Mister Cuddles, are the result of lower-level magic."

"Would that work on Pierce?" Narrita inquired. 

"Yes. But only if you want him slithering around in two separate pieces. A proper sacrifice would make him whole and healthy again." Gertrude stood up from her seat and moved to the corner with the cauldron. She began to shift through the objects on the shelves above it. "Hmm... seems as though I don't have all of the ingredients for a proper sacrificial spell."

"What else do you need?" Narrita asked.

"I've got a swamp croc egg... some gurglesnap seeds... the hairs of a cave crawler... Most of the necessary materials are here. But I do need one more thing. The head of an Ivory Aster."

"Never heard of it."

"Most people haven't. It's a very rare flower. And it only grows during a very specific time of the year. Fortunately for you, that time of the year is now."

"They on this island?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, it has been a while since I picked one for myself. If I ever do need one, I get Edith to fetch it for me. She knows where they grow."

"Great! Shouldn't be too hard to get then." She looked at her men. "You two ready for some more walking? Don't worry, you won't have to carry anything around this time."

"No need for all three of you to go along with my daughter," Gertrude said sternly. "Perhaps your men could use a little break from all of that lifting."

"Sorry Narrita," Horace began. "But she's right. My back's still aching." He propped himself against the back of the chair and wiped away his forehead with the back of his hand. 

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea to me," Gertrude continued. "Perhaps I will just hold onto Pierce's body as well."

"What do you mean by that?" Narrita shot up from her seat, giving the old woman a worried look.

"If you're going to bring my daughter along, I want to make sure she is all right. I mean no offense, but you are the leader of a band of thieves. It's not like you are the most trustworthy of individuals. Your friends as well as what remains of your beloved snake will remain with me." Gertrude propped open the door with one hand, showing off the decaying wolf that she had summoned earlier. 

"You're holding my crew hostage?" Narrita barked.

"If you want to look at it that way, yes. But it goes both ways. You'll be holding my daughter hostage as you two look for the elusive Ivory Aster. Now, if you're so eager to see your pet back together in one piece, I suggest you listen to everything that Edith says."

Visibly irked, Narrita calmed her nerves with a deep breath. "Fine. That's fair."

"Good. Hopefully she hasn't been asleep for too long. She gets very cranky if you disturb her nap."