The hut, larger on the inside than it is on the outside, filled with shadow that swirled like a thick fog. From the midst of the fog emerged a haunting cackle of a voice

"So..." the voice croaked as a pair of glowing yellow eyes appeared from the darkness. "Quite the group of hopefuls has come to our little home seeking our magicks."

The cloud of shadow cleared slightly and the inhuman silhouette of the speaker was revealed.

"You must know, that everything has a price..." The form said, a gleeful note in its voice.

"Are you prepared to-" the voice cut of unexpectedly as the fog cleared enough to reveal my party standing in the doorway of the hut more clearly to the speaker.

"GRETA! ASTRID!" the voice suddenly called, all croakiness gone. The voice suddenly sounded like any mother you might find in a hundred different cities. "Kiki is back! She brought her friends!"

As one, the other four members of my party turned to look at me as I half huddled in the doorway. Their expressions very clearly expressing incredulous confusion.

Light suddenly flared in the hut as the shadow-fog vanished, revealing the slightly larger than human sized form of Madame Morrigan, first of the swamp witches, and one of my adopted mothers. Her skin was a pale greenish color, and her hair looked like bunched seaweed. The excited grin on her face softened her otherwise rather alarming features.

There was a matched pair of popping noises as two more figures appeared on either side of Morrigan. The one on Morrigan's left was inhumanly tall and veiled from head to toe in thick black cloth. The top of her head brushed the ceiling of the hut, a good seven and a half feet off the ground. While the figure on Morrigan's right was indistinguishable from any middle-aged human woman you could find anywhere.

​

Clegg's eyebrows had risen so high on his craggy forehead that they had nearly vanished underneath his pot helm. And our priest, Vasta, looked like she torn between fainting in fear or exploding with curiosity.

​

I hastily stepped forward into the space between my party and my mothers.

"Everyone," I said, glad my large hat and high collar were hiding the blush creeping up my face. "These are my adopted parents."

​

The hero, Rexin, made a small choking noise at that, which I chose to ignore. I gestured to the tall black robed figure. "This is Nana Gretta." Gretta gave a willowy bow. "Mother Morrigan," I continued, gesturing to the toadlike form in the center, "And Momma Astrid" I finished, indicating the human-looking woman.

​

"Moms," I said, turning towards them. "This is my adventuring party," I pointed at each member as I said their names. "The hero Rexin, our fighter Clegg, Vasta the priest, and Ranger Mordin."

​

There was an awkward silence as both groups looked at each other, with me standing uncomfortably in the center.

​

Thankfully, Astrid broke the silence by sweeping forward. "We're delighted to meet Kiki's friends!" She said, genuinely, beginning to usher my still stunned party towards a side door. "Please, come in, have a cup of tea!" She paused briefly to pull me into a hug as she passed.

​

As my party was mothered out of the room to the kitchen, both Gretta and Morrigan pulled me into their own hugs, though Gretta did pause to speak quietly to me as she did so.

​

"You should have said something when you left." She said in a voice that sounded like a hundred whispers. "We were so worried when you just vanished."

​

Morrigan nodded as she pulled me into another hug. "The letters have been nice, but we miss you so much!" She said, some real croakiness returning to her voice.

​

I returned Mother's hug, feeling my own eyes starting to prick with tears. "I'm sorry." I said in a small voice. "But I didn't think you would let me go be an adventurer."

​

"Certainly not," Nana said as the three of us started for the kitchen too. "You definitely weren't ready to go out into that dangerous world."

​

Mother, her arm still around my shoulder, gave me a sideways look, "Now though," she said, sounding thoughtful. "Now you look every inch the black mage we always knew you could be."

​

I looked down and smiled, glad again for the hat and coat to hide my embarrassed blush.

​

As we entered the kitchen, Momma was pouring tea from an enormous floating teapot into eight mismatched cups as my party sat around the rough wooden table, looking confused.

"The Hero's party?" Momma was saying, sounding truly impressed and proud. "I always knew our Kiki was destined for great things."

​

"I'm still just a Hero candidate Ma'am." Rexin said modestly as Momma swept around the table, offering cakes and biscuits from a tin that shouldn't have been able to hold quite so many baked goods. "We're still only B ranked at the moment, retrieving a potion from..." he hesitated apparently unwilling to say 'from the three great swamp witches' He cleared his throat to cover his hitch and continued "...From you is part of our promotion exam to rank A."

​

"What kind of potion do you need?" Momma said as she swept around the table again, this time catching me in an embrace before I realized what was happening.

Rexin launched into an explanation of how one of the Duke's daughters had fallen ill and needed a special healing draught to recover as my three mothers and I sat ourselves around the table too.

​

I felt myself relaxing as I sipped Momma's excellent tea and took in the indefinable homeliness of this hut. I hadn't realized that I was drifting off until Momma was gently shaking me awake. I glanced at the window, slightly shocked to see that the sun was already setting.

​

"Your friends are going to stay the night." She said, pulling me into another hug as she helped me to my feet. "We'll figure out what kind of potion you need in the morning." She didn't mention what we both knew, that there would still be the matter of cost. The type of magic my mothers practiced involved cost and sacrifice as an integral part of the spellcraft. Even if they didn't inflate the price for us, as they tended to do for others who came seeking boons, the cost of such a potion as we were likely to need would almost certainly not be counted in gold coins.

​

At the door to my old room, Momma paused to give me another hug. "We're so proud of you." She said into my shoulder. I was vaguely surprised to find that I had grown taller than her while I was away.

​

As Momma began to pull away, didn't let go of the hug immediately. "I've missed you Momma," I said, trying valiantly not to start crying "But I can't stay, the party needs me."

​

"I know sweetie," Momma said, sounding slightly tearful herself. "Just be careful, and know you'll always have a place here with us if you need it."