Flora woke at midmorning and brushed aside the curtain, looking blearily out into the forest. A sizable mist hung between the great pines, and every plant was bowed under beads of dew. She sighed. She'd hoped for a more optimistic start. But then, she was going to raise the dead.

She dressed quickly, leaving her hair in the same plaits she had slept in. When she entered the living room, she found Sylvia sitting in a chair, looking unblinking into the flagstone wall. Felix crouched on the floor, glaring up at her.

"Good morning," she said to them both.

"Good morning," Sylvia said. She did not move to look at her. Her eyes were vacant. "You slept so long. I had begun to think you'd forgotten me."

The creature did not move from this spot all night, Felix said without breaking his stare. It is quite unsettling.

Flora didn't answer. She couldn't bring herself to tell him she felt the same.

"I think I'll make some tea," she said, pushing away her unease.

"Whatever suits you," Sylvia sighed. Flora would say her expression was bored, but it lacked any conviction. It was more of a blankness, the only motion in it from tendrils of hair that had escaped her braid. They brushed against the hollows of her cheeks; hollows Flora hadn't seen last night.

Sylvia realized Flora was staring and she seemed to return to herself, looking over at Flora with a small smile.

Flora went about filling the kettle, a strange feeling upon her.

"I'll start with some basic healing magic," she told Sylvia, trying to ignore her rigid stare. "If you are still here, spiritually, perhaps all we will need is a little encouragement to return your soul to your body."

Sylvia nodded, and Flora went to her bookshelf. While her water boiled, she set about collecting some of her healing books; worn, leather tomes full of blessings, rituals, and recipes. As time went on, her table became further and further cluttered with notes, dried plants, and ink blots. She gathered vials of medicine, healing crystals, herbs from her greenhouse, spare bits of parchment. As she worked, Felix slept, but only curled on a kitchen chair next to her, and waking at every snapping quill.

When she had finally exhausted her collection, it was sunset. Flora blinked, feeling dazed. Her stomach growled as she emerged from her studies.

"Have you had any luck?" Sylvia asked from the living room. Both Flora and Felix started from the noise.

"A little," she replied. "I think I need a bit of bread, then I will see if this will do us any good."

She cut a few slices with butter, then carried as much of her work to the living room as possible, Felix eyeing her soberly.

She decided to start with some healing crystals. Taking them out one by one, she placed them in her palms and began to bless them with magic. Dea, quaeso te, ut des salutem et sanitatem...

Each one left her palm shining with white light, the magic breathing through Flora's fingers comfortably. Even as it flowed out, more welled up again. She placed the glowing crystals around Sylvia's chair and waited, the magic returning easily to its natural stasis.

However, when she moved to blessing her medicines, she began to feel the labor of it. It was leaving her like a tide now, sloshing out, and slow to pull back in. By the time she tipped all the vials into her cauldron, she could barely keep her arms up from the exhaustion. They shook with every movement, and Flora was relieved just to stir her elixirs as they boiled.

The contents of the cauldron bubbled quietly, the elixirs steaming through the cottage. It gathered around them as a shimmery haze and beaded up in droplets on their skin. Sylvia seemed to become more solid.

"Do you think it's working?" Sylvia asked, looking discerningly at her hands. She flipped them over and back, watching as they became opaque.

"Perhaps," Flora agreed, surprised at Sylvia's quick response.

It can't be this easy, Felix said from his chair. Again, Flora chose not to respond.

When the last of her potions had boiled into steam, she took out her small parchments for her final piece of magic.

Flora recited the spells on each one before dropping them into the fireplace, little bursts of magic sputtering into embers as they hit the flames. When the parchments caught fire, the blaze flickered through a rainbow of shades like sun through cut glass. It was beautiful, but each one pinched her insides. It was as if each parchment popped a tiny cork from her stomach, then drained the magic thick as sap until the spell burned out.

As the very last paper crumbled into ash, Flora took a deep and steadying breath. She felt deflated and heavy, eyes closing against the tiredness. The magic was soaking back through her skin slowly, like water on dry soil.

"How do you feel, Sylvia?"she asked faintly.

Sylvia didn't look at her. She was fixated strangely on the fire, eyes wide and glassy. Her whole body leaned towards the sparkling flames, as though she was being pulled off her chair.

"Sylvia?" Flora repeated quietly. Sylvia leaned back, slowly.

"I feel much stronger," she replied. Her face turned towards Flora, but her eyes stayed on the hearth a moment too long. They had to be dragged away. "I think my form has become nearly solid. See?"

She suddenly reached out her hand for Flora to examine, and Flora jumped. Surprised at her own foolishness, she forced herself to reach out and take it.

"I see, yes," she answered, noticing the strange, spongy feeling of her hand. She dropped it quickly.

"This strength has prepared me, I think. For Higher magic." She looked at Flora expectantly.

Flora blinked.

"Higher magic?" she asked. "What do you mean?"

"What do you mean 'what do I mean'?" Sylvia asked. Her voice was light, but there was something sharp in her features now. "Surely you didn't think some simple healing magic would rejoin a soul to a dead body."

"I had hoped it might, but–."

"So you only planned to fortify my lost soul?" Sylvia bit out. "I thought we had an understanding."

Flora opened her mouth, then closed it.

"I understand that you want to return to your body, but I never said that would be possible. I only meant to help where I could," Flora offered.

Sylvia rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Really, Flora, I thought you'd meant to be more generous than this," Sylvia snapped, crossing her arms. "How am I supposed to return home in this state? I would be a pariah in the village, the ghost woman from the haunted bakery. Caius wouldn't sell another loaf again."

Flora looked to Felix, then back to Sylvia, unsure what to say.

"I understand how difficult this must be for you," she said gently. "It was so cruel to be parted from your family so early in life."

Sylvia laughed mirthlessly, standing suddenly from the chair. Flora blinked and Sylvia's body had withered, features gaunt and warped in the firelight. She stepped closer to the wall.

"I was not snatched from my family," Sylvia spat. "I was ill, and I wasn't given proper treatment. If Madrigal was still here to treat me, I would never have died! But you were too young and inexperienced to save me, and now I have paid for it with my life!"

Flora's eyes pricked with tears.

"I am so sorry, Sylvia," she said.

"Then help me!" she shouted.

Felix leapt between them, muscles coiled and claws unsheathed. He hissed loudly, eyes flashing bright green, and magic fizzled off of him like hot oil.

Sylvia regarded him coolly for a moment. She sat back down in her chair.

"I apologize," she said, quieter. Her glare never left Felix's face. "This is just...it's been an extremely trying time for me and my family."

Surely, Flora, enough is enough? Felix asked. She has to go. Tell her.

Flora wiped away a few tears with her sleeve. I can't, she said. If I don't try, I'll never forgive myself.

What else could you possibly–?

"I understand you," Flora told Sylvia. "I'll see if there's something else we might try."

Sylvia's features softened, and she reached up to take Flora's hand. Again, the static shocked her.

"Thank you, dear. I'm sorry for raising my voice."

Sylvia dropped her arm and Flora felt heavy, a headache starting to press behind her eyes.

"I think I'll go an rest first," she said, pressing her palms over her face.

"Whatever you like," Sylvia agreed as Flora started down the hall. "But remember that if I'm to return to my body, time is of the essence."