[Short Story] The Warlock’s Wife

Once upon a time, a good woman found herself married to a man who swept her off her feet. In time, they had many sons, and a precious daughter.

Then the woman found out that the man was actually a warlock, and he had charmed her in a week using magic. But magic came at a price, she learned one night as the man tried to drain her youth to power his arcane abilities. He said it would exchange her youth for her success, but she would have none of it. He claimed he did it for her, for love, but she did not believe it. His plea was that sacrifice was necessary, but she disagreed. So he found another hapless lass to charm, and left her with her quartet of offspring.

The warlock’s wife lamented, for she had so many hungry mouths to feed. She started a humble fruit cart, and managed to keep hunger at bay, even if they weren’t always full and satisfied.

It was then that she discovered a book that her ex-husband had left behind. It was full of the dark arts, and she was tempted. But then she remembered that sort of magic was evil, especially when it called for sacrifice. So she put it away, and swore a solemn vow never to use magic.

So she went back to her fruit shop and continued peddling her wares, even as her harsh life continued. It was then that she came upon a young farmer who provided her good fruit at good prices. A partnership began between the warlock’s wife and the fruit farmer, and slowly their relationship grew.

A fruit cart became a fruit stall, and then two fruit stalls, until the only fruits you could buy were from the warlock’s wife. Somehow, the fruit farmer still managed to provide all the fruit she needed, even though it was hard work. Soon, her fruit cart had become a fruit empire, and all because she had come upon a fruit farmer who sold her as much as fruit as she wanted for much less than any other farmer could.

The fruit farmer began to edge out the other farmers with his huge volume. They were angry, but there was very little they could do but complain. The fruit farmer dismissed their accusations as jealous ramblings, even as they grew more and more atrocious – illegal fertilisers, genetically engineered plants that were actually poisonous, and even witchcraft.

When the warlock’s wife heard of this, she was furious. She sought out the book, which had remained buried for many years, and found a spell that would rebound all curses onto the speaker. It did not call for a sacrifice, and so the warlock’s wife spoke the incantation.

It worked far, far better than she had ever hoped. The other farmers died in the most horrific of ways, all tied to the accusations that they had made against the fruit farmer. One farmer was burnt to death after his fertiliser caught fire, and another died when he mistook poisonous weeds for his crops and ate some by mistake. The third committed suicide amidst a strange ritual of candles.

Without rivals, the fruit farmer rose to prominence as well, and they prospered. The warlock’s wife wanted to shake off her identity was the warlock’s wife, and married the fruit farmer. The fruit farmer took her children as his own, and they became a family.

The farmer’s wife was proud of herself and what she had achieved, a fruit empire unlike any other. She found herself turning to the book again and again, especially when it proved so effective the first time she used it. But she never, never used spells that entailed sacrifice. She was not a witch, and she would not use such dark magic.

But for her children, it was all right. She would sacrifice out of love, and so she traded small parts of them to ensure their success in life, parts they would never miss. She traded their honesty for the ability to negotiate well, their compassion for the ability to remain steadfast in decisions, and their meekness for the ability to read people’s weaknesses.

She kept all this from the fruit farmer, even as she began to employ more powerful spells from the book to stop her rivals from outdoing her. It was OK, she reasoned, because she did it out of love. Love for the fruit farmer and her children, love for her family, love for those close to her.

Then one day, the fruit farmer saw her performing a spell from the book. He was horrified to learn that their success was due to witchcraft and not hard work. So she cast a spell that prevented the fruit farmer from leaving, from being able to come to the fruit stalls and the fruit farms, from being able to reveal her dark secret. But she found it necessary to do so, because she had to protect her family and give them what they deserved.

So the fruit farmer stayed home while the farmer’s wife relished her success. She would brook no rival nor tolerate any objections. Her empire grew, spreading across the land like an inexorable wave of fruit.

One day, she looked at the mirror, and realised how much she had aged. Her children had all grown up, and now led lives of their own. She no longer had to work as hard to provide for them, but she was also no longer as young and energetic as she used to be. The farmer’s wife only knew success, but she never knew happiness. She sobbed at the realisation, and went to the fruit farmer for consolation.

The fruit farmer, too, had atrophied from the effects of the spell cast on him. Being unable to leave meant that he could no longer leave to get food. He could no longer leave to exercise his brain and his body. But most importantly, it meant that he could no longer gather the components necessary for maintaining the illusion that he was a fruit farmer.