by Paul Kater
sudden.
William wrapped his arms around her. "It must be something with that crystal, sweetwitch. I can't sense you either. Damn, it feels good to hold you."
"Feels good to be held," Hilda's muffled voice came from inside his wide sleeves. It also felt good to her that she was not the only one who seemed to have lost the link. She basked a while in William's presence. Then she looked up. "Come, let's go see where the cats are, and where we are now. It doesn't look like they're working very hard to get us home."
Hilda freed herself from the embrace and walked out onto the deck. William watched her go and wondered if perhaps there was something going on with her that she wasn't telling him. He missed the link; through that he would have known without asking. There was something-
"Hey wizard, are you coming?" Hilda yelled out, dragging him back to the reality of a black ship. She was carrying two black cats and walked to a side of the ship. "Suck an elf..."
William hurried over, took Obsi from her hands and put an arm around her shoulders. Together they stared into a giant open... space. Everywhere they saw lights, all around the ship but also under it. They were definitely in space. Somewhere. "Can you find the moon, Hilda?" the wizard asked.
The witch looked around. And again. "Uh. No. Where is it?"
"Where is what?" Rebel had come over to them after making her round of the ship.
"The moon. We tried to find the moon."
"Ah. I guess it is still near the Earth. Problem is, from what I can see, is that we're not. Near the Earth, I mean."
"So where are we?" William asked.
Rebel bit her lower lip for a moment. "I am not sure. Not about where we are, nor when."
"When?" Hilda and William asked together.
"Yes. The ship is still trying to work that out. When we jump, we usually don't just move to another place, but often we also end up in another time."
"And the ship is working out where we are?" Hilda started to worry very much now. This was just too much.
Rebel simply nodded. "No problem, it always pans out. But let me I find you quarters to sleep while we're here." She winked and disappeared.
Hilda shuddered. "I wish she wouldn't do that."
One of the sailors who passed them by said: "You'll get used to it over time."
"I hope I don't have time for that," Hilda muttered, frantically patting Grimalkin.
Rebel popped into existence again, making the witch and wizard jump. "Hey, it's okay, it's only me," she said. "I found you a nice room. Come, I'll take you there." She reached for Hilda's arm, but the witch slapped at the hand.
"Ease up, Rebel. We're not used to your disappearing act, so go a bit slower!" Hilda did not feel at ease at all, still feeling very weird.
Rebel raised both hands. "Sure, whatever you want," she said. "I'll hold out my hands, and you both take one when you're ready." She understood that this all was a bit too much for the two new passengers on the Mimosa. William took one of her hands. Then Hilda took the other. "Here we go, okay?" Rebel asked. After both had nodded, they popped away from the deck.
"So, where are we now?" Hilda asked as there suddenly was a room around them. Secretly she admired this moving trick.
Rebel said: "I moved you to your cabin. It's really easy to get to the deck again, just step out that door, turn left and keep going until you see the door out. You'll recognise it, there's a sign 'exit' over it." She then stared at Hilda. "You can read, can't you?"
Hilda stood up to her full length. "I certainly can read. I am a witch."
"Okay, no reason to get overly excited. We run into all kinds of folk, and you'd be amazed how many can't read. So I'm just making sure out of habit." Rebel then showed them how the beds worked, what buttons to push and which ones they should avoid at all times.
The cabin was almost entirely white, with beds that came from the wall on the press of a button. The light in the ceiling went on and off by simply telling it to do so. Hilda had too much fun doing that, so William had to keep a hand over her mouth as he had run into the wall a few times too many. There was a display unit in the wall ("Sorry, no really usable movies in the thing," Rebel apologised) and she showed them how to use the communication system, which was merely a small glass-like circle in the wall which lit up blue when touched.
"When it's blue, you just tell the ship who you want to talk to and the ship will try to find that person. When you hear the other side, just talk. Touch the thing again and the connection is cut."
Hilda frowned at that. "Is that like a crystal ball?"
William grinned as the comparison was actually quite good. Rebel looked blankly at the witch, obviously lacking knowledge about crystal balls. He sat down on one of the white chairs at the white table, the only pieces of furniture that did not disappear in the floor or the wall, and asked: "And how do we go about getting some food here?"
"Oh, you don't eat here," Rebel said, "we have a great mess-"
"Rebel, can you come and bring the others?" Maurizio's voice interrupted her explanation. "We have something that you all should see."
William as well as Hilda wondered where that came from. Rebel said "Sure, right with you" to the air and announced that she would grab Hilda and William again. The magicals quickly picked up their cats and a thought later they were on the deck again.
"How did you know where he is?" Hilda asked, but Rebel did not seem to hear her. The witch looked at her wizard as the strange woman walked off to Maurizio. "She said mess. Do you think she was referring to this whole ship?"
The wizard did not respond to her question, not even when she poked him in the ribs with an elbow. "Hilda... very slowly turn your head and look over that side," he said, pointing to where 'that side' was.
"Now why would I do that slowly?" Hilda muttered. "Witches don't - suck an elf." She stared at a giant lump of rock that hung far too close to the Mimosa for her taste. If the Mimosa would get stuck against it, nobody would notice it, so big was the lump. "What is that?"
"It's a piece of rock," one of the sailors said.
"A damn big piece too," another one added.
"And who is going to do something about it?" Hilda asked as she walked up to the railing. "Who put that thing there anyway?"
Maurizio said that the ship would deal with the rock. "It is a small asteroid, by the way, Mrs. Witch."
Hilda stabbed a finger towards the looming thing and said: "That is not small."
"It is, for an asteroid. And no one put it there. They tend to fly through space," said William. "And if the Mimosa deals with it, there is nothing to worry about," he hoped.
"It had better make that thing fly somewhere else." Hilda turned to William and looked at him. He caught something in her eye that made him worry.
"There is something you have to tell me, isn't there, Hilda?" he said as he touched her cheek.
"Yes, and I'm not going to do that here," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "I want to go to our room. Cabin. Whatever."
William nodded, popped up his wand and made it lead them to their cabin. Two black cats followed, only a step behind their magical humans.
8. Shock
They found their cabin without a problem. Also without much help of William's wand; as soon as they had entered the Mimosa's white inside, the two cats ran ahead and sat down by the door.
"These two are amazing," Hilda said with honest surprise. William agreed and watched how she touched the yellow panel. The door opened and they entered the cabin.
Once inside, William changed the white chairs and table into a purple couch like the one they had at home. Clearly relieved Hilda dropped herself on it. "Finally something normal," she said with a sigh, welcoming the black cat that jumped in her lap.
William sat down also and looked at Hilda. "I recall you were going to tell me something?" As he spoke the words, an eerie feeling crawled from the couch up over his spine, and made the hair in his neck feel all itchy.
"My magic's gone."
... "What?" William did not want to hear what he just heard. "Your magic is... gone?"
The witch nodded without looking at him. "I am no longer a witch," she said, her voice flat as a piece of paper. "I can't do magic, throw no spells, can't fly the broom. I'm nothing." As she spoke, she seemed to shrink.
William stared at the woman next to him. He did not believe it. At the same time, it would be the explanation for the fact that he suddenly had lost the link to Hilda. He did not want to ask 'and now what', as that was the most obvious but also most clumsy question in this situation. Instead he put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her as far as Grimalkin allowed. "We'll find a way to get your magic back." That sounded just as stupid.
Hilda shrugged under William's arm. "How? I never heard that magic came back."
"Did you ever hear of a witch who lost her magic?"
The witch thought for a while. "Not this way. Usually through a warlock or something similarly bad."
"We'll find a solution. Somehow." William hoped he sounded confident, as he was not so sure, but he was going to do all he could for his witch. "And nobody will know that you lost your magic, as far as I am concerned. I will handle things for both of us."
"And how will you do that without our link? You won't be able to tell what I would do, William, and I miss the link with you as much as I miss my magic."
"I am sure of that, sweetwitch. For now there is little magic to do, here," William said.
There was a knock on the door. Or wall. Or somewhere. "Rebel," Hilda said to William. "Come in, or whatever you plan to
