An Elemental Journey: A Witchy Fantasy

By Marty Price

Myrtle Ann (Holly) Hollendaise considers herself a bit of a witch. In a used bookstore she stumbles across a title on Elemental magic and Elementals. With the modest ambition of ‘reducing her heating bill,’ she decides to call forth an Elemental. She gets a bit more than she bargained for, as four Elementals show up at her doorstep and take it upon themselves to improve her life. Adventures ensue as Myrtle takes an unlikely journey into outer space.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781387097661

Book preview

An Elemental Journey

Intro Note

Elementals – in discussions of magic and in terms of supernatural beings employed in fiction, there is some variation in the definition of ‘elemental.’ Generally, one does start with the suggestion that the elemental is a being tightly related to a single one of the four elements (earth, air, fire, water). From there – most conceive of the elemental as a morally undirected entity of some considerable power.

A few – and I insistently follow their lead, because it suits the kind of story I write – suggest an elemental as a figure of more modest power, and certainly not malicious. My elementals are much more on the order of Jungian trickster figures – benevolent in intention, rather short-sighted in their application of benevolence (tending to do accidental harm by granting wishes and the like), a bit self-interested, and likely to teach lessons by accident or indirection. Consistent with those notions, my elementals tend to be constrained by their natures (Fire has both the virtues and the hazards of fire, obviously). And, in my stories, they are constrained by their size – an elemental is a rather small entity, in terms of its presence and its capabilities. Just letting folks know about the entities I’m presenting, a reminder that my entities are products of my own fancy, taking their characteristics via authorial choice, not ignorance.

In consistency with a handful of stories I wrote a few years ago, I am reversing gender-polarities, my representatives of the masculine elements being female (fire and air) and my representatives of the feminine elements being male (earth and water).

Chapter One

The book was a most curious discovery, sitting in a used book store – not with occult literature or with supernatural fiction, but there, among the chemistry books, as though the owners had no idea what it was. It was titled The Power of the Elements, and it sat between a book on the Periodic Table and a biography of John Dalton. It was a very old book, its linen paper pages a bit yellowed and the gilt on its binding discolored by time.

Holly Hollendaise slid it off the shelf and read its opening paragraph, To know there is power in the Four Elements is obvious; to employ that power the highest end of many a generation of alchemists. While alchemy opens doors for those of patience, it is through interaction with Spirits that greater ends can best be attained. To know the Spirit of Air, the Spirit of Fire, the Spirit of the Waters, and the Spirit of Earth is to open oneself to the Secrets of a Greater Realm.

While some among us might conclude, mundanely, that the author had a particular fondness for capitalization, Holly declared the author acquainted with The Secrets of the Universe (likewise with capitals, of course). She glanced over page upon page of spiritualist gibberish and alchemical gibberish, found the book included several intriguing magic spells, and summarily tucked it beneath her arm. She was, as she regularly told herself, a witch. This book had been placed in her reach by the forces of the Universe and it was up to her to take full advantage of the gift.

She bought it at a price unworthy of a rare book (for rare it surely was). The sellers thought it a mere antiquated foray into chemistry, written by some thoroughly forgotten Victorian scientist. They assumed it held nothing more than curiosity value, for they assumed its audience lie in the scientific world, with no modern scientist interested in the least.

Instead it was ‘occult literature,’ there to interest a witch and apprentice spellcaster, one acquainted with the Four Elements, one who loved the idea of using them for her purposes, and whose purposes, while a bit selfish, were modest and benign. If I could reduce my heating bill by careful invocations of Fire … was one of her first thoughts.

Of course, she had much more in mind – the magical wherewithal to improve the atmosphere of her workplace if not to escape her dreadful job entirely; love, independence, and all that mishmash of self-satisfaction that was particularly frustrated by life in the twenty-first century; the ability to curl up in her recliner in the evening without nagging fears of unemployment, bill collectors, and the collapse of Western Civilization. Still, reducing her heating bill seemed a good start.

At home that evening, comfortably sitting in the favored recliner, a cup of herbal tea beside her, reading by a single dim lamp – for one should study magic in the near-dark, that was a principle she would always hold – Holly looked over the fire spells. One, which would allow her to go forth with the ends of her fingers emitting flame, she summarily rejected, That sounds dangerous, and possibly a bit malicious. I’m a witch, not a pyromaniac. It was one of half a dozen that seemed useful only if she wished a career as either an alternative musician or a dominatrix.

Those and several other spells left her uncertain – then she found one that appeared useful and, if judiciously utilized, harmless. She could call forth a Fire Spirit and gently bend it to her will. The book offered, she discovered, similar spells for spirits of Earth, Air, and Water, as though such spirits existed in abundance and were just waiting for a witch to call them forth. Spirits were, the author suggested, at the beck and call of anyone who knew the spells.

Elementals, Holly said to herself, I can have servant Elementals. That sounds perfect. She set about reading – rather too rapidly – everything about Elementals her author had to say. Perhaps she should have read more closely. Perhaps she should have consulted added sources, but her author was such a knowing one. She trusted him fully. He was old and over a hundred years dead. That made him an authority, did it not?

At least she did not attempt invoking Elemental spirits that very night. The premature appearance of any magical entities could have proven very unfortunate, but Holly was not so impulsive as all that. Not quite.

She took the time to study the summoning spells carefully. She thought of what she might want, what she might bind Elemental spirits to. She thought of appropriate tasks for each of the four forms of Elementals, and tried to understand how she could keep a spirit available without holding it to constant presence. She would start with Fire, ideally, and carefully crafted an injunction that would result in lower heating bills but would not give the spirit the latitude (or, gracious, the instruction!) to burn the high rise apartment building to the ground.

Holly made similar preparations for each of four Elementals, planning to call up just one and preparing the alternatives in case one or more of the spells