Jess's POV
We crept upon the decayed ruins of what had to be the King of this place. His skin was grey and sunken into his bones like a salted cured meat slab, leathery and cold to the touch. His hair looked to have grown beyond the grave, as would a normal decaying process. I remembered reading about how most people back in the day believed that because your nails and hair continue to grow after death that you have obtained immortal powers that your soul left, but your body lived on even after death. It may seem a bit confusing, but in short that's how necrophilia, forms of vampirism, and grave robbery came to be today. My fear bile had flushed its way down into the pit of my stomach, making me nervous. He was indeed dead, but on the show, there were people who could actually bring them back. What if he wasn't really dead dead? He could be sleeping or hiding it for all we know.
"We need to find out how he died." Fionna addressed. What the?
"Why?"
"Gumball said there was a mandrake around him at all times, keeping him alive. If there's no mandrake then that's what killed him, or it could be he died some other way."
"What's your point? I mean we are talking about jacking this guy's resting place?" I explained concerned.
"We can find clues to tell if the witch was here or not. Maybe if she's still around."
I didn't think about that. I completely forgot about the story he told us. I just thought we would find the salt and be done with this trip, but the salt needed to be extracted from the tears of a mandrake. That would be a long process. Taking the salt out of water requires some chemistry help with beakers and test tubes. That's probably what Gumball has trapped in his back pack.
"Okay." I said, to which we began our search. The first thing I checked was under the bed. To my surprise, I discovered a wooden bowl surrounded by dust and cob webs and it looked to be filled with nasty moldy cheese.
"Hey Fionna." I gestured her to come over to me as I pulled out the evidence. The smell was rotten and vulgar. We had to cover our noses to keep it from wafting in. The bowl looked just as I thought it would up close, but nestled in the bits of curdled milk lay a blackened root with a baby face. It looked shriveled up as if it had died a long time ago.
"This poor creature had no one to change the milk and no one to feed it blood to survive." Fionna said as she observed the specimen. She was actually quite smart as a girl in this universe, or at least she was able to pay more attention to detail than Finn.
"So does this mean the witch fled the castle?"
"Maybe, but it could also mean that she left him here to die and still stayed behind to tend to her garden. We should keep looking."
I did as told and searched some more. Fionna looked through the library as I looked at the side tables and the chest of drawers. Nothing came across my vision that would seem suspicious.
"Yo Marceline. I think I've got something." She said. I rejoined her to look at one particular book. It was a spell book sitting on a mantle turned to the page about immortality.
"What about it?" I asked. We already knew that she used this immortal spell on him to help him live a long terrible life, so how should this help us?
"Look around the edges of the book."
As I looked there was dust, but some had been smudged as if someone had touched it. She must still be here, but why would she be so lazy as to leave the corpse here rotting away. That's gross. I would have conjured a spell to get rid of that carcass once and for all and tidy up this place, but I guess all witches like their house dirty and creepy. All the same.
I looked to Fionna for assurance. Her gaze was serious.
"We have to meet with the rest of the group." I nodded and grabbed the book carefully not to smudge the edges worse than before. We took off running down the dark tunnel with our flashlights guiding us back to the base where we split.
Instantly we stopped at the sound of a shrill shriek coming from the end of the tunnel. Someone was in trouble. It didn't sound like Gumball. It could be – oh no!
"We have to keep moving!" Fionna yelled as she ran as fast as possible to the sound. I flew to catch up with how fast she was moving. Somehow I wondered if Marshall was still behind us. It's not likely that he would just leave Fionna with me. The more I thought about it, the more worried I got for Gumball and Cake and how they were all alone. Surely Cake would fight off the witch, but she was considered to be ruthless and one of the strongest of witches. Also, if Fionna is this scared for her, then she truly won't be able to stop her on her own.
At the end of the hallway lead another door filled with light. The screams were louder with anguish. It was hard to enable listening to it. With a swift dynamic entry, Fionna kicked through the door and to our surprise Cake and Gumball were fine. Cake engorged herself to the size of a giant and sat on the evil witch crushing her, preventing her from using her powers.
The witch was more hideous than the king, except without the beard. She had black demonic eyes, teeth as yellow as corn, and a physique that would make you squeamish to hug her.
"Hold on Cake." Said Gumball, once again reaching into his inner coat pockets to pull out a small hand crafted candy gun. "Okay now!"
"Whoa wait!" I shouted. "We can't kill this chick!"
"It's our job to destroy evil." Said Fionna.
"Yea, but look at her." I gestured Cake to get off her. Cake let off the witch, but she was too mushed to get off the ground. "It's over, she's done."
Gumball aimed at the witch.
"Gumball what the hell?! Stop!" I said, to which he ignored me. I became furious.
"I'm not going to kill her." He assured me.
I was still mad that he continued on, but I let him do what he was going to do, no matter how hesitant I was. He fired a net that captured the witch. Thank God it was just a net. If it was anything other than that, Fionna would have two people on her 'to kill' list. She was so old, she didn't try to fight it. I don't blame her. I'd probably give up too after being under Cake's large butt for so long. We all crowded around her practically lifeless body.
"Hello Madeira." Gumball said to her.
"You know her name?" I asked.
"Research." He answered. That in itself seemed suspicious to me. That sounds like he knows her personally. Then again he has lived for more than a lifetime thanks to that episode about Finn being Shoko in a past life.
"Hello Prince of the Gum World." She said back in a hateful attitude. "Why are you trespassing in my house?"
"We just want to trade something in return to pillage your garden for a mandrake."
"A mandrake huh? What kind of spell are you cracking up Gumball?" She paused. "Nothing deadly I suppose?..."
Deadly? What does she mean by that?
"What will you take for one?" he asked ignoring her completely. She took a minute to think it over when finally she came to an agreement.
"I want a servant."
"A servant?" Fionna asked as if that was a weird thing for a witch to ask for. I too would have asked it.
"Why?" Cake asked.
"I have grown old over the years and have not yet been able to complete my spells and hexes by myself. I need someone to help me around the castle as well. Have you seen it? It's ghastly!"
All reasonable points, but one thing kept them from deciding.
"But you're evil." Fionna said.
"Oh I'm done with those days. Right now I just want to focus on my collection of voodoo dolls." She explained.
"But what happened to the king? Did you kill him?" I asked still thinking about that nasty corpse in the other room.
"No, the king's loyal servant was supposed to change the milk and feed it a drop of blood every day while I was busy working on my magic to improve the kingdom so that they could communicate with their leader even from his bed, but one day the servant disappeared. I didn't know he was gone until it was too late. The mandrake became ill and died as with the king."
"Then why is his corpse still in his bed?"
"I put a spell on his body that would make his vessel last another lifetime, until such time that I could give him a proper funeral."
This witch didn't seem evil at all. She sounded helpless and scared and lonely.
"The kingdom fell apart right after. No one would listen to me because I was a witch and they all thought I had killed him just to take over the castle. They all fled and abandoned me." She sunk her head low in guilt. "And I've waited for someone to come along to help me so that I can give this man a proper funeral and then maybe he will forgive me for what I've done."
"It wasn't your fault that the king died." Gumball said calmly. "His time would have come a long time ago anyways."
"But I should have been the one to change the milk and give it blood."
"That was the servant's job." Gumball said.
"Do you have any idea where the servant went?" Cake asked. She shook her head.
"Why didn't you just call for help?" Fionna asked.
"Would you help a witch that you thought was evil? All of you attacked me as soon as you came in here." She explained. Immediate guilt filled the room.
"Fionna cut her out of that net please." Gumball commanded. With a slice from her sword she was out of the tangled rope.
"Sorry about squishing you baby." Cake said heartbroken for what she did.
"Thank you, and it's quite alright. I can't leave him without his funeral. I need a servant to help me prepare it."
"Well, we can help you with that!" Fionna said enlightened at the idea. "Then you can leave this place and get your life back together."
"That would be wonderful." She smiled a wrinkled grin to us. As soon as that was said, we went to work with our own assigned tasks that Gumball gave.
"Fionna you and Cake go get two large branches and tie a sheet to it to make a stretcher to retrieve the King's body. Marceline you go get flowers and firewood." Gumball instructed.
"And what will you do?" I asked.
"I will get this place cleaned up with my disintegrator and get rid of some of these cob webs."
I left to follow Fionna and Cake outside the castle into the courtyard. It seemed a little weird for him to ask me to get flowers when there are clearly none to be grown here. Not in this desolate land. Finding branched would almost certain be just as hard. It's almost too weird, but Fionna and Cake wouldn't be drawn back from a little difficulty in a challenge.
Flying away from the group, I went to the outskirts of the town to find flowers. Maybe if Marshall was nearby, we could talk. He'd probably have something else to say about me making another scene and saving that witches life, but I need to know more about what he left off last time we talked. Gumball's spell is for something else, but what? I landed in the middle of town square and sniffed around for those flowers, should I ever come across some.
"Are you stupid or something?" Marshall asked instantly surprising me with his presence.
"What? No!" I said catching my breath.
"Woof did I scare you?"
"Maybe a little…what did I do now?" I asked.
"Can't you see that he's trying to get you out of the castle?"
"Yea, but he has his disintegrator gun, what could happen?"
"Lots of things. He could be killing that witch for all we know." He explained.
"I don't think Gumball would do that."
"You're so blind by his sugar coated sweetness."
"He spared her life Marshall, what more could he do to her?" I explained with a heavy heart. "Besides, he's not hurting Fionna, so why should this matter to you?"
"He's going to hurt her somehow, I can feel it." He snapped.
"How do you know?" I asked.
"Because I know him. He betrayed his friends for his Kingdom; he's relentless and he won't stop until every shred of what he thinks to be evil is vanquished. And he doesn't care who gets hurt."
"Do you love Fionna Marshall?"
He stopped immediately and blushed as red as possible. I had my answer.
"That's not important right now, what matters is that we need to get back to the castle before something bad happens."
He turned around ready to take off in flight, but I stopped him by putting one hand on his shoulder.
"If you just tell her how you feel Marshall, she might forgive you." I explained going way off topic.
He shrugged his shoulders down. "It's futile. Like you said, I threw away our friendship for something stupid. She'll never forgive me. But that doesn't mean that I can't protect her."
"That also doesn't mean you shouldn't tell her."
"What's the point of it? Just drop it, okay?"
"Okay. By the way what was that thing you didn't tell me before, about Gumball's spell being fake?" I asked. He turned around to face me with a look that I couldn't believe to be more serious.
"It's not a spell to get you home. The necromancer spell is used to perish the dead."
"And I should be scared of this why?"
"We are neither living nor dead. I understand the purpose of this spell, but have never yet before seen how it turns out. It could do nothing to you….or…it could kill you."
Fear began to build up inside me. Why would Gumball have the intention of killing me?
"But why even do this quest if he's trying to destroy me?"
"I can get you home, we just need to travel to the Nightosphere. For now, I need you to keep an eye on Gumball while I'm in hiding and when Gumball make's his move, I will save her and she will see him for what he is."
"You want me to get destroyed?"
"As I said, it might not kill you, but I will step in before you get hit by the spell."
"This is all very risky." I explained thinking it all over.
"So is this quest that you're on, but enough talk, we have to get back to the others now."
Without further questioning, we sprung into flight and returned to the castle without any flowers. I walked inside the foyer "alone" and to my surprise a shrine was already built in the center of the room. A casket was perfectly laid out over a bed of wood ready to be burned properly. Now I felt kind of bad not bringing any flowers for the funeral.
Fionna and Cake had found the two large beams that they needed from a nearby broken down wooden house to carry the King's corpse. When he arrived in the foyer, Madeira conjured up some blue peonies and black orchids to make his body look more appealing and restful. She mended his clothes with just a simple touch of her fingers. She may be old, but her magic was as powerful as it would a younger witch.
A blue aura appeared as if light had struck in the middle of the stone ceiling giving the room the soft feeling of the light that we would all see when we meet our end. Unfortunately, I felt sorrow for I will no longer know the feeling of dying now that I'm undead. The king had already passed, so there was no need for such a light, but for some reason, it tied the room together. Gumball vaporized all the cob webs and the room no longer felt heavy with dust, the air was clear and fresh. No funeral ever looked so nice and I could tell instantly that Madeira was pleased with the turn out.
"The King would be satisfied." Gumball smiled to the witch.
"Indeed." She replied. "Now let's begin the ceremony. We need some music."
Instantly Cake sprung to Fionna's backpack, took out her dulcimer and began to play a soothing tune. Madeira spread her long bony fingers out and with a spark ignited a fire to which she placed under the timber bed the king's body laid upon. This wasn't the first time I witnessed a cremation ceremony. In Star Wars, whenever a Jedi died, his body would be cremated with honor and his soul would become one with the force, so this funeral was probably arranged for the same reasons. To honor someone in death would mean to release them from the body that held them back in the first life so they can move on to their next one. What better way to set someone free than to set it on fire?
The fire began to spread throughout the pile into an engorged life-like aura with each flame dancing in celebration. We had a moment of silence to pay our respects, even if it was to someone we never knew about. Gumball may have known him, since Fionna knew Gumball in a past life, but other than that, no one else.
"To my dearest friend, I have long awaited for this day that you can finally come to rest." Began Madeira. "You were a devoted King, true to the duties and responsibilities of the throne and it is here that we commemorate your untimely death in celebration of the life you had before."
She took a long pause, covering her mouth as if hiding away her feelings from the rest of us. It only made it more obvious that she was mourning him. That poor woman. It's never easy to get over the loss of a friend, even if it was someone you barely knew. I had lost one of my friends in an accident. Her name was Amy and she was one of the nicest people I knew, one who anyone would treasure as a true friend. She was a cheerleader for my school and one day she had fallen on top of the pyramid and normally the bottom cheerleaders are supposed to catch you, but she slipped and fell all the way down hitting her head. She recovered from the accident with a sore head, but later on that night she fell asleep and never woke up from it. I felt so bad when I heard what had happened. Even though I only knew her for a year, she still was a great friend and I will never forget her. I felt Madeira's pain amidst the silence.
She began to sob out loud. Gumball and Cake immediately found some tissues and gave it to her, to which she took to blow her nose.
"It's okay Madeira, he's in a better place now." Fionna said to sympathize her.
Her sobs became louder and frequent, almost like a cackling sound. We all looked to her in confusion over the unusual noises emitting from her mouth. She removed the tissue from her face, revealing a most unpleasant smile. She was laughing. What the hell was she laughing at a funeral for?
"You fools!" she shouted, taking us all by surprise. With a turn, her cloak swirled in a whirlwind of air up into the ceiling. Her bright light in the sky turned a sinister green color.
"What's happening?" Fionna shouted to Gumball. The wind picked up with the strength that could match a tornadoes, making it difficult to hear. Gumball answered but no one was able to listen. The wind filled our ears and all we could do was watch.
Finally she stopped moving, but her appearance changed into a younger and much more powerful witch. That sweet old lady was gone for good. She tricked us.
"You idiots actually think I would pay any heart to this old bat of a man?" she cackled a hearty laugh. "I would rather kill him again than to serve another year under his tyranny."
"Why did you kill him?" Fionna demanded with a rage just as bad as the night Marshall struck me.
"That silly little pawn…." She muttered under her breath "We made a contract to where I would present the King with the power to heal his illness and allow him to live for eternity, then he would set me free. We bound our bloods to this oath, so I searched and found a creature, a mandrake, that would heal him and give him immortality, but he was displeased. He hated that he could no longer rule the kingdom from his own bed, but my contract had been fulfilled. That night, I was about to leave when one of the servants appeared and asked me how to take care of the mandrake while I was gone, but it was a trick. The King sent a spy into my chamber and stole a script from my book of hexes. The spell was an incantation which cursed me to never leave this castle, no matter how much magic I used."
"Well that explains why you never left, but why did you kill him?" Fionna demanded.
"He tortured me, you fools, but there was no such spell that could allow someone to become immortal unless it was by another immortal. No matter what magic I presented, it wasn't enough for that sinister man, so I left the mandrake to die and let him remain sick once more until his lowly body couldn't take it."
"Well when you put it like that…"Fionna mumbled.
The witches light faded away into nothingness, her cloak no longer flailed, and she receded towards the ground to which she sat on her knees and began to cry. She still retained her younger self, and to be honest she was beautiful. The memories of what the bastard did to her must have taken its toll upon her and now expressing this story to others made it overwhelming. We all could see right through her and just imagine what he put her through. Not all of us took interest in her sobbing, thinking that she might be tricking us again, but I knew how she felt.
Willingly, I walked up to her and put my hand on her shoulder in support. The people who didn't believe the witch took notice of my actions and thought about it. Maybe she isn't actually fooling around this time. Maybe she was telling the truth.
"I cannot allow such uncivil acts to continue in this world. It is our duty to destroy evil…" Gumball explained. The witch closed her eyes ready to receive whatever punishment lie ahead of the crime she committed against the Kingdom.
"But!" he began "It looks like you have done so yourself."
Her face went from sad to surprise. To most people Gumball was considered to be somewhat the King of Aaa, but then there was the "real" king of Aaa who influenced people with classic political slander against Gumball, however, to some Gumball was one to obey. His decree was final and she was free.
"Wait! If you're not immortal, how come you survived so many years after his death?" Cake asked.
"We witches can live many years and thrive off our magic." She explained. "My magic actually can't make me immortal; I can die from any wound or illness. My magic however can make me reborn so I can become young again. This was merely the time of my body's death, and the birth to my younger self."
Well that explains how Gumball knew about the castle, I mean he was able to live several thousands of years since Finn knew him back in his past life when he was Shoko the girl. There might have also been something about the Kingdom in script or a book maybe that he would have come across reading.
The fire turned to ashes as did the king's body. There was nothing more to the funeral except the final goodbye to the bastard.
"Pffft….."Gumball muttered under his breath rudely. "Magic…"
"Listen, if you need a mandrake my garden is still full of them." She offered happily with a smile on her rosy cheeks.
"Actually, we just need the salt from the tears of a mandrake." Fionna said.
"I have some in the cupboard in my chamber. I'll get it for you." With a snap of her fingers the door that lead to the tunnels opened and in a matter of minutes a small clear flask flew in revealing several tiny crystals of salt. She sent it over to Gumball to which he took and placed it inside one of the flaps of his backpack.
"Now that you are free what do you plan on doing?" Gumball asked. I guess the cremation really was a means to her release. She wasn't completely lying in the first place. This may not have been a funeral, but if this keeps her from being bound forever inside this lonely castle, then fine by me.
"I had a small cottage house just north of wizard city. I think I'll go back to it."
"Wait! So you're not cursed anymore?" Fionna asked.
"Nope, the curse would only lift if I released the soul of the man who cursed me out of good will." She explained.
"Good will?" Cake questioned.
"I forgave him for what he did to me and by releasing his soul, I think he forgave me too for killing him. He's found a much better place to rule."
"Well, we should probably camp out here for the night and head on in the morning." Gumball said.
The witch walked over to the front entrance of the foyer. She stopped and turned back to look at us.
"I'll make this place liveable for you in just one second."
With both her hands, pink stardust emitted from her palms up towards the chandelier in the ceiling and burst into raining sparkles all throughout the room. Tables that were once filled with dust began to become clean, turned over furniture was erected to its proper posts, and bit by bit the room tied together as if we traveled back in time to how the room looked back in its prime time. I was amazed.
"Wow." Was all I could say.
"Thanks you guys." And with that, the witch vanished into thin air.