It was a dark Saturday night in late October— slightly less than two weeks before Halloween— and the waning crescent moon hung in the clouded sky over the old Victorian house at the end of Inyo Court. In the gloom, three shadowed figures in wide-brimmed pointed hats stalked up the quiet unlit street, across the cul-de-sac, and approached the house unseen, stopping briefly at the post at the foot of the front steps.

"Is this the place?" asked Janis. "Certainly looks like her taste in aesthetics…"

Casting a very faint blue light on the post with her hand in order to illuminate the wrought iron house number affixed to it, Jenelle nodded. "6660 Inyo Court. Yes, this is the address she gave me in her message."

Having confirmed reaching their destination, the three witches mounted the steps to the front porch, then filed over to the door and knocked. Within a few minutes, the door opened, and the three visitors on the porch were met by the familiar face of their colleague Blaire—who, much to their surprise, had her normally tied-back long white-blonde tresses freely cascading down to her shoulders, and was wearing a long crimson vest, dress and matching pointed hat, much like their own.

"Trick or treat~!" blurted out Janis, in the same singsong tone of voice that the children in the neighborhood would soon be using.

Without missing a beat, Blaire grinned and jokingly answered back, "Well, hello there, Miss Whitcroft! Charmed to see you, as usual. You're a little early for trick-or-treating, I'm afraid, so I haven't got any candy for you or your friends. But I think perhaps we can make some other sort of arrangement~…"

"My, my, Blaire," purred the dark-haired witch, impressed with Blaire's appearance. "Really getting into the spirit of the season, aren't you~? I never would've pictured you as the type of witch who'd wear the hat. Truth be told, I didn't think you even owned one."

"You know, Janis, some of us don't have the long arm of the Council cleaning up the messes we make," answered Blaire dryly. "I wear what I normally wear to blend in with the ordinaries, because I live among them, I depend on them at least partially for my revenue, and unlike all of you, I can't normally afford to be so cavalier in calling public attention to my being a witch. Tonight, though, in the privacy of my home, I am under no such obligation. Now, please, do come in."

Following their host's beckoning, the three visitors filed inside her home one by one—first Janis in her purple hat and dress, then azure-haired Jenelle in her teal and turquoise ensemble, and finally a certain witch dressed all in black, with her distinctive silvery bob cut.

"Legitimately though, girls, thanks for coming," said Blaire graciously, pushing the door shut behind them. "I can't complete this polymorph potion without your help, so I really appreciate you all responding so quickly to my summons."

"Of course, Blaire dear. Always glad to lend you a hand~," chimed Janis, her eyes lidded with mischief and her voice dripping with playfulness. She was the biggest troublemaker of the group— the unruly daughter of a powerful figure on the Witches' Council, who had crossed paths with Blaire many times, enough to consider her as a 'frenemy'. Their first encounter had been during the Spring Witches' Bazaar in the Great Garden three years prior, when Blaire's apprentice Mona had pointed out Janis as a witch who had previously turned her into a newt. Fortunately for Mona, she had gotten better. But rather unfortunately, that was also the year a different witch at the bazaar had tricked the Forbidden Arts delegation into buying four sets of astrology dice by turning them into their horoscope signs. Janis, as well as Jenelle and the witch in black, had all been present to witness Blaire's transformation into a sea-goat and Mona's into a well-endowed centaur archer, along with those of their coworkers Dawn and Caterina into a crab and a balance scale, respectively, and the incident was still a source of endless amusement to Janis in particular.

"Indeed," said Jenelle, projecting a much more earnest and straightforward manner than her counterpart. "Whatever you need, I'll be glad to lend my assistance and potion-making expertise." Jenelle was an associate of Janis's— though much kinder in temperament— and much like Blaire, was the owner of her own magic shop. Of the three witches, though, she was the one who had spent the least amount of time directly interacting with Blaire. They had briefly exchanged pleasantries during a few of the Spring Witches' Bazaars in recent years, before both the astrodice incident, and another incident a few years later when Dawn had been turned into a boobslug by a spriggan thief. During both incidents, in stark contrast to Janis, Jenelle had expressed her dismay and sympathy.

"Likewise," said the silver-haired witch in black, with a polite nod and a smile. While she had also been at the bazaar like the others, her friendship with Blaire had really begun within the past year, after she had paid a visit to Forbidden Arts for a little mischief involving animal transformation spells— namely, turning Mona into a parrot, Dawn into a koi fish, and Caterina into a black cat. The encounter had ended in a stalemate, with her turning Blaire into a frog, but also being turned into a pig in the exchange. It was an outcome so ridiculous that the silver-haired witch and Blaire couldn't help but see the humor in it afterwards, which greatly aided in the establishment of a mutual respect of each other's powers. And then, once the animal transformations had worn off, if the silver-haired witch had any lingering ideas left about being able to mess with Blaire free of consequence, they had been firmly extinguished after being kept as the shop's pet chimera for a whole week. Now, out of the three witches visiting Blaire's home, it was the silver-haired one who had established the strongest rapport with her. "Though, I must admit, I'm a little curious about why you needed the three of us here and not Mona. She's your employee in addition to your apprentice, right? If you're brewing a batch of potion to sell in your shop, shouldn't she be here too?"

Blaire bit her lip guiltily, hesitating for a moment before answering. "Well, normally, yes... but this particular project is a little above her pay grade. I did have her transcribe the recipe for me from its original glyphic text, but… she doesn't need to be involved beyond that. Don't get me wrong, she's a good worker and a fun gal to have around... but frankly, her head's been frequently in the clouds and distracted a lot lately. And there just isn't much room for error with this recipe. I'm sure the four of us together will do a considerably more capable job with the actual brewing."

"Suit yourself," shrugged Janis. "I can't say you're wrong. That girl is a grade-A jinx if I've ever seen one. Such terrible luck, running into me in the park on her birthday, of all days~…"

Blaire grimaced. Janis was making a pointed callback to a mean-spirited 'prank' she had pulled the previous December, when she had tracked Mona to a local park and summarily petrified her into a statue, just leaving her there in the cold to be found later by Blaire.

"Come on, now, Janis," scolded Jenelle, ever the peacemaker. "Be nice. She is still Blaire's friend. And Blaire was kind enough to invite us into her home and offer us each a few bottles of her potion in exchange for our help making it, so the least we ought to do is be respectful." She paused for a moment, leaning closer to her compatriot and lowering her voice for a friendly aside. "Besides which… if I were in your position, I'm not sure I'd be so eager to get on her bad side. I think she already gave you a sufficient demonstration of her own capabilities a few months ago…" This was a reference to Blaire's eventual retribution against Janis for the statue prank, when she showed up at Janis's place at the beginning of August, turned her into a cow, and summoned a pair of magic hands to constantly milk her. In fact, Janis likely would have remained in bovine form indefinitely, perpetually lactating into a pail, had Jenelle not found her several days later and restored her to normal.

"Fine," huffed Janis begrudgingly, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes. "Point taken. I'll play nice tonight. I can respect skill when I see it." Up to that point, in truth, Janis had secretly been entertaining the idea of capping the evening by turning Blaire into something seasonally appropriate, like a bat or a pumpkin, to get her back for August.

"Well, then, if we're all ready to get to work, come with me," said Blaire, before leading her guests down the front hall to the secret cellar door disguised as a wall panel beneath the stairs to the second floor. With a gentle inward push of the panel and single tug of a pull chain attached to a hanging light bulb, Blaire illuminated the hidden stairs, and began leading her fellow witches downward, advising them, "This way. Watch your step."

As the four witches descended beneath the old house, they eventually found themselves in Blaire's personal magic laboratory. On all sides they were surrounded by antique firebrick walls lined with shelves of ingredients and worktables topped with alchemical equipment and glassware. In one corner of the room, tucked back along the same wall as the stairway they had just descended, there was an old-fashioned manual water pump, with a large pail on the floor beneath it. And in the center of the room, sitting expectantly above a firepit, was a large black cast-iron cauldron.

"I take it that this is the cauldron we're using, then?" asked the witch in black, peering inside the vessel to find it completely empty.

"Mhmm," hummed Blaire, picking up a notebook from one of the nearby tables and handing it to her. "And I have Mona's notes right here. You can be our designated reader. Hold onto the recipe and help Jenelle gather and measure the necessary ingredients, as well as reading it aloud for us through the process. I'll build the fire and make sure the pot is constantly stirred."

"Oh… uh… s-sure," said the silver-haired witch, looking at the notebook with a touch of apprehension. In a potion lab, the designated reader was one of the most important roles, and one normally reserved for a very experienced and trusted potion-brewer. She had never mentioned it to Blaire, but in truth, brewing potions was not the silver-haired witch's strongest skillset. This was because she had always heavily favored spellcasting by projecting magic with her hands or wand, and got a particular thrill employing this method to turn people into animals. As a result, she had for quite a while been negligent in her potion studies. Still… she saw no reason to dispute Blaire's assignment and lose face. After all, how hard could it be to read from a book?

Janis slumped back impatiently with her arms crossed. "And what exactly am I supposed to do?"

Half-smiling, Blaire arched a brow. "Well, Janis," she replied with relish, unable to resist getting in just one more little barb about making a cow of her earlier. "You're good at filling up a pail… so you can be in charge of fetching the liquid components we need. To start, we need the cauldron three-quarters full of water. After that, you can check my cabinet under the stairs. I've got three bottles of white wine in there, and a large pitcher of tea I prepared earlier with spearmint, ginger and cloves, and they also need to go in as well. And be quick about it, please."

Janis stood there for a few brief moments, narrowing her eyes and sneering resentfully at Blaire as she reconsidered her truce. Ultimately, though, she decided against breaking it, and quietly made her way over to the water pump to start on her assigned task. Within half an hour, the cauldron had been filled with the necessary mixture of water, wine and tea, and Blaire's fire had it heating up to a low simmer.

Meanwhile, as she helped Jenelle gather the ingredients from the shelves, the witch in black was having trouble reading some of the notes scrawled in the notebook she had been given. "Wow...," she said aloud, squinting her eyes as she focused them on the scribbles on the page. "Uh... Mona really needs to take some penmanship classes..."

"Just do your best," said Jenelle reassuringly, with an awkward smile.

Holding the notebook closer to her face, the witch in black slowly deciphered a particularly difficult line of text. "I think this says... 'Half a pound of granulated alicorn'?"

After about a minute and a half of rifling through Blaire's powder cabinets, Jenelle found a glass canister labeled as such and carefully measured out the powdered contents on a scale. Once she was satisfied, she scooped the powder into a cup, which she emptied into the cauldron while Blaire continued to carefully stir the liquid mixture. "Got it! What's next?"

"'4 pounds aluminate of strontium'," the witch in black read aloud from the recipe, "followed by '3 drops of compound spirit of ether' and 'a pinch of dried jasmine'."

Jenelle found the first two ingredients relatively easily, but floundered with the third. "Blaire, where do you keep the jasmine?" she finally asked.

"My herb rack is over there, and alphabetized," answered Blaire, pointing in a specific direction to a shelf on the opposite side of the room, while never once taking her eyes off the concoction in the cauldron. "Third shelf from the top, between the iocane powder and juniper berries."

Following Blaire's instruction closely, Jenelle found the bottle of dried jasmine and added it to the mix in the cauldron, along with the aluminate of strontium and compound spirit of ether. Then, watching with satisfaction as the bubbling substance in the cauldron began emitting an eerie green glow, she turned toward the witch with the notebook and asked, "Okay, now what?"

"Uhh… Well, wait a minute. I think something's missing here," replied the witch in black. "This next ingredient doesn't make sense. It just says '23 extract of fly amanita', but it doesn't specify a unit of measurement."

"Hold on, let me see that...," said Jenelle, moving up beside the witch in black so as to set eyes on the recipe herself. To her credit, the witch in black held up the notebook so that Jenelle could read it more easily, and even pointed out the line in question. "Blaire? Where did you get this recipe anyway? Do you know how old it is?"

"Ehhh… somewhere around 200 years, I think," said Blaire, trying to recall exactly. "I came across it while perusing a newly acquired antique grimoire I found at a pawn shop. If I recall correctly, it would have been published sometime in the 1820s. According to the pawn broker, supposedly one of the book's previous owners was Aleister Crowley."

After pondering the peculiarity together with the witch in black for a few moments, an idea came to Jenelle like a flash. "Ahh, wait. I think I know what happened. If the book is that old, it was probably written using traditional troy-based apothecaries' measurements… and those were normally abbreviated using symbols that would be foreign to most people today. I bet Mona got confused and transcribed it wrong."

"Oh!" exclaimed the witch in black, catching on to Jenelle's implications. "That's a good point! The old symbol for 'dram' looks a lot like the number 3 to anyone unfamiliar with archaic measurements. I think this is supposed to be '2 drams'."

Janis perked up. "Hmm, that makes sense... but now that you mention it, doesn't the old symbol for 'ounce' look pretty similar as well? Maybe we're supposed to add 2 ounces."

"I think you're both too high," asserted Jenelle. "I was actually thinking it could be 2 scruples. That sounds way more sensible to me."

Janis rolled her eyes at Jenelle's conservative estimate. "Sure, if you want your potion to be completely ineffectual..."

"Besides," added the witch in black, "the symbol for 'scruple' looks a lot more like a backwards E than a 3."

Jenelle pouted momentarily, before swiftly caving and backing down from her suggestion with a sigh. An argument with Janis was an argument that she already knew she wasn't going to win—especially if the silver-haired witch was arguing against her as well. "Alright, fine. But it's definitely not 'ounces', either. That's way too much."

Just as Janis was about to vociferously defend her own rationale, Blaire interjected impatiently, exasperated with the entire bickering discussion over a single measurement. Falling back on her managerial instincts from running Forbidden Arts, she decided it was her role to step in and corral the others so something could actually get done. "Then it's agreed," she grumbled authoritatively, pinching the bridge of her nose. "The middle option is 2 drams. Our designated reader seemed pretty confident about that, so I'm willing to defer to her. Everybody okay with that?"

The other three witches exchanged irresolute glances, before coming to an uneasy consensus. "Yeah…," nodded Jenelle timidly. "That sounds about right to us." And then, without any further delay, she located the extract of fly amanita and plunged two drams of the powder into the brew.

The witch in black moved her index finger down the page as she kept reading the recipe. "Okay, we're down to the final ingredient: '4 mana pearls, each from a different witch'."

"Right, that's why I really needed you three," explained Blaire. "This is the catalyst that activates the potion. Each of us needs to contribute a single pearl, formed from focusing our magic. Observe." Still keeping her eyes fixed on the pot and stirring it with one hand, Blaire held up her other hand and began to concentrate. Within seconds, bright sparks of vermilion energy began to emanate from her outstretched arm, attracted by some invisible gravitational force and coalescing into a small glowing scarlet orb hovering inches above her palm. When she was finished, Blaire plucked the rounded solid from the air, holding it up to display that it had hardened into a gem resembling a luminous ruby marble.

Seeing Blaire's demonstration, the other three witches all followed suit, and produced mana pearls in three different colors— Janis's, naturally, took the appearance of a radiant marble made of deep purple amethyst; Jenelle's, a luminescent marble of turquoise; and the silver-haired witch's, a polished, shimmering marble of obsidian.

"And there we go!" exclaimed Blaire, beckoning the others to congregate around the cauldron. "Add them to the pot, and they should dissolve quickly." All at once, the four witches dropped the mana pearls into the bubbling pot— and almost instantly, as with a bad chemical reaction, the potion began to release thick clouds of magical vapor.

"Ugh, what's that smell...??" exclaimed the witch in black, recoiling from the acrid stench of the potion's emissions. It was a powerful odor, slightly earthy, slightly fishy, but with a strong overtone of ammonia…

A smell not unlike that of cooked mushrooms.

Blaire stepped back from the brew, instinctively trying to hold her hand over her nose and mouth to avoid inhaling the pungent scent of the swirling gases. "Uh-oh... something's not right! The potion... it's fuming!"

Janis and Jenelle followed Blaire's lead, backing away from the cauldron. But it was too late— the fumes pouring off the surface of the potion thickened more and more by the second, until they had formed a miasma of haze that clouded the entire poorly-ventilated basement laboratory. There was nowhere to go, and no uncontaminated air to breathe. At first the four witches were beset by uncontrollable coughing, and a tingling in their limbs that paralyzed their motion…

… and then they realized, with great dismay, that they were getting smaller.