TTW : Ten Esmerelda (Patreon)

Thomas gaped as he looked at his wife.

Gone was the frail looking stooped elderly woman. In her place, was a flamboyant queen, dressed in layers of  fabric, from the blue corseted dress to her heavy jewelry, to her enormous bouffant, every inch of her was refined, flamboyant, and extravagant.

"Wow," was all Thomas could say.

She might have been smaller in stature than the other witches, but none of them matched her extravagance. She wore heavy makeup, with glittering eyeshadow and fluttery extended lashes. Her eyebrows were painted on in thin and arced. She had florid, flowery makeup extending from her eyes and down the side of her face. A pendant hung at her throat, and her forehead.

"You like zee new Esssmerelda, no?" Esmerelda said, smiling. They'd even fitted her with dentures.

"Certainly an…improvement," Thomas stammered.

"Come girls," Agatha said, pulling her two compatriots away. "I think our new sister needs some alone time."

They cackled and backed out the door, as Esmerelda came forward.

She smelled of perfume, sachet, and hair product.

Thomas shook his head, wondering how on earth his Lydia was in this flamboyant creature before him.

"Did you, ah…have a good day?"

"Eet waz incredible. I learned zo much. Did you know even my lashes have tiny wardz inzide?"

She opened her eyes, and let him peer at her feathery extended lashes. Far down at the base, he could see little glittering runes like those in the cave.

"Wow, what do those do?"

"They make eet, zo illusion majic? You know, zee falze kind?"

Thomas nodded.

"It no work on Essssmerelda. I zee through all of them."

"I notice your able to speak some english too."

"Yez! They give meeee…umm…how you zay…a tranzlator rune, yez?" she looked upwards. "Yez, it juzt tranzlated 'Tranzlator rune,' for me."

He nodded. "Well, hopefully, you'll be back to normal soon and won't have to talk or dress like that anymore."

She paused. "Back to normal…"

"Yes, back to being Lydia." He gritted his teeth a bit. "My wife?"

"Ahh, yez. Well." She took his hands in hers, and looked up into his eyes. "My darling, I weel, never be 'back' to normal. Thiz iz my normal. Thiz iz how I be now."

"Well, your speech, your accent…all that. You'll learn proper english in time, right?"

She winced a bit at that. "Ahh, no. Alzo, how I weel be iz thiz. My main language, iz French. Zo they create magical runez that tranzlate English into French. To me, I am zpeaking French, you are zpeaking French. I cannot learn English, becuz, I procezz everyting into French. You zee?"

He nodded.

"Thomaz, if at any time, you wish not to bee with mee, I will understand, yes?"

He frowned. "No."

"I won't be zorry if you chooze to be here with me. You can go. Anytime, you can go. I not hold you here, okay? I chooze to be here, in Zælicbrook. You do not have to be here."

"I get it, Lids."

She shook her finger. "And do not, ever, call me Lydia, or Lidz. I am Esssmerelda Devereaux. Now and forever. If you call me Lydia, it weakenz me, yez? In my brain, it weakenz me."

"Alright."

"Aww, you are zad. No be zad." She touched his cheek with her bony beringed hand. "Let us eat zomething, yez?"

"Yes," he said, and tried to smile.

It almost worked.

***

Later, after cleaning up the dishes, he sat with Esmerelda on the couch. She had been staring off into space for quite awhile. 'Ztudy' she had said, when he had asked.

She looked at him, smiling, then took his arm and wrapped it around her.

"Tell me about your day, 'usband."

He didn't want to mess up her hair, so awkwardly held her at arms length. "Oh, I started working on a chess set out in the shed."

She frowned. "Chezz?"

He nodded. "I used to make them when I was a kid. Always wanted to get into woodworking."

"What will you do wit theze, chezz when you are done?"

"I don't know." He awkwardly tried to find a place to put his arm that wouldn't ruin her hair. "Sell them, maybe."

"Zee coven? It izz very wealthy. We have no need for money, my darling 'usband."

"It's just something I could do that would keep me occupied, you know?" He pulled his arm down, frustrated. "I don't even know how to hold you now without ruining all…"

"All?"

"All that!" he pointed to her bouffant. "How in the hell can I even kiss you?"

She chuckled at that. "You want to kizzz Esssmerelda, no?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid of ruining all that region," he opened his palm and moved it in front of Esmerelda's face.

"My darling 'usband. You cannot ruin anyting. It iz now a part of my geas, yes?"

"What?"

She nodded. "We created several options. Different colorz, different coifs. You like to zee?"

"Uh, sure."

She stood up, and snapped her fingers.

Immediately, instead of the dark blue dress she'd been wearing, she wore another dress, this time a red gown with satiny pearl trim. Somehow, she even had a bit of decolletage that must have been a part of the illusion. Her hair was till in an enormous Bouffant, but now it had curls at the top and around the side.

"You really look like a queen."

She snapped her fingers again, and was wearing a gold dress, with dangling gold earrings, and heavy golden bangles. Her eyes had golden makeup with a golden tiara perched on her gray bouffant that had been swept over the left side.

She snapped again, and again, and again. Each one flamboyantly extravagent. Elegant.

Then she snapped again, and she wore the blue dress.

"Those are all wigs, right?"

She smiled. "No, my 'usband. They are all my hair, juzt in deefferent stylez."

"What if you get caught in a rainstorm? Like when we first came here?"

"Ahh yez…my 'usband. Go and fetch a glazz of water. Let uz test and zee?"

He shrugged. It would do her a bit of good to be wet again. He filled a glass, then came back.

"Now, pour it on my head."

"Are you sure?"

"Pour!"

He poured it over her hair.

The water left the glass, then completely disappeared, as if evaporating.

"Wow, magical umbrella hey?"

She nodded, chuckling softly.

"But what if I touch it? Mess it up?"

She held her head up high. "Do your worzt my 'usband. Let uz zee."

He put his hand on her head and sank his fingers in. It felt sticky, cloying. He carefully moved it around, pulling hair pins, unwinding tresses. In a few moments, her hair was a sticky sordid mess. He chuckled.

"You beast!" she said. Then she snapped her fingers, and glittering strings of magic quickly reassembled the hairdo as it originally had been.

"I take it, your makeup is the same? If I kiss or otherwise mess up your warpaint, it also will repair itself?"

"Again, try and zee my 'usband."

He leaned over and kissed her softly. Then he opened his mouth and moved his lips around on hers.

Pulling back he did see the lipstick had smeared. "Hah!" he said, pointing.

With a snap of her fingers, the magic reapplied her makeup. In.a few moments, it was like nothing had happened.

"Well, that's pretty slick," Thomas said, wiping her lipstick off his mouth.

"Zo, you zee, my 'usband, you cannot ruin my appearanze, yez?"

"Yes."

She leaned into him, then, pressing her body to him. "I weel alzo tell you zis, my 'usband."

"What's that?"

"Using zee majic, it makes me…"

She leaned in and whispered in his ear.  'Orny…"

"Ahh is that right?"

She nodded, holding her hand out for him to take upstairs.

Thomas obliged.