The morning was young. The whole town was still sleeping, when a young redhead girl wearing a long black robe and a pointed hat went into an abandoned house on the outskirts. Her name was Kajira, she was a town's sorcerer's apprentice. And this day she decided - the day has finally come! She will be no more just an apprentice, but a true powerful witch! She learned hard for years, but her teacher, old grumpy Shmendrik never was satisfied with her strides. He always said, that she is too impatient and never allowed her to practise anything, but simplest spells. So Kajira started learning the true magic herself. And this morning, with all her knowledge, and with her fluency of Ancient Elven, the Sacred Language of the Moon Goddess Isaiah and the Dark divinities, Kajira decided to test her magic skill; she wanted to tap the Dark Side on her unconscious so she could master Black Magic, thence the Bohemian princess, and with magic and sword overcome the princes and kings of human, dwarfish and elven kingdoms, becoming Empress, or Kaiaerina, expanding her rule to the Ocean.

She had read that many witches wore a black, long pointed black hat and black robes to practice their magic, but she had also read - and heard that some witches, especially younger ones, practised their craft completely in the nude, believing magical power accompanied nudity in casting spells, uttering incantations, and invoking the Powers of Darkness. This belief may have descended from ancient Orcish lore which held that the naked bodies of Orcish warriors of the past, as long as they wore their sacred, leather belts around their waists, were surrounded by magic, and though individual warriors in Orcish armies of conquest and marauding might die, the armies of this warrior people would not fail, and, naked as they were, they conquered so much territory. Kajira knew all about this and adhered to the belief of the magic that surrounded a nude body, as long as the person wore some sort of token of magic power: Kajira chose the traditional black hat of the witches.

Kajira knew about the nude dark witches who danced around a fire, doubtlessly representing the fires of abyss, invoking the Evil One to appear and ravish them body and spirit - or soul, as they called it, and in return he would grant them fabulous powers. These witches, even they did not see the Darkness, would ravish their souls and, maybe invisibly ravish their bodies, and they would sacrifice goats and eat the creature raw, and to show their disdain for Heoth. But Kajira accounted all this Dark stuff as nonsense, and totally rejected. But she knew that some of the priestesses of Isaiah officiated naked, and here she felt very much at home. She did not discern an established reason for this; she assumed that Isaiah did not want her priestesses to wear anything profane or created by mortals, that she demanded instead the nakedness of a young priestess, whom she considered sacred and pure, untouched, during the ceremonies, by the profane garb of mortals. But this was just an educated guess on the part of young Kajira.

Yet there was another - possible - reason for the nudity of young witches, and to Kajira, naughty girl that she was, this was perhaps her favourite reason. The practice of Black Magic was bad, and in human culture nudity was considered bad, or would lead to - at least - mischief. This came from an old idea that Heoth insisted His priests to wear breeches, covering their private parts, while they officiated; at times they would have to climb ladders to reach a certain part of the Sanctuary, maybe to ascend to a platform to preform a Holy Service or Sacrifice to Heoth, usually a cow. The first few Books of the Old Testament said that if Heoth or the people saw the nakedness of the priest under his robe, it was a great abomination to Heoth and he would shame himself and the people; Heoth was said to have told that if the priests did not wear breeches while officiating they would be struck down dead by the Lightning. Anyway, since Kajira was "bad" by practising Black Magic, in her aspiration to be a witch, she wanted to be "bad" in her attire, in her wearing of the black witch's hat, and in her nudity. Then too there was a certain thrill for the youthful apprentice, in being totally naughty - Black Magic, witchcraft, nakedness, and all - in being totally naughty, but still in danger of getting caught.

So Kajira disrobed and put her clothe outside the room. The she put on her black hat, and got on her knees. She greeted and hailed, in perfect Ancient Elven, Isaiah, the Moon-Goddess and all her attributes. Then she was ready to switch to her usual tongue. She implored the goddess, Queen of Life and death, to give her power to move the natural world, objects that have been manufactured by mortals, and the nature and power of the minds (spirits) and bodies of mortals to do her personal will - through her power. Well, so far, so good. She knew some witches were said to ride brooms in the sky; Kajira had her doubts about this. But she knew her dream to be Kaiaerina was also, or would be in the eyes of others, even among witches and other practitioners of Black Magic, would likewise be doubtful. So, in order to demonstrate her power - at least to herself - she chose the broom she used so often in household chores, to fly, to be used by her for not for the unpleasantness of work, but for the fun of riding it naked, to show her witchly powers to other.

Having completed her prayer and her gift of allegiance to Isaiah, the witchly candidate brought wood for a fire and a small cauldron. It was unnecessary for her to go to the well to obtain water, since she had already drawn a large amount of drinking and bathwater, which she - with difficulty since it was full of water and the pan was heavy, but with success, filling the cauldron up 3 quarters. She left the cauldron for a moment and ten arranged the wood to make a small fire, but enough for the cauldron to boil after a little while. She lighted the fire rather easily, using kindling from a lit torch. Then she put the cauldron on the fire, after which she brought the each herbs, roots, plants, berries - all unfit for human consumption but the fumes of which only affected the object of the witch's attention. Since her object of her spell was only an inanimate object, she did not take all-important mushroom (it was unnecessary, and was not an error). Then, while uttering a spell for the efficacy of her potion, Kajira took the ingredients, cut them in the middle so their power would come or sooner, threw them slowly in the cauldron praying for success as she did so. Then the girl stood in a corner of her room, waiting for the cauldron to boil.

Kajira had to wait patiently for this, saying spells the whole time. She had put the top on the cauldron to make it heat up faster and, most importantly, to preserve the aroma and the chemicals created in the concoction; but she was, in spite of her prayers and invocations, listening closely for the unmistakable sound of bubbling in the cauldron, all so familiar to her as the assistant to the sorcerer when he was making his own, but unselfish, concoctions. Her heart was beating fast, her breathing was abnormal: never had she been so excited in her life.

Story inspired by Kalidwen's game Elven Kingdom (which you may found here - https://kalidwen.itch.io/elven-kingdom)