The Moonwitch (girlxgirlxgirl)

Chap 49; Family

"We are each other's family now"

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"Moonwitches are born differently from other beings"

Maryann reads out loud, her voice young and shrill.

"The goddess gathers all dead Moonwitch souls at one place, and lets them be born each year. Around one thousand Moonwitches are born every year, but the number changes depending on how many died the previous year. Every Moonwitch will have one child, the pregnancy and birth starts on the same day for each Moonwitch that is chosen for that year. Some Moonwitches have several children because of those Moonwitches who couldn't give birth, who died early. That is why Moonwitches only have one parent.

But beware. If a Moonwitch has a child with another supernatural, the birth of that hybrid will affect the original child's abilities, because a Moonwitch is not supposed to have blood relations. What the effects are is hard to say, as there has only been a few cases of it in the ancient past. But a Moonwitch must be careful to never have children with any other being, only bad things can follow"

A whole army of twenty thousand supernaturals walked through the portal in the early morning. Now they are waiting, planning, watching. Everyone is there except for Maryann and Dario. Where are they?

Maryann can't help it. Her hands are shaking, breathing is quick and she doesn't seem very relaxed. That's because she isn't very relaxed, not now and definitely not later. The warm Moonwitch dimension air is blowing through her hair, tied up in the prettiest ceremonial hairdo she could manage. The pathway underneath them is made from white marble, just like any other building at the shifter dimension. There are temples, houses, small crystal blue lakes and flowers. During the night the moon is big and high upon the sky, shining in its usual gray light. During the day the sun is bright and Moonwitches walk around the temple dimension with serious expressions and similar dresses.

Nobody seems to recognize Maryann. They all walk past her like it's nothing. Some of them are Moonwitches with low powers that got chosen into small clans without temples of their own. Others are parents with their children, still under six years old, no clan to call their home. Some are elders, secretly hoped to die soon so that they can be reborn as warriors and fighters for the next clan that needs them. That's what a Moonwitch is after all. A cycle of birth, training, warriorship. And if you don't die as a warrior, you live to be a parent. After letting go of your child, you wander these streets aimlessly and hopefully die early. That way you can be useful again, be something else than just a useless grandparent to a child that will never see the need to meet you.

Maryann has no idea who her grandparent is. They are probably dead already, after letting go of their parents at six years old, the child doesn't really have anything to do with the adult after that. It's no surprise that her mother, Marigold, probably doesn't even remember or care to know about her respective parent. But Maryann is different. Her relationship with her mother was broken at six years old like everyone else's, but at the dungeon she found out why it's more complicated than that.

Not to mention that she now has a brother. Dario, who doesn't remember his mother. The relationship between a shifter child and their mother is more important than the relationship between a Moonwitch and their mother. Maryann knows that it's about time the two meet each other, about time Marigold explains her side of the story. As long as she's not dead already.