Mirror Of The Forgotten Gods

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Haven

Present day

A separation in time

Haven lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the sun and watched the clouds pass more quickly overhear. She wondered if the rain would come faster than she had originally anticipated and if the tent would be fit enough. As she lay in the stillness of the forest a memory resurfaced from years before. It was never something she was meant to know or overhear but it cold not be forgotten once she did.

She had quietly stood outside the barn listening to her mother, her aunt, and cousin inside. They hadn't noticed her too absorbed in their own thoughts to see her where she stood. They sat with twine in hand weaving nearly identical baskets. Each weaved absentmindedly like they always did but there was something different about this time. Her mothers eyebrows drawn together had caught her eye compelling her to stop beside the barn door. Her face was so filled with tension it forced Haven into a sudden protective stillness. She was fiercely protective as she watched her mothers hunched body and tight face. "We will do what is necessary for our children." Haven overhead her say in a hushed whisper to her aunt and cousin Sable. "A lot of women would do what we did to ensure their children were safe."

Sable sighed, "Yes but now look at the town, filled with mutts. Waterkin, with mixed blood. Blonde hair?" Sable scoffed and scrunched her nose in disgust.

Her mother and her aunt went silent.

Haven looked down at her near translucent skin. She always wore tank tops and thin clothes in the hopes it would change but it never did. In that moment listening to Sable she felt further from Waterkin than she ever had. She watched the olive skinned women through the cracked barn doors.

She looked nothing like them. Althendrians were known for being stocky people, solid muscle, and average height or shorter. In contrast Haven was a long arms and legs— slender and almost ethereal. Her skin was like milk or the waning moon. The Waterkin whispered about here,"That strange one." They would say, "I wonder if she's cursed, or a witch."

"Sable," Haven heard her aunt say. "You know the difference between me and you? After all these years we have admitted what we have done.We broke our ties and we have come to terms with it. But you—" She spoke softly and assertively, "We know you drank Silver Thistle and hid it from your husband. You let your child die. No one faults you for that, no one says to you that you killed you baby in the womb but we all know it."

"I would never give birth to a mutt." Sable spat.

Haven's mother, Margot, raised a calm finger to silence her. "But even still you did what needed to be done and we did what we believed needed to be done. We held our tongues when you told your husband that you'd never had another Soul Tie.'

"We lied for you only for you to accept your own lies as the truth. Then look down at us who were honest? It's a shame you're so unwilling to see that you and I are more similar than different. We each made the decision that was right for us. No one shames you your choice, not me or Maeve." Her mother gestured to her sister who sat beside her. Maeve has stopped weaving and sat silently in pride. "Yet you repeatedly shame us ours. So if you ever refer to my daughters or my son as a mutt again, you won't be welcome here... and I think the town will hear a rumor about the man you chose fifteen years ago as a Soul Tie. I doubt your husband would be pleased to find out about the lie you had been feeding him the past three years. Not to mention the betrayal knowing all of his friends and family knew of it too." Margot shot Sable a look before smiling and returning to her work at weaving. The conversation was clearly over.

Haven clenched and unclenched a fist as she watched the women sit in stillness.

"I don't mean Haven, she's not like the rest of them." Sable countered after some time.

Her mother pursed her lips and slipped the hook from the basket, letting it dangle on the course thread. "Your mother was too proud Sable. That's what got her hung up in the town center and now you're just like her."

"At least I know my place Margot." Sable stood, thrusting her basket to the ground. It made a soft thud when it hit the dirt floor. "You're only here in this big house because of Lucian. Maeve too. Do you even remember whose land this was before he claimed it for you?"

"So that's what this is really about? I cannot take back what I was given and I won't take it from my sons and daughters. It is the Waterkin way." Haven took a step closer her interest piqued. This was news to her. She'd heard the whispers over the years but never really understood what they had meant.

"Generations of my family built this farm only for it to end up with you!" Sable yelled.

"I was the first to marry and there were no men to claim it Sable. You know Lucian had a right to it. It is the way."

"You could give it back. It was rightfully mine."

"You weren't even old enough to inherit Sable, if a woman could inherit. You were fifteen. You couldn't fend for yourself. I took care of you."

"And what would've happened if you hadn't?" Sable stood above Maeve and Margot looking down on them.

"I stopped you from being assaulted like the other women Sable. I could've left you. I could've not taken the land, not take Lucian, and we'd all have gotten nothing and been taken by the soldiers too. The Waterkin have always honored tradition and given me what was mine to inherit."

"You have no idea what fate Margot saved you from Sable." Maeve chimed in, "You could've been strung up like your mother or the men would've done unspeakable things to you... Some were kind, like Lucian... But others were not so forgiving Sable. You don't understand it because you were a teenager."

Sable looked down at her hands and then burst into tears.

Maeve and Margot opened their mouths in shock.

Sable narrowed her eyes at the women angrily "How do you know what I know?"

"What do you mean?" Margot whispered.

"It wasn't Vaylen's child. I would have done anything to keep his child—" She trailed off.

"Oh—" Maeve covered her open mouth and then a tear fell from her eye. "You don't have to explain anymore Sable." Maeve closed the distance between she and Sable and put a hand on her back to comfort her.

"We understand." Margot and Maeve shared a look as they both stood and quietly pulled Sable into a hug.

"We love you Sable." Margot whispered to her.

Haven suddenly felt like an intruder. She quietly slipped away from the barn, her thoughts drifting to her father, Lucian.