WALPURGIA ✔️

Chapter 20 - Presence of Death

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"Shame Madame doesn't let you take flying lessons now that you are pregnant", Diane handed me my wand, a warm expression on her face. "How are you feeling dear? The first few months are tiring, aren't they?"

I was so unsure whether to tell her the truth or to withhold most of the information. Could I trust her? Her warm face got worried, she reached out for me.

"Are you feeling sick? Should I fetch you some medicine, Lady Rebecca?"

Well, maybe I could trust her more than Whitlock, but I still escaped her touch. "I'm ... alright. Sickness just washed through me for a moment."

But ultimately, I decided to keep it for my own.

I counted back the days Baldwin and I last had sex, counted back to the most logical day I could have gotten pregnant. Two months, the most. Thinking back, illness had accompanied me before we had departed for Strasbourg, even before that.

"What are we making today?", my heart ached for him - so I pushed my thoughts aside.

"Not much", she slowly raised her arm, and behind the puffy sleeve tinctures, potions, brews, oils and creams and labelled jars appeared on the table.

Rosemary, lavender, basil, thyme, Anise seed, fig leaves, ivy - the more I recognized, the more appeared. "How many do you have?"

"Jars? Or herbs?"

"Both."
"I don't know. I long stopped counting", she smiled happily at my surprised expression.
My aunts would have known how many exactly they had, mother shadow knew vaguely too.

"Madame Genevieve instructed me to teach you remedies against sickness, forgetfulness, sleepless nights and nightmares."

"Nightmares?" The jar of Anise seed moved forward.

My teacher nodded at it, tapping her wand on it.

"Witches, especially powerful ones, suffer terrible nightmares in their pregnancies. Witch children have a mind on their own, one the mothers can't fathom until their child is born. The babies meddle with the magic of the mother while they are combined to a single bond, and many suffer strange images while sleeping - or even using their powers. Some have sudden bursts of anger too."
"When are their bonds combined?"

Diane's eyes held fond memories. "Once the child is born."

Her aura changed too. It showed me her children, her three sons and her two daughters, the love she held for them. I hadn't seen such a thing with Genevieve. The children laughed in her memories, and it was audible to me too. One boy looked so much like her, her one daughter had the same pleasant aura.

Even their birth was an important memory to her. The cries of the babies sounded like music to her, their scents the sweetest thing she ever had smelled.

Would I feel the same once our child was born?

My hand flew to my stomach, without me being able to control it. Something flickered inside me.

What was that? It felt-

"Enough dwelling! An oil to bathe in to reassure a pleasant night! Let's get going", she clapped happily, flew towards me and linked our arms. "We should try and get your education through before your feet will be swollen and before you just want to sleep the whole day long."