Roswehn of Mirkwood

Witches

Violette's words kept coming to her mind.

Best wishes dear, followed by that gesture. That grotesque mimicking a bulging belly, which meant: you have it inside, it is growing, and I know it.

She had remained silent all day, while with Sigrid she walked through her beloved Dale. Whenever she met a mother with children, she could not help but look at her. She felt a strange anguish inside her, a new, pounding concern. She had never remotely considered the possibility of getting pregnant.

In the last month, she and Thranduil had loved each other very much. Basically every day they unleashed their passion. The king had certainly not spared energies the first night, as in any of the following, and Roswehn was no longer a child, she knew well how conception occurred. Neither she nor he, however, had ever talked about the possibility of pregnancy. It was as if Thranduil did not even consider the hypothesis, as if it were entirely impossible for a human woman to be pregnant with an elf. Yet, the half-bloods existed in that world, Lord Elrond was a beautiful and good example.

The woman reflected on what could have happened, if the impression of Violette turned out to be correct. She could not imagine the reaction of her parents, especially her father. He would have literally lost his mind. His beloved daughter, who was already dishonored and become an elf's mistress, was about to give birth to a bastard son? A little creature with pointy ears? He would die of heartbreak, and her mother would follow him shortly thereafter.
The fact that the newborn would have been a little prince, or princess, would have had little importance for her family.

Before panicking, however, Roswehn had to make sure of her condition. That evening, returning from the walk with Sigrid, she went to her room, she undressed and looked carefully at the image in the mirror. She put a hand on her belly, but it did not seem bigger. She was thin, she felt only a strange tension in her breasts. But it was also true that she and Thranduil had been sleeping together for only a month, and if there had been a pregnancy going on, it would have been just at the beginning, practically imperceptible. So why had Violette had a strong feeling to the point of congratulating? How did she notice it? That made Roswehn more anguished: from experience, she knew she never had to underestimate the observations of the villagers, old foxes who knew much more than her about the facts of life.

She had to find an answer.

There was a person in town who could help her. An elderly midwife, who lived alone in a bare and dark house, where she received her patients. In ancient times, someone like her would have been considered a witch. And her appearance was just that of a hag: she had long gray hair, she always dressed in black (even in summer), she surrounded herself with cats, and she cultivated in her small garden some strange herbs, with which she prepared infusions for each sort of sickness. She was the only one in Dale to practice that profession and knew everything about pregnancies, births, and illnesses of children. She was called Babiyar.

Roswehn decided to go to her on the fourth day of her return to the city. On the previous two nights, she had slept little and badly. She kept waking up and thinking about what Violette had told her. The pressing fears that filled her mind did not give her a break. And then, she would soon leave again, she certainly could not go on the road with the suspicion of having a little creature inside her.

One rainy morning, she decided to go to Babiyar. She brought some money with her, because the midwife wanted to be paid immediately, and good.
She had covered her face with a handkerchief, not to be recognized. She did not want anyone to see her go to the old woman, or the gossip that Violette probably had already started spreading would have increased dramatically.
Once arrived at the small house, she knocked on the wooden door. No one answered, and Roswehn feared that the woman was not there. She knocked again, then a voice came from inside. "I'm coming...I'm coming ... calm down, whoever you are."