Skye gasped in astonishment. The hunched-over woman she had seen at the window was in fact her aunt, Margaret. Margaret looked equally astonished at seeing Skye, and the bonds holding Skye back eased off. Skye looked over her aunt's figure, looking once more at her bright blue eyes - so like Skye's own - and her fair hair that was now tending more towards ash-blonde than sunshine yellow. She swiftly remembered the last time she had seen her aunt - Sye had been 12, and only knew that Margaret was going off to work in Ghardium, but not what as. All these years Skye had wandered past the very building her aunt lived and worked in, without once suspecting that only bricks and mortar separated them. Skye was almost ready to sink into conversation once more with Margaret about times gone by, when she remembered Caleb, standing outside under a Cast. She begged her aunt to let him out - she knew Caleb, she argued, he wouldn't try and kill them all just because he needed a wash. But Margaret was still unwilling. Finally, she admitted to Skye that she had joined the Sisterhood.
The Sisterhood was the highest level of professional healing there was in Ghardium. Only the best Healers in Dens around the Four Kingdoms could be in it. It was the highest honour ever bestowed on a woman, on one condition; she would never see a man again in her life. She was to work day and night, only looking after the women and young girls who dared to enter the Den : men went to the doctors in other towns and cities. This also meant that she could never have children ever. Skye's own mother had been offered admission into the Sisterhood, and, following a domestic fight that threatened her marriage, Skye's mother had agreed. What she hadn't known was that she was pregnant with Skye at the time.
When the Sisters found out, they were outraged. They had been convinced that Skye's mother would keep true to her Sisterly vows, and never touch a man again. In most other cases they would have stoned her to death after the birth of her child, if they hadn't discovered in their medical checks that Skye's mother was bearing twins. In Ghardium, and indeed all of the Four Kingdoms, twins were held in awe - they were seen as children of the Divine Ones, and helped the rulers of the throne, themselves triplets. So the Sisters did not try to kill Skye's mother, as had been the original punishment. Instead, they would take one of the children to rear as a Priestess, as the law stated, and on her 16th birthday, she would either be allowed to live a celibate life advising the monarchy, or would have her virtue taken by the Prince and given the chance to mother a future King. Skye's mother had felt this was nearly worse than death.
Skye looked back at Margaret with heavy eyes. She knew just how much Margaret was giving up to be able to do something with her life. She could also only guess at the heartbreak she felt to never be able to see her son again. Margaret came from one of the neighbouring Kingdoms. She had left after she and her husband legally divorced, leaving her children behind. Now, all she would ever see would be her daughter.
Margaret looked down at Caleb again. What she was doing was punishable by death, but Margaret didn't seem to care. She glanced up at the sky, and saw dark thunderclouds overhead. Urgently, she turned back to the Skye in front of her.
"Skye, listen. I know you set off on this quest to save your mother. But there is something more important at stake here. You were able to redeem Martha's soul in the woods. I can tell that boy Caleb out there has been a tree - it is in his movements, the way he looks and thinks. I believe that the wrong sister was sent to the High Court, Skye. It is you who has the Gift, not your twin. I suspected it when you were born, but now I am certain. Skye, all is not well in the Four Kingdoms. Ghosts, sprites and evil things lurk around every corner. Villages have been turned to stone, boys sent off to fight and die only to be brought back to fight an eternal war, and girls locked up in towers or trapped spinning straw or robbed of their titles. Skye, I believe that you can save the Kingdoms and unite them all. You are being called to a bigger quest here, something that only you can do. Only you can save the worlds."
