Woman of Sorrows-The Black-Veiled Woman

In Hopes of Future Days

"Tomorrow I will be gone for just a little while. I'm going to go out to the fields and begin to work them. It will soon be time to plant the harvest, after all," Thane mentioned, taking a seat across from her with his food.

"Are you? I suppose it must happen sooner rather than later, if we ever hope to have a decent harvest this year. When do you suppose you will go out?"

"Very early, my love. Likely before you even wake."

"I want to come with you," she said, smiling a little.

"What? No, Chalandra, it is far too soon after Mirador. You will have to stay at the house with her, and I would worry for you if you tried to work so soon."

"I will be just fine," she assured him, knowing well he would protest the idea, "It is my house and my land too, after all, and I want to help you plant the harvest. As we cannot afford to hire help yet, it is only right that I step in. We can bring Mirador, and I will go back to the house to collect Eveona when she wakes, or we can make her come along early, it does not matter. I just want to come and help, if only for a little while."

"You help enough by bearing and tending my children, keeping my home, and being my wife. I will gladly do this alone if only to put myself at ease."

"I am happy and honored to be your wife, but I insist. I am not a fragile woman as you love to believe, but rather am a strong one who can most assuredly take on some responsibilities in the field. It is long enough after little Mirador that I am not longer tender, nor do I have pain, nor do I bleed anymore. I see no reason why I could not go with you."

"I worry about you even cooking dinner, yet you think I would let you help in the fields? And you know I would never rush you in such affairs."

"You do not have much of a choice, for the choice is not yours to make. I am strong enough and I am going to get very bored in this little home, lovely as it is, without anything else to do. So I will be accompanying you tomorrow morn."

He walked a ways behind, cradling their new daughter carefully in his arms. She had yet to wake, and slumbered undisturbed in his arms. The morning was brisk, but he had carefully wrapped her in a blanket and held her tight to his chest. It was early enough that the sun had yet to rise, leaving a blue hue lingering in the air. The dew was still on the green grass beneath his feet and the last of the fireflies were slowly disappearing into the trees.

His gaze drifted from the perfect sleeping face of his dark-haired daughter, with features as fine as her mother's, to the woman herself, who was just a few paces ahead. Both his children were so blessed, for no matter how many times Chalandra said they took after him, he only saw her beauty in them. Never had he dreamed that such a rough, imperfect man as he could never father such beings, yet he knew it was the grace of their mother which had brought them such perfection. They may have taken his dark hair and blue eyes, but she had given them the enchanting qualities he already knew they possessed.

The woman before him was his wife, yet he struggled everyday to recall how such a thing could have transpired. They had seen hard times, that much was true. But here she was, after years of struggling with herself and her choices, free and happy. Though he knew her to be contented, he had yet to see her with such airy grace, as though all burdens had been lifted. They both were often solemn people, though she was certainly the more expressive one, whilst he was always content yet rarely expressive to people other than she. He was always willing to work hard, to toil every day in hopes that her life might be a little easier. That she might have one less burden on her shoulders.

Yet here she was now. Walking lightly, almost skipping, over the dew-covered grass before them, a mother of two who had insisted upon going out to the fields to help him, in any way she could. Her hair was down; the golden trellises dancing in step with her movement. The hem of her skirt dragged across the earth, just a little too long for her, yet instead of worrying about her husband or her children, or even the divides, she was free of all burdens. It made him so happy, in that moment, with his child's finger wrapped around his as she slept, watching his wife before him, moving as light as a faery, singing:

I walked alone one foggy morn

Only me and my memories

Out to the cliffs by the sea

On the hill I saw a sword

Standing tall, though abandoned still

Left behind for me

No message nor note could every say

What the blade was meant to tell

For she went across the sea

She went to lands beyond

ne'er a seen

Did that daughter mine