Witch

Chapter 2. Sacrifice

The priestess heard mother's soothing talk and felt deep regret and sorrow for what she had to do next. She never liked this part of her duties. The ritual of purity needed to be done only sometimes like this one. Priestess hated that ritual and every time she performed it, it left her with a scar inside her own heart. A deep scar full of pain and sadness.

Priestess cleaned the baby from the rest of the mother's blood, dried the water with a clean towel, and wrapped this little ball of happiness into a moon silk scarf she brought from the temple.

She was looking down at the baby resting in her arms and stared at this cute sleeping face. She loves kids and especially because of that she felt pure sadness over her red hair, which was the reason for the ritual. After a short time, she gave a sigh and brought the child to its mother. She lay down the baby on the mother's chest, then turned to the midwife with a quiet plea.

Midwife met no priestess, not by the person, and assisted none of them during delivery, but she understood the reason the priestess came herself for this birth. They taught all midwives the ways and rituals priestesses of Moon Goddess were practising and the reasons for them in case they would be present during the birth handled by one of them. By the sad look of the priestess, the quiet request in her eyes, she knew what she was asking her to do.

The red clothes the priestess was wearing shows impurity. Mother giving birth to a child at the peak of the full moon on its highest position and during the special event like the Red Full Moon. This child was a new priestess. New priestess of the Moon Goddess. But the way they conceive the child determines whether she would be good or evil. 

This girl giving birth to this small little child was carrying on her shoulders guilt. She bedded with the man without being properly married and as if that's already not enough, with a married man. She pestered the man long enough for his wife to find out about the unborn child. His wife was fighting herself. She couldn't bear the guilt of the child growing without the father, and she couldn't ask her husband to take the child and separate it from its mother. She did the only thing she thought was possible in this situation for the baby to have both of its parents. The wife took her own life.

Not long after her death, the husband couldn't bear the thought of him being the reason for her misery and decision that cost her life, and he tried to kill the girl with her unborn child to finish all three lives at once. He was prepared for all the consequences. At the last moment, when his eyes locked with the eyes of the girl, he saw understanding and acceptance. The love radiating from her eyes snapped him back to reality and he couldn’t bring himself to hurt his unborn child nor the woman he once loved the same as his wife. He turned and ran to the wasteland. No one ever saw him again after this event. This girl was the reason for two lost lives. The guilt was dwelling deep inside her heart.

The midwife gave a small nod to the priestess and pushed the mother of the girl who just gave birth out of the room, closing the door behind them, leaving now the priestess with the baby and its mother alone inside the room.

The priestess whispered a few words for herself while searching for candles in her pouch and one by one taking them out, putting them around the bed on the ground, creating a half-circle. Then she took out two bigger candles. One white and one red placed each on one side of the bed where the nightstands stood and fired them up.

Then taking out a small bag with white powder from her magical pouch and making two half circles behind the candles on the ground connected at the edge of the wall with the young woman in the middle. When all preparations were done, she moved to the left side of the bed, closer to the girl. When she reached her spot, she noticed the child's eyes were fully open, focused directly on her. 'Just brought to this world, and she was already aware of her surroundings' she thinks while giving the child a soft smile.

Little baby chuckled back at her just the moment the priestess whispered a new spell. This time it was more like a prayer than a spell. She was praying to the Moon Goddess, calling for help.

Moon Goddess was a mother of all unnatural creatures. The witches known for humans as priestesses, fairies, elves, shape-shifters, all kinds of magical creatures were the creations of the Moon Goddess. She brought them to the immortal realm, the world of her own.

A thousand years ago there was a huge war among them caused by demons, whisperers and shadows from another realm. They also affected the mortal realm which was created by Sun Goddess, sister of Moon Goddess.

The destruction of both realms was terrible. Their children were dying corrupted by darkness, their life essence destroyed to the point it couldn’t be absorbed back to the land upon their death. It took a huge toll on both realms. Both Sun and Moon Goddesses were hopeless and desperate, feeling sad for their children, thinking about the way to stop the wars and save what was left on both lands. They fought the dark powers, locking them back inside their own realm and bringing the piece back to their lands. The life left was not enough to sustain the realms and since both of them almost emptied their own powers, the only thing left was to connect both reals to share the rest of the life essence.

As the priestess proceeded with the incantation, the white powder on the ground fired up, burning itself into the wooden floor creating the pattern of the crescent moon. The fires on both coloured candles strengthened, releasing the clouds of smoke of the same colours.

"Please moon goddess, hear my plea, revoke the bond, let the child free. Restore the purity, restore the light. Give back the blessing of full moon night." Priestess whispered again and again.

She heard the commotion from the next room as the midwife tried to stop the mother from coming back to her daughter, and both women argued loudly after the priestess's voice raised up enough to be heard by both of them. Priestess intensified her chanting and put more power into her voice. The crescent moon on the floor was now glowing the same as the moon up at the sky, and once again the priestess felt a powerful surge of power from the Red Full Moon.

Through the open window at night, a breeze entered the room making circles above the girl with the baby collecting the coloured clouds from above the candles. When the whirling gets faster, the priestess takes out the silver dagger with the engravings of the moon symbols and the Moon Goddess symbols holding it in front of her above the child. The girl's eyes widened at the sight of the dagger pointing to her daughter. She opened her mouth to scream, but to her surprise, she couldn't open the mouth nor scream. She was terrified by the thought of losing her newborn child. How wrong she was, she didn't know.

She struggled to move, to move her hands or any part of her body. It felt like some force was keeping her in place. She wanted to take the child, take her away and run. Take her away from the priestess.

Her mother now tried to get in, but the door couldn't open. She was bouncing at the door with her fists, but the door resisted. "Ellie. My poor Ellie. Please don't hurt my child. Don't hurt my girls" the mother behind the doors shouted her lungs out, yet the priestess didn't even flinch.

As the priestess continued with her chanting, the red cloud moved down closer to the child playing with her. Every time the red dust touched the girl it looked like the skin was torn from her body, yet there was no visible injury and the little girl was even laughing playfully.

The same time a small trace of white cloud slowly fought its way to the child, fighting the red cloud for dominance. Same as the red dust took something from the child, the white had given something back. The girl, the same as the priestess, was watching the playing child who tried to catch the clouds. The priestess relaxed visibly at the sight of the child's hair slowly changing its red colour to the same as hers.

The girl noticed that the incantation of the priestess became faster every second the hair of the little girl became more white. The realisation hit her hard. Now she understands who her daughter is, so of course, the priestess would not kill her daughter. Her daughter belongs to the Moon Goddess. She was special. She feels relieved, but a new fear grew inside her, this time for her own life.

She didn't want to die, leaving her child here alone. She felt regret to leave her daughter motherless. The priestess locked her eyes with those of the girl, trying to put all thoughts together and express them through their eye connection so the girl could understand. She wants her to understand. The priestess was sending quiet prayers in her mind to the girl, eyes filled with compassion and forgiveness with the quiet apology for what she was going to do.

The quiet plea of the priestess reached the girl, and the tears flowed down with both happiness and sadness for her daughter's life, relieved that her sin was forgiven. At the last moment when the last hair on the small head resting down on her chest just right below the breasts turned white, the girl closed her eyes embracing the fate of her, leaving only one more regret that she couldn't hold her newborn child at least once.

The stray tear fell down the priestess's cheek as she closed the eyes also and let the dagger find its place in the girl's heart. At the same moment, the wind circling above the child stopped. The girl's dead body slowly absorbed the red cloud, seeped into her heart and the white one was slowly falling onto the child, leaving no traces after itself. When the last particles of the dust were absorbed by both dead and living the coloured candles went out but what the priestess didn't see was the child focusing on the red cloud before it disappeared, holding a few red particles inside her tiny hands.

The ritual was finished. The living was pure again, and the sin died together with the sinner. With relief, the priestess sighed, trying to push back her own tears. She really hated this part. But not every time the new immortal was born with guilt within their hearts. When everything was done, the force that kept the door closed dispersed and the mother of the girl entered the room. Seeing the view in front of her eyes, her own daughter with a dagger deep inside the chest, she fell to her knees and cried.

The midwife just stood at the door watching the situation, whispering quick prayers to the Moon Goddess for the soul of the girl.

Priestess ignored the crying parent, nor the praying midwife. She cleaned her hands with the last wet cloth she kept for this moment and took the child into her arms. She put her hands again into the pouch hanging from her waist, taking out another moon silk, this time thicker, and wrapped the baby carefully in it. Then she rushed back to the first room, put the cloak back on and left the house in a rush.

Alistair neighed happily, seeing his mistress lowering himself down, knowing she was carrying a child. She jumped up into the saddle when the mother, now grandmother, ran out from the house directly to the priestess. "Please, please, don't take the child away from me. You took my child and now you are taking even my grandchild. Please. I am begging you." She was clinging on to the priestess's leg, kneeling beside the horse, still crying. The priestess questioned why it was always her to get those difficult deliveries. Yes, she was the oldest one at this moment with the most experience. She was even the strongest one, but with the emotions, she was the weakest one. She always felt compassion for them. She loves them, she loves humans, their raw emotions no matter good or bad. She was more like them, and yet she has to inflict so much pain on them.

"You know I can't leave her here. She is a priestess. Immortal. She belongs to our world. She can't stay here without proper training." She tried to reason with the woman. "But rest assured she will have a good life and she will achieve wonderful things" the priestess tried to sound strong and was just hoping that her voice would not break and give away her own sadness for this family. How can Moon Goddess even accept this? Or the Sun Goddess? The priestess never understood that. The only thing she could do was to lean down after she helped the woman to stand up and kiss her forehead with a small memory spell. "By the time, your pain will ease, by time, the pain will cease" she whispers last quiet incantation before she turned Alistair and headed straight back to the wasteland for the long journey back to home.