Life begins and ends with a shed of a single tear. The fierce rain pounded against her pale skin like it was drops of lava. Her heart ached for the child inside of her. Innocence in its truest form. She was screaming to be born as the very environment around her shrouded her in darkness. The dark forest became haunting with its very elements. The pain was more deafening than that of the power that emitted from each molecule within her. Her child was going to be born all alone in this ruin-filled forest full of myth and secrecy. Her cries for pain echoed the sounds of the ravens as they flew out of the fir trees around her. She collapsed to the deep mud at her feet, seeking solace against the cold stone of the ruins behind her. The pain within her was too great to stand any longer. The thunder over the trees echoed throughout the forest as lightning cracked like a whip across the gray clouds above her. She jumps as her hand protectively lays against her pregnant belly.

“Please ancestors, hear my plea. Protect in light for which the dark will not have power,” she pleads, exhaling a deep shaky breath.

The pain was excruciating and unrelenting. The cold stone provided the only support against her small frame. She knew instinctively the need to push far outweighed the pain overtaking her body. Her dress soaked from the pouring rain around her melted to her skin. A harrowing scream escaped from her lips as she pushed with all of the strength that she could muster. The only support she had was from the curious deer nearby seeking shelter from the storm. The thunder was deafening. A lightning strike in the near distance hits a tree as it cracks in half from the impact. She reached down and in one full sweep pulled her child from her as her body collapsed against the stone wall. Her exhaustion caused the newborn on her chest to rise and fall with each struggling breath of her mother below her. Looking down at her child her lips form a tired smile.

“Hello, my darling baby girl,” she admired tiredly.

She looks up to the sky and extends her hand out causing the water droplets around her to slow and come to a stop. Looking back down at her daughter in her arms, her mother’s copper eyes form a lavender glow. The naked newborn girl in her arms now wrapped in a thick blanket to keep warm.

“That’s better,” she croaked tearfully.

The baby coos softly as she relaxes into her mother’s arms before drifting off to sleep.

“I don’t know which power you hold inside you, but you will be stronger than you know,” she whispered, her lips grazing against her newborn’s forehead.

The mother pushed her chestnut brown hair soaked from the rain back behind her ears as she admired her sleeping daughter in her arms.

“You need a name befitting a strong and fierce witch. How do you like Aedlin? Aedlin Mae O’Leary,” she continued, admiring her daughter’s beauty as she grazes her cheek with her finger.

“Mae is my mother, and you will be so lucky to be raised by her. I will make a vow to you here and now: I will always be your mother and I hope one day you will forgive me,” tears flowing down her cheeks.

She gazed across the ruins around her shrouded by the harrowing dark forest. She took a deep shaking breath before struggling to stand up in the mud below her. She looked down at her daughter sleeping in her arms and wrapped her tightly in the pink blanket against her. As she walked slowly through the forest the rain fell slowly around them as if in slow motion. The rain grazed an invisible shield around them.

*********************

The English cottage before her held so many memories for this exhausted mother. One solitary porch light remained on providing the only light near the front door. A white Moses basket was placed down on the brick floor of the front entry. The sleeping newborn was peaceful in her pink blanket. The mother admired her daughter sleeping peacefully and placed a reassuring hand on top of her stomach.

“Be unyielding. Be resilient. Be strong, my dear Aedlin,” she croaked, her voice tinged with intense emotion.

She placed a small envelope in the basket before slowly backing up into the darkness and joining the thundering storm of heavy rain.

The door opens and a thin woman with short blonde hair peeks out from the open door frame. Her pale blue nightgown lay loosely on her thin frame. Looking down at the basket on her walk her smile falls.

“What in the world,” she whispered.

Seeing the letter, she bent down and picked it up as her mouth gaped in shock. She slowly opened the letter noticing the thick paper had smears of mud and the familiar cursive scrawl was stained with tears. She knitted her eyebrows in confusion before reading the note carefully:

Dear Mum,

Words cannot describe how sorry I am to do this to you. This world and my choices are not for her. Her father and I want to protect her the only way we know how. She is safe with you. Willow and Ric will be amazing parents to her. Honestly, they are perfect, and they deserve happiness in its truest form: Aedlin. She will be loved and protected and safe and that is all I have ever wanted for my daughter. I pray that she brings you comfort in my absence.

Your loving daughter,

Sheelin