Lily spent an entire moon cycle confused, cold and lonely. Any time she tried to take the locket off, she took to fits of nausea and headaches that threatened to blow her skull open, so she left it on underneath her tunic, safe against her chest. She dutifully checked her linens every morning and inspected herself daily, losing a little more hope with each passing day as her cycle would not come. She even tried finding the clearing again, but couldn't for the life of her and after stumbling around the forest for hours, she came back home and was a step closer to accepting her fate. Before she could properly grapple with one emotion, she was beset by the next: grief at losing Ansel forever, the shock of her pregnancy and this creeping dread and fear of exactly what had quickened in her belly? What was it that had taken her lover's form and made her big with child?
And beyond all the unknowns was the very known variable of what would happen to her when an unmarried woman of age began to show signs of pregnancy in a village where the Spears had all but taken root. She'd heard tell of fatherless children being thrown into rivers, their mothers burned at the stake, women snatched from the arms of their female lovers to be dragged nude through the streets and hung at the gallows. Lily's story of lockets and vines and the vision of a dead man she once loved would hold no weight because, underneath it all, she had still sinned. She had still slept with a man she was not married to. And sin needed to be accounted for in the presence of the Father and Mother. Accounted for through fire and blood.
When the last day of the moon-cycle passed, she realised she had no choice. Any longer and she would bring danger not just to herself but to Father and the twins. Lily had to leave the village.
Luckily enough, the village had been changing right along with her. If the Spears' anti-imperial rhetoric had already taken potent root through the peasants and dairy-farmers of Carlewe, the completely preventable deaths of Ansel and the other boys were the last nails on the coffin. And as most of the village descended upon the imperial garrison to reclaim it for the Spears, that left the thoroughfares empty enough for Lily to sneak through after the twins had gone to sleep. With tear-stained eyes and a little bundle of all her possessions tied onto her back, she ducked and weaved through the edge of the forest, cresting past the village till she was able to walk alongside the river. For all the discomfort the locket had been giving her over the past fortnight, it filled her with a calm sense of purpose and determination. Whatever it was, running away from home was exactly what it wanted.
The only place Lily could think of going to was a little cottage down the river, on the opposite end of Hypero Valley from the garrison. The Valley-Witch's abode. Till today, the Valley-Witch was just a story she'd tell the twins to get them to eat their vegetables, but now she, if she was even real, seemed like she might be able to explain what was happening to Lily and what she should do. The locket around her neck seemed to concur.
About as soon as she saw the cottage rise up from behind the tall grass on a hill in front of her, she could see a few sparks of orange in the distance to her left hurtling towards the garrison. The village had arrived in full force. Walking up the hill with her eyes fixed across the river to see the garrison, she did not see the figure she bumped into.
"Oh, goodness gracious!" The woman in front of her exclaimed, knocked off balance by Lily's forward momentum. Lily gasped, turning around to see a middle-aged figure collect a bright blue cloak around her. Her hair was a stunning purple and long, flecked with a few strands of grey. She picked up a pointed hat from the ground and dusted it off before putting it back on. "You know you really should watch where you're going. One of us could've gotten dreadfully hurt and you'll have to be more careful... considering..." her green eyes flickered down to Lily's belly.
"A-are you the Witch of the Valley?" That look confused Lily. How could she possibly know?
The woman looked confused for a second before breaking into a low, throaty laugh. "Oh, is that what they call me over at Carlewe? I've been called worse names, I suppose. My darling, I am Carolyn, a prophetess of the order of Morin."
"I... I am..." Lily didn't know where to begin.
"Oh, don't worry. I know exactly who you are." Carolyn reached her hand forward into the air between them and made a gesture and Lily's locket slid out from under her chemise to rest at the front of her cloak, eking out a surprised yelp from the younger woman. "Your... shall we say, husband... has been in touch."
Her husband. That... thing. In the clearing. Lily felt bile rise in her throat as her eyes grew wet with tears. She choked out a sob. "So it's real! It's all real! What's happening to me?"
"Oh there there..." Carolyn rolled her eyes, pointing across the river to the now burning garrison with her staff. "Fire and blood. One world ends and another begins. The mountains move, forming barren valleys of rock and void. And it seems the spirits of the trees would wish to birth a new forest." Reaching forward, she wrapped her hand around the crying girl's shoulder pulling her in close. "It seems we have much to discuss. Come with me."
