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Once they stepped onto the island, Heila and Ashlynn quickly noticed a circle of stones nearly five paces across at one edge of the island. Within the circle, five smaller circles had been positioned around the edges, forming the points of a star or pentagon within the circle.

"These are for offerings, darlin’," Amahle said as Jacques and Talauia began to retrieve items from the boat.

"The feather of a hawk stands for Air, an oil lamp will burn for Fire, an agate for Earth, a bottle of water taken from near the Ancient Willow for water, and a willow branch for Wood," she explained as the two witches set out items in the appropriate places.

"Little Heila, never forget, while a Willow Witch is strongest in Wood and Water, you are a conduit for the energy of the world. Your desires give it shape. Don’t deny yourself a useful tool just because it isn’t the one that you’re most suited to," Amahle advised.

"I’ll remember," Heila said, nervously standing at the edge of the circle.

"Big sister Amahle told me how hard you’ve been studying for this Heila," Ashlynn said, kneeling down next to her diminutive friend. "Just remember one thing about the willow tree and I’m sure you’ll do fine."

"You can bend," Ashlynn advised. "It’s okay to yield, but when something presses against your bottom line, you don’t have to keep yielding. If you always yield, you’ll bend too far and you’ll break. Hold to what’s important and don’t let anything make you believe that you’ve chosen wrongly."

"I won’t let it take me away from you," Heila promised. "I won’t let it take me away from Lady Nyrielle, Madame Zedya, or any of the others either."

"Hopefully it doesn’t test you the way it tested me," Ashlynn said. "But if it does, I know you’ll pass."

"Are we ready?" Amahle said, taking her place at the center of the circle. Several complex-looking glyphs had been drawn in the soft soil of the island and the offerings had been placed around the edges of the circle. Among them, Ashlynn recognized the Eldritch glyphs for ’Witch’, ’Nature’, and one that resembled ’Family’ that she assumed represented the coven, but many of them were still a mystery to her.

Now, the only things that were missing were Heila and her seed of witchcraft.

"I’m ready," Heila said. She held her head up high as she walked into the circle with Ashlynn following behind her. Today, her life would change. When she stepped out of the circle, she would be the Willow Witch.

All of the doubts that had swirled around her before seemed to fall away as she stepped within the circle.

Amahle, Ashlynn, Talauia, and even Jacques had all contributed to preparing her for this moment.

With everyone standing in support of her, Heila refused to believe that she couldn’t succeed.

No matter how difficult it was, she wouldn’t allow herself to fail.

"In this circle, I name myself Amahle, the Mother of Thorns," Amahle intoned formally. "My blade is sharp, my hands are sure. I’ve come to witness a coven’s birth, to lend my strength and power too. But the bond we forge," she added, looking between Ashlynn and Heila. "It belongs to you."

When Amahle spoke, dark crimson energy spilled from her hands, dripping to the ground and flowing into the glyphs drawn in the soil, lighting each of them with a lurid red glow.

"In this circle, I name myself Ashlynn, the Mother of Trees," Ashlynn followed, matching Amahle’s tone and cadence. "My heart is strong and the seed is ripe. I’ve come to birth my heart’s desire, to raise a witch and bring her home.

She is my friend, my family, and the first of my coven. This seed I’ve grown, it’s hers alone."

Above Ashlynn, as she finished speaking, ghostly branches of a willow tree formed above her, swaying in a wind unfelt by anyone present and bathing the island in their silvery-green light.

Standing opposite Ashlynn, Heila blinked away the moisture that formed in her eyes when she heard Ashlynn’s words. No matter what happened today, they’d become family to each other.

"In this circle, I name myself Heila. I enter with open hands and open heart," she said with only the slightest quiver in her voice. "I’ve come to receive a seed, to join the coven of the Mother of Trees and become her Willow Witch. My life is hers to command. Today I’ve come to make this stand."

Above them, silvery-green leaves spilled from the phantom swaying branches, swirling around Heila before settling to the ground in a faintly glowing ring around her.

Once the leaves had settled, Amahle drew the same silver knife she’d used on Ashlynn to place the seed, resting the tip of the blade against Ashlynn’s skin as the younger witch began to chant.

"By water’s flow and wood’s deep song,

Where healing arts and strength belong,

This seed of power, nursed with care,

Has drunk the strength that witches share.

Beside my heart it learned to feel

The flow of power, pure and real."

This time, when Amahle’s blade sliced into Ashlynn’s skin, while dark crimson blood spilled down her bodice, a brilliant silvery-green light shined from within the wound.

Gently, working with the tips of her spider-like limbs, the Mother of Thorns pulled the wound open wide enough that she could reach in with slender fingers, grasping the tiny willow seed and pulling it from Ashlynn’s chest.

Pain exploded all through Ashlynn’s body as if every hair of her body was being wrenched away, the feeling of tendrils that wrapped around her heart being torn from her chest produced a pain that was only exceeded by the beating she’d received at Owains hands.

When the seed emerged from her chest, it trailed what looked like hundreds, if not thousands of tiny wispy roots, delicate tendrils of magical energy that pulsed in time with the heart that gave it birth.

"Do you need me to take over?" Amahle whispered, seeing the blood drain from Ashlynn’s face and her features distort as she fought to clear her mind after the surge of pain. "I can complete this, you’ve already done the hardest parts."

"No," Ashlynn said quietly after taking a deep, shuddering breath. "I can finish this." Placing a hand on one of Amahle’s spider-like limbs to steady herself, Ashlynn began the next part of the ritual, her voice clear and loud as she fought through the lingering pains that wracked her body.

"From Mother’s heart to daughter’s core,

Let nature open desire’s door.

Now from my flesh to yours must pass

This gift of power, meant to last.

As willow bends but does not break,

So shall your power grow and wake."

As Ashlynn spoke, Amahle made a similar slit on Heila’s chest, carefully pulling back her skin to place the glowing seed within.

The thin, root-like tendrils twitched and writhed as the seed entered Heila’s body as though they were the living roots of a tree and Heila’s flesh was the soil they needed to survive.

When Amahle released the seed, it burrowed deeply into Heila’s flesh, embedding itself directly next to her heart as the tendrils wrapped around it.

Though blood trailed down her chest from the wound, Heila made not a sound.

Not when Amahle cut into her flesh and not when the seed entered her chest. Her hands curled into tiny fists and her nails bit into her palms as she fought against the pain, but she refused to cry out when Ashlynn had already borne so much for her.

Seeing Heila standing strong after receiving the seed, Ashlynn quickly moved on to the final verse of the ritual.

"Sleep now, and seek within,

For strength that flows from coven’s kin,

Now come to master willow’s way,

To heal and guard by night and day.

Or let your form to wood return,

And forsake the power for which you yearn."

Amahle’s spider-like limbs moved quickly to catch Heila as the magic of the ritual took her firmly under its spell, plunging her into a deep, mystical sleep.

The glowing glyphs and phantom willow branches faded away as the ritual reached its conclusion. Now, as Amahle laid Heila down on the sandy soil of the barren island, only a faint flicker of silvery-green light could be seen on the diminutive woman’s chest.

The seed had been planted, now it was up to Heila, whether she would grow into a powerful witch, or the seed would consume her, growing into a willow tree and becoming part of the Briar for the rest of her days.