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Though Amahle had intended to offer a small celebratory dinner in honor of Heila’s return, seeing how worn both Heila and Ashlynn were after their ordeal, she postponed her plans, sending them both to wash up before preparing a thickened lentil soup with a healthy portion of dark leafy vegetables from her garden.

By the time they’d washed and eaten, neither of the young witches possessed the energy to do more than return to Ashlynn’s hut. This time, however, Heila had a slightly guilty look on her face as she looked in the direction of the small hammock on the balcony.

"It’s okay if you want to join me tonight," Ashlynn said, holding out a hand as she stood beside her own hammock. "You don’t have to go so far away."

"It should be enough to be nearby," Heila said awkwardly, shifting her weight from one cloven hoof to the other. "But right now, I just want to be held a bit. Is it really okay? Lady Nyrielle won’t mind, will she?"

"It’s not like that between us," Ashlynn said before using the strength she’d gained from Nyrielle to scoop Heila up into her arms and carry her into the hammock. "You becoming part of my coven, it created a bond between us, similar to the one I share with Mistress Nyrielle," Ashlynn said.

"Mmm," Heila said with a nod. "I can feel something when we’re close. Like, we’re tangled together, even when we’re barely touching."

"Exactly," Ashlynn said, wrapping her arms around the diminutive witch. "It’s not the same as my bond with Nyrielle. It doesn’t feel as strong or as intimate, but it’s real. It isn’t something you’re imagining. And... and I’m glad that you’re the first person I get to share it with."

"I am too," Heila whispered as she snuggled closer to Ashlynn, drawing comfort from the other woman’s touch. For a moment, she felt like she had returned to her days as a little girl, pleading for affection for her mother and clinging to her for affection before she went to bed with her siblings.

Only this time, it was Ashlynn who gave her that warm sense of security and comfort. And right now, she had no siblings to contend with. In the future, she knew that there would be others, but for now, as her eyes drifted closed, she was happy to indulge in her lady’s affection.

The following day, as the sounds of buzzing insects filled the air and the fog of the Briar began to thin, Ashlynn and Heila made their way to Amahle’s home for breakfast. It was amazing how much a single night of rest had done to revitalize both women, and Ashlynn privately wondered if there had been a little bit of witchcraft in the previous night’s soup but if there had been, she wasn’t about to complain.

When they entered Amahle’s large home, Ashlynn paused in surprise at the festive decorations that covered the space. Colorful silk streamers in greens, silvers, and blues hung from the ceiling and bows of the same colorful fabric hung on chairs or covered tables.

Even more impressive, however, was the spider web-like banner that stretched across the space, like a giant knitted banner that read ’Congratulations Heila Ashlynn.

’ Clearly it was something Amahle had made personally but just how long had she spent to create such an intricate decoration that would only be used once?

"Y’all just settle yourselves at the table," the Mother of Thorns said as she emerged from another room with a pair of large packages. "Tala, sugar, go ahead and bring in the crepes you’ve made so far and everything else, I know you want to see this part."

"I’m coming, I’m coming, don’t start without me" the excited witch said, fluttering into the room with a plate piled high with delicate crepes and a tray bearing wide variety of fresh berries and whipped, sweetened cream.

"Dis is jus’ ready too," Jacques said, turning away from the fire to carry over a large cast iron skillet filled with a dish of scrambled eggs, sweet peppers and coarse ground sausage.

"De pan is very hot," he warned as he set it on a small trivet in the center of the table. "Jus’ let it sit and keep cooking a spell and it’ll all be fine when it’s time. "

"Ashlynn, Heila," Amahle said sweetly as she used her spider-like limbs to hand one of the large packages to Ashlynn and the second one to Heila.

"This is a proud moment for both of you. From now on, Ashlynn can truly call herself the Mother of Trees, and Heila has become the Willow Witch. I know that it wasn’t easy for either of you," she said a touch more solemnly than she’d meant to.

"This is a gift from my coven to yours, to celebrate what you’ve both become," she said, tapping the tip of a spider-like limb on each of the packages. "But I need to explain something before you open them," she added.

Immediately, both Ashlynn and Heila sat up a little straighter in their seats, adopting the demeanor of attentive students.

"You’ve seen the hats we wear," Amahle explained, touching the edge of her wide brimmed hat as she spoke. "A witch’s hat is like her badge of office. The traditions for these hats may be as old as witchcraft on dry land, maybe even invented by Jacques’s Ancient Clan.

By now, they’ve become so intertwined with the identity of being a witch that anyone caught wearing them who isn’t a witch might be accused of a crime in some nations. "

"You’ve made hats for us?" Ashlynn said, feeling deeply moved as she ran a hand over the surface of the package.

"Not just any hat, but the first hat that a witch needs," Amahle explained. "Every witch needs three hats, Ashlynn, as the Mother of Thorns, and especially as Lady Nyrielle’s Seneschal, I suggest you get a fourth as well."

"The first hat is your Hedge Hat," Amahle said, pointing at the hat that Talauia was currently wearing which had been festooned with all manner of flowers, bits of leaves and other things seemingly picked at random. "Go ahead and open them," she said with a wide smile.

Inside the round boxes, they found two hats that were both unique and bore many similarities. Ashlynn’s had been crafted of a dark, pine-green silk with a hat-band that looked to Ashlynn’s eyes like a net meant for fishing.

More netting ran around the edge of the brim and the hat had countless small loops across its surface clearly meant to hold something, she just couldn’t understand what.

Heila’s hat looked much the same save for the color that was a much lighter sage-green and, because of its smaller size, held many fewer loops.

"A Hedge Hat is meant for working in your gardens or foraging in the wilderness," Amahle explained. "Even if you add deep pockets to your skirts and carry a basket for gathering things, there are always items that are too special to be packed away with everything else. A Hedge Hat is a working hat but it also keeps the most precious things you’ve collected in easy reach. In time, you’ll learn how important that can be when you’re foraging in places that civilized folk don’t dare to tread. "

"Thank you," Ashlynn said, setting the hat on her head before throwing her arms around Amahle in a tight embrace. The closeness bumped both her and Amahle’s hats askew but neither woman cared.

To Ashlynn, who had grown up in the court of her father the Count of Blackwell County, this was the least formal ceremony she’d ever seen.

If she compared it to the pomp and circumstance that surrounded the bestowal of a knighthood or peerage then the simple gifting of hats in Amahle’s living room would have been seen by her parents as insultingly casual.

The last time her father had conferred a knighthood on someone, businesses opened two hours late in order to give time for a grand procession to ride from the city gates all the way to Blackwell Manor.

As the procession passed, sweets made of honey and nuts were thrown to the children while a minstrel sang of the newly raised knight’s glorious deeds.

The celebration for the common folk ended when the procession reached Blackwell Manor, but for Ashlynn’s family and the gathered knights and barons of the county, the procession was followed by a solemn ceremony, the bestowal of a new sword and coat of arms, and then a lively banquet and ball that lasted until late into the night.

By contrast, though the status that went with the hats was as great as an Eldritch Lord or greater, it was presented as a simple practical gift, even when it carried such significance.

Yet to Ashlynn and Heila, it was everything they could have wanted and more.

With this, Amahle had recognized their coven and they’d truly become something more than just witches. They’d become family.