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Power hummed in the air, ready and waiting to be shaped by the desires of the witches who had called it here. Wood, Earth, Water, Air and Fire, each one of them pulsed and swirled through the circle of stones, feeding and strengthening each other in a cycle that was as old as time itself.

As Ashlynn prepared to enter the circle, the echo of Nyrielle’s heartbeat fluttered within her chest, surging with warmth and exultation, and quivering with the release of long-held tension.

The feeling was so sharp and clear that it brought a shimmer of moisture to Ashlynn’s eyes and a smile to her lips.

"Zedya has succeeded," Ashlynn said warmly, provoking answering smiles from Heila, Virve, and Ollie.

"It’s a good omen for our own work, but do not lose your focus," she cautioned, taking a deep breath to calm her heart and stepping across the boundary of the circle of stones to begin the formal ritual.

"In this circle, I name myself Ashlynn, the Mother of Trees," Ashlynn said, speaking in a slow and steady cadence. "My heart is strong, and the seed is grown. I’ve come to birth my heart’s desire, to raise a witch and bring him home. He is my friend, my knight, and the second of my coven. This seed I’ve grown belongs to him alone. "

As Ashlynn spoke, power rippled within the circle, creating the illusion that the stones had become the edges of a pool of deep water that rippled and danced around her ankles as she strode toward the center of the circle.

From the center of her chest, a pale jade green light began to glow, spilling ghostly seeds of light from the seed she’d carried for many months.

Where the seeds fell in the deep pool of magical energy, the gnarled knees of a mighty cypress tree rose, creating a path that led to the center of the circle.

"In this circle, I name myself Heila, the Willow Witch," the diminutive witch intoned formally as she strode into the rippling pool of magic. "My blade is sharp, my hands are sure. I’ve come to witness a witch’s birth, to lend my strength and power too.

But the bond we forge," she added, looking between Ashlynn and Ollie, smiling widely as she recalled the time Amahle had said these words for her in the depths of the Briar. "It belongs to you."

In her hands, Heila carried Snow Fang, bringing with it a trace of chill, wintery energy that briefly filled the circle with a glittering flurry of silvery-green ghostly snowflakes.

As the flakes fell, they seemed to catch and gather on the branches of an unseen tree, rapidly accumulating until they formed the wide trunk and mighty branches of a cypress tree, sheltering everyone within the circle from the harshness of the world outside.

Now that the way had been prepared, both women turned to face Ollie, each of them extending a hand to welcome him into the circle of power that called out to the flame-haired youth like a siren song. The circle promised far more than just power to the young man.

Already, he could feel the warmth and familiarity of family flowing from the circle, as if he had returned to the servant’s chambers he shared with his parents after a long day toiling in the kitchens.

"In this circle, I name myself Ollie. I enter with open hands and open heart," he said in a voice that rang out pure and strong, carrying across the waters of the pond and reaching the trees beyond. "I’ve come to receive a seed, to join the coven of the Mother of Trees, to become her Cypress Witch and her knight as well. My life is hers to command. Tonight, I’ve come to make this stand. "

Striding into the circle, Ollie kept his head high and his back as straight as a sword, moving with the confident demeanor of a knight clad in armor despite the pain of the bruises Thane had left on his body just minutes ago.

The power rippling around his ankles felt like nothing he’d ever experienced before.

Compared to the sorcery he had learned so far, entering the pool of energy felt like he’d stepped from a small bathing tub into a vast mountain lake, rippling with waves stirred by the wind, warmed by the fires of an ancient hotspring, with soft, yielding earth beneath his feet and sheltered by a mighty tree that connected all of those things together.

When he knelt at Ashlynn’s feet, he felt himself sinking into the soft earth, as though he had taken root on that spot, just beneath the surface of the power that rippled within the circle.

Slowly, with hands that felt stiff and heavy, like the branches of a mighty tree, Ollie unlaced his tunic, pulling it aside to reveal a pale, muscular chest marred by two fresh yellowish-purple bruises.

"This will hurt," Heila said, stepping between Ashlynn and Ollie, placing the tip of Snow Fang’s sharp edge against his flesh.

"If you need to, you can cry out," she added softly as she looked into his calm, pale eyes. "There’s no shame in crying out. It doesn’t make you any less of a man or a knight or anything. "

"It’s fine," Ollie said, smiling softly at his ’big sister.

’ Even kneeling, he was still taller than her, but at least he wasn’t so much taller than her that she couldn’t reach his chest with the knife.

"I’m ready," he said firmly, trying to hold to the stoic strength of a knight in the face of the chill emanating from Heila’s snow-white blade.

A bone-deep chill sliced through his skin, spilling blood that felt scalding hot following the cold touch of the blade.

The combination of sharp pain, bitter chill, and hot blood left Ollie momentarily dizzy, his vision turning dark, the world growing unsteady.

Moments later, however, Heila returned to him, this time standing behind him and bracing his shoulders to keep him from toppling over.

"Brace yourself," Ashlynn said, kneeling in the soft soil in front of the young man. At some point, Ollie realized, while he’d been overwhelmed by the pain of the wound Heila had placed in the center of his chest, Ashlynn had gained a matching one.

Only, in addition to crimson blood flowing from her wound, a brilliant, almost blinding jade-green energy poured from the wound, casting stark shadows across the ground and pulsing with power more intense and concentrated than anything Ollie had ever felt before.