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Once her coven had agreed to take up Ashlynn’s challenge, they wasted no time in addressing the most immediate concern for almost every member of the coven.

Something to eat! Of course, deciding to enter the festival in search of food was easy, but deciding what to eat was a different challenge altogether.

Ropes with colorful streamers hanging from them sectioned off an area of the field between the inner and outer walls of the ancient fortress, clustering most of the people selling food into a single area where their cookfires could be more easily managed and any accidents could quickly be contained.

On the grassy hillside beyond the ropes, people from all across the Vale and beyond sat on blankets or directly on the grass, sharing food they may have never eaten before and listening to music played by musicians with instruments that were as varied as the food.

When Ashlynn and her companions finally arrived, an intoxicating medley of savory scents and sweet aromas washed over them even before they reached the first stall.

Standing behind wooden tables that were sometimes little more than slabs of lumber placed atop wooden crates, cooks from the Scaled Clan or the Glass Eyed Clan called out to passers by, offering samples of their spiced meats accompanied by a dizzying array of colorful sauces.

Elsewhere, a Golden Eyed hunter proudly proclaimed that his roasted meats had all come from game hunted within the past two days, promising a flavor still seeped in the thrill of the hunt.

Across from him, a member of the Ancient Clan wore a blanket over his heavy cloak, huddling close to his cook fire as he plucked delicate, puffy pastries out of a giant pot filled with boiling oil.

Evidently, the cool, wet climate of the Vale disagreed with the poor man so much that he had enlisted the aid of a pair of young women from the Horned Clan to drizzle honey over the finished confections before selling them to passersby.

Clearly, whatever he had agreed to pay for their help was worth far less than the discomfort of leaving the warm area immediately adjacent to his cook fire.

"So many choices, so many choices," Talauia said, fluttering up on her gossamer wings to survey the row after row of stalls selling food from what felt like half the clans of the Eldritch nations, even though she knew it was far less than that. "Look, look, they’re making fish fritters, and, is that, is it, it is, it’s boar’s heart stew!

" the Thistle Witch cried excitedly as she surveyed the offerings from across the mountains.

"Big Sister Heila," Virve said as she surveyed the offerings with her advantage of height. "You weren’t with us when we entered a nation ruled by the Dark Feathered Clan," she said, pointing at a stall with what looked like several sausages hanging in nets. "

They are masters of fermenting meat and preserving sausage until the fat is sweet, succulent, and infused with spices.

If you slice it thinly, it all but melts on your tongue," she said, licking her lips in memory at the flavorful delights she’d sampled while Nyrielle led them from one Eldritch nation to the next in search of allies.

"Is that mold?" Heila asked, pointing to some of the sausages that were covered by a powdery white substance. "I heard rumors that the Dark Feathered Clan ate carrion and rotting things..."

"Fermented isn’t rotten," Virve insisted.

"And you wash or cut away the mold before you eat the sausage.

The moldy cheese is different, though," she added, pointing to wheels of blue-veined cheese that the shopkeeper was slicing into small wedges for his customers to go with the sausages. "That one, you eat the mold."

"Eat the mold?" Ollie said, blinking in surprise.

"Don’t you get sick doing that? I tried saving a bit of cheese that was moldy once," he added with an expression that said the memory was anything but pleasant.

"Even after I cut away all the moldy bits, I still had the, um.

... I had problems," he said awkwardly, realizing that mentioning the nature of his problems around a group of women probably wasn’t polite, even if Ashlynn wanted him to treat them all like family.

"For three days," he finished a bit lamely. "I never want to feel that way again."

"One of the benefits of becoming a witch, Ollie," Ashlynn said with a warm smile.

"Your constitution is much better than it once was.

I expect my Cypress Witch has an unshakable stomach, just as he has an unshakeable heart," she teased gently.

"And if you don’t, your big sister, Heila, will be more than happy to soothe what ails you. "

"So, does that mean we’re eating the moldy meat?

" Hauke asked, looking at the shop with a furrowed brow.

Frost Walkers were no strangers to fermented food, but mold was incredibly rare in the ice caves where they stored their food.

If it would help him to fit in with the other members of the coven, he was willing to do almost anything, but somehow, the idea of eating food that had been left to grow mold sounded as appealing to him as it seemed to the young human.

"It means that if Virve wants to choose some fermented sausages for us, she’s welcome to," Ashlynn said with a wide smile. "Virve, one of these days, I’m going to find something you won’t eat, but I feel like that’s going to be a challenge.

Everyone else," Ashlynn continued as she turned to the rest of the witches.

"Spread out and find something that you like.

Bring back enough portions to share among six.

.. make that nine people," she said as she considered the appetites of her recently transformed witches and the young Frost Walker Lord.

"I’ll find us a place to sit on the grass," she added as she looked around. "We can share everything and pick favorites. And Tala," Ashlynn said, calling out to the Thistle Witch who still hovered several feet above her head. "Where did you see someone selling fish fritters?"

Looking down from above, Talauia smiled brilliantly, flashing her wickedly pointed teeth before she descended to show Ashlynn the way.

If Amahle could have been here now, watching Ashlynn step out like a true mother to her coven, effortlessly gathering people from different clans and backgrounds into a cozy family eager to share a meal together, she was certain that the Mother of Thorns would be proud of how far Ashlynn had come.

The Thistle Witch knew that the days ahead would be hard, but as long as this was the path that Ashlynn wanted to follow for her coven, Talauia was willing to do whatever she needed in order to keep them all safe.

She was certain that the day would come when many people needed to shelter beneath the boughs of the forest Ashlynn and her coven would plant, but for those trees to grow to maturity, they had to be guarded fiercely while they were saplings.

When she had been little more than a sapling, even her father, the powerful High Lord, hadn’t been able to protect her. Now that it was Talauia’s turn to protect someone else, however, she would stop at nothing to make sure their enemies never survived threatening them!