Blackfeather Woods Farewell

Potema already knew what was to happen. She had already mourned - she was still mourning, but she was afraid. She was afraid of how her brothers would react. They had just come back and now their mother was dead.

She stood, a white shadow, in the undergrowth, watching silently as her family and her pack came one by one to say farewell to the Priestess, the Dark Queen, Meldresi Melonii. Her heart broke time and time again, first cracking when Burke called for the wolves, then shattering when she heard her brother Damien's wail.

Potema wondered what her brothers would say when they would be losing her too. She was sure to come back, but the double loss must be heart-breaking. She knew it was for her.

Her mother had given her a final instruction, a recommendation for her gift to the witches and priests at Hag Fen: a few of her bones. Bones, especially those of powerful priests like her mother, made powerful charms. A charm that, she herself, might use for spells in the future, but Potema worried not about her progress. She only dwelled on the death of her mother and the loss of her family. That was all that mattered now.