Chapter 270: Who Heila Wants To Be
"But can I decide what kind of witch I want to become without knowing what kind of tree Lady Ashlynn has chosen for me?" Heila asked. Her winged companion had explained that Ashlynn would need to choose a seed for her and that it would pair Heila with a tree that suited her nature but the young lady-in-waiting had no idea what kind of tree Ashlynn would choose.
Would Ashlynn choose an Oak like the Ancient Oaks in the Vale of Mists? Or cedar like the forest of their home? Heila had never thought about what kind of tree suited her before. It seemed like such a strange question if not for her current circumstances. Now that it had become relevant, she didn’t know what she would choose for herself, much less what Ashlynn might choose.
"Does Auntie Ashlynn know you well?" Talauia asked, cocking her head to the side and pausing her pepper picking. "If she knows you well, she’ll know to pick the right thing, as easy as picking ripe vegetables. You just have to think about what you’ll do once she picks it because it will naturally fit."
"I, I think she knows me well," Heila said. Her fingers hesitated, hovering above a pepper as she thought carefully about the conversations she’d had in the carriage with Ashlynn while they traveled.
Talauia made it sound simple and saying things was often simple, but was it really that easy to know a person well enough to choose something for them that would completely change their life? Heila didn’t think so and she didn’t think that Ashlynn would find it easy to make the decision either.
Heila had spoken a great deal about her family and her life growing up as one of the youngest with a large group of older siblings. She’d talked about how happy she was to be able to serve in the ancient fortress and the many important friendships she’d made among the other servants in the keep.
But had she ever spoken about what she wanted? Her ears heated behind her horns as she realized how often she’d spoken wistfully about the handsome men who caught her eye or the idea of having children of her own one day.
She’d even suggested that, when the time came, perhaps one of her daughters could take over as Ashlynn’s next lady-in-waiting the same way that Georg had taken over as Nyrielle’s personal cook after his father retired.
"I just want ordinary things," Heila said, resuming her picking. "Maybe I’ll find a man one day and raise a family. But now that I’m joining Lady Ashlynn’s coven, maybe I won’t. If I spent the rest of my life at her side, making sure that she was happy, that wouldn’t be a bad life."