Chapter 526: Within The Circle (Part One)
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.