Earth Witch

Oya's magic might have come from her voice because Dill could still be sickened to the point of scalp numbness by the other's lovingly hypocritical tone even though she couldn't see her face.

"How can I feel safe when I don't know where I am and I'm locked in a barrel where I can't see the sunlight?"

Dill was so fed up with this inexplicable, stinking woman. She held back her anger and tried to feel her way out with both hands—even if it was just a nail—and any weapon she could hold in her hand.

"It's my bad; we're moving away from Luna's sanctuary, a caravan traveling west; they've tamed quite a few of Caerwolfson's wolfhounds, and the stench of werewolves has nothing to hide from us. Dill, nothing here will hurt you."

The keg went quiet, and Oya was slow to get a response from Dill and couldn't help but ask with concern:

"What are you thinking about, child?"

"I was just thinking about how you kidnapped me in front of all the witches and how the Lunar Temple didn't just strike the blasphemer dead with a thunderbolt."

"Yes, I did offend the Moon God Temple." Oya hasn't battled with her but said with utmost sincerity, "I will personally ask my Highness, the Goddess of Clear Water, and the Goddess of the Mountains for forgiveness after the punishment."

Dill was once again silent in her anger. The great witch has the blessings of three goddesses, and the gods are recognized by the three goddesses, which means that if the moon god wants to punish her, even if he just moves a finger, he must first obtain the consent of the three goddesses. This is the inviolability between divine realms and vice versa.

Oya was telling her that a little witch's anger was useless; this was the gap of strength.

Dill had never hated her sanity so much; it treasured all its memories and armed itself simultaneously. In this strange world, it was Dill's only companion, teaching Dill to hide her face and compromise her life.

"Compared to the faraway wrath of that Highness, Lord Amber is the one who's even more troublesome."

Oya was clearly in a good mood, and she even began to speak eloquently.

"She's been trying to hide you from us for years, and we've been sending people to speak to Lord Amber all these years, but we couldn't get a friendly response."

"Wow, so you decided to just kidnap me?"

Oya didn't care about her provocation but said, "A long time ago, we sent you to Perun, hoping to submerge you and lead you to the right path. But Lady Amber is not only magical; her charm is equally convincing. Perun failed; the Green Goddess gave her the courage of the blazing sun but forgot to retire her youthfulness and naivety, so this time it was decided that I would be the one to take you away."

"I didn't realize I was so great that the Juniper River was starving. Your goddess of abundance overslept? Too bad I don't have a wooden staff, only a silver cup."

Dill matched the other woman's literal dramatic accent; in her opinion, Oya had exactly one big problem: too much drama.

"No, no, you still don't understand..." Oya said, seemingly upset by the misunderstanding.

She sighed softly, as if she were holding down a sweet candy. "You are very special, Dill. Dill, allow me to call you that; it's such a wonderful name."

"My lady gives me everything, and she saved my life forever."

Amber had bought her off with two dozen dills; your asshole, who could only spare an empty keg, had no business being called that. Dill was relieved to find she'd found her bitter-sweet sense of humor again.

"I've heard what happened to you, and I'm sorry for your loss, but just as every leaf has its origins, your arrival is of great significance, and everyone knows that the foreign lands to the east are home to some of the oldest peoples and beliefs, except that every time we try to dock, the ancient boundaries leave us like flowers and plants that have lost their roots, and even the sea wizards can't get in; they say that even a piece of the reef there is carved with the most obscure symbols, and that the most obscure symbols are carved on the reef. They say that even a reef there is inscribed with the most obscure runes. As for the Church's iron ships that spew obscurity, not to mention the fact that, failing to steal magic, they have begun some vile imitation of it."

"The point is, no one has known what's there for thousands and thousands of years; unfortunately, those merchants from the East Coast had no faith and only recognized faces on gold coins, and we could only get a glimpse of the ingenious magic in the silks and porcelains they brought with them, and that was until you came along, Dill."

It was as if she were talking to herself or pouring out memories again.

"Sea salt, limes and plums, and finally a drop of fragrant blood—I have tasted your lucky wine as if it were a rolling river flowing through the loess, a most ancient and noble bloodline. Dill. You should not have been buried in the forest; you have inherited a mysterious and powerful bloodline, one that is rooted in the magic of the earth. No, you were born of the earth; you are one with it!"

"Daughter of the earth," Oya commented in a tone of wonder, as if she had gotten a glimpse of the mysteries of the Eastern Shore from Dill.

Dill was speechless; it was a shame that the world didn't seem to have a goddess in charge of music and theater.

What Oya said was like witnessing a bottle of water turn into wine. Well, human beings in this land always have an over-interpretation of bloodlines. Some witches, like Veronica, strongly believe that her dark hair and green eyes are as ominous a symbol as a black wolf. And if she were very magical, how could she be kidnapped so easily?

Vaguely, she heard the sound of Oya's breath coming closer, as if a serpent's letter were sliding across her earlobe, gentle and subtly tricky.

"I have seen the way you gaze upon the sea witch, and I know your desire. I have had the honor of knowing several noble medicine men from as far away as the East Coast, men of wisdom as ancient and mysterious as they are, but unfortunately, the courtesy of the Church and the lure of magic failed to keep them, and one of them once told me: go back to your roots. And you, dill, poor, rootless grass, you long to find a home, a place to belong, your roots. Then only the sacred place of the three goddesses of nature, the Jungle River, can help you. We can be where you truly belong."

Dill felt uncomfortable and suddenly changed his mind. It's better to let others call her by her first name.

"I can't wait to see the beauty of the Junri River. I wonder if you have any werewolves there. Lastly, chopping off air-dried heads—that's what my lady and I need most at the moment."

Oya laughed.

"For the record, I respect Lord Amber, but her stubbornness is beyond redemption. The Moon Goddess is powerful, yet at the same time the most brutal, and of all the goddesses, this Highness is the only one who would demand such a bloody offering. You have heard that the first werewolf was once a messenger of the Moon Goddess, but you don't realize that the last werewolf's head to be paid tribute to the pantheon of women was ten years ago, do you?"

"What are you trying to say?" Dill couldn't believe it.

"The man-wolf has long since been crushed or vanished, and now only poetry and drama glimpse their existence. The great Lord Amber, Luna's fiercest golden lion, branched out to banish the wolves from the forests and stream valleys, and the Red Knight of the Church himself cut off the head of the Black Wolf King and granted it a robe of war made of wolf skins, and from then on the wolves scattered and fled."

Oya had come prepared, laying out her prey with every word, and the good news was far more effective than the fumbling boasts of earlier. Dill's whole heart was light, feeling like she'd dunked a whole barrel of honeyed wine, and the monstrous surprise was like a flood pouring over her, nearly breaking down her heart's defenses, but it was so close.

A prick to her finger startled her from the pain.

"I've also seen the victims of werewolf bites; they remain bound; the werewolves haven't disappeared."

Dill pulled out the splinter of Zapper wood stuck in her finger, and the finger in her mouth immediately tasted of blood.

"You have the same stubbornness as Amber, and yes, maybe they're just hiding. But it is more dangerous to have mortals closing in on the forest than werewolves, and these past few years my compatriots and I have not died in battle at the claws of werewolves in the English distance, but have been burned alive at the stake, and the Church is spreading their territory, and we should no longer focus on illusory and misguided goals."

"I am familiar with your wonders, with everything about you, and if you are truly sworn to the Moon God, why did you let a dog go? Miller's Hollow is a lovely place, but the Moon ladies there are not, and do you know that half of the witches in Miller's Hollow were going to take you as a substitute for an escaped sacrifice, tie you up in a sack, and throw you in the river? We were the first to send Perun to save you, but luckily Amber saved you first, and I'm grateful to her for that too. Your life is far more precious than you realize."

Oya had done her homework, or, as she put it, the whole of Juniper was expecting Dill.

"No more fear, and no more running day and night under the watchful eye of the moon. Lord Amber can't protect you forever, and the goddesses I believe in are as loving as mothers. The endless plains are not imprisoned by mountains, and the rich streams are always flowing with sweet-smelling milk and honey. Dill, all of us will open our arms to you and be your support, your belonging!"