Discussing the Graveyard

"So you want us to keep a horde of feral children in our yard?!"

Lilith slapped Finlay on the cheek the moment the words exited his mouth.

Anselmo couldn't help but smirk slightly; it was nice to know Lilith still had her spark.

"It isn't much. Finlay there will be a magical veil in between the gravesite and the house, you won't even know they're there." Anselmo did his best to add an empathetic touch to his words as he said this, but the truth was he felt nothing but annoyance in his gut.

Finlay rolled his eyes.

"Sounds like a plan, Annie." he grumbled

"Doctor Anselmo to you, Finlay."

Anselmo then cleared his throat before looking back at Finlay and Lilith.

"Lilith, you remember Jane right?"

Lilith's eyes widened as she heard this.

"Of course! She was my dearest friend. We knew each other much before I met you, Annie."

Suddenly, Finlay interrupted.

"Who is Jane again?"

"My half sister, we have the same mother--but she is not a halfling but a full blood mountain elf."

Finlay nodded at this before turning his attention back to the flames underneath the cauldron.

"She'd been my dearest friend since we were three; we did everything together." Lilith smiled, remembering all the memories she'd had with Jane and Anselmo when they were younger, before Anselmo knew that he was a changeling, and before this whole war had affected any of them.

"Yes... well, I mention her because her children are the ones who will be staying in the yard of the dome."

"Well that's perfect!" she exclaimed.

Anselmo nodded, adjusting his faded brown wool pants. He cleared his throat yet again.

"But you cannot speak to them whilst you are in the inner circle of the dome, or your protection from the spirits will be weakened."

"Who will raise Abrem then? He wasn't born but half a year ago."

"There are many outcasts of Gunbeatha, living spirits if you will. I have found a water troll named Athol willing to raise him and his siblings. Jane know's her quite well, she practically raised us, taught us everything we know about magic.."

"Siblings?" Finlay's grumbling remark echoed through the house.

"Yes." Anselmo sighed before continuing.

"There is something to be said about women and their tendency to have children out of spite."

"So she will do the same as I plan on doing? Giving birth and having the children live in the Dome?"

"Not exactly, Jane isn't going to have any more children directly.

She cannot hide with them due to Gunbeatha's tracking spell. But, she is rather adamant about rescuing orphan halflings and other outcasts--says she wants her life to have a purpose." he exhaled drowsily as he finished off his explanation.

" I agreed that I would work it into the contract that they could stay in the yard."

"You said something about a blessing… for our future children?" Lilith added, her voice riddled with hope.

"Yes, about that..." Anselmo's voice petered for a moment, his gaze flickering in Finlay's direction briefly before continuing.

"If you wish to have more children, I could bless Lilith's womb so that your offspring's marks would be hidden from birth. However, they would be trapped in the Dome until the veil was torn, and they wouldn't be able to leave like Joey or you two for emergencies."

There was silence. Finlay cleared his throat.

"Well.., if that's our only option."

Anselmo barely managed to hide his disbelief in response to this.

"Anselmo, we must have more children, there is no question."

"Lilith, please consi-"

"No." Lilith's voice was stern, Anselmo knew he wouldn't break her. Being a good mother to many children had been her dream ever since she had learned that she would never be able to achieve her true aspiration. One of her children would grow to be a master horseman, she knew it, and she would not accept anything less than a BarClay name as the first female trail boss the west had ever known-- that wasn't going to change.

"Besides the obvious, Annie, I ain't gonna to let those damn elves get between me and my family. They aint gonna win."

Finlay perked up in response.

"And if our children can't leave we know we'll never be foolish enough to do so ourselves for fear of abandoning them!"

Anselmo glared at Finlay.

Throwing a handful of kindling into the fire, Anselmo sighed heavily.

"I suppose conflicting motivation doesn't hurt as long as your wishes are the same." He kept his head down, staring into the cauldron, but they all felt the annoyance in his hoarse words.

He pulled a jar off the shelf and dumped the glimmering lavender contents into the pot. As he continued to mix the potion, he looked up at Lilith.

"If you wouldn't mind, there is someone at the back door waiting for you, you'd better hurry."

Confusion washed across Lilith's face. Alas, she complied, standing up stiffly with Joey on her hip. She shuffled to the door and opened it, allowing a gust of frigid wind to waft into the one room cottage.

She looked out the door, there was nothing.

She looked left and right frantically, before finally looking down.

Lilith gasped.

A spitting duplication of the most important person in her life looked up at her, tears and oblivion on his innocent face.

"Y-you must.. be Abrem." she fumbled for words, her rosy lips quivering as a wave of memories washed over her.

Abe couldn't have been any older than a year maximum; he could barely stand, his soft coily hair was still thin and in the process of coming in, and his soft copper skin seemed to be scabbing from the cold especially around the skull mark on his neck.

"Just like Joey." she whispered.

The child looked at her, puzzled tears in his eyes.

Lilith bent down slowly, set Joey into the snow, gently grabbed the little boy's hand, and pried the folded piece of parchment tucked away in his desperate little grip.

"Is this from Mama?"

The little boy's face contorted itself the moment he heard the word.

Pain fell upon him, his eyes conveyed more heartbreak than most adult's ever could. The tears began to spill and all Lilith could do was pull him into her arms and hold him.

She stood up shakily, doing her best to keep her own emotions at bay with Joey on one hip and Abe on the other.

The wind howled and the trees swayed in the darkness. She took one more glance into the forest where her friend likely hid, before turning into the house with the children and shutting the door behind her.

[POV SWITCHES TO JANE]

Jane gripped the closest tree to her the moment that she was out of earshot of the others.

Digging her knuckles into the bark until they turned white, she wailed into the empty forest; her screams were immediately killed by the wind.

Other than a few birds fluttering away in response, there was absolutely no effect.

She bit her lip in defeat; Jane fell to her knees with a thud. With her forehead pressed against the tree. She pushed her already frozen numb fingers into the thick, icy, snow beneath her, hoping to God she could feel something from it, but there was nothing; nothing but sorrow and emptiness.. An emptiness only a mother could experience. Her physical body was irrelevant in this moment. Her mind seemingly rose out of her skin, leaving a shell of a person sitting crushed and silent in the ice.

But her mind was anything but quiet; a thousand voices rang over each other; conflicting thoughts and vague washes of intense emotions surged through her brain.

Did I do the right thing? Will I ever see him again? Does Lilith know I care about her? Does he know his mother loves him? They know I didn't choose this right? Will anything ever be the same again?

She felt a hand on her shoulder as these thoughts ran rampant in her brain. Yet, it felt as if it were happening through a thin sheet of cloth: she didn't feel it completely and did not register its existence until the hands owner spoke up.

"Jendyose?"

Jane's mind returned to her body in an instant; a small tingle rushed across her skin and suddenly- she was back. The sorrow-laden mother whipped around violently to meet her adoptive guardian's kind black eyes. Soft, white hair and dark wrinkled skin creased around her lips into a contagious smile. Athol's expression was far from smiley in this moment.

The two stared at each other for a silent moment before Jane broke yet again, throwing her face into Athol's chest.The old woman ran gentle circles over Jane's back with her hands to comfort her.

The ice seeped through Athol's thin cotton skirt, seemingly into her bones, as she sat huddled with her adoptive daughter.

They stayed like this for upwards of an hour before Jane finally peeled herself from Athol's embrace. The sun was now making it's departure behind the Franklin mountains, casting a pinkish-red hue into the Texas sky.

Jane looked up at Athol. Her deep, black eyes were still thick with tears, yet somehow conveyed a sense of calm; not the sort of calm obtained through closure or resolution, however, the sort of calm one experiences when they decide to keep their cares at bay. There wasn't much Jane could do, so why should she worry? Jane had entrusted her child with the people whom she trusted the most. One day she and Anselmo would find a way to give future halflings a life outside of a Dome. However, that couldn't happen if she didn't pursue it.

Athol brought herself to her feet with a silent determination, Jane followed in her lead.

"You may stay with us during a period of grieving but I cannot allow you-"

"I won't, trust me Athol, I'll be gone in less than half a moon."

Athol gave a solemn nod in response. With this, she turned on her heel and started in the opposite direction from which Jane had come. The two walked through the sparse forest in silence. The night fell and the owls called their chilling song echoing through the sky. As they trodded along, the trees grew farther and farther apart until all that remained was rocks and snow-covered cacti. Jane could see miles and miles of mountain ahead of her. With no trees in her way and so many miles between her and ground level, there was no limit to how far she could see.