72nd day of Winter, year 196
Maiden’s Drink
Leona is peering through the shutters of a window on the second floor of her sister’s home. It’s far less cozy than her own cottage, but she can’t deny that the view from here is spectacular. Usually. Today has ever-present driving rain that’s making the curving cliffs in the distance barely visible. She can just make out the surf being whipped by the wind in the cove below, and flashes of lightning in the distance. Frequent thunder shakes the eaves of the house.
This rain, freezing cold with the chill of winter, had soaked her to the bone on her hurried walk to the town. The messenger had arrived in the late morning with news of Leda’s labor, and Leona arrived as soon as she could.
She moves to the fire now, wrapping herself tightly in the blanket, as much for warming herself as to provide herself with a little comfort.
The storm is a bad omen indeed.
It’s long past the setting of the sun and the evening meal, when she’s called into her sister’s room to meet the baby. Leda looks tired, but well enough. A pained smile on her face stands in contrast to Ardenn’s enthusiastic grin, as he hands the newborn babe to Leona.
“Meet our daughter, Astarael.”
It’s a girl.
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