Edith held her little son close before placing him back in his crib, "You'll battle for good, you must, and warrior can do no other, and you are just as much warrior as you are one of them!" In the days after she had returned home, when they discovered she was with child much debate was went into, it was even suggested that when she delivered the child should be killed. Her Grandfather stopped all talks of that quickly. "She is with this babe for a reason, we must trust that Moldar has a plan."
She glanced over to her other son, Slayd, still sleeping so peacefully. She hadn't thought she could love a child, not a child created like they had been, but she loved them both more then her own life. When Slayd came into the world and she held him the first time she knew then that it was the good from the bad given to her, and then she felt his brother coming and she was doubly blessed.
"Edith is to have no more children, she is not to be mated." Jareth watched his wife's as he gently broke the news to her. "Gideon says that to mate her would destroy Moldar's plan, it has come from Moldar himself, these will be her only children."
Celia felt the tears stinging her eyes, they weren't tears for herself, but for her daughter who would never know the love a man can bring into your life. "Certainly if Moldar doesn't wish for her to have children he can make it so without sentencing her to a life alone!" her husband hung his head, and she knew it wasn't a battle that could be won. "What Moldar says we can not argue, not if we are true followers of his. She will not be mated."
"Perhaps though she could still attend the camp, still enjoy the time with the other children her age." She couldn't accept that this was the life for her only daughter, that the twins brought forth from agony and shame would be the only children she would ever bear, those children would keep her daughter from ever knowing the full bonds of husband and wife, it seemed so unfair.
"Nae Woman, there is to be no mating camp this time, there are not enough girls and males. Each family will be told who they are to mate their children with, it is that simple and that complicated, there is no room for worries of romance and love." Jareth thought back to their own camp, it was a wonderful time for them all, but he also remembered the look of horror on his wife's face when she was told he was to be her husband. It worked out just fine for them, it would work out for the others as well.
"There is talk that Cadel is to be married to one of Estrella and Trae's daughters." His wife turned around from the bird she was preparing horror on her face. "That can't be husband, Cadel is Angel and Saber, his children will be large, our own were almost too large for me to bear, and I am made for bearing large babies!"
"Moldar knows what he does, and Gideon will not make a bad mating as long as he seeks Moldar's guidance.
I am certain it is meant to be, there aren't many other choices available. Our children are all related to half the island!"
The sun shone down brights as Estrella finished her work in the garden. It had been almost six years since the island girls were kidnapped and recovered. For many months after a heavy cloud of doubt and fear had settled over them all, they had held their children closer to their sides in those days following the attack. The fear faded slowly, and now it seemed all had forgotten the horror they felt those dark days. Estrella looked down at her chatty daughter, Kyla, always filled with wonder at her world. She was thankful her own children had been spared the nightmares the girls from the other families had endured. She watched Kyla run off to find her sisters and knew that time was passing quickly, too quickly.
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