"Welcome to Glorious Beginning!" I slide on my ring and Seth does the same thing as he slides off of the horse. "Wow, they cleaned up quickly since I set half the place on fire." I looked around my old home with a touch of sorrow.

"You did?"

"Yeah, but I extinguished the fire once I was outside of the town so it wasn't like it would burn everything." I sigh as I look at the sad town I used to call home. There were still some scorched marks on the ground and along some of the walls as we walked through the town. I frowned. The people here weren't coming out like they normally did. No one was talking to each other. It was as if they were all facing a moral dilemma since I left.

"Hello, ma'am, sir." I turned to see Gregoric hobbling over to us. "What brings you to this town?" He smiles sweetly but I remembered how he sneered at me when I was on my knees during my trial. I put a smile on my face.

"We are here to sell herbs." I smiled and lifted the basket I was now carrying. "We were hoping to talk to the village healer about our pastes and tonics. They have proved very helpful to the other villages."

"Oh, a business woman." The village elder smiled.

"Yes, she is." Seth's disguised face smiled down at me. I just wanted to see his real smile, right now. Especially since we went this whole day riding together in silence after what took place yesterday at the inn. The gold thread of magic between us pulsed in a constant reminder of how things changed between us.

"How long have you two been married?" The village elder askes. "I see you have a baby." He smiled and it was genuine, soft and sweet, something I had never seen from him before. I move the blankets out of her face to show him the beautiful baby.

"Yes, well I got pregnant soon after we were wed." I smiled. "We just celebrated our one year anniversary."

"Well, isn't that just lovely." Iris smiled up as the village elder spoke. He cooed at her. She yawned. "What's her name?"

"Iris." I answered simply. If I used my name here I would be found out quickly. Seth doesn't have a last name so it made things complicated if they asked for a real last name. I glanced at the gold thread even when Seth stepped away it still connected us. It felt like it was pulling me to follow him, to stay closer.

"Well, isn't that pretty." He smiled. "I can walk you to the village healer, but first I must ask that you meet with the count to let him know that we have visitors in the village. It has been quite depressing around here since the count's only daughter passed away."

"What happened to her?" Seth asked as he glanced at me.

"Well, that is a long story." The elder hummed and led us to my old home. I could feel myself become sick to my stomach the closer we got to the house. I held Iris close to my chest as if I was trying to block her from the horrors I had lived through. She won't ever have to live through them, I can keep her safe now. I swallow my fear and keep walking.

"Who is it?" My dad's gruff voice reaches my ears and I try not to gag. He let me burn. He told me to burn. He was the one that lit the match! Seth grabs my hand and gives it a light squeeze and I take a deep breath as the thread hums at the physical touch.

"We have visitors, sir." The elder explains to my father calmly. "They wish to sell their herbs and tonics to the village healer."

"Come on in." He grumbles. The elder pushes open the door and I walk into my father's study. I freeze when I walk in. This couldn't be right. The shelves were broken and books were scattered along the floor. Bottles were broken or spilling everywhere. "I apologize for the mess." My father smiles.

"It's not a problem." Seth smiles. I raise my head and look into my father's eyes. A sorrow I have never seen before held strong in his eyes. His body was so much thinner than I remembered. His cheeks were hollow and his hands were bony. I felt sick just looking at him. "My wife and I are here to sell our pastes and tonics to the village healer."

"May I see some of them?" He asks calmly. I look at the rest of the room. The chandelier was broken on the floor. A window was smashed behind him. You could see the pyre I had been burned on from here.

"Sir, do you guys burn witches here?" I point to the pyre without thinking through what I was saying.

"We used to." He said. I dug through our basket and quickly handed him a couple pastes and explained what they would do. "Do you think witches would burn, ma'am?"

"I have always had my suspicions." I say honestly as I glance into my father's eyes. It was odd but I felt like he was looking at me with familiarity. "I mean, if they are rumored to be able to control the elements, why would they fall victim to one? If you look at the history books they use fire in them, so how could fire be the answer?"

"That's strange." My father sits back in his chair. "My daughter said something similar on her twentieth birthday."

"What happened to her?" I ask. Tears welled up in my father's eyes. He looked up and closed his eyes for a moment. "I apologize for asking sir."

"It's alright dear." He waves away my worries. Was my father regretting what he had done? He smiled strangely. The madness had left his eyes, instead it was consumed with an ever growing sorrow. "May I see your baby?" He stands and walks over to me, carefully deflecting my question as he continues to look at me with familiarity.

"Yes." I unwrap the girl's face and her eyes flutter open. My father smiles gently. "Her name is Iris."

"That's funny." He smiles at me, the uncertainty from his eyes seemed to be fading and I wondered what he was figuring out. "My daughter had a corner of her garden dedicated to irises. She said they had a pretty color." He points out one of the windows. The one that was directly over the first half of my garden. My garden was being maintained... "She used to spend every afternoon in her garden, so I have been doing the same."

"That's very kind of you." What happened to you?

"I hope it will make her happy wherever she might be now." He smiled outside of the window before turning back to me and a sort of sharpness returned to his gaze. "Well, you two have a beautiful baby girl." He turns to the elder. "Take them to Bertha." We begin to turn when my father's voice reaches us once more, "And please, stop by on your way out my lady." I turned to him and he gave me a smile that sent me back to my childhood. Back when we started my garden together with my mother and went back inside to bake his favorite cookies.

"Bertha's daughter recently had a baby too, I believe it's a young lad." The elder says as he leads us to the healing tent. I was suppressing a shiver as I continued to feel like my dad could recognize me even when I was disguised. I didn't need them guiding me and wished that he hadn't insisted on doing so by following us directly out of the manor. I knew this town like the back of my hand but that would look suspicious. "Well, here we are." He opens the tent flap for me and we stride in.

"Why hello!" Bertha stands up and hugs the village elder. "Who might we..." her eyes sharpened when she saw us, "...have here?" She finished slowly. Her eyes started to mist. She knew who I was right away. Her powers were the same white that healing magic had been when I used it in the beginning, it doesn't create light anymore.

"We were wondering if you might be interested in buying our pastes and tonics." I smiled brightly.

"Well, I will leave you to discuss." The elder nods and leaves the tent. I stared at Bertha for a long minute before she rushed to me and grabbed me face gently. I slid off my ring and she started to cry.

"Samantha!" Bertha shouted and her daughter came running in, holding her baby boy. Samantha gasped when she saw me. Seth took off his ring too. "Oh my, are you alright, dear? Why did you come back here?"

"I came back for you and Samantha." I said as they dragged me to a table and sat me down. Silent tears began to fall down my face. I hadn't realized how much I had missed my old life until I was met with their calm smiles and warm hugs that always greeted me. All of us looked around the tent once more just to check the empty tent.

"Where have you been?" Samantha asks as she eyes the man traveling with me and the baby in my arms. "No one has seen you since your trial. Are you alright?"

"Honestly, Mariposa, why would you release your disguise so quickly? What if I wasn't really a witch?" Bertha scolded me. Samantha joined in on her mom's nagging and they went on for quite a while. Their long curly blonde hair and blue eyes were identical. Their faces welcomed me. I started to cry more, sobbing even. "Oh dear." Bertha came over to me.

"Tell us what happened, Mariposa." Samantha said next to me.

I updated them on everything I had learned about my powers. I told them about meeting Seth and they glared at him with unease. I told them about rescuing Joseph and Josephine and then making it to the coast and Seth finding us for the third time. I told them about making the house in the woods and finding Elliot and her siblings and going shopping and finding Iris. "I know it all sounds crazy but during all of that I recalled your kindness to me, Bertha, after I had fallen over in my trials."

"I didn't know if you would withstand burning, if I am being honest." Bertha grips her cup of tea.

"Well, I did." I state flatly. "Now, I can see magic, when it is being used and when other people have it even before they have used it for the first time." I leave out the part of being able to see the magic in the air when I call forth my own magic.

"That's amazing, Mariposa." Samantha stares at me. "We were actually just planning on how to get out of here." She glances at her mother. "My husband has become suspicious of me and rather violent." She shudders. "We were hoping to find you along the way but you finding us first is rather a large miracle."

"Good." I sighed and slammed my head on the table. "You have no idea, Bertha. I've been taking care of all of these kids and teaching these two other witches when I had no one to teach me." I laughed a little. "Of course, Seth is there and helping in any way that he can but at the end of the day I am the only one with a good enough grasp on magic to teach them how to control it." I sighed.

"What else have you figured out?" Bertha asks me as she pats my back gently. "You are a smart girl. I know that you didn't just figure out how to use all of your powers together in order to create things and didn't try to figure out everything."

"You are right." I mumble. I tell them about how men who are descendants of witches have a small ball of magic in their chest and that it can be passed on to their daughters. I tell them about the Witch Hunter leader whose family is in danger and how I believe the king is taking the orphans into the Witch Hunters and keeping them from having kids because he knows this, which just raises more questions.

"Wow, you really are trying to understand everything." Bertha sighs and leans back into her chair. "I have one more question, Mariposa."

"Shoot."

"What is your connection with Seth? Something feels like magic over there." She points between us. "We can't see magic like you can but we can feel it and I feel a magic bond between the two of you." I flush.

"It formed recently." I sigh as I look at the two women. "We kissed and it formed this golden thread between our magic." Samantha's eyes flew wide. "Ever since his magic has been growing and spreading through him, resembling that of a witch instead of just another male descendant."

"That's amazing." Samantha whispered. "Mom, do you know what it is?" We all turn to Bertha as she contemplates in silence.

"I don't know." Bertha finally says. "Mariposa, you know more about magic than I ever will. You have figured all of this out in four months or so." She sighed but then smiled deeply. "Your mother would be so proud of you."

"I don't need her to be proud of me." I snip. "She left me ten years ago and I won't forget that, Bertha. She didn't say goodbye or tell me about anything." I froze. "Actually, I have reason to believe she died."

"What?"

"Bertha, can witches die in childbirth?"

"Only if their magic has been completely drained." Bertha stares at me. "Why do you believe your mother is dead?"

"This baby." I pull off her cap. "Have you ever seen another person with silver hair besides me or my mother?" They shake their heads. "This baby, she has silver hair, but it's darker and her magic is purple. I've noticed that families share the same magic color. It's the same color your eyes change to whenever you use magic. The thing is, her magic is darker but I haven't seen another person with purple magic." I pull the cap back on the baby's head. "The note said she died in childbirth and that she and the father had been running from something which makes me think that he was witch born, one of the orphans that wasn't allowed to have kids, and he disobeyed the law."

"That...sounds like your mother, unfortunately." Bertha groaned and placed her head in her palms. "Your mother was a kind woman, Mariposa, but she made a lot of promises she couldn't keep. She had this weird knack for knowing just the right way to cause problems. She promised the witches of this village that she would create a way to save us all but then her husband ended up being the one to hunt us."

"In a way, mom, she did create a way to save us." Samantha turns to me slowly. "Mariposa will save us." Her eyes were strong resembling their magic and the will that coursed through them.

"She's right." I looked Bertha straight in the eyes. "I will save us."