Zephyra's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

The charm still warmed Zephyra's fist. She would not leave the tower until Zelda told her the rest. She pulled her chair close and looked at the old witch across the table. The skunk curled at her boots and went still. "Tell me how she came here," Zephyra said. "All of it." Zelda pressed her hands flat on the wood. For a long moment she said nothing. Then she began. "A storm broke over the tower one night. I heard the raven knocker banging. When I opened the door, your mother stood there, soaked and shaking. Her belly was round with you." Zelda's voice thinned. "She could barely stand." "Did she say who she was?" Zephyra leaned in. "No. She grew sick that same night." Zelda looked past Zephyra, at the wall, at nothing. "She slept for weeks. She never spoke much. I fed her broth and kept the fire high. I did not think she would live." Zephyra gripped the table edge. "But she did." "One morning she woke." Zelda's mouth trembled. "And that same night, right here in this room, she gave birth to you. I caught you myself." A tear slid down her cheek. She did not wipe it. "She did not hold you once. She asked if you were okay and for me to keep you warm while she rested." Zephyra's throat closed. She stared at the woman who had raised her, now weeping over a memory twenty-one years old. "You held me first," she said quietly. "I did." Zelda finally wiped her face with her sleeve. "By morning she was gone. No footprints. No sound. Just a note on the table where you sit now." "What did it say?" Zephyra asked. Zelda closed her eyes and spoke it from memory. "Thank you for the help. This child is yours to love always. The charm is hers." She opened her eyes. "That was all. She never told me her name. She never came back." Zephyra looked down at the silver lion in her hand. Her mother had touched this. Held it, worn it, then left it behind with a stranger and a newborn. "She gave me away and gave me this," Zephyra said. "But not one word about who she was. Or what I am." "I told you everything I know," Zelda said. "I swear it. The rest died with the note." Zephyra stood. The skunk lifted its head. She tied the charm's cord around her neck and let the lion rest against her chest. The answers were not in this tower. They never had been. "Then I have to find where she came from," Zephyra said. "Someone out there knew her." Zelda rose and reached out, then stopped, remembering the gloves. Her hand fell. "Go south," she said. "That storm blew in from the south. It is the only trail she left." Zephyra picked up her skunk and turned towards her room to pack.