The Ether Witch Volume 2

A little more than eight years ago…

Rosaline braced her hands on the counter as she battled back the bile that burned the back of her throat.

Despite the chill of the wintery air that blustered into her tavern as the door opened and closed, she felt sweat bead along her hairline.

"This food poisoning is really getting the best of you, hey?" Liam's worried voice sounded out beside her as he placed an empty crate back under the counter at her feet. He had just returned from delivering their empty bottles to the distillery to get them refilled.

"Gods… Was it the tuna stew we had after the Solstice?" Rosaline managed between deep breaths.

A cup of water was placed in front of her.

She gulped it down thankfully, only for her stomach to roil in retaliation at being disturbed.

"Liam! Another ale! And Rosie, mind getting us more—oh, hey now. That food poisoning has to be finished with you!" Daryl, one of their regular customers, called out in surprise.

"I tell you, I'm tempted to see a physician." Rosalie pushed herself to stand back straight. "This bloody sickness has me exhausted and I have a business to run."

Liam grimaced as he eyed his sister sympathetically. "I've been telling you to go for a month."

"Ugh." Rosalie attempted to take a smaller sip of water. "I'll step out back for a breath. I probably just overdid it with the Winter Solstice stress last month is all. I'll give it another week to see if it wraps up."

Liam sighed and shook his head at her, but she wasn't in the mood for his quips.

Smiling at her customers as she passed them on her way to the back of the tavern, she grabbed her thick pink shawl from the back hook—it'd been a gift from her last paramor—and exited into the snowy street.

Tilting her face up to the inky sky that was sending down thick, wet flakes, she let out a heavy breath and relished in the quiet.

Sidling over to a nearby stack of palettes the ale delivery man would take next time he showed up, she sat down with a moan.

Her lower back was throbbing.

Gods… I know I don't bleed often, but this course feels like it is going to be a nightmare.

A funny sensation seized her then… It was like her mind had brushed past a very obvious thing.

She stilled.

Then, she cast her thoughts back to the last time she saw her former paramor. The young man with long black hair who hid in corners. He was quiet. Smoked cigars. He had had a soft, low, smooth voice that Rosaline had loved to listen to. The way he'd talk about books he'd read, or about the stars, it always lulled her into a state of relaxation. She'd lay her head down on the table in front of her after the tavern had closed, and she'd simply listen to him talk. More than once she had fallen asleep there, and he had gallantly woken her and offered to carry her to bed.

He was younger than her, but he was attractive. Sweet. Unassuming. A nice dalliance.

They'd ended as things did when they acknowledged they were simply too different for it to continue in any more meaningful way. He was most likely from some kind of influential family given the quality of clothes he had always worn, and Rosaline had no interest in getting tangled up in any kind of power struggles like that.

At present, she swallowed as panic and suspicion rose.

That can't be it. I can't be pregnant. I was told it would be highly unlikely to happen. I gave up on that idea ages ago…

But that funny inkling had sunk its teeth into her mind.

And so, the next morning, she had forced herself to roll out of bed far earlier than she wanted to, and made her way down the road to the physician.

The physician had been a woman, which made Rosaline feel a lot better. But after a series of questions and tests, the physician informed her that without a doubt, she was indeed pregnant.

Rosaline's ears rung.

It had felt like all the blood in her body had drained out of her.

The physician had kept talking after announcing the news. Saying something about taking care of herself. Something about options if she needed help…

Rosaline had risen, thanked the woman, and left. She'd returned to work, and finished the evening in a daze.

Her brother had asked where she'd gone earlier. She had lied and said something to the effect of talking to a vendor about a better price for eggs.

By the time the dinner rush had slowed down, Liam had shooed her off to bed again, claiming she looked ready to drop.

It was there in her bed, laying across the quilt her mother had left her when she'd died, that she'd stared up at the ceiling, and finally willed her brain to come back to life.

I should probably try and tell him. He doesn't live in Rollom, but he says he runs messages to different brothels. I could probably go to the brothel and tell them he has an unpaid tab here, and they'd let him know. He'd get the message and come…

But then what?

Another voice, one more harsh, but reasonable, echoed in her head. You don't want this. You'd been disappointed at first when you thought you couldn't have children, but then you found your dream of owning the tavern. And here you are! You did it! You'll probably lose customers if they think you are so wanton. Just deal with this now, and nothing will change.

Rosaline sat up. A little uneasy, but settled on her decision that really was the most logical one to make.

The next morning, she got up early once again, and asked the physician for the herbs to end her pregnancy.

She'd been told to return in three days, and they would be ready.

With that complete, Rosaline was starting to feel marginally better. Nothing was going to change. Everything was taken care of.

Then she'd entered the tavern that was not open yet, he was there.

A black haired man with the most disturbing eyes she'd ever seen. They were an aqua blue, that would have been exquisitely beautiful were it not for the three pupils that spun slowly around in each eye.

Her throat felt dry.

The hair on her arms rose up.

This man was dangerous.

"I'm sorry, sir," she said, already wondering if she should start screaming. "But the tavern isn't open yet."

The man tilted his head, his eyes roving over her body.

Rosaline backed up a step.

"It is as I thought. Good. This is easier." He nodded to himself, seeming satisfied.

"Sir, my brother is upstairs. I would hate to have to get him involved in—" The world spun. In a whirl of water and snow Rosaline was rendered speechless as her tavern disappeared from sight, and when this alarming magical display disappeared, she doubled over and vomited on snowy ground.

"Apologies for the sudden travel. However, this is a delicate matter."

Rosaline stumbled, and a large, strong hand grasped her elbow as she tried to make sense of her surroundings once more.

She was standing on a cliff's edge. Before her lay the inky, frothing tempest that was the Alcide Sea while the cloudy sky above her spanned endlessly off toward the horizon.

"You are carrying an Ashowan child?"

Jolted from her shocked observations, Rosaline backed away from the creature she now knew without a doubt was not human.

He sighed. "We were worried we'd have to do this with the Ashowan daughter, so this is exceptional news. I must confess I was starting to doubt if my tampering was enough to make this successful, but it looks like I finally have some good news."

"What do you want?" Rosaline continued backing away from the creature that was, she discovered now that he wasn't seated, incredibly tall. At least seven feet.

The creature pulled out a vial filled with what looked like ash. "I want you to bake this, and eat it. Oh. And add a few drops of blood, too."

Rosaline felt like she would be sick again. "No! Why would I—-"

"You have a brother you care for, yes? The one back at your tavern?" The creature raised his eyebrows expectantly.

Rosaline felt tears well up in her eyes as they moved to the vial in his hand. This was a threat. But why? Why her? "What does that do?"

"This will be the advantage my master needs. We have never tried it before, and we only have one other vial left. There isn't much time, either."

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"No! Enough cryptic shit!" Rosaline shrieked, as she trembled. "What is it? What does that do? What does it matter if I'm pregnant or not?"

The creature tilted its head, staring at her. "Do you really want to know?"

He glided closer to her, moving at such a swift speed she didn't have a chance to back away again.

"This… is part of the ashes the devil can be reborn from. My master has suffered for eons, and his sister has disposed of his allies one by one through the years. Even I cannot protect myself from her for long. So. I am ensuring he will be placed in the safest vessel possible. The safest bloodline available. We have never tried this, as I said. My master did not believe it a just thing to do. But desperate times make rules of stone crumble under its grind."

"That… That will make my baby the devil?"

"It will. Only it will also be perfectly human. A human of the Ashowan bloodline. And the devil. He will be unlike anything he has been before, and in turn, this may change his fate."

"I don't want this. I won't do it," Rosaline whispered, her throat tightening. "I didn't even want this baby to begin with."

The creature sighed. "You will be compensated, and I do not expect you to keep the child for long once it is born. Just be sure not to name him if you wish him gone from your life later. It creates a connection of fate between you. I would recommend waiting some time before sending him off to the Ashowan family so that suspicions are lowered. Perhaps seven years?"

"You keep saying the child would be of the Ashowan bloodline…"

The creature pressed the vial into her hand. Rosaline tried to yank herself free from his grasp but his hold turned to iron.

"That young man you bedded is the Ashowan heir."

"No!" Roasline shouted, once again struggling against the creature. "He's Joe! Just Joe!"

"Believe what you want. But you will consume this vial of ash, or I will destroy your life. Do you understand? And if you try to get rid of that child you will wish for death. Understood?"

Tears were overflowing Rosaline's eyes.

Why? Why did this have to happen to her? What had she done that was so wrong?

"Nothing you say will change this." The creature's three pupils spun faster, and Rosaline realized with shrinking dread, that she was utterly helpless against this thing.

But there was one thing she could control.

I… Can never love this child. And damn the Goddess for giving me such a horrible fate.

***

Present day…

Tam felt sick.

He reached up and rubbed his mouth, and felt the tremor in his fingers.

Even Eli was silent.

Rosaline stared at the table in front of her. "I've hated you for a long, long time, Lord Tamlin."

Tam couldn't bring himself to speak.

"That… That boy. I owe nothing to him." Her voice rasped. "I did not want him. I didn't want any of what happened. And now that I've told you? I'll probably find some other horrible thing coming after me, won't I? Now that you know what he is. Now that you know that child should be locked away or—"

"Stop… please," Tam whispered brokenly. He dragged his hands over his face before forcing himself to speak again. "Rosaline, I am… I am so sorry for what you went through. That you were doing all of this alone. Under duress. That you were threatened to… to do this. If you need anything, the Ashowans will provide it."

"I don't want anything from you," Rosaline informed him quietly, his reaction seemed to gentle her a fraction.

"I wasn't finished," Tam said calmly. "Don't ever repeat this story to anyone ever again. Luca isn't the devil. He isn't evil. The imp was wrong—that was the creature that made you do this; an imp. He… Our son… He's just a child. You never have to see him again. You never have to do anything for him again. But he has no fault in this. I'm the one you should keep hating. The enemies of my family did this to you, but that isn't Luca's fault. So please don't… Don't talk about him like that."

Rosaline's breathing quickened as her eyes grew red. "What about his dreams, hm? His nightmares? He dreamt of those beasts. Beasts like the one that came and made me bake those damn ashes into bread and eat it."

"He would have heard stories of ancient beasts. Children have nightmares," Tam explained gently.

"No. No, I… I know children. I've seen children. He is not a normal child. He isn't right. The way he just knows what kind of person someone is at a glance…" Rosaline shook her head.

Tam's hands gripped into fists that he forced himself to release. "Rosaline, that's because of something else."

"Liar." She choked on the word. "I birthed him. I raised him. I may not like him, but I know him. And I know what he is."

Tam was finding it hard to control his emotions. "Rosaline. I'm the one like that. He's… He's just like me when I was a kid."

Rosaline stared at him. Her anger and her pain practically pulsated from her. "I've not told people what that boy is before, and I'm not about to start screaming it in the streets now. I'm free of him. At last. Believe or say what you want, but I don't ever want to see you, or him ever again."

Tam couldn't say anything more to that.

So he stood, his entire body numb. Eli joined him.

They descended the stairs, leaving behind Rosaline, and headed toward the door. The luncheon patreons chattered jovially around them, providing a jarring brightness to the dark cloud that clung to Tam as he wove around tables.

"Dad?"

Tam stopped. His eyes ripping up from the floor to see Luca standing in the doorway to the tavern with Penelope at his side.

His heart was still stinging sharply from everything he had learned.

Luca shouldn't be here. He shouldn't have to see the people who hated him.

Eli moved first. She swooped down, and grabbed Luca, hoisting him onto her hip as she hurried out the door. "Don't look back, Luca." Tam heard her whisper urgently. "Just hang on to me, alright? Don't ever look back here."

Tam raised his shaking hand to once again rub his mouth as with heavy steps he continued toward the door.

Penelope grabbed his dangling arm, and then slipped her hand into his.

This small gesture made Tam look down and see her concerned brown eyes as she peered up at him. She had changed so much since they'd found her. Her face had softened, her eyes even had seemed to widen as she stopped glaring, and their shade of brown seemed warmer.

Tam stooped down and picked Penelope up to continue down the street.

"Luca said we were near where his mother lived," Penelope explained with a hint of nervousness coming through her tone. "He was just going to show me the tavern quickly. Grandma is standing over there to watch us."

Tam looked with a start to see that his mother was indeed standing on the other side of the road. A knowing gleam in her eyes as she saw Tam's face.

He held her gaze, then looked at Eli who had reached the duchess's side once she, too, had spotted her.

Tam saw the same warring emotions behind Eli's own eyes. There was complete understanding of what he was feeling and thinking in that moment. He wasn't sure if that made him feel better or worse.

Then, Eli turned to look at Luca in her arms, and surprising them all, she leaned over and blew a raspberry on his cheek, making him shriek in surprise and giggle.

The playful move made Tam blink as he stopped a short ways from his family as Eli placed Luca back on the ground.

Then, Eli proceeded to do the unthinkable and make the day a little better by gently cupping Luca's face, forcing him to look at her, then said, "I am the luckiest mother in the world having a son like you." The barest hint of tears sparkled in her eyes that quickly vanished by the time she looked at Tam and Penelope. "And I am beyond grateful, Penelope, that you are our family now, too."

The little girl wriggled in Tam's arms. "You haven't officially adopted me yet… But… It… It will be good when you do. Someone has to take care of all of you."

Tam managed a small smile at that. "Well, I know my mother for one will appreciate that very much."

Penelope smiled shyly in response.

Clearing her throat, Annika stepped forward. "Alright, everyone. Let's have lunch, and then, I best be off to see the king."

Tam bobbed his head, and continued walking away from The Rosey Glass with Eli at his side.

He doubted he would ever be able to forgive himself for being a part in Rosaline's suffering. Nor did he have any idea how to even come to terms with the fact that he was still grateful beyond words to not only have Luca, but to also know he had been right.

Luca was his. His own flesh and blood… He just also happened to be the devil.

But really, who didn't have a little devil of their own?