The next day, Alysanne visited the church to pray for her father's soul and her own future. She threw her humble offering into the bowl for charity, looking at the carved features of the Watcher statue, she hoped it would be enough. She didn't have more to give.

She stayed in the church until dusk, praying for a new and better start.

When she turned to leave, she noticed Alvin standing at the door, watching her. Alysanne didn't know how long he had stood there, but just seeing him made her feel better.
"I thought I saw you come in." Alvin said. "How are you?"
"I'm... fine." She replied and then added: "Happy you're here. So... thanks." Maybe she should have resisted? This felt more even awkward than she had expected and... then Alvin was right next to her, with his hand on her shoulder.
"I will always be here for you."

This made Alysanne's hert flutter. The feel Alvin's hand on her shoulder, together with the warmth and braziers and reassuring place helped her find the courage to do something she wouldn't normally have even dreamt of.
She leant in and kissed Alvin, softly, but without any doubt as to what she meant by it.
And Alvin just closed his eyes and didn't object, so that surely meant...

"Will you marry me?" She blurted out before she even knew what she was saying.
Alvin took a step back with a shocked look on his face and Alysanne suddenly wanted to bite her tongue off, but... what other chance did she have, when even gypsy magic didn't work? And he did kiss her, after all...
"You are my best... my only friend and I thought..."
"But I'm going to become a priest!"
Alvin took another step back, freezing Alysanne in place with one gesture like with a magic spell, and than shock in his slowly eyes gave way to irritation.
"You always knew this was my plan! Why do you want to make everything complicated?"
Alysanne bit her lip, hesitating between an apology and a question whether the plan can't be changed. She didn't want to ruin his life and it was beginning to dawn on her that despite the Father's reassurances, this surely wasn't what he had in mind.
In the end, she just lowered her eyes, saying nothing.

Dejected, Alysanne left the church and the warm light of he braziers for the darkness outside. She looked at her mother's grave one more time before turning home...and saw a glimpse of something white floating in the distance. Could it be the spirit of her mother, coming once again to console or advise her?
Mesmerised, Alysanne made a few steps towards the vision.
If there was any consolation to be had, she definitely needed it.

When she reached the transparent figure, however, she realised something was not right. Instead of the soft face she saw every day smiling at her from from the romantised portrait, the face she had grown to love despite not really remembering her mother, Alysanne could almost make out the features of an old man.
And then, just like it had happened before, the figure snapped into focus right before her. As before, she couldn't hear anything, but the scowl on the figure's face was too clear to overlook or mistake for anything else than displesure.
Alysanne fled as fast as she could, without even trying to find out who the man was.

Alysanne retreated back to solitude for the next few days. She had too much to think about, even if there were not chores and other tasks to do. Her money was running short and no matter how far away it might seem at the moment, she always had to think about winter.
Luckily, the woods all around her house were inviting and generous, with wood for collecing and berries for picking. And peace and quiet for... hiding from the world, probably.

Soon she was so much at home in the woods, wandering deeper every day, that she almost didn't notice where she was. She was used to seeing rocks scattered around, after all...
...but as she came closer to the huge ring of stones, she couldn't help the feeling that there was something strange about the place. Mesmerised, she went forward, until she stood in the very centre.

And there, just a bit away from the centre, stood a stone visibly different from the others, slightly darker and with greenish veins running through it. The veins were what was the most curious about the stone and about the whole place. They seemed to move on their own before her eyes and Alysanne was drawn to come and examine them closer.

She wasn't sure herself how long she stood there, staring at the stone and trying to trace the patterns with her finger. She only knew that when she lifted her eyes from the lines that were starting to look like writing in an unknown language, like a message from a different world, it was dark and the starts were shining above her head.

Back in the Lorimer mansion the air was full of expectation.
The new lady had been lying in bed for the whole day, expecting the birth of her husband's new heir. Only when the moment truly came did she remember how much childbirth was said to hurt.
She got up from her bed, bending over in pain, and yelled for the waiting midwives to attend to her, suddenly terrified.
Liam probably could have tried to console her, but he just prayed to the Watcher to give him a son.

And then it was over, both the baby and mother were washed and the midwives could finally depart.
The baby was healthy and fine and Madeline beamed with pride as she presented it to her husband.

There was only one problem, but for Liam it was a crucial one. The newborn was a daughter instead of the heir he needed so badly.
He couldn't help but snap at the beaming Madeline, taking out the flustration that was simply too hard to bear. "Can a girl take my place as lord Lorimer? She willjust marry, taking a significant dowry. I need a son, you silly woman."
Madeline's smile froze on her face and she tried to mutter some confused apology, but by then Liam was already leaving. This was all a waste of time.