“Fifteen bronze pieces?”

“Two silvers then? This is fine cotton Madame Zara, imported from the,”

“I couldn’t care less about where it is imported from,” Zara snorted, but caressed the blanket against her cheek. It was perfect, but pricey. “It is wondrous to touch.”

“Two silvers then?”

“One silver, and five bronze pieces?”

The merchant Kuril rubbed his chin as if he wasn’t making way too much money for it already.

“That is agreeable.”

She paid the merchant and marched away from the market square, arms overflowing with all she acquired. Most were gifts for Uren’s pregnant woman, Ilene, who had grown on her admittedly, and grown herself. Ilene swelled beautifully, not just her belly, but her limbs as well. Doting on her daughter by law was something she never imagined she would enjoy, but she did, what a sweet fair-haired girl she was.

Zara waved and smiled at the few greeters as she rushed on the muddy cobblestone road towards her home. It was a lavish area of Linken, thanks to her work beyond its borders, and allowed for some privacy that was denied when she lived with little Uren in a cramped apartment in a destitute corner of town.

A gaudy carriage sat in wait a little way down from the gated entrance to her home. Apparently, royalty was visiting someone in the street. She clicked open the iron gate and jumped when a tender voice called out from the carriage.

“Mother!”

Zara almost dropped everything, then she spun around to see Ilene poking her plump face through the carriage’s curtain, beaming.

“Mother Zara, over here!”

“What’s this child?” Zara smirked at her.

“Uren’s surprise, hurry and pack, he says time is against us.”

Now what else has this boy spent my money on? She smiled and nodded before hurrying in.

She rushed past the lush garden and stepped on every stone path leading to the still open front doors. Zara entered to a strange sight in the living room. Chests littered the vast space, some shut and locked, others open and waiting to be filled. There were a pair of gruff voices she didn’t recognise, and a third ordering them around which she did.

Zara dumped all the bought gifts and frowned at the mess. A pair of burly but well-dressed men entered the vast lounge with a chest each, adding to the four already waiting.

“Hello,” she greeted sheepishly.

“Madam,” the handsome one with greying stubble nodded at her while the other almost dropped his chest while bowing.

“Really there was no need for this help, I could have done this all by…” Uren followed them soon after, then his eyes widened at the sight of her.

He placed down the thick blanket in his arms and took a moment to compose himself. She didn’t like that, her stomach twisted.

“Gentlemen, would you please give us a moment, you can take the closed chests so long,” Uren smiled and kept the smile until the doors were shut behind them.

“Are we going somewhere?”

“We are,” his reply struck her like ice.

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Uren’s jaw tightened as he turned away. He scratched the dark, organised stubble atop his head and ruffled through the gifts she bought as if they were soiled rags snatched from a beggar.

“Perhaps you can wait a little longer for me to,”

“Without you!”

A hammer blow to her heart, but it was his disgust that drove the knife deep. His eyes glistened and her throat tightened. There was only one reason for him to behave like this, but she couldn’t stop herself from panicking.

“Uren wait, please let me,”

“No!” He hissed. Uren spun around and his shoulders dropped for a moment, before he faced her again, rage burning from his eyes.

“I should have known; I should have been smarter. The seemingly endless influx of wealth, your eagerness to throw coin without complaint, this damn home!”

“Uren,”

“Stay back!” He might as well have slapped her. “You will never be allowed near any of us again. Who knows what devilry you had planned for my child.”

“That’s not what,”

“No more from you, I have had enough of your manipulations!”

“Uren, what is this? Will you not allow me to speak?”

“What spells will you cast on me?”

“That’s what you believe? Who has tricked you to believe such slanders?”

Uren dug into his coat pocket and tossed a notebook at her feet, a familiar notebook.

“Tell me, how were you going to lie out of this?”

“Ingredients, alchemy, that is witchcraft to you?”

“The fact that you had to do this in secret damns you enough!”

“Uren, I didn’t raise you in ignorance, please do not fall for the foolishness of these people.”

“Ilene is one of these people!” Uren almost roared, it was the loudest hiss she had heard. “You’ve never liked her, never respected her, don’t speak to me about ignorance.”

A mention of Ilene was no coincidence, it almost lifted her. He didn’t find her alchemy damning alone. Perhaps there was a path to salvage this, though hope seemed a dangerous thing to cling to the longer she faced Uren’s pain.

“Uren, you do not need to leave like this. Move out, find a home for your family, I will help,” she grimaced when his face twitched and stilled her tongue.

“In the name of what I believed to be your love, as your blood, I will not expose you, if you stay away. You will not send us all to the pyre with you.”

She watched Uren lift a chest after sniffing. He wiped his cheek with a sleeve and made the first steps towards the entrance.

“My boy, please,” her own tears warmed her cheeks now. “We can… there is still time to sort this out, we… please don’t do this.”

He ignored her, but he was slow, almost reluctant to leave. Every step he took thudded loudly on the varnished wood floor. It hurt, a pain she never thought she would feel again. There was a phantom stink, a rotting corpse almost, filling her nose as she watched Uren with weeping eyes.

“Did you follow me?” She asked and Uren paused.

“Lisbet’s little one, the story spread from there.”

“You’ve seen the good I can do with my knowledge, it’s not witchcraft, only ignorance motivates your fears now. My mistake, I can teach you now, and you might protect your own family.”

Uren didn’t turn to face her, but he lingered before the door for an eternity, clutching the chest with his shoulders low. He was hunched, almost torn, or so she hoped.

“Stay away.”

Uren kicked the door and he was gone. Gone forever, leaving her behind in only gloom and misery. Her house faded with him, the cleanliness failed, and dust coated every space she didn’t brood in. There was only darkness now, tears and grief.

Zara woke up and found the cottage to be very much the same.