The sun had made the majority of its way across the sky and Carsten was busy working on the back wall of what would hopefully become a cabinet soon. His wife Fiona was inside making clothes for the child. Their small, new house was right next to that of Carsten's parents, next to the road leading straight through Heimeden, and down this road he saw a figure coming towards him. Feminine, tall, slender, determined. Was she coming to them? It seemed so. As the figure came closer, he saw that the figure was crolachan. Carsten knew a crolachan girl, but she disappeared at the beginning of last summer and he hadn’t been able to glean any information about her. Could it be her?
She came into sight and her face seemed familiar, but unfamiliar. She looked like Nannade, but different, more than just matured. Her hair was much longer than before, she always said she was forbidden from letting it grow long, but the hair of this figure reached all the way to her shoulders. The face looked different too, harder and stronger. The figure approaching him was taller than Nannade, and something in the way she walked was different, too. Then the figure raised a hand to wave at him. It had to be her. Full of joy, he waved back.
She arrived by him with a guilty smile on her face. “I’m sorry I disappeared so suddenly, Carsten.” Was the first thing she said.
He had to blink twice, thrice, to make sure he was seeing right. “Nannade? We already thought we’d never see you again.”
“That could have well have happened. But I'm back. For now.”
Carsten put down his tools. “Please, come inside, Fiona is with the babe.”
Her smile took on something genuine. “I’d like to see them, yes.”
When Fiona saw the guest, she too had to blink twice, thrice. “Nannade? You’ve grown. And... Changed?” She stood up to hug her. “Where have you been? Sit down! Can we bring you anything? We have some hard sausage and wine left in the pantry.”
“No, nothing like that.” Nannade sat down and looked around the room. “So, your own house? How lovely!”
“Yes. We were building for quite a while. We didn’t make it before the child’s birth.”
Nannade had already spotted the crib. “May I see him? Her?”
“Yes of course!” Fiona sounded almost surprised she would ask something so self-apparent. She got up and took the child out of her crib and turned to Nannade.
“Her name is Nadine. We wanted to call her Nannade, but you weren’t there to give your blessings and... There’s always only been one Nannade.”
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Nannade smiled softly as she saw the babe. “That’s alright. Nadine is a beautiful name and I'm touched you wanted to honour me like that.”
Carsten was slowly grasping the fact of her return. “So, now that you’re back, will you do the festivities for summer solstice?”
She shook her head with a sombre smile. “I’ll be gone soon, for good. Maybe one or two visits back here in the future, but I'm moving on.”
“To where? Why do you have to go?” Fiona asked, holding the Nadine while Nannade stroked her rosy head. “What have you been doing, why were you gone? Everyone refused to give us or anyone else answers!”
“I’m sorry. I can’t tell you. I wish I could. But this was sort of always the plan, you know. One day, I would have disappeared, maybe without notice.”
“You’ve always been the secretive kind, haven’t you?” Carsten accepted it more and more.
“I knew this day would come, so I tried to have the most fun I could and without you that wouldn’t have been possible. But I have new responsibilities, that are not to be taken lightly.”
It was now that Carsten noticed another change about her. The eyes. Her eyes had a different colour. That can’t be! Nannade had always had golden eyes, not such a caustic green. Maybe it wasn’t Nannade. Maybe this was an impostor, send to distract from the fact Nannade had been killed in some sort of ritual.
He shouldn’t have these childish kinds of thoughts. The Lodge was good. They protected the land, made the crops grow, dispensed justice, kept the people at peace. He decided to not mention it. But as he saw her lean down to Nadine and give her a kiss on the forehead, fear rose up within him. He had let her into his house. Who was she, if not Nannade?
“I want to do the two of you a last favour.” She asked them. “Will you allow me to make a charm for the child? I would have made one before it arrived, but I wasn’t here then.”
Fiona overflowed with joy. “Oh yes of course! We would be honoured to have you to ask the spirits directly for help for us!”
Carsten had his reservations about it. Was she the real Nannade? He held back and decided to put on a friendly smile and observe her.
Nannade, if it was her, sat together with them and talked about old times and what had happened in the village during her absence. She refused to indulge much of her travel, only that it was around the world, as far as Botrelandt. All while braiding the straw from last year’s harvest into a ring that fit around the child’s wrist, and with her own hair she stitched very fine runes on the ring, humming and singing all the way.
When she was finally done, she put the ring on Nadine’s wrist. “Until the fall equinox, the spirits will make sure no ill will come over her. Ask Elissa at the harvest festival and I am sure she'll make another one for her.”
She got up to leave, but Fiona interrupted her. “Please, Nannade, stay a little while longer.”
“I’d love to. But there is business to take care of. Letters to read and answer, luggage to pack, futures to plan. I was away for long and my life is not getting any less busy.”
The crolachan left after a heartfelt goodbye and they were both sad to see her go, but Carsten also felt at ease, now that she had gone. Looking at the braid, doubts bubbled up in his mind. Fiona had noticed nothing in particular about her, but Carsten wanted to throw that cursed thing into the fire as soon as possible. Fiona would never allow that. He’d have to do it tonight, after she had fallen asleep.
Tranquillity had returned, but doubt and fear remained.