Enid kneeled, scooping some of the damp earth up in her hand and looking at it. The sky was a gray shroud. And she could hear waves in the distance. She looked at the uneven rocks in the horizon. Flashes of pain long forgotten flitted through her clouded mind. Her fist clinched involuntarily, crushing the dirt that remained. The pebbles that had come up with it dug into the flesh of her palm.

She closed her eyes and focused on the comforting songs her mother had sung to her. She opened her eyes and stood. Her trench coat whipped around her, she looked at the massive stone walls behind her. The ruins hadn’t been here when she had lived here as a child. The castle was new, or new to her. She walked closer to the edge of the cliff a rock jutted out of the green carpet of moss and grass she kneeled again tracing the lines on it, the runes were worn, but still visible. They said that mother and daughter would forever be bound by love. She pushed tears out of her eyes. To think, it had been Lilith who had made these marks with her. She had spent so many centuries hating her for taking her adoptive mother too soon, when Lilith had been her first mother.

She moved to the edge of the cliff her boots kicking pebbles over the edge. The Atlantic stretched out into the gray horizon. It wasn’t blue today, it was a dull shade of grey and suited her mood. She closed her eyes and let the ocean wind blow against her face, throwing her brunette hair behind her head, it whipped and twirled. She remembered how this felt when she was a child, though it had been red locks then. She heard a woman calling out behind her.

Enid spun around, fists clenched, she breathed out, and relaxed her fingers when she spotted a young girl, nine or ten poking at the runes on the rock. Her mother, whose face was a bright shade of crimson was panting and waddling to keep up.

“Gloria, I told you not to come out here, it’s too dangerous.”

“I told you something was on the rock! Look here, there are symbols!”

The girl traced the lines as Enid had done a few minutes before. The mother finally caught up and started to catch her breath.

“Gloria, I don’t care if the Queen was standing on that rock, I told you not to get any closer to the cliff!”

Enid smiled and shook her head. She walked back towards the castle ruins.

“What do you think it means mom?”

“I don’t know, does it matter it’s probably just graffiti.”

Enid stopped as she reached the rock and kneeled down after glancing up at the mother. She spoke in an ancient language, then Scottish Gaelic, then English. When she received a clueless look for the pair.

“The runes were written by a mother and daughter, declaring they would love and protect each other for all time, this is the daughters mark, and that is the mothers mark, intertwined. It’s a runic language.”

The girl looked up at her wide eyed, her red air flipping around in the wind. Enid smiled at her, seeing her childhood reflected in those eyes.

“Tell me more!”

Enid laughed and glanced up at the mother who gave her a nod, and Enid pulled herself down and sat on her heels.

“The little girl was your age, with flowing red hair. She was the chieftain’s daughter, and her mother loved her very much. She moved sun and moon to keep her safe. They were whom the Romans would call picts, but they had a different name for themselves. This was carved a few years before Caesar would take up the mantle of emperor. They would paint themselves with woad in intricate patterns and those pictures are what the Romans named them after.”

The little girl watched her enraptured, the mother for her part also leaned in to hear better.

“Did she grow up to be a warrior woman? Like Boudica?”

“She did indeed. A swordswoman like no other, undefeated, well so far.”

Enid winked. The girl giggled.

“She was the tribal chief’s daughter. Her real mother died in childbirth. Her father was an evil man. The girl was an oracle. She could see glimpses of the future and he used her to get more power. He also hurt her when she wouldn’t use her gift for him. Her nurse maid, the one who fed her when she was a baby took the girl in as her own. She is the one who made this mark with the girl. Her father was so evil that an angel cursed him, and legend says he still floats at the sea bottom with unbreakable chains suffering for his crimes.”

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The girl gasped.

“The angel rescued the girl. Her father in a fit of rage had stabbed her. She was taken to Rome and grew up there. Her adoptive father was named Sextus, and her sister was named Mariana. They were trained by a Greek warrior woman to fight with blade and staff. She grew up strong and wise. She married Lucius and she had children. She should have lived happily ever after, but she wasn’t one to sit by while others were endangered. So, when Rome was threatened, her husband, her sister and herself faced that danger with no fear in their hearts. The little red-haired girl survived, but alas her husband and sister did not. She was very sad for a long time. Her name was Enid.”

The girl frowned.

“But that’s not where this story ends dear child. She was the ancestor of Saint Sarah of Narford. Do you know who Saint Sarah is?”

“No, tell me! Please please!”

Enid laughed.

“She was another warrior woman. She slew a demon in Narford, well it was Narfordshire at the time. She also built a cathedral that still stands today, there’s a statue of her out front of it. She also fought off a rebellion. She also won her husband in a sword duel. He mistook her for a stable boy and she thought he needed to learn some manners so she had a duel of blades with him. He was a knight and the best swordsman in England. His problem was that she was from Scotland. And everyone knows a Scottish woman is more than match for an Englishman.”

Enid winked again and the girl giggled, and the mother laughed.

“They were married in the cathedral she built. And they had twins, a boy and a girl. The girls name was Eyre. Then assassins snuck into her keep and killed her, but she managed to protect her children from them and before she breathed her last breath, she killed the assassins one and all, six arrows sticking out of her.”

The girl gasped.

“But the story is not over. For ten years she lay in her crypt below the cathedral. But time would not touch her, God protected her, and she was moved into the Cathedral, and was put in a crystal tomb. And when the plague came, she vanished, leaving only her burial shroud and a bit of blood and a magic healing spring behind, it is said that it can cure any illness. And that is how she became Saint Sarah. You can still see it today.”

“How do you know so much?”

“Because the girl who made these marks, and Saint Sarah are my ancestors. I even have their sword still.”

“Can I see it?”

“I wish I could show it to you, but you can’t just carry swords around these days. But its name is Bloodseeker, its made of silver. Its edges are still sharp to this day.”

The girl’s eyes were wide.

“This wind is cold. You should help your mother get back to the ruins she looks positively frozen.”

Enid stood up dusting off her jeans. Glancing at the girls mother who looked like she was about to start losing fingers. She nodded to the mother, who smiled at her despite the cold.

“Thank you for the story. What’s your name?”

Enid looked down at her and smiled.

“You may call me Enid.”

She winked and gave a small wave and walked towards the edge of the cliff again. It seemed appropriate to Enid that she shed her latest persona here in this place. For the first time in a long time, she would be Enid again she looked out, across the ocean to the horizon.

I am coming for you sister. We will be reunited and then no one will be able to stop us.

Enid put her hands in the pockets of her trench coat and started walking towards the ruins, she passed through the doorway and felt a gentle tap on her arm, she looked over and saw the girl’s mother.

“I just wanted to thank you for the story, my daughter, I haven’t seen her smile in a long time. Her father died during the pandemic, and she hasn’t been the same, we used to come out here as a family. I was…”

“It was no trouble, she’s a nice kid, reminds me of me when I was young.”

“I was so scared when I saw her running out there, her father used to take her to the cliff edge, I’m no good with heights. We’ve been passed that stone so many times and we never saw those runes. Was any of that true?”

“All of it was true, I don’t mean to pry but the breathing, is that from the virus?”

The woman nodded. Her eyes growing moist.

“I just can’t keep up with her anymore. And I can’t take her to the cliff edge.”

Enid wrapped her arms around the woman patting her on the back willing her wounds to herself she felt her lungs start to burn but then she pushed her body to heal the damage. She released the woman.

“Would you like me to take her out to the cliff? I used to love standing at the edge when I was her age, feeling the wind in my hair.”

“Would you? I don’t want to impose.”

“I feel like I’m imposing, monopolizing your daughter’s time with tales of warrior women.”

“Oh no, you aren’t, Enid, I’m so happy to see her smiling and interested in anything.”

“I’ll take her out, I can’t promise when she gets back, she won’t want to go to Narford.”

The mother laughed then breathed in and then held her chest, looking at Enid who was already walking towards the daughter.

“Hey, your mother asked me to take you out to the cliff, she said you used go there with your dad, would you like to go?”

“Really?”

She looked to her mother who nodded and motioned towards the cliff absently still holding her chest and breathing in and out. The girl took Enid’s offered hand the pair walked to the cliff.

“I used to go look over it when I was your age.”

“You did? It’s scary but so exciting. My dad used to say that is what it feels like to be alive.”

She looked down at the moss and grass as they walked.

“He was a very wise man, and he was right, that is what it feels like to be alive. You’re lucky you had a father like that.”

Enid walked beside her and stood there at the cliff edge for what seemed like forever and the girl tugged her hand back towards the ruins. When they were back in the safety of the ruined walls Gloria looked up at Enid.

“Thank you.”

Enid kneeled down again and reached into her bag.

“I only have two of these so you need to take care of this, but if you go to Narford Cathedral this will let you into the crypts. And if you pull the sword on the third statue from the left in the crypt it will open a secret passage. It’s scary, so if you want to go you need to be very brave.”

Enid offered an old iron key.

“Oh, I can’t take this, there is no way mom can make the trip, she has trouble with her breath you see.”

“I think she’s going to feel better, and there is that healing spring she can drink from there.”

“Will it work?”

“Of course, it will, it’s a miracle.”

“And here, take this, it was Enid’s too.”

Enid placed a golden roman coin in Gloria’s palm.

The girl’s eyes widened.

“For real? Like for really real?”

“Yes, you didn’t think I made all of that up, did you?”

Enid smiled and stood up, she ruffled Gloria’s hair.

“All I ask is that if you grow up to be a warrior woman make sure you protect the innocent. Like Enid, and Saint Sarah.”

The girl’s mother approached, and she looked at Enid. Her hands were shaking.

“How did you do it?”

Enid met her gaze and her lips curled into a half smile.

“How did I what?”

“I can breathe again.”

“I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

Enid smiled and was about to say more when she felt her pocket vibrating. She waved to the pair and picked up the phone.

“Hi, Eyre, I’m on my way, I’m just waiting for the jet to get fixed, engine trouble.”

She walked off leaving Gloria and her mother to look at each other when she said the name Eyre.