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THREES ISTERSI SLAND

SEPTEMBER1702

H er heart was broken The jagged shards of it stabbed at her soul until each hour, each moment, of what her life had become was a misery Even her children - those she had carried in her body, those she carried for her lost sisters - were no coreat shame, any comfort to them

She had left them, even as their father had left them Her husband, her lover, her heart, had returned to the sea, and the parts of her that were hope and love and ic had died that day Even noould not reether, the joy of thehters, the life they&039;d made on the island Such was his nature Such was her fate

And her sisters&039;, she thought as she stood on the cliffs she loved, above a sea that boiled and bucked They, too, had been fated to love and to lose The one as Air had loved a handsouised a beast A beast who had shed her blood He had murdered her for what she was, and she had not used her power to stop hirieved and built her hatred stone by stone until it had become a wall that no one could breach She had used her power for vengeance, forsaken her Craft, and embraced the dark

Now the dark closed in, and she as Fire was alone with her pain She could fight it no longer, could find no purpose for her own life

The dark whispered to her in the night, its sly voice full of lies Even knowing them for what they were, she was tempted by them

Her circle was broken, and she could not, would not, withstand alone She felt it, creeping closer now, sliding along the ground in a filthy fog It hungered Her death would feed it, and still she could not face life

She lifted her arms so the flame of her hair snapped in the wind that she called up with a breath She had such powers left in her And the sea howled in response, the ground beneath her shuddered Air and Earth and Fire - and the Water that had given her great love, then had stolen it away again This last tiain

Her children would be safe, she had seen to that Their nurse would tend thehtness, would be passed down

The darkness licked along her skin Cold, cold kisses

She teetered on the edge, will straining against will as the stored

This island, that she and her sisters had conjured for safety froht, would be lost All would be lost

You are alone, the darkness murmured You are in pain End the loneliness End the pain And so she would, but she would not forsake her children, or the children who cath and wit to wield it

"A hundred years times three, this isle of the sisters is safe froht whipped, spun, a circle in a circle

"My children your hand cannot reach They will live and learn and teach And when my spell comes undone, three more will rise to form the one A circle of sisters joined in power to stand and face the darkest hour Courage and trust, justice with mercy, love without boundaries are the lessons three They must, by free will, join to face their destiny If this they fail, one, two, or three, this island will sink into the sea But if they turn back the dark, this place will never bear your mark This spell is the last cast by me As I will, so mote it be"

The darkness snatched at her as she leaped, but could not reach her As she plunged toward the sea, she hurled her power around the island, where her children slept, like a silver net