Katherine swam to the surface of consciousness, called by the gentle insistence of her name repeated over and over. She felt refreshed and invigorated and rested. She did not realise until that moment that her body was weary before. Then she recognised her mother’s voice. She wondered if she had been dreaming.
“Katherine wake up now my darling. Your time is here, yet it is not. You have work to do before you may travel with me. Waken, Katherine!” Morgana stood over her, shadows playing around her features.
Katherine woke fully. She was dressed yet did not feel the clothing. She knew something was missing and realised the constant pain she had lived with for six years was gone, as well as the bone-deep tiredness that she had lived with for longer even than that. She looked at her hand, expecting it to be whole and perfect but it was absent. She held the stump of her arm out towards Morgana as a child would, expecting her mother to make everything right again. Morgana shook her head in dismay; tears sprang to her eyes as she did so.
“I cannot make you whole. You have to do that.” Morgana said.
“Morgana what has happened to me?” Katherine asked.
“Your treacherous husband planned this. He knew of your visions and bribed your father to send you away. He knows the mystical value of a Witch’s burned right hand. But when you went from your father you were not yet a Witch, nor were you likely to be, a mentor had not sought you, nor had you hunted one for yourself. Your destiny was likely to be a woman who had visions and nothing more than that. The accident that burned your hand was a mere coincidence but believe me, he would have burned your hand at some point during your apprenticeship if you had not already done so before you met him.”
“Why didn’t Dominic seek me out to mentor me before I went into service? I am sure my father would have allowed that.”
“That man was not your father, but he owed me a debt and promised to take care of you when I died,” Morgana said and Katherine could tell by her tone that she regretted the favour. “A female cannot be apprenticed to a Warlock and a Witch cannot mentor a male. You were taught the ways of his craft, not ours. His error and his treachery enabled the veil to be breached, which is why you saw me in my three parts. You saw me washing in the stream. That is a portent of death – your own. You saw the cow and the raven during and after your marriage ceremony. These animals portray the Hag - who conducted the ceremony. You saw yourself on the ground as your body died. The Hag, the Mother and the Maiden are me in my different facets.”
“Have you come to me as my Mother’s spirit or as the Goddess I worshipped as my religion?”
“That is an excellent question, daughter. I am here as three entities. I am here as your mother and as the Goddess and I also represent the vengeful protector of womankind. It is because of your husband’s errors that I am allowed to intervene. His errors are magnified in his omissions. He should have deflowered you before he beheaded you and stole your hand. You died as a virgin and therefore you come under my protection entirely, more than ever I could have given just as your mother. He has not buried your body in consecrated ground as he could have done according to his religion. He has been deceitful under my religion, which he purported to follow, and because of this, he breaks laws that he knows nothing of. Laws that are buried deep in legend and times gone from human memory, laws which nonetheless cry for justice and vengeance!”
“What must I do Mother? How can I leave this place? How can I restore my body?”
“All three questions are one and the same. You must find your dismembered hand. To do that, you may ask assistance from all of womankind. You must defeat him in Hag, Mother and Maiden form and restore your hand to the place where he has buried you. I will escort you when I can, but just because you do not see me, does not mean I am not there. I cannot, however, intervene, I cannot help you when you make mistakes and he defeats you. For you will make mistakes and he will defeat you.”
“Above all, I am Goddess of Death, of War and of Passionate Love. Defeat him with these, my powers and your rest will be eternal and peaceful.”
“But, Morgana – Mother, can I not stay here with you? It is peaceful here, I am dead to the world of man, I have no more pain, and I can rest easy.”
“You do not understand.” Morgana looked saddened. “Mystic laws bind me. I am allowed to venture into this realm only for a short time - you are trapped here. You have leave to venture to the world of man or here only. You are never allowed to my realm and that is what I want you to fight for. Your peace for all eternity relies upon your entry into my realm. I am not only your mother, I am your Goddess, but I am the Goddess of countless other women too. I cannot concentrate on you alone; it is selfish of you to ask that of me. I must protect all generations of women, the Hags, the Mothers, the Maidens and those who have yet to become. Strive to be with me, my daughter. I miss you.”
“Help me.”
“I will, but you cannot ask me to do this for you, for I cannot. I cannot venture into the world of man except under special circumstances where you ask for me, or desperately need me, but even then, those times are limited and therefore precious. I do not know what limits are set and so I have no advice on how often you may call upon me. I only know that you must be in dire need of my aid, for if you can solve the dilemma yourself and you ask for me to assist, that is a chance wasted. I also know that your husband made you dependant upon his guidance and so you are under the impression that you have little or no worth and you are powerless. You are none of those. You have great power but you must discover it and increase it for yourself. You have great worth and again, that is something that you must realise for yourself and you are also brave beyond measure, though you may feel cowardly, you are not. You have allowed Dominic to trick you into believing that you cannot exist without him – you can and you must and above all else, you must know this before you can defeat him. You have a great many lessons to learn but you are not completely alone. He has also done you a service which he did not realise. He taught you my craft and you can use that and progress – you are on the cusp of becoming a most powerful witch. He taught you all he knew about my craft, but he did not teach you all there is to know. Discover how to harness the power of Mother Earth and you shall find that defeating him is so much easier. Discover the satisfaction in victory and you will want to defeat him again and again. Yes, there will be sorrow and agony and defeat, for you will receive more pain than he does at first, but his third defeat will give the greatest satisfaction. You can do this, daughter. You have the strength and I believe in you.”
Katherine was silent for a few moments, thinking all of what her mother had told her and then another problem came to her mind. “I do not know how to travel between these two worlds, how will I learn?”
“Together then.” Morgana held out her hand and took Katherine’s ethereal right hand – a ghostly part of a ghost, but Katherine felt her mother’s touch and the pull as she left the halfway world of emptiness and nothingness.
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