In the dim light, the midwife paused to wipe her brow. She hadn't any idea why she agreed to help this woman with her child on the night of a blood moon. Under her soothing hand, a woman panted and gasped, muscles straining to expel her new child. The midwife carefully coached her, and reached to grab a blanket. Her hand flew to her mouth when she saw the two comets outside the window. She shook her head, and grabbed the blanket, guiding the child out of it's- her- mother. The child took a deep, shuddering breath, and lay quietly. The midwife expertly swaddled the child, before realizing a second was coming. The woman guided the second child out, another girl, who also took a deep breath, before quietly allowing the midwife to wrap her. She put the children next to the mother, and took the couple coppers that were her payment. She walked out the door, wanting nothing to do with these cursed children.

Lydaine Night woke up to sunlight streaming through her window, and she looked at her two girls on the floor. Kaegan was curled up next to her sister, hands covering her ears. Kaelin, had her arms wrapped around her sister, both sleeping soundly. She didn't know why these two acted the way they did, in this peculiar fashion of theirs. Getting up, she walked to the cupboard where she kept her coppers, and left for food. Everyone knew these children of hers were cursed, even as much as she did. Walking on the street here, she saw the muck, and felt it gathering around her feet. Stopping at Mistress Salmon's stall, she got a loaf of cornbread, two meat patties, and a couple pasties. She stopped at Mistress Clove's on her way back, where she got two books, a slate, and a quill and inkwell set for each. Cursed or not, they were her children, and she'd sworn to the Goddess to keep any children she was blessed with alive, and to do well by them. They needed to learn to read, and she would have to teach them.