The Alewife

The Alewife brews libations for men,
Fate cometh soon, though know she not when,
Guide, foe, and friend, though know she not who,
All from the depths of her bubbling brew.

She would soon be dead.

Kellett knows this with the certainty of a woman trapped. As the village alewife, she spends her days brewing golden comfort for the men of the village, and her nights surviving the cruelty of one: her husband. Her only solace is the hearth fire and the watchful green eyes of Dagda, the black cat who never leaves her side.

But the night her husband's cruelty turns to violence, Kellett makes a choice. She doesn't run to the neighbors who turn a blind eye. She runs to the forbidden dark of the forest.

The villagers say the woods are haunted. They are right.

Deep beneath the ancient canopy, Kellett is found not by wolves, but by a woman who remembers the world before the church bells rang. Under her tutelage, Kellett learns that the forest is not a place of death, but of power. She learns that there is a thin veil between the world of men and the world of magic-and she has the power to tear it down.

She fled the village a victim. She will return a force of nature.

They called her a witch. She proved them right.