Zoe danced until the fire died down. At midnight, the boats took everyone home, Ravi and the rest. But Zoe, Stella and Tara stayed behind. They had sleeping bags. They filled their water bottles from Cwen’s spring, and pushed open the stone door of the cairn, and crawled down the entrance passage to the chamber. They slept there, the three of them, their heads towards the birthing passage, their feet high up in the womb, Cwen’s triplets.

They left the door open, so that the next morning, when the solstice sun rose over the islands, it would shine straight down the entrance tunnel, and into the chamber where they lay.

Cwen opens her eyes and shuts them again. Sun. She is here, at last. She is bathing Cwen’s eyelids, cleaning her forehead, touching her cheeks, dousing her throat, filling her stomach, aerating her heart, touching her here, there and everywhere, as she always does, at this time of year.

Now Cwen moves with Sun along the entrance passage. As Sun sweeps slowly over the three sleeping girls, Cwen lies down next to them. As Sun kisses their lips, caresses their necks, strokes their collarbones, warms their breasts, Cwen takes the hand of the seaweed-haired girl in her own.

Sun traverses their bodies, infusing them with her power.

By the time the seaweed girl opens her eyes, Sun has rebirthed her entirely.

Between the two of them, Cwen and Sun have made her ready.

A Minister may cause an inquiry to be held under this Act in relation to a case where it appears to him that –

a) particular events have caused, or are capable of causing, public concern, or
b) there is public concern that particular events may have occurred.

legislation.gov.uk, Inquiries Act, 2005

Three local women were disciplined, with one suspended from ‘sealing ordinance’, meaning she’s banned from taking sacraments. The ‘disciplinary action’ was believed to involve admonishing and rebuking the women at the Kirk session.

The inquiry was carried out by the all-male panel, comprising ministers and elders, following strict rules laid out in the Book of Church Order of the Free Church – dubbed the Blue Book.

‘Isle of Lewis church bosses apologise to widow of love-rat minister’, Scottish Sun, Glasgow, 2018

Judge: Concluding Statements

JUDGE: Thank you all for assembling here today, for the close of the public inquiry into Unfair Female Advantage in the Islands.

The judge did not say, Each time I utter the title of this inquiry, I tingle all over with excitement. She wouldn’t have been able to, naturally; but that is what every woman felt when the inquiry opened; and that is what she seemed to be saying, as she stood up that first day, some nine months after Eva’s disappearance.