‘It’s odd, but that would have been less problematic than it is now. It’s a modern reaction, stigmatizing people who don’t fit the general idea of what we should all look like. There’s evidence that through the ages people who stood out were often thought of as being of special importance. Something more rather than something less.’ She pauses to consider this for a moment and then goes on. ‘If Seren Arianaidd was like me, and if your uncle’s right and she was the local shaman, she would have been revered and respected. No, for her the hardest part of having this condition would have been protecting herself from the sun. She may have had problems with her eyesight too, but not all of us do.’

‘You don’t need your lenses anymore. Your eyes have got better, since you moved here.’

‘Yes. They have.’ She snuggles closer to him. ‘You have no idea how wonderful it feels not to be hiding behind them anymore.’

A thought occurs to Dylan. ‘Uncle Illtyd says the torc was made for a child. If it has all those witchy symbols on it, and it has such an amazing effect on you when you wear it, it makes sense to think it belonged to the woman you saw, if she was a shaman and possibly a witch. So…’

‘So she must have had a child. So, did either of them survive the attack on the crannog?’

He kisses Tilda’s brow, her face, her throat. ‘Because if they did,’ he whispers, ‘then maybe, just maybe, Seren also had grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.’ He kisses her collarbone, slipping off her shoulder straps, moving lower, ‘and so on, down, down, down through the ages, generation after generation, until we get to…’ He looks up at her, smiling.

Tilda smiles back. ‘Me. Until we get to me.’

SEREN

Tanwen plays happily with the flowers outside our little home. There is such joy to be found in watching an inquisitive young mind snatching at everything life offers. Her fascination with the petals of a buttercup, her wonder at the wings of a butterfly, her fury at the sting of a nettle—with each new experience she grows. Already I can see the light of magic in her eyes. She was blessed by the Afanc and she is my daughter, but more than this, she has the gift in her own soul. I will nurture it as I cherish her, and one day she will be my worthy successor.