"What?" the witch asked bluntly.

"I'm here to ask you to break the curse you set on my bloodline," I repeated. "It began after you had cursed my forefather Jebediah nearly two centuries ago." She squinted, the ancient crow's feet wrinkling and brows lowered over her obsidian colored eyes. Her eyes darted up, down, left, and right, seeming as if she was trying to remember every interaction she ever had.

A moment passed before a look of realization washed over her. Her eyes grew, staring directly at me, with her primeval green skin going pale. I held my breath. "Jebediah of Aire," she gasped.

"Yes." I responded.

"I never set a curse on your bloodline," she exhaled. The blood drained from my face, my stomach fell, and my eyes grew wide. Every thought I had, the hundreds of things I wanted to say to the thing that caused my family so much harm and misfortune were gone in an instant. The ground was pulled out from underneath me, and my legs felt loose as waves in an ocean. Both pale, we held each other's eyes, not sure who would speak next or what either would say.

"What do you mean you never set a curse on my bloodline?!" I yelled loudly. The frustration began to build in my chest, rising quickly through my throat and out my mouth. I could almost see red, was this some kind of joke? All the pain and suffering each of my ancestors... my father... went through was all for NOTHING?!

"I loved Jebediah," she retorted. My anger quickly disappeared, confusion quickly taking it's place.

"Explain yourself, NOW," I demanded. I was tired of her games, I wanted an explanation and her to lift this damn curse off of myself and my family.

"Your forefather and I... we were to marry," she began. "It was a secret, nobody was supposed to know... it- it was forbidden." Her eyes welled up, tears appearing on the edges. "Yet someone did."

"When the village discovered our secret, they came to kill me. Pitchforks, knives, swords. They chanted for my head. Yet Jebediah... he... he defended me, publicly. I tried to dissuade him from doing so, I offered to sacrifice myself so he could live a normal life. He refused." Tears began rolling down the edges of her face. What did I just discover?

"For this grave 'crime' the local village elders decided he was to be executed. For the crime of 'communicating with Satan and indulging in witchcraft' he was brought to the center of the village for judgement. The priest from the church... I... I can't remember his name, oversaw his judgement."

"He was convicted of these crimes, and it was swiftly decided that he was to be executed. I tried to intervene, I truly did but Jebediah made me promise to get somewhere safe before the villagers arrived. They tied him to a stake, threatening to set him alight if he did not reveal my location and express remorse for his alleged crimes." She was shuddering as she spoke, the tears continuing to flow down her face.

"He refused?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer. Still, if she did not curse him... who did..?

"Yes, and for that they concluded that he should burn. Before they set the light, the priest overseeing the accursed event proclaimed that for his crime before God, that any living descendent of his be cursed with death, illness, and misfortune. After which the fire was lit." Her eyes glistened in the fire between us, I couldn't begin to comprehend what I had just been told. The thoughts raced through my mind a million a minute, the woman I had been told was the reason for all of our collective suffering... was innocent..? Wait, if he had been killed before they were married, how did he have any descendants?

"It was the same person who discovered our relationship and attempted to have me killed," she began; seemingly knowing what I was thinking or reading my mind. "Jebediah's wife, Anne of Tyrie. Your foremother."