Ely, Lady Eleny of Castle Elune

They came to stand before an oak dressing table. Ely picked up a small wooden box and held it between her hands. Issa felt subtle energy, like the warm glow of an oil lamp, emanating from it and wondered what was inside.

‘This was my mother’s. She, like me, was a Priestess but unlike me she had a gift just like yours, she was a Healer. I was to follow in her footsteps but I did not have the gift, it must have missed me somehow,’ Ely smiled wryly.

‘Nevertheless she gave it to me and not another with the gift. She said something like, “Though my beloved daughter does not have the Healer’s gift, there are many other things she has been gifted with, and she will pass this on to the one who needs it… you shall know this person when you see them.”’

Issa watched entranced as Ely opened the box. Inside was a beautiful silver band exquisitely made out of the leaves of many different trees. She instantly recognised oak and willow but could not quite see the others.

‘I know little of its power and less of its meaning, for that is what the true wearer will know,’ Ely explained, ‘but it symbolises the tree of life, the tree of healing.’

~ Ely, Dark Moon Rising