The section of the central table immediately around Jocelynn had gone very quiet as Rastlan began to describe the grim realities that faced women of the Southern Steppe, and both Mairwen and Sorcha gripped their wine goblets tightly as they imagined what it would have been like to face such a fate when they'd given birth to their own children.
Heila's reaction, however, was different from any of the mothers at the table.
"Your healers follow an Oracle's path," Heila said, speaking to Rastlan without so much as a glance in Jocelynn's direction. Her eyes went wide as she latched onto the problem itself rather than Jocelynn's hasty offer to solve it, and the pieces started falling into place for her rapidly as she considered how healers who weren't witches might approach the problem. "They can know if the birthing will go well or not before it even begins!"
