Chapter 147 - The Witches' Rise: The Cleansing Part 1

The night that Gerald returned to Portal, all was quiet, and all was still.  The morning after the King and Queen had returned, however, was very boisterous and busy.  The inn was full of people questioning and talking, some gossiping by the wells and washing their clothes while discussing the new queen.  Indeed, they would talk for a while, but Gerald and his new queen were a little too busy to focus on it for now.  Gerald was busy with the preparations for cleansing the witches' cauldron and Rebecca was busy with learning from Hermina and Fennel about a variety of topics, including her writing.  Already she was writing longer sentences and (despite her poor spelling) was working on writing what she was looking for in a second wife for her husband.  (Not that she felt any rush for that, but she knew that it would happen eventually.)  It hurt her to think of him with someone else, but she understood the necessity.