Winter Solstice—the day where the day is the shortest and the night the longest. It was the official start of winter and also the day the Altaians celebrated the rebirth of the sun as the longer days return.
Since it was a day of celebration for the people of Altania, their enemies, Winter Solstice was considered an inauspicious day in Ayberia.
And another thing.
Jessamyn was born in the middle of the longest night of the year—on the night of Winter Solstice.
Even her birth was inauspicious.
When she was young, the maids in the house told her that she had arrived unexpectedly with a month, still left to the due date. She hurried to come to the world on the most ill-omened day.
Looking at the baby's raven-black hair and aberrant blue eyes, even the midwife who helped her mother asked her mother to kill the baby so that the baby's misfortune wouldn't affect the family.
