![raghavendra-v-konkathi-dbxMbfTdv-o-unsplash.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/internutter/23viJhGHzPGQmEva6vT9o13L6jmxKtNJW2f2JJmGhLFbQC1atZgicSP7WFrrrt9FJakjn.jpg)

> The elderly grandmother asked for some of the very long locks from Wraithvine. There were many squares being added to the quilt. Long fur, hair from other elves not too proud to donate, plants turned into linen, silk squares from spider weavings, and from silkworms, etc. All of it blessed. Who was this blanket for? A set of quadruplets, two hellkin, one halloblood, one human, who were happily cuddled together in a large cradle, that their exhausted, smiling, mother lovingly rocked while the proud father bragged of his four beautiful children. -- Anon Guest

Elf hair grows very slowly. One inch every year. The length of it shows, traditionally, how long it's been since the Elf in question made an avoidable mistake. For one, it's merely a display of how long it's been since ze found a pair of shears for the purpose.

Wraithvine was washing and combing hir hair. The river flowed with hir long and glorious locks, for quite some distance. It was a good thing that ze had plenty of magic, or there would be no hope of combing it properly.

Ze was midway through the task when the old woman found hir. "Oh, it's all _your_ hair," she said. "My pardon's for the interruption, but my daughter just had four, and they need every protection I can get." She showed Wraithvine the blanket in progress, which had something from every plausible creature known to ward infants from harm... and a few who were not known to do so. She had already gone to great lengths to make it, including seams to separate the thing once the children grew enough to have beds of their own.

Wraithvine could easily guess why four newborns needed such protection, but still asked to bless the babies.

Four tiny bundles swung gently in their cradles. Their poor mother was just able to rock them all. Their father was preparing a meal, and both were looking wan and worn.

Four brand new people at once can do that to a couple. The network of good neighbours was helping wherever they could, but this hour was relatively bare of helpers.

The cradle was not _yet_ overfull. The four were born smaller than normal, and they were already working on growing. One bright red, one glowing softly, one a dark charcoal, and one the same pale brown hue of their parents.

Oh _that_ was why they needed so much protection. Two Hellkin, a Halloblood, and an otherwise ordinary Human. Who, given their siblings, might have some powerful magic lurking in their tiny bones.

Wraithvine cropped hir locks close to hir scalp, and bound them into skeins. "Embroider their clothes with my hair," ze said. "It will protect them from harm. And in the meantime..." ze drew a circle in the air around the cot, adding sigils in light and air that drifted gently down to the newborns, briefly coating them in spectral glitter that gradually faded from sight. "Fate will not touch them until they are prepared for it." And with that thought in mind, Wraithvine added wards to the house lintels and property markers to prevent the four of them becoming orphans too early.

A family like that? They were bound to be fate-touched.

Ze would stop by as often as ze could. Just to check on them.

[Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@rangokonk?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Raghavendra V. Konkathi</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/a-collection-of-wooden-combs-and-combs-on-a-white-surface-dbxMbfTdv-o?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a>]

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