spell & location: bestberry

bestberryOn her wedding day, the nyad gave her mortal lover a secret name. Whisper it over any bramble stem to reveal her hidden favour: A round and generous blackberry, with enough juice to slake a day of thirst, enough pulp to fill a grown man's belly, and enough sweetness as to ward away evil1. Bestberries grow in every season, unperishing to rot, pest, or frost. If you take the last bestberry in a patch, the nyad's favour is closed to you for a year and a day. The lover's name bids stems to wilt and fruit to rot. bramblehengeA ring of stones so entirely obscured by brambles that locals know it only as a massive and heinously prickly bramble patch. It is forbidden for a child to pick from it. Last year a man named Jude walked into it. Tattered, dry strips of his skin still dangle from the higher stems. The brambles form a ring three metres thick and two metres high. Inside, up to 300 hungry pigeons, sparrows, and crows carpet the ground. When disturbed they thunder into the sky,…