A/N: Crone is a traditional term and is no way intended as an insult. Please don't email me yelling that Shmi isn't a crone and how dare I insult her. It's part of the traditional circle of life and not my term. Furthermore becoming such is to be desired and not scorned in any way.

http: // en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Triple_Goddess_ %28Neopaganism %29

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The Crone: wisdom, repose, death, and ending.

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Shmi stopped being a child when she was twelve and the slavers captured her and killed the rest of her family in font of her. She survived and was treated well for she was gentle, hardworking, and humble. She did not dream of ambitious things, at fifteen she was already too old and wise for that. Her tranquility and acceptance of the way the universe did not mean she didn't know how it should be. But she had learned to treat the risings of the suns the same way she treated the settings.

When she had a son, her precious Ani, she tried to teach him but he was very different than her and she decided it was all right for him to dream of a different future, one away from the sand. When he was taken away from slavery to see the stars she wanted to cry for the first time in many years. But she did not because that would make it harder on him. So she accepted his departure from her life the same way she accepted his entrance.

She moved to live with the Lars and became part of their family. She was called, over her life, wise by those who knew her. But she never thought so. She had only the wisdom of the sands, the knowledge of time. She understood life and death, joy and sorrow, and with this knowledge she was always content.

When she died in her son's arms under the waning moon she tried to make him understand the beauty of rest, the richness of ending, and the peace of death. But she had no time any more, so told him simply that she was complete, and hoped he would understand.