Four hundred years ago Ixi fell in love with the woman in the woods with the cloven hooves and agreed to her terms. She would eat the smoking peach and in exchange, she'd gain the agency she'd never had in her old life. The rituals were grueling and difficult and required sacrifice, but the power was worth it. She'd never have to answer to anyone else again just for living.

Not so many years ago something pulled their dark and cozy woods out of time and place. Ixi and the Wood Woman could no longer walk past the edge of the forest. As if cut by a knife, the shady purple woods fell away to harsh, yellow desert. At the border Ixi puts her fingers out to let the sunlight touch her skin; she pulls them back in pain and fear. Left on her fingertips were golden scars where the light touched.