Once upon a time, a grim liontaur adopted five harpy fledglings, to raise as her own babies. But after betrayal and tragic misadventure, four of the fledglings were slain, and one was lost to the shadows between the planes. Vauhwyt the Liontaur sent her four dead children to Gargul's embrace, but the fifth she never found -- the Bag of Holding in which the child had been imprisoned was shredded to scraps.

After her adventures were done, and she retired as a hero, the liontaur remembered her lost baby. Likely the child had died of thirst or suffocation in some vast empty non-dimensional space, or maybe in the perils of the unexplorable reaches of the Realm of Shadows. She had sent the souls of four harpies on to Gargul, but the fifth soul might well be lost and wandering. It gnawed at her, and she decided to do something.

Vauhwyt got her hands on a wish, and she wished her baby brought back to her. The mighty magic restored to her only a sad corpse. And her grim senses told her that the child's soul was trapped within, mercifully asleep.

She knew, or expected, that Gargul would not allow the babe's return to the Wold. And he would frown on any attempt to do so. But she sought out her friend Priscilla, a powerful witch, and asked for her help anyway.

"My old friend, I have one last favor to beg of you," Vauhwyt said. "My baby is trapped here, and I think you can help us."

"I can cast a witch's reincarnation," the witch said, "but she will have a new body, almost surely not a harpy."

"Please try," Vauhwyt asked.

"What will Gargul say?" asked Priscilla.

"He can be angry at me," answered Vauhwyt.

The liontaur's familiar, a talking raven, cawed, "After all the liches you killed, Boss, he owes you."

"Hush, Mookie," she said.

Priscilla performed the arcane ritual, and did bring the child back to life -- as a halfling boy. 

Vauhwyt embraced the boy. "Remember that your mama loves you," she said. She stayed for a few short days with the witch and the child. But she felt her grim abilities waning, and she sensed Gargul's displeasure. So she asked Priscilla to care for and teach the boy. 

"That's your second 'last favor', Boss," Mookie cawed. "Besides, why can't you stay and take care of the kid yourself?" asked Mookie. He sensed sadness in his mistress.

"I have to go tell Lord Gargul what I have done," she answered.

"Um, Boss, like, bad idea?" said Mookie.

"I hate to say it, but I agree with the raven," said Priscilla.

"No choice. I have to go. If I don't come back, take care of him, Mookie!"

"But Boss! I thought we were retired!"

Vauhwyt darkwalked into the Realm of Shadows and teleported away. She has not been seen in the Wold since.

Priscilla taught the boy, named Bliss when he was a harpy, and he became her apprentice. The ways of witchery came easily to him, and he could sense the flows of ley and shadow almost before he was taught. Priscilla wondered if his death in the Realm of Shadows had made him shadow-touched. He was a quiet, shy boy, and he was happiest when he was not the center of attention.

Bliss learned that Gargul frowned on witches, and disapproved of what they did. He also learned that his mother had worshipped Gargul, and gone away to serve him.

"Why doesn't Mama come back," he asked Mookie one day. 

"She's doing the hard time, Kid," cawed the bird. "She's in the hoosegow. Working the chain gang, stuck in the big house, up the river, caught in the clink, penned in the pokey, banging big stones into little stones." 

"But why?"

"That's for her to say, not me. But she's serving that god of hers, more's the pity."

Bliss learned a little more from Priscilla. 

"Gargul is a harsh master, child," she told him. "He's a fair monster, after his fashion, but that's no solace when your mother is off doing for him instead of for you." She did not tell the boy that Vauwhyt was atoning for bringing Bliss back into the Wold. He did get the strong idea that Priscilla was deeply angry at and terrified of the god of life and death.

Bliss learned that as a witch, he would need to make a pact with a god or power. He thought about his dead sisters, Faith, Hope, Grace, and Joy; he thought about his mother's devotion to this hard god. And he resolved to be like Vauhwyt, and follow Gargul. But he knew Priscilla would disapprove, and he was afraid to tell her who he had chosen to serve. So when his apprenticeship was almost over, he ran away.