I think only old witches wake up at 3 a.m. to work, they do this, they do this because they are old, and old women always wake up early, but they do this also because they are witches and there are things to do beneath the moon that cannot be done beneath the sun, and the doing also is hidden in darkness and done on feet that make no sound. I am an owl of three a.m. I am a stag of seven tines. I am not a stag of seven tines! I am an odd sort of caster of spells, an arbitrary, accidental caster of spells that work no magic and effect no change, they are spells I cast in secret with the work of my hands, they are spells that are made in the blood of my heart, they are nowhere written, they are not recited, they are never sung. I trade no coins for them. I only rise at 3 a.m., obsessed with work, with the work of the weaving of the threads of my life.