Christmas had passed and the Sicilian air was growing colder; the cold months were now at the door. In January, February, and March, nature goes into hibernation in Sicily. Snow appears on Mount Etna; the sky becomes almost white, and the sun does not warm as much as in other months, but it illuminates brightly. From Belinda's town, one could not see the snow of Etna—to see it one had to go towards Catania—but on the mountains of her own town, high up, the snow had arrived.
While Belinda was tidying some drawers in the kitchen, she came across a linen fabric that had belonged to her mother, Caterina. Caterina, like a good Sicilian woman very attentive to traditions, had begun preparing her daughter's trousseau when Belinda was just six years old. Not having great financial means and knowing that embroidered fabric had a high cost, Caterina saved every penny over the years to fill wooden chests with precious sheets of damask, linen, and silk, and tablecloths for six, eight, and twelve settings. There were intricate cutwork and bobbin lace bedspreads, finely worked and embroidered with significant value. She had many fabrics sent from Palermo and then sewed and embroidered them herself; many others she had commissioned from expert hands. She had also saved such a quantity of linen dish towels for the kitchen that she could have even sold them or perhaps saved them for Azzurra. She had also gifted her a complete set of crystal glasses and silver cutlery.
What Belinda found while tidying up was a piece of printed linen fabric. The design depicted a light blue winged unicorn riding a comet. The unicorn had a golden sickle moon on its forehead and was riding towards a full moon at the end of the comet. As soon as she saw the fabric, she was enlightened: she had to keep it, and it would become the cover of her Book of Shadows. The Book of Shadows, or Grimoire, was the secret book every witch should own from the beginning of her magical journey. She had already read about it many times in the texts she was using to educate herself and approach magic. At first, she thought the red notebook was sufficient, but as the months passed and her knowledge grew, she noticed the pages were diminishing; more space was needed. She wouldn't abandon the notebook; instead, she would keep it for annotating all the past and future dreams she would have in her other plane, the dream world. It would become her mirror book.
Therefore, she decided to construct a new Book of Shadows with her own hands, both because she loved handmade objects and because she would have a stronger bond with an item she had made, one that would carry a little of her own energy and a little of her mother Caterina's. To have more space and to be able to modify the grimoire over time based on her personal needs, she needed a large ring binder, but she didn't want to buy one, precisely to avoid risking the authenticity of the magical object she was building. Suddenly, an idea flashed into her mind, a light bulb went on: the pregnancy journal for Azzurra, which the gynecologist had given her in the first months of pregnancy, was inside a ring binder! The binder was shiny orange plastic on the outside, but she would re-cover it with the fabric she had found. Inside the cover was the drawing of the fertility goddess, a stylized figure that Belinda deemed perfect for the magical intent of uniting all women together: Caterina, herself, and Azzurra—the representation of the Triple Goddess: Maiden, Mother, Crone. What better way to make an object special. She immediately set to work with scissors, paper, and ribbons and fashioned a very graceful grimoire. The white pages were too white; she decided to antique them with a special technique: soaking each sheet in a solution of coffee and water and then drying them with a hairdryer. The pages became slightly stained, as if yellowed by time; they smelled of coffee and were also beautiful to look at.