The Accuser
♥ ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ─── ♥
None of her family had heard her slip out of their home. She wandered past the other houses in the shadows. She followed the scent of burning pine from the town into the woods. Kara slipped deeper into the woods. It was getting darker the deeper she went.
This was against what she had always been told “Don’t go into the woods.” However, if that was were evil dwelled wasn’t it there they should go to find it. Shouldn’t they root out the evil instead of hiding from it? Wasn’t that what they were taught in church?
She followed the smell till she finally saw the light from the fire it came from. She crept forward quietly from tree to tree until she could stay hidden behind the trees yet still see into the darkened clearing where the fire was burning. Here she knelt to see who was around the fire. There around the fire were the wise women of the town sitting on logs around the fire.
They were talking as they passed around a thick book. She couldn’t hear their words. She couldn’t tell what book they were passing around. She tried to see and hear, but from where she was there was no chance of it. Still crouched, she started moving from tree to tree to get closer moved her around the group and their fire. As she changed angles, she was able to see there were actually two books. Two books which these women were reading from and apparently discussing. Surely this was forbidden.
Was this right? Were they allowed to have books other than the Holy Book? Wasn’t it only allowed to discuss the Holy Book? Even if one book was the Holy Book, where was the male to lead the discussion with experience? What was the other book?
It wasn’t a surprise they knew how to read to her. They were wise women. They were the oldest ones in the town. They were taught in the old ways in everything especially for healing and care of the people. Next to the churchmen, they were the most educated and most important members of the town. Kara’s parents had been talked to by the oldest of these women about starting to train Kara in a few years. There were several factors which would play into her eligibility. However, talks had already started about her apprenticeship.
Kara wasn’t sure what the books were, but she knew women gathering in such circumstances was forbidden unless a male was there to keep the women from going astray in their discussion. Were they allowed to? If they were, why were they doing it so late at night? If that wasn’t a problem either, what was the cause? Was she going to be expected to do so as well? Was this not against the church? Yet, here were the revered and wisest of the women in the town discussing two thick books without male guidance.
Kara believed this was heresy. Is that not what the church would say? It had to be stopped right? That was what she had been taught. Still, she was just a child. Would the adults believe her? If they did, would they see something wrong or would they allow this to continue? Was there something she could say to make them believe her? To make them punish them for disobedience, heresy, and blasphemy?
Kara got close enough so she could hear part of their conversation. She strained her ears listening. She heard parts of the words. They didn’t make much sense. She wasn’t even sure they were full words. It sounded a lot like gibberish to her. Perhaps she was only hearing parts of words. It could be. They weren’t exactly being loud or soft. She continued trying to get closer from behind the trees.
Snap, she heard it as her foot broke the twig. She looked at the women hoping they hadn’t heard it. Yet, she knew from the loudness they had to. She moved to another tree as quickly and quietly as she could. If they tried to go to the one where the twig was, she hoped they wouldn’t see or hear her.
One of them got up after some quiet discussion. She moved her hands in front of her to make her sleeves got away from her hands while she picked up a light log from the fire. Using it as a torch, she searched for me where Kara had broken the twig. Kara froze as still as she could. Ursula Wessex was so close with the torch Kara could feel the heat of the fire above her.
Several moments passed before Mother Ursula, as she was called in the town, turned to go back to the others. The words she spoke gave Kara her charge against these women. She would stop them. She would be the girl that routed out evil from their town. She would be a hero if she stayed to the cause of the church.
The next morning, she made her way back to the town. The women had left hours before her. She had let herself sleep close to their clearing in the woods. When she emerged from the woods, she looked much worse for the wear. There were two townsmen who saw her and raised the alarm she had been found. They took her directly to the church for blessings of finding the “lost child.”
The churchmen circled around her before they started asking her what happen. She said she wasn’t sure but she felt a pull to the woods against all she had been taught. She couldn’t stop herself it was like something was pulling her deeper and deeper. She stopped in a clearing were others from the town were gathered around the fire. They had two books. They were passing them around as they read and discussed them.
They greeted her asking her to come forward to them. Then they offered her a knife. They wanted her to write her name in blood in the one book to seal her service to the craft. Kara said she refused. She said they flew upon her angrily trying to get her to sign the book. They said she had to do it of her own freewill to give over her life and soul to her new position.
Kara said she refused again. That was when they started to hurt her with their words. She lost conciseness after hours of this torture by words. When she woke, they were gone. She made her way back to the town through the woods.
They asked the name of these people who attacked her spiritually. Carefully, Kara named each woman ending with the most powerful and revered of the wise women, Ursula Wessex. Then came the call against them. The women were ceased and brought before her to identify. Kara appeared scared and frightened of them as she identified each of the innocent, wise women of being a witch, ending with her aunt, Mother Ursula.
Mia Mina's Chaotic Realms 