Burn, My Sweet, Sweet Valentine
Members ONLY
They say they burn the Witch to keep away the sin. The Hunters. They say they burn the Witch because she is evil, unholy, tainted.
Little do they know of me, the Goblin King. Little do they know of the Realm of Phantasia and the subtle way it has of exacting revenge as sweet as the taste of a ripe summer apple.
Eight days. They give the Witch eight days of jailtime before she is brought before the Court.
And eight days is such a short time.
^^^^^^
Realm of Daanikka
1021
Year of the Rose
Another world, another time in the universe. The Year of the Rose has dawned bringing with it naught but tears and the piteous howls of agony. The Witch Hunters have returned, reared by a superstitious Queen Allmer and equally paranoid Duchess Violetta. Everyone--- women, men, even children ---has become a target of suspicion, forcing many to abandon former joys and loves in order to avoid being named a Witch and thereby prosecuted. Being a member of nobility won’t hide nor help you for long…already two Dukes and a wealthy Priestess have been burned at the stake, by the light of the milky moon, all three suspected of owning spell books.
This is newly a world of fire, of charms and potions smuggled into the city under tightly drawn black cloaks, of Witch Hunters on their great steeds watching and judging your every move. Conspiracy among nobles, fear among the people and hearts beating rapidly as the souls of their owners go mad.
Two years later…
The Witch Hunters have grown to a frightening number. Queen Allmer is still in power and is still afraid of something she won’t tell anyone else. She’s collected a new Witch, a young woman with hair as pink as the dawn rose, and the time for this Witch’s Burning has come…
The Witch is chained to the cross-like stake as is usual, her waist bound and bundles of kindling tossed at her feet. She is beaten, humiliated, and broken. There almost seems to be a lifelessness about her, the way she just hangs there, so limp, the way her eyes just stare down, so blankly…….But to the Witch Hunters and the Court, there was nay a need to question why their Witch acted so. She simply needed to be Burned, Burned before the moon fell over the far hill, Burned before her sin remained. So they set their holy torch ablaze and held it to the kindling. One, two seconds passed and the flame caught. Three, four seconds and the flame grew higher and began to lick at the woman’s bare legs.
She raised her head then, and as the first burns pained her, she looked right into the eyes of the crowd. She wasn’t done with them yet.
Nay, she wasn’t, for within the soul of this woman there had been brewing a taste for revenge. The deepest, darkest, most sugar-coated desire to see blood possible.
And you want to know what she did then? You want to know the words she screamed as her eyes watered and her lungs were tarnished black by the most horrid ashen smoke? I’ll tell you.
…She called upon me for help.
This wasn’t a normal cry for mercy, for a savior.
This was the cry that sent the worlds of Phantasia and Daanikka spiraling into each other in a blaze of sparks and glory.