6/5/10
[Unnamed as of yet]
Chapter 1
The full moon shone bright against a deep purple sky, telling Verina Cross everything she needed to know on this night. She raised her hands to the sky in the Goddess stance and began to chant. As dark gray clouds slowly floated across the bruised sky, winds picked up and her whisper thin white shift billowed in the increasing wind, whipping around her slim figure as if wrapping her up in a cocoon. The long blonde hair that hung to her waist was lifting all around her head like a halo.
She could hear the townsfolk now, their shouting and rantings overpowering her own chanting to her Goddess. She did not fear them or their ignorance, if tonight was her night to meet her maker, then so be it, but she wouldn't go down without a fight.
As the angry mob who had come to seek her out, even burn her from her home if they must, crested the last hill about a quarter of a mile away, Verina whipped up a vortex of protection around her and her small cabin-like home. Though she knew they wouldn't be able to break through the barrier she'd erected with her magick, she knew they would never accept her. Their hatred and ignorance of her kind was too strong and seated way too deeply in their hearts and souls to ever accept her as one of them.
She had hoped that by coming to this secluded spot overlooking the sea she so dearly loved, she'd be able to live her life in peace with her daughter. Having escaped this same scenario only three years earlier, she'd hoped she'd be free of all this fear. She couldn't have been more wrong.
Her only fear was for her daughter, Seraphina. Though she was beginning to show the signs of the craft at the early age of three, she was still an innocent. Verina would never allow any kind of harm to come to her child and would die to assure that Seraphina lived. With the assistance of a most trusted friend, Verina secured passage on a sailing ship earlier in the week for her daughter to be transported to the America's. There, Verina knew Seraphina would be safe and in very trusted hands.
She could smell the kerosene from their torches now and turned to face the oncoming throng. Her hands were still stretched toward a sky that was now broiling overhead with angry clouds and lightening flashing behind them. She felt the soft fur of Baron, her familiar, twisting in and around her ankles, lending his energies to her work. Yeowling indignities at the crowd that was beginning to cross onto his grass, he shot forward. His hissing sounded like the hissing of a snake.
In the middle of her chanting, Verina's heart was suddenly shot through with a pain so sharp she gasped for breath and clutched her chest between her breasts. Baron! Thankfully the bubble of protection she'd built held while her attention had been diverted to the senseless death of her familiar, but now something new grew within her breast. Hatred. Anger.
She dropped her hands and the sudden calm struck new fear into the hearts of the townsfolk.
"You couldn't just leave us alone, could you?"
She could see the fear emanating from them.
"All we wanted was to live in peace. But your fear and ignorance overrides your common sense. You've heedlessly taken the life of one of mine, now I take the life of one of yours!"
While she spoke, she twisted her hands together as if rounding out dough. When she opened them a blue ball of light hovered in them. Her face eerily glowed, showing the heartache for her loss and the anger now taking over. Without further words, she hurled the ball of light at the crowd. She whirled back around to face the ocean, not waiting to see who the light might have hit.
"Goddess, you now have a sacrificial innocent, protect me and mine and bring me to my child."
Amid the terrified screaming from the crowd behind her, the sky seemed to literally open up and the rains poured, thunder crashed and the sky lit up with lightening. Suddenly, a human shape began to form between her and the crowd.
Verina dropped to her knees in the mud, her heart suddenly heavy and aching. The rains had stopped, the crowd had been silenced with the flick of a slim hand. A tall and achingly beautiful woman stood before Verina. Her gown, a nearly transparent blue, ebbed and flowed around her even though no winds moved, her hair, as fiery as a forest on fire, flowed nearly to her ankles and was crowned with ivy. It moved of it's own accord, as if invisible hands were lifting it and letting it drop again and again. She laid a hand gently on top of Verina's head.
"My child, you are my love, my dreams, my hopes, my fears, my anger. Although you have willfully harmed another on this night, I understand why and I forgive you and yours. I cannot condone the harming of another, we just do not use our gifts for this, even in heartache, so I offer you this,"
Tears streamed down Verina's face and in her heart of hearts, she knew she'd never see her child again.
Stay tuned for the next chapter...
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Do you like to read? I do. I also love to write. Here is where I'll be posting some of my writings. If you like to read about the mystical, the magickal, the out-of-the-ordinary, then this will definitely be the place for you. So, if you've got some time to just kick back and enjoy a good story, then by all means, get your refreshments, your smokes, put your feet up and enjoy the sometimes mad musings going on in this mind!
Blessed Be.
Witchie!
