Caelic (Intro)

Caelic tried not to fall asleep as the trees rolled past her and the well-worn wagon bumped under her and her companions. It had been a busy night, but Caelic told herself to clear her mind and simply concentrate on staying awake.1

She took a deep breath and looked around her. The sun was hardly rising in the sky, and the moon still dominated the heavens. Was it only hours ago that her whole world had turned upside down?2

* * *3

It had been nearing sunset, and Caelic was frantically trying to heal her mother, Yanah, who had been mortally ill for days. Yanah, healer that she was, had not taught Caelic well enough for her to treat the symptoms experienced, and Caelic didn’t know what to do. She would have given anything to see her mother get better, for everything to get back to normal. But that was not about to happen anytime soon.4

Caelic had always had a special gift—as a child, she used to make objects levitate if she stared at them for awhile. As she grew, she began to make flowers blossom in autumn, create a spark of fire just by flicking air into pieces of wood, and other such things. This amused Caelic to no end, but Yanah feared for her daughter’s life. The people of the village—and of the country, for that matter—did not accept witchcraft, or magic of any kind. It was so rare; a person bearing magical powers only came once every few generations, and the people feared what they did not know about.5

That is why Yanah had always been catious as a healer. She didn’t want any of her concoctions or miracles linked to witchcraft, as uneducated folk were apt to do to healers.6

People also believed that one with magic were, in fact, fallen gods born into human form. They must have been kicked out of the heavens for a reason, and therefore were usually outcast. This Caelic knew; these were the warnings and stories she had grown up with, lectured by her mother everytime she let a slip of magic out in public. Oh, of course, Caelic could do whatever she wanted to, as long as it was in the privacy of her home with only her mother. But she so wanted to show the rest of the world her abilities! Then maybe they wouldn’t treat her like a leper. As much as Caelic was blessed with her art, and her loving mother, she wanted a friend.7

This night, Yanah was holding on by a thread, nay, the string of a spider’s web. Caelic was desperate. She ran out of the bedroom and closed the door, slamming the palms of her hands against her ears, trying to drown out the bloody coughs, and the moans, and held her breath to stop the stench. But she knew death had crept into the household, and she could not ignore it.8

As another one of Yanah’s coughing fits began, Caelic yelled over the noise, “Mother, what can I do? I need you, don’t leave me!” And she burst into tears. To make matters even worse, a light rain began to fall at this exact moment; Caelic knew she sometimes had that effect on the weather. “Cursed rain!” She yelled. “Have ye come to mourn my mother? You won’t, not yet! Go away!”9

Caelic fell to the ground, mad with greif. She could not fathom life without her only companion, the only love she had ever known. Various bottles of concoctions were cast to the ground, some even broken, in Caelic’s haste to find the ones she had needed earlier—not that they did any good.10

Caelic saw that the herbal medicines that she had seen heal so many were not working. And she hated them for it. Why did her mother have to be a healer? Caelic had never been interested in the arts of healing, and therefore had never payed much attention in her lessons. And now it was all coming back to haunt her, and she was completely stuck.11

The rain stopped, as did the tears. Caelic’s face grew softened and unemotional; she was past the grieving and madness. An aura that wasn’t quite calmness fell over her, and, almost robotically, she stood up and walked to Yanah, who was looking worse than ever.12

Caelic took her mother’s hands in hers and closed her eyes, chanting something in a different language, the words she knew not the meaning to. It was almost like someone else had taken over her body, and she could do nothing but sit back and watch until it was over.13

Though she didn’t know what she was saying, or how she was saying it, the words rhymed and had a soothing rhythm, as if she were on a boat on calm seas. For a moment, Caelic forgot Yanah and simply concentrated on the words.14

Then, as quickly as it came, the trance left Caelic’s body, and she looked down at her mother to see what it had done to her. Was she healed?15

Yanah lay unmoving on the bed, finally at peace. Caelic stood back, watching for a moment, not brave enough to check to see if her mother was still living.16

“There she is!” Caelic looked behind her to see a group of townspeople standing in the doorway, lanterns in their hands. “There’s the witch! And look, she killed her mother!” An older woman, Helensy, said, pointing a crooked finger and Caelic. “Witch! Kill her!”17

As the crowd rushed towards her, Caelic found some bit of energy in her to shout, “Wait! I'm not a witch!”18

Another woman spat, “You loom over yer mother eerily; you stand in her blood. My son Earmus heard a commotion walking by your house earlier, and saw you going mad, yelling words Earmus could'nt understand, but sounded like words of evil. Meanwhile, Yanah continued to grow worse by the second, the more you said these words. You say these aren't signs of a witch?”19

“And the house smells of fire and herbs!” A man said. “You were brewing evil spirits for your dear mother!”20

“No!” Caelic yelled at the top of her lungs. She had always been deemed a quiet one by the villagers, but she didn’t care at this point. “Mother isn't dead! She can’t be! I was trying to heal her!”21

“So she admits to the witchcraft!”22

“No, I—”23

But it was too late. A tough-looking man came up to Caelic and tied her hands behind her with rope, and put a gag between her lips. “To the gallows!” The crowd cheered, and Caelic felt she would fall into a dead faint.24

“No,” someone said. “She deserves something far worse than a quick death. Let’s burn the wench!”25

Caelic screamed with the bit of voice she had left, but her screams were muffled and ignored. With one last look at her dead mother who was being carried away, Caelic was forced by the tough man to walk towards her death. This was simply too much to ask for, and Caelic’s legs gave way for good. She fell into a dead faint.26