in the edge of the village. Several horsemen had already arrived at the church and most were still on the road.
Every family within the seven villages around the church had received one of many obligatory invitations to another "Purification ritual". The people sent only the men although the note had mentioned that children are highly desirable.
Half of the ritual hall was already filled with whispering peasants staring down at the hole that descended
at least 5 feet into the floor and seemed like a weird gladiator pit. In the middle of the sand-covered lower-floor, in a circle of large rocks, there was a pillory standing on a pile of hay and logs. The farmers were nervous as they knew what the ritual was all about. One of them whispered to another in a deep scottish accent: "Last time they had less people watching... they stoned her to death after pouring hot silver down her throat..." The other man was short and was twisting his already torn up hat: "They're gonna purify Katherine tonight. I thought she was a healer, I even got help from her now and then. Who knew she was a bloody witch? They say she dressed in the skins of wolves at night and killed all old Rothner's sheep ... monstrous." The other man, knew that the woman had been taken by the church inquisition for questioning, but he looked baffled: "The whole herd? Well I guess she's getting what she deserves... Hold on, didn't she have a daughter? Yes, little Madeline... what's gonna happen to the poor girl?" The man put his hat in his pocket, while sighing and stared at his feet: "They'll kill her... and I guess it's for the best... spawn of the devil... to hell with them all."
The hall was almost completely filled with people and the ritual began. The monks on the other side of the inquisition-pit started chanting silently in latin as the high-priest walked to the altar covered in candles and lit three of them.
"Dear peasants..." He said with a dark grin. "...once again you have encountered a problem of the darkest kind and once again the church is happy to help you." The priest waved at a man with a black mask standing in a small iron doorway in the brightly lit executioner's pit in the middle of the church. The executioner entered the room under the floor as the air was deathly still and the only thing that cut the low mumbling of the monks was the sound of shackles creeping out from the metal doorway. Soon the fat man with a black mask returned while dragging a young woman behind him. He attached Katherine's swollen wrists into the pillory and locked the contraption tightly.
The clergyman looked down at the woman and smiled: "It is rather unsettling to think that this woman, Katherine Barnes, has been a part of our community for years and all this time... a servant of the devil. Today we can all rejoice, for this woman's soul shall be cleansed. As some of you might know she used witchcraft to turn herself into a wolf so she could feast on your cattle. For the sake of the villagers the witch must be burned!"
Long disheveled hair covered the young woman's face, wet from tears, as she was silently weeping. Her clothes were ripped and covered in dirt. Katherine raised her head and looked at the farmers, who had gathered in the church. "Please... I am not a witch...I.." She tried to talk, but her mouth was too dry. She teared up again as she saw that on the edge of the pit stood Madeline, looking down at her mother with tears rolling down her cheeks. Katherine wanted to shout, but she was tired and powerless. The executioner set fire to the hay in the edges of the stack of logs in the middle of which stood the scared woman. The fire got closer and Katherine felt the hot flames dancing around her.
The heavy doors of the church flew open and from it entered a strong mistral that roughed up the villagers as it passed and ascended onto the flames. The candles on the altar and in the chandelier under the ceiling went out. Katherine stared at the frozen hay and logs around her and the thin layer of snow that covered the floor. The fat executioner quickly grabbed his axe and took a swing at the woman in the pillory. The axe fell on the ground- Between Katherine and the fat man in a black mask had appeared a figure in a hooded cloak, with eyes that burned bright and blue. The executioner fell on his knees, and stared into the hooded woman's eyes. His chest started emitting faint tendrils of light and the woman caught them in a small crystal vial.
"This woman has done nothing wrong, the ones eating your sheep and cows are right under your noses..."
Every candle in the large hall burst in blue flames and the high-priest shouted out in anger: "Prohibere eius!"
The demons in red cloaks leapt through the air and landed around the blue-eyed woman in a perfect circle. She looked around and clenched her hands into fists from which grew out two short glowing daggers.
The monks hissed at the mage and ran at her, but she was too fast. The daggers sliced swiftly through the throats of four monks, who spewed black blood that smelled like sulfur. In a blink the woman had burnt two others, but she seemed to have missed one, who stood his ground behind her. Through the ceiling fell a large sledgehammer that crushed the demon, who had stayed unnoticed. The hammer was followed by a muscular man dressed in black leather and wearing a mask sewn together from pieces of burlap sacks, bearing an ominous smile embroidered into the material. He picked up his weapon from the demon's chest cavity and looked around.
"Heed our warning, villagers! The church is not what it seems... and the Guild of Assiah will not tolerate killing innocent people!"
