Chapter Text
Delia had been walking for up to 5 days and was exhausted. The first two and the last night she had spent in inns along her road. The third and fourth night she had been forced to spend alone in the forest. Luckily, she had her magic to keep her safe and warm, even if she could only light a fire and make things float.
She was on her way to Camelot towards a new and safer life. For Delia it had been difficult to leave her childhood home and for her mother it was difficult to see her go. But it was necessary, and Delia was quite excited to go never the less.
The reason she had to go away was mainly because people had started being accused of witchcraft a lot lately. It was therefore safer to leave. And leaving to a city and a country where witchcraft was even more forbidden was perhaps strange to others. But in the big city it would be far easier to hide than in the small village she came from.
She had been in Camelot once before, when she was a child. She had gone there with her mother and remembered being mesmerized by the colors and elegance of the city. That may have just been her view through a child’s eye, but it was a happy memory and she looked forward to setting foot there once again.
Unsurprisingly she didn’t remember much of the road to Camelot, so she had had to ask at the inns and follow road signs. Soon she saw the imposing towers of the grand city. She breathed a sigh of relief and a grin spread across her face. Finally, she could see her destination in the distance. Her pace quickened and soon she was running down the hill she had been standing on, her bags colliding with her legs.
She went unto a small path leading into the forest. The path led her over small hills and bridges. Eventually she ended up on a bigger road that was well traveled. There were many people walking and riding that same road. The closer she got to the city the busier it was as people came from all sorts of directions. Finally, they ended upon some sort of clearing. The road was still busy, and she had to slow down and concentrate hard on where she stepped. She looked up briefly to see where she was going in the mass of people and almost stopped at what stood ahead of her. The city she was walking towards was perhaps the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. But she was still at quite a distance from it, so she shouldn’t judge too quickly. That didn’t stop her excitement though as she started walking faster swerving around people and carriages.
This castle had many stories and maybe the most famous one was that of the great war. The great war had broken out between a rich noble family and the king that had ruled at that time. Delia had been only eight when the war broke out and barely remembered anything of it. She had been sent to her uncle in the time the war was going on. She had been brought to a village outside of the country and when the war had ended her mother had come back without her father and they had stayed in the village. She had asked about her father following the war many times, but she never got an answer and at some point, just excepted his absence. He was probably dead anyway, she figured.
She had eventually gotten answers as to what the war had been about. Her mother had told her this story when she was sixteen either because she thought her daughter was ready or because she had become tired of all the questions.
It had all started when the king that ruled then asked his nobility to raise the taxes of their people. Some questioned the kings wishes but obeyed them anyway. Only Lord Mount refused to do it. His people could barely sustain themselves and their families as it was so Lord Mount wasn’t going to raise their taxes without good reason. But when he asked for those the king would not give them.
The king then tried to take the land away from him by vote under all the lords. But as most of the lords had nothing against Lord Mount Mount got to keep his land. Then the king tried another tactic. The king had the gift of magic and knew there for quite a few wizards and witches. Theses select few weren’t the nicest of people, they saw themselves as above other people, for their connections and for their gift. They didn’t see non-magical people as being worth of anything. So when the king proposed to some of them that they should kidnap Lord Mounts wife and daughters they immediately agreed.
Mount had an inkling but no proof of who was behind the kidnappings. He hoped he was wrong about his suspicion.
Meanwhile the king kept asking the lord to increase the taxes, which he in turn kept refusing. After many months of refusal, the king stopped asking. Off course mount thought that everything was well now and that he could focus on getting his wife and children back. But what happened next changed his mind.
People were starting to disappear. First it seemed that it was just some kidnapping or murder spree going on in in the land. But bodies were never found, and the amount of missing people started piling up at an alarming rate. The fact that the king had stopped asking after the taxes was now suspicious. But to assume that the king was behind everything would be jumping to conclusions. It wouldn’t be fair.
A year after the kidnappings had started the king confessed to Mount that he was behind it and that if he wanted to ever again see his family, or his people, he had to deliver the money within a week.
Lord mount was baffled and enraged. Not only had the king kidnapped his family and had held them some place unknown but had also erased a third of his population and expected him to pay the earlier expected money. It was insane.
Therefore mount decided to go to war against the king. Many people chose mounts side as they saw it as just after what the king had done. But there were also many people who chose the kings side. Those people were mostly magical people who were promised riches and freedom, whatever that meant. The fact that the king had magic on his side meant that the war was unfair.
The war became one of the bloodiest, most brutal one’s ever seen. It lasted 3 years. In this time no one heard anything from the missing people, and they were mostly presumed dead. Mounts daughters would have been 9 and 14 by the time the war ended.
After three years the fighting and the bloodshed had become too much for most people. This was why one day Lord mount challenged the king to a duel to end the war once and for all.
Lord mount won this duel and killed the king. As the king was dying lord mount tried to find out the location of his family and the missing people. But the king gave him no answer.
Because the king was dead the entire kingdom automatically went to Mount. After he proved that he would be a fair and honest king a man came to him. He said he knew the location of the prisoners and that he should stand in front of the city in full attire at dawn if he wanted his people back.
He did as told and the next day the door of the city opened, but instead off the usual forest that stood behind it there was a large wasteland with what looked like little huts.
Mount walked into the portal to the wasteland. no one knew exactly what he had seen in there, but when the new king came back his eyes were haunted and tears were streaming down his face. Next of him walked a girl, she reached about his shoulder and was thin as a stick. She looked ill and dirty, her clothes were ragged and hanging off her shoulders. It was his eldest daughter Patience.
Behind them appeared more people. They looked about the same as the princess, some even worse. Reportedly many had died in whatever place they had been held captive in. Amongst the dead where Mounts wife and youngest daughter.
This left Patience, who was 14 at this time, as the only heir and as the king had no desire to re-marry, he brought her up as an heir and gave her the education that would usually be given to a prince. She was taught in multiple languages, combat and more.
Many changes were made in regard to the laws. Of magic, all magic, the practice was strictly forbidden and punishable by death. Many people agreed with this as they had seen what damage magic could do. The weapon was too dangerous.
But Delia did not want to dwell on that yet. Now that she was thinking about the story, she wondered how the princess was. She had to be a few years older than her. she wondered if the princess was really as fierce and amazing as she had imagined her to be. She would probably get to meet her as she was lodging with the court physician.
The court physician was a man called Patrick Turner and was an old friend of her mothers who had exchanged letters with him requesting her daughter’s stay there. Delia had another letter with her in her bag that she was to give to him upon arrival, to confirm who she was.
As she finally reached the gate the mass of people was still dense, but the sounds of the city got louder and louder.
The road into the city started out wide and quickly divided into several smaller streets. she went into one that went up the hill towards the palace.
Here the streets were dirty, and the smell was foul. The houses around her were small and stacked on top of each other. The people around her looked poor.
At a certain point she saw a building that stood out in its lesser surroundings. It was a big stone building, a bit like a church, but if you’d make a church a house. It was dark and massive, and its windows were scarce and small. It was intimidating and Delia stood still in front of it. There were steps leading to its front door. Next to the door was carved in neat block letters “Nonnatus house”.
Suddenly the door opened, and an angry looking nun stepped out. She didn’t seem to be angry at anything in particular, but it was more as if the air had done something she didn’t like. Once she noticed Delia looking her frown made space for a polite smile.
“Can I help you?”
The question caught her off guard, she hadn’t expected the woman to actually talk to her. But she might as well ask if she was walking in the right direction towards the palace.
“Yes, I am looking for the palace, its this way right.” She asked gesturing in the direction she was planning to go with her left hand.
“Yes, just keep following the road and you will get there eventually”
“Thankyou.”
'Well that was the most useless conversation in the world’ Delia thought to herself. With that she resumed her way towards the palace. The amount of people seemed to be increasing around her and she found it harder not to step onto someone’s feet or not to be run over by a cart.
In the mass around her something seemed to be happening. Something more than the usual talk amongst locals. The crowd she found herself in was collectively moving in one direction and she was caught in the middle, having no choice but to move with them.
They were all whispering amongst each other and she tried to hear what it was about. The words she caught made her blood run cold, they were “witch” “and” beheading” and various exclamations of surprise disgust and horror.
The words made a chill run all the way along her neck and spine. It made her want to run. To just turn around and leave. Hide, while she still could. While no-one knew her yet and no-one could ever find out.
But she couldn’t, the curiosity was too big. Deep in thought she forgot about her goal, instead following the mass like a sheep following its flock. When she finally looked up she saw that they were gathered on the square in front of the palace.
Everyone’s attention was to something in the middle of the square. She had to worm her way through the crowd in order to get a good look.
In the middle of the open space on the square sat a woman on her knees. She was shackled to the platform she was sitting on and in front of her stood a block of wood that had sinister black lines running down from it. She was pale, thin and looked terrified as she searched frantically through the crowd and then hung her head in defeat.
It was as if Delia was in some sort of trance as she couldn’t look away. The attention of the crowd was now towards the balcony where the king was speaking.
“Let this be a lesson for everyone. This woman you see her before you has been found guilty of conspiring to use enchantments and magic. As the law of this land dictates, and I have installed this law myself, is the conspiracy to practice and practice of magic banned and punishable by death.”
Delia felt the dread in her stomach grow. Despite this she couldn’t stop watching the woman, not even when the woman laid her head on the block, not even when the bull lifted the axe, not even when it came down and blood spattered around and not when it came down a second time so that the head dislodged and rolled away, her face forever frozen in agony. There were shrieks from the crowd as the people flinched away from the spectacle.
As the king had said it had indeed been a lesson. But to her it all meant something different to what it meant for those around her. To Delia it meant that she was going to have to be very careful if she wanted to live.
The attention of the crowd was diverted as the king spoke up again.
"During the great war many of us saw the damage that magic does. We have done our best to drive the practice of magic out of these lands for the last ten years. Evidently this fight is not over. But, with every execution like this we come one step closer to driving this evil out of our realm.
Therefore I announce a festival to celebrate ten years since the end of the war. Let the celebrations begin."
With this he turned to leave but stopped as the silence was disturbed by a loud wail that vibrated through the square. Delia frowned and looked for the source of the cry. Her search didn’t take long. In front of her, next to where the platform stood stood an old woman in a dark cloak. She stepped forward towards the balcony where the shocked king still stood.
“There is only one evil in this land, and it is not magic. It is you, with your hatred and ignorance.”
She gestured towards the young woman’s head.
“You just killed my daughter. And I will promise you. Before these celebrations are over you shall share my tears. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. A daughter for a daughter” the woman cried, her voice raising with every word.
And then, fast as lightning, before the king could tell his guards to capture the woman, she disappeared in a whirl wind of dust leaves and pieces of fabric.