Chapter Text
It was a normal winter day, or at least, as normal a winter day back in 1600s Gravesfield got. In one small schoolhouse by the church, the town Minister was teaching the young children of the town.
"And thus, to show his glory to the king of Egypt, The Lord sent his final plague. He called upon the Angel of Death to kill all the firstborn of the Egyptians" said the Minister. The kids listened intently, knowing that showing boredom would be met by whipping. One kid however, a fourteen year old who had brown hair, blue eyes and was of medium stature, studied more intently than the others, even making notes in his book. That boy's name was Philip Wittebane.
Just then, a boy who sat next to Philip spoke up. "Pardon me, Minister, but I don't understand something."
"What is it, Peter?" replied the Minister.
"Why would The Lord kill all the firstborn if he is the most compassionate?"
"It was to prove his glory to the people of Egypt."
"But why did he have to kill innocent children for that? Couldn't he have chosen another way?"
Philip heard the him and shuddered. He asked the same question a few years ago, to which he was whipped for "causing confusion". The Minister then walked up to the boy and looked down at him, saying "The Lord works in mysterious ways, child. Questioning them is blasphemy."
"Why would simply asking a question be considered blasphemy?"
The Minister didn't answer. Instead, he said "The witches have been corrupting you, haven't they?" The Minister then grabbed a wooden stick on a nearby table and struck the boy's hand with it a number of times.
After he was finally finished, the Minister walked away from the bench and said "It has become clear to me that the witch problem is becoming far worse than I previously thought, but do not worry, I can fix that. To start things, write out the catechism everyone."
Philip whispered to Peter "Don't worry. The pain goes away after a couple of days," before pulling an fountain pen out of his satchel and starting to write out the catechism with with his left hand.
Philip immediately realized what he was doing to his horror and hoped that The Minister didn't see it. This was in vain, however, as a second later, The Minister stood over Philip with a stick in hand.
"Can you tell me what you were doing wrong, boy? asked The Minister.
"I was writing with my left hand?" replied Philip.
"Precisely. You of all people should know that the left hand is the Devil's hand."
"I know. I try not to."
"Perhaps this will help" said the Minister before gesturing to Philip to hold out his arm. Philip, knowing what would happen if he didn't, complied.
The Minister struck him on the wrist about 20 times. Philip tried his best to put on a brave face, but its hard when almost everyone in the class was laughing at him.
After it was done, the Minister said "Let this be a lesson to everyone that one must have complete faith in God. Everyone may be dismissed."
Leaving the schoolhouse, Philip was walking back to the Wittebane Homestead, all the while scribbling something in his book, when suddenly, a a voice behind him said "Hey, dalcop."
Sighing, Philip turned around to face the source of that voice: a tall, muscular boy with his friends behind him. Philip then said "Haven't you already had your share of pushing me around this week, David?
Ignoring his statement, David just pushed him onto the snow before saying "This is for tricking Simon into breaking a hornet's nest." While saying this, he pointed to a boy in his group that had black hair and skin covered in swollen red bumps.
"The hornets were bothering us. I just told him that he's the only one I know whose brave enough to take care of them. It's not my fault that he chose to hit the entire nest with a stick" replied Philip.
David once again ignored Philip's statement and then eyed the book that Philip has just dropped into the snow. Picking it up, he said "Still haven't got rid of this bizarre thing?" Flipping to a random page, David said "Hey, listen to this everyone" and started to read in a mocking imitation of Philip's voice: "My conversations and general time spent with ladies like Deborah, Mattie, Mary, and Faith have led me to discover that women too, are of profound mind and are as equally capable as men. Thus, I have come to the conclusion that contrary to what the Pastor says, women are equal to men. "
The boys laughed at this statement and one of them even said "Has your back healed yet from how hard the Pastor whipped you when you told him this?"
Philip didn't answer. He just got up from the ground and said "Give that back," before trying to reach into David's hands for the book, which was hard, given that he was considerably shorter than him.
Noticing what Philip was trying to do, David threw the book into the hands of one of his friends. This started a bit of a back and forth of catching and throwing the book in an attempt to keep it away from Philip's hands.
One of the boys flipped to a page of Philip describing various plants and how to make medicines from them, to which he commented "You were always weird but you've started associating with witches now?"
"Mary Allen isn't a witch," said Philip, all the while trying to reach for the book. The boy just threw the book back to David and said "Only a witch would have this much knowledge about medicine."
"She just studied plants a lot more closely than any of us."
"Excuses excuses. She's a witch, and you're the crazy one who thinks she isn't." said David. He tried throwing the book to another member of his posse, but the throw was intercepted by a sixteen year old boy with blonde hair and a long, hooked nose. He held a bag of food and had various wood carving tools in the pockets of his clothes.
"Caleb" said Philip in relief.
Looking over at David, Caleb said "Don't you boys have better things to do?"
The boys decided that it wasn't a good idea to fight someone who had access a carving knife and left Philip alone. Caleb gave the book back to Philip and the two started to head back home.
"Thanks for saving me back there" said Philip.
"Its no big matter. I was coming back from the market and saw you were in trouble. What did they do to you this time?"
"Just try to take my book again."
"At least they didn't tie you up and leave you in the forest this time, so I'd say that's an improvement."
Philip shuddered at the memory of this incident and said "That was a difficult night."
The duo of brothers continued their way back home, when they saw a crowd of people gathered near the town gallows.
"Looks like somebody else was found guilty of witchcraft" remarked Philip.
"Its not just anyone. It's Mary Allen" said Caleb.
"What?" said Philip, before immediately running to the front of the crowd, and sure enough, there was Mary Allen, the old woman Philip had learned the art of making medicinal plants from. She was screaming for her life and had a noose tied around her neck, while the crowd kept yelling "Hang the witch!"
There, the pastor overseeing the hanging cried out "You, Mary Allen, have been found guilty of the sin of blaspheming The Lord by committing witchcraft. The court hereby sentences you to death by hanging."
Mary tried to plead her innocence, but her cries just fell on deaf ears. As the crowd cheered at this horrendous sight, Philip couldn't help but close his eyes and turn away as the trapdoor under her feet opened and Mary Allen's screams for mercy soon turned into deafening silence.
Throughout the walk home, Philip stayed quiet. Upon finally reaching the Wittebane Homestead, which was a small house with a basement underneath it, he said "There has to be some mistake."
Caleb sighed while starting a fire in the fireplace and said "There always is."
"I've met her, she's a nice woman. She even showed me how to make herbal medicines. There's no way she's a witch."
"I know she isn't" replied Caleb.
Getting angry Philip said "Its because she's a woman, isn't it? Ol' Peter Hake also makes medicines, and no one bats an eye."
"That's the sad truth."
Philip continued his rant saying "It's not just her, Hope was hung last week for being too good at mathematics. I've read the Bible fifty times over and I never found a verse which says that women can't do math."
"Yes." said Caleb, "As much as it hurts, the truth is that we can't do anything about it."
"Why can't we?" asked Philip.
"Remember what happened when you told the Pastor that women were equal to men?"
Philip rubbed his back and said "Thirty lashes. It still hurts when I touch it."
"Exactly my point. This was still a small disagreement, so the Pastor let you off after some lashes. A bigger one and you'll be next in line for the gallows."
Philip finally got a little angry at Caleb's comments and said "You all might laugh at me now, but there will come a time when my ideas will help you. There will be a day where I'll be seen as a hero by everyone in Gravesfield."
Just as Philip said this, an old man wearing black robes stepped into the house, causing Philip to stop his rambling. Caleb turned to the man and said and said "Good evening Pastor Daniels."
Philip however just said "She wasn't a witch."
The pastor scoffed and said "She's an old woman who lives alone with her cat and makes herbal medicines. If that's not a witch, I don't know what is."
"But I've talked to her. She's a devout lady."
"Appearances can be deceiving, my boy."
"But-"
"Enough. Unless you want another thirty lashes on the back." said The Pastor, causing Philip to immediately quiet down and try to distract himself by drawing in his book.
Caleb however continued the conversation, saying "She went to church every Sunday."
Unable to think of a fitting answer, the pastor just angrily said "What did I tell you about questioning our principles, boy?"
"It's equal to questioning God?" replied Caleb.
"Precisely" said the pastor, before he turned his attention toward Philip, who was now scribbling something away in his book.
"And you" said the pastor, grabbing the book and seeing that Philip had written entire pages about different kinds of plants and what diseases they cured, complex arithmetic, as well as pages full of observations and theories about the world, before angrily saying "You've associated with the witches, haven't you?"
"Uh…perhaps?" said Philip, quietly, before the pastor started ripping out entire pages out of Philip's book and throwing it into the burning fireplace, saying "Do you want to be hung, boy?"
"No." said Philip.
"Well then if you continue this, you'll soon end up at the gallows with a noose tied around your neck."
Philip just stared while the pastor threw the torn pages into the fire, angrily saying "Ungrateful brats, I took you in when you came as orphans to Gravesfield years ago and this is how you repay me."
Finally stopping, he turned to stare at Philip with his eyes red in anger. Grabbing a whip hanging from a nearby wall, he said "This will teach you to associate with the brides of the devil."
Philip, knowing what would happen if he protested or put up a fight, reluctantly removed his shirt.
The house, formerly filled with the noise of the crackling fire was now filled with the sounds Philip's screams of pain. Caleb wanted to step in, to stop the pastor, to do something, anything to protect his younger brother, but he couldn't. When the pastor was finally done. Philip wiped the tears off his face with one hand and tried to wipe the blood off his back with the other.
Breathing heavily, the pastor said "I'm doing you a favor boy. This is only to prevent you from becoming corrupted."
Philip didn't listen to the pastor, instead, he just stared at the pages burning in the fire, the pages filled with information he'd worked hard to collect. His back hurt like it had just been stung by a hundred bees, but he didn't care about that. Caleb tried to bring some medicine to help soothe the pain, but Philip didn't wait for him. Instead, he got up and put his shirt back on. Then, he grabbed his fountain pen and what remained of his book before putting it into his satchel. Wrapping a cloak around himself, Philip left the house and started to walk into the Gravesfield forest.
Walking aimlessly in the forest, he angrily muttered to himself "I'll show them, I'll show everybody", before he heard a rustling noise in the nearby bushes. A little startled, but also curious he checked the area and found a girl that looked no older than him. The girl had pale white skin, wild, dark brown hair, gray colored eyes and nails that looked they haven't been trimmed in years.
Philip was about to say "Hey, what're you doing here at this hour? the forest isn't safe at night" to her, but stopped himself when the girl conjured an orb of light out of thin air and held it above her palm.
'A witch. A real witch' thought Philip, staring at the mysterious girl in a mixture of shock and horror. All he could think about the Minister's and The Pastor's warning against witches. Those thoughts gave way to delusions of fame, because if he caught her now, Gravesfield would finally hail him as a hero and give him the respect he deserved.
Not one to waste this golden opportunity, he grabbed a nearby stick for protection and started to run over to the girl as fast as he could, determined not to let her get away. His back hurt immensely with every step he made, but he ignored the pain and continued running.
The girl quickly noticed him and she too, started to run away. Philip chased her deeper and deeper into the forest, yelling "Stop witch!". The trees now looked unfamiliar and the wolves started howling, darkness was quickly enveloping the land. On top of all that, his back was about to give out, but Philip still gave chase. Using only the light of the crescent moon to guide him, Philip ran after the witch like how a wolf runs after its prey.
They ran through the forest, and into the town graveyard. Philip was so focused on capturing the witch that he didn't even realize that the archway in the graveyard turned into a magic portal, and that he had ran straight through it.