This road goes to the end

Sacrifice 1692

The stone altar 

Two runaway sons and a lost daughter. 

A marriage was torn apart by blood and hatred. 

The walls went up faster than anyone could have anticipated, and no one knew it was coming.

No one, but the church.

The scandal of a fey and human stealing away into the night and turning a wife away from her husband was enough for the church to latch onto the people's fear and further push their narrative. They spun a story of the fey invasion and dark magics infiltrating good Christian children and making them turn their backs on god. 
The influence of the church spread beyond the church house as the clergy pushed more and more for their word to become law. 

They came for their witches first, dragging them through the streets and putting them to death in the village square.  

Punishing tests and trials to search for hidden witches became a weekly event that saw hundreds die by the churches hand. The villages council men and magistrate tried to reason with the church and get them to reign in their influence but, unfortunately for them, the fear and confusion that the priests had bred into the villagers created an army of loyal followers that destroyed the lawmen of the Village in one fell swoop. 

The ultimate tragedy, was that all of this bloodshed and darkness was born of the desire to live and love freely. 

As if the universe was punishing everyone for having the audacity to want to be treated like a person. 

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Mara couldn't get a single word past the scrap of burlap that acted as a gag around her mouth, but that didn't stop her from trying to scream. Her arms and legs were bound to the stone slab she was lying on and she thrashed against the restraints until her skin wore away to reveal pink, weeping flesh. 

'Stop fighting!' A harsh and familiar voice growled in her ear. 

Mara twisted her head to the left and winced as a lance of pain raced up her neck. Father Augustine's soulless eyes and anaemic skin filled her vision and she tried not to wretch at the proximity. His breath was somehow ice cold and putrid, as if death itself had taken up residence in his lungs. 

'You deserve this.' He crooned. 

That sent a bolt of lightening to Mara's heart and she redoubled her efforts to get out of her restraints. 

Her thrashing did nothing but tire her out and cause tears to streak down her cheeks, born of both despair and fury. 

The audacity of Augustine to say that she deserved this humiliation and punishment was truly a joke and an insult. No one deserved to be dragged before their family and friends, and strapped to a stone slab to be sacrificed. This punishment did not fit her crime of speaking out against bigotry and evil. 

Mara was the only person in the village that was strong enough and mad enough to tell the priests that their laws and edicts were wrong, and try to sway people to her side. At the time she felt empowered and strong as she preached opposing views and told her people that they were being exploited, but that soon turned sour when she was taken from her home and tried as a heretic. 

'My children...' Augustine boomed as he turned to face the villagers that had gathered to watch a child they'd all raised be slaughtered like a lamb. 'We have found a snake in our midst, an agent of lucifer here to turn us away from god.' 

Mara wanted to laugh at the ridiculous lies coming from Augustine but the gag wouldn't let her. All she could do was steel herself and hope that someone jumped in at the last moment to save her and join in her fight against the church. No matter which way she turned her head she couldn't see her mother or brothers, but she knew they had to be there.