Wrath of the Gods [Legacy, BK 3 - Hiatus]

6.1 - Henry

6.1 - Henry

Those early days were challenging and dark. We were all learning to use our new gifts, struggling with keeping them hidden from the others of our very Christian town, all while grappling with the questions of faith ourselves. We spent hours debating among ourselves. Were these powers from God or had we become playthings of the Devil?

We had a hard time figuring out the particulars of our gifts. I think Mary had it the easiest, all she had to do was learn not to mention what she'd seen, to play dumb, so to speak. Same with Cecile. I had the knife. It never left my side. And even after all this time, the blade had never dulled. I learned the hard way what I could do, after cutting myself with the knife in those early days. It was a lot of trial and error. I felt half-crazed with the idea that what I was doing was witchcraft. Devil's work. But as the others also began to use and master their talents, as we were still safe and had all our faculties, the more I felt what was happening was God's will.

Unfortunately, our good luck did not last.

I'm not sure how our secret was exposed, only that I was woken early one morning by Hugh with a warning. Mary had seen our families and town coming together to accuse us as witches. It was time for us to flee.

Gathering only what I could carry on my own and a small sack of food, I left the only home I'd ever known.

The five of us met in the mountain cave I originally found to decide what to do. We fought over it for the better part of a day. Even though we were all affected by this, that we had all gained those talents, I was still the one on the outside of the group. I thought we should travel as far as we could, continue West out into the wilds of nature and create for ourselves our own home. The others did not agree. Hugh and Francis took exception to my plan, stating that it lacked the foresight and wealth of knowledge of the land that we would need to survive. I tried to argue my point that with our talents we didn't need to do anything the normal way. That we could forge our own path. But they disagreed with me again and I was out voted. Something that became a rather common occurrence.

The others often made decisions without me and did not heed my thoughts on matters. It was infuriating and, after a while, I stopped trying to offer my opinions, focusing instead on learning as much as I could about my talents as quickly as I could. Because I knew sooner than later, their decisions would bring the world crashing down around us.

We traveled north, up to New England for a time before venturing back to what we came to refer to as 'our' mountains. We all hid our powers from anyone outside our own little group. For the safety of us all, we agreed to tell no one. Not even our future spouses once we were married, but the real trouble began once we began to have families.

Cecile and I had settled in one village, Mary, Hugh, and Francis in another. We'd become a part of the communities, and settled into a normal life, even with our secrets. We married and had children. And as our children grew, we soon found that our talents had passed on to them.

I remember that night clearly, when the five of us met in secret, all together for the first time in years. Terrified of what might happen. If one of the children slipped up, it could be a repeat of the past all over again. Nearly all of us were afraid. The stories of witches were everywhere, and anyone accused could be put to death. But Francis had a solution, he had found a new use for his talent.

What he showed us that night was unlike anything I'd ever seen. He'd created a doorway not to another place, but to another world entirely. In all the years up to that point, I'd never regretted my choice of taking the knife or coveted one of the talents of the others.

Not until that night.