Human Kind by Anton Eine

Author:Anton Eine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: earth, history, religion, aliens, witch, monster, time travel, lucifer, gaming, humankind
Publisher: Anton Eine

Burn, Witch, Burn!

Translated by John William Narins

She was an old witch, this one. Practically ancient. The ghoul of a hag glared balefully from under half-closed lids, flecks of hellfire smoldering in the depths of her black, dilated pupils.

Safe to say this one hadn't sold her soul to the Devil for eternal youth and beauty. Although, in recent years, holy father Giancarlo Durante had run across that sort, too. It was only just to admit that watching over the purging of that kind of witch was, in a way at least, more... gratifying.

No, the sinful urges of the flesh to which certain other Inquisitors he could name so willingly succumbed in the course of these proceedings were unknown to him. And Giancarlo was firm in his repudiation of such practices, nor did he indulge his inferiors in even the most trivial departures from tradition. On a purely aesthetic level, however, the torture and execution of the younger witches were, of course, more satisfying.

Perhaps satisfying wasn't the precise term he wanted... Less distasteful, that might be more accurate. Father Durante took no pleasure in the performance of his sacred duty. He had been appointed to his position for the profundity of his faith, for the steadfastness of his nature, for his boundless devotion, for his purity of spirit, and for his naturally curious mind.

Tenacity and fearlessness had proven highly useful, as well. For he had all too often found himself faced with the most horrifying crimes, the most inhuman atrocities. Demonic possession, the cruel rituals of witches, human sacrifice practiced by accursed heretics, the nigh bestial atrocities wrought by a wretched and impoverished humanity... the list was neverending.

Over his seven years in his office, the pitch in Father Durante’s hair had been vanquished almost entirely in its doomed struggle with the silver. But he had never regretting his appointment. And for that he was eternally grateful to Pope Innocent, who he had known long ago, in their youth, as Giovanni Battista, and who had dispatched him to carry out his mission in these savage parts. Which, by the way, were the native land of Rodrigo Borgia, the depraved and avaricious old man newly inaugurated as Pope Alexander.

A whirlwind of fire, Giancarlo moved ineluctably down the coastline, bearing justice and searing out heresy. It was only a few months earlier, after the taking of Granada, that the Grand Inquisitor had assigned to him this intractable region.

There were still many Moors living here, whose noisome creed it was his work to root out. The treaty guaranteed them religious freedom, but one of father Durante’s responsibilities was to see that the foul heretics enjoyed that freedom as little as possible. He implacably suppressed their every attempt to disseminate their unholy notions.

Here, too, secret Jews sought refuge, having fled the larger towns of Castile and Aragon for the harsh foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Where they found a land already rife with troubles of its own – the old pagan cults and, unavoidably, witchcraft, black magic and satanism.

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