Visions and Nightmares by A F Stewart

Author:A F Stewart [Stewart, A F]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-13T04:00:00+00:00

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She tried to hide her true self, caught in this trap with no way of escape. Stolen from the gods, she had nowhere to run; her masters would not accept back a tainted Hound. Not without an offering. She had seen a few try to return. None had succeeded.

So Elenora suffered, existing as her longing ate away at her thoughts, and the days flowed into each other. Outwardly she smiled at her husband and children; she allowed him to touch her, allowed herself to feed and care for her family. Repeat the routine to stave off the madness.

Most days she fed her yearning with remembrance. The grit of loam and decaying leaves beneath her fingers, the charred taste of cooked meat ripped from the bone by her teeth. On the bad days she daydreamed. Envisioned herself taking a knife and eviscerating her family while they slept. On those days she missed the scent of blood in her nostrils, the putrid tang of spilled entrails, the dead look in the eyes of the newly killed prey. Those days were the hardest to bear.

Eventually her husband noticed and called the Cabal elders. He sat her down one day as three stern men entered her home. The men looked at her with undisguised disgust, before turning to her husband.

“Do you condemn your wife as unrepentant?”

Elenora scowled as her husband nodded and replied, “I do.”

In the next instant, the three men grabbed her and forced her outside, dragging her screaming from her house. They threw her to the ground.

Elenora stared at them, and spat. She noticed her husband remained in the house.

Coward. Not brave enough to witness what he’s done.

The three Cabal elders circled her and pronounced judgement.

“Elenora Noveer, you have been accused and found guilty on evidence of your lawful husband. You still embrace the false gods, refuse the grace of reclamation, the grace of liberation from evil. You must let go of the last vestiges of your tainted transgressions and embrace the true path denied to you for so long. Will you renounce the Pantheon?”

She turned her face away and did not answer. Once, she would have cut them, torn them limb from limb, but no more. The Cabal stripped the blood of the gods from her veins and left her with only the memories. These men turned her powerless and laid her at their mercy. She could not give them what they wanted.

“We ask again. Do you denounce the Pantheon and their barbaric ways? Do you accept the human path?”

Elenora hung her head and stayed silent. She feared what would come next, but she could not lie. Not about that.

The elders sighed. “Very well. We will cleanse you. We will beat the evil out. Your stubborn will must be shattered and reformed. We must save you, Elenora.”

The men dragged her to the front fence, to the stocks that were part of every Cabal member’s home. Once locked in, unable to fight back, she heard the slither of the leather whip being uncoiled and braced for the lashes.

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