“What’s going to happen now?” the woman asked, even as her eyes darted all around my house, taking in the impossibly modern ambience. With a brief wave of my hand, I placed flames on a few strategically placed scones on the wall, bringing light into the dark building. That allowed her to see the place in all its considerable glory, making it especially impressive for somebody who hadn’t been able to enjoy anything like this in over a year.
“Would you believe me if I were to tell you that I do not know?” I asked, barely hiding a grin when admitting my ignorance, “It’s not all that often that somebody is this stupid; people generally have better sense than trying to set divine shrines on fire or defile them in some other manner.”
I paused for a moment before deciding that the only way to get the woman’s name, just so I wouldn’t have to think of her as ‘that woman’ any longer, was to ask her. Which is exactly what I did and she told me her name was Stephanie, a name I filed away somewhere in my mind.
“Anyway, the plan, as you can see, is to bring these four into the Shrine proper and from there, Lady Hecate will take things away.” I shrugged as Silva dragged the first guy into the room, holding the altar and the statues of Lady Hecate, even though the three were wearing the faces of Luna, myself and the Grandmother. It would be interesting to see if Stephanie would notice and, if she did, what she would make of it.
Luna joined the two of us in the altar room, giving Stepanie and me a nod in greeting while Silva continued her work. Curiously, I noticed that despite the flames I had conjured, the faces of the three statues remained in supernatural shadow, a darkness even I couldn’t pierce with my incredibly high affinity to Darkness Magic and my usually impeccable dark vision. I had no doubt that Lady Hecate had Her hand in that, though I wasn’t completely certain why. Maybe She wanted to preserve some mystery, but it could be anything. If I had learned one thing, it was to never assume with Her, and maybe with any deity, they might always come up with a way to surprise you. Then, As soon as Silva finished dragging all four of our attackers up to the altar, things immediately got interesting.
Even the least perceptive person would have noticed the change in the air; the flames I had ignited earlier, their fire a relatively normal orange-red, suddenly turned into a deep green colour, giving the room an eerie ambience, especially when the flames started to move along the walls, causing the shadows to shift wildly. At the same time, the air quickly grew thick with power, and the statues behind the altar started to slowly move, their eyes alight with an unearthly glow. Curiously, despite the glowing eyes, the rest of their faces remained shrouded in a strange, highly ominous gloom. Even I, who usually felt right at home in any sort of darkness, was somewhat uncomfortable with it, as if something within my mind was screaming at me that this should not be. From the looks on my companions' faces, they were similarly afflicted.
“Awaken!” a voice composed of three different voices commanded. It wasn’t quite the usual voice of Lady Hecate; even if it held all its usual theatrics, something was subtly different. I couldn't tell the difference, just that it wasn’t how She usually sounded. The literal divine command, spoken in a place consecrated to Her, was enough to shatter the Mind Magic I had used to keep the four unconscious, even with the somewhat rough treatment Silva and I had used to drag them into the shrine, and all four awoke immediately.
Just as immediately, they tried to get to their feet, likely in an attempt to run away, if their panicked behaviour was any indication. However, despite their frantic scrambling and wiggling, they didn’t move anywhere, almost as if they were bound in invisible ropes, just without the distinct areas of pressure. Maybe She had somehow limited their possible spatial displacement by a certain amount, meaning they couldn’t move any further than that discrete distance. Or it was some other effect; even with my advanced magical senses, I was unable to discern that anything out of the ordinary was going on there. Somehow, that disconnect between what my mundane senses combined with my experience told me and what my magical senses were telling me made the entire scene even more surreal and intimidating.
“Jacob, Enzo, Marcus and Detlef,” the voice addressed each of the four in turn, the focus of those glowing eyes as disturbing as it was obvious. “You have attempted to destroy Our shrine! To defile what was erected in OUR name!” The accusation was obvious and it, combined with the sheer intimidation created by the voice, the location and those glowing eyes, was enough to make one of them, I believe the guy named Detlef, lose control of his bladder.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“You have done so out of greed and arrogance, ignoring the debts you owe to those We have blessed in your realm. Debts of Life,” at that, the eyes focused on Jacob, “Debts of honour,” the eyes focused on Enzo, “and material debts,” this time, all four of them got their moment under the freezing glare of those eyes.
“We have seen your minds, We have seen your hearts and what We have seen, We have found wanting. You are,” here, the voice paused again, letting the anticipation chill the hearts of the accused even further. Or maybe they should be called convicted, as there didn’t seem to be any actual trial happening.
“Pathetic,” the voice finally stated, the word hanging in the air for a moment, impossibly reverberating within the small, fairly filled space.
“For your actions, a curse upon you all,” the voice declared, and for a moment, I waited, wondering if Lady Hecate would explain what the curse did. But no such explanation was forthcoming, only a surge of magic, strangely slow and deliberate, allowing me to follow along with the effect and its mechanisms.
Quite frankly, the entire curse was a thing of beauty. The first, striking all four of them, was somewhat similar to an idea I had just the day before, binding together a mental effect and a physical effect before anchoring the entire thing to the target’s soul, making it incredibly potent despite the strangely limited power She employed. Assuming one had the ability to meddle in a divine curse, if I used it with my own abilities and without simply copying what Lady Hecate was weaving together, it would be difficult to remove but with the precision and, for lack of a better word, tightness, Lady Hecate used in Her weave? I doubted anyone could unravel that, especially not without causing tremendous harm to the target’s soul.
Amusingly, the effect itself was fairly simple: nothing but a fear effect afflicting the target with an incredible fear of fire and dogs. However, despite the effect's simplicity, I had a feeling that its consequences would be utterly devastating. Any canine would cause these four to fear for their lives, and I doubted they would be able to handle anything burning or get close to any open flames without starting to tremble in mortal terror. Given that canines would likely soon regain their status as man’s best friend and most important partner for every hunter out there, it shut a door to them and any group they might be part of, simply because these four would be useless when a dog was near.
And yet, despite the debilitating effect the fear of canines would have, the fear of fire would be worse. They would be unable to cook or relax near a warm fire; even a candle would send their hearts into palpitations if they could find one. Nights would be utterly dark and cold unless they managed to find somebody to help them at all times.
Then, a second curse was woven, this one only striking Jacob, the guy whose life I had saved during the quest. Compared to the first, it was much more powerful, but it lacked subtlety. If I understood the mechanisms I observed correctly, it would be impossible to heal Jacob magically in the future; any attempts would fail or be turned into something harmful.
“All who look at you will know of your perfidy and the punishment We levelled upon you. Now, be gone from Our sacred space!” the voice commanded, and with the command, the magic that kept the four in their place, despite their obvious panic, dissipated. Given that they had been cursed with a mortal fear of fire and they were all held in a room filled with numerous floating flames, the speed with which they fled couldn’t have increased all that much if the flames had set their behinds on fire; they were that quick.
“The lesson you could watch today, Jade, is a small reward for you,” Lady Hecate told me, now speaking in her usual voice, and I could almost see the grin on her face despite the fact that all three statues remained shrouded in darkness.
“We shall speak again, Daughter and Mother.” With those words, the glow faded from the statues’ eyes, the flames returned to their scones and regained their normal colours, and the entire ominous atmosphere faded like a dreadful nightmare upon waking.
“Wow,” it was only a whisper from Stephanie but somehow, it encapsulated my feelings quite well.
