Lily trembled as her gaze was glued to the man tied to a five-meter-tall pyre. Gagged and bound, the rather innocuous-looking man stood attached to a wooden pole. Special manacles and chains were attached to his body to prevent him from using Mana or spells. He didn’t offer any resistance—he just looked down from his platform at all the followers of the God of Light. There was no fear in his eyes, just resignation. He looked almost... sad.
“Today,” boomed the voice of [Cardinal] Atticus, “we have found a conspirator who tried to overturn the doctrine of the Lord!”
Many citizens gathered in the plaza at the center of the majestic colonnade of the Angelic Dome, the grandest basilica of the God of Light – though they hurled obscenities that had little to do with men and women of faith. They screamed and swore at the man on the pyre—most of them probably not even understanding what his crime was. However, they were a mob, and reason did not rest within them.
“This man whose name shall not be presented to you—least it infects us with his blasphemy, accepted the forbidden class!”
Lily raised an eyebrow, a forbidden class?
Lily had tutors to teach her history, but no one had covered public executions and the list of the things that made you a heretic.
“He entered the service of His Holiness to keep the library in order, to ensure that our sacred texts could be copied, reproduced, and distributed to those of faith! But once given this opportunity, this man decided to accept heresy within his heart, rejecting his God-given mission!”
“Only thanks to the suspicion and investigation of one of our most devout believers were we able to unmask this vile heathen in our midst!” [Cardinal] Atticus briefly turned to Lily’s mother and nodded at her.
Her?
Lily turned to look at her mother, whose manic smile distorted her angelic face. The fervor that burned in her eyes, the kind of psychotic gaze that only the most zealous religious followers could have, seemed to consume her very being.
“This heretic dared to accept a forbidden class,” the Cardinal continued, voice filled with righteous anger. “He has chosen the path of [Librarian], the vilest of classes that seeks to overturn the world itself! Even the disgusting dredges of the Necromonarchy have banned the class! And yet, when I asked him, this man told me he was operating for the common good! For the common good, he said!”
The crowd roared, and the [Cardinal] had to raise both of his hands to quench the noise he had just poured gasoline over.
Lily’s heart skipped a beat.
[Librarian]?! They are burning a [Librarian]?!
She looked around wildly to see if anyone here found this notion as maddening as her. But for all she looked, she could only see lighter shades of the same madness that possessed her mother.
A bit over to the left, Elysium stood by his parents, clearly bored with all of this. As if in a physical response to her gaze, he turned around and waved at her. Lily, however, was paralyzed. That was until her mother grabbed a fistful of her hair and turned her head toward the pyre, “Aurora, look. This is what will happen to you if you keep straying from the path!”
By now, the [Cardinal] thought his words had been enough to rile up the crowd and simply gestured to the executioners standing by the pyre to proceed. Lily had half-expected magical fire to erupt from their hands or a divine thunder to descend from the heavens. Instead, a few [Priests] with torches approached the pyre and threw them on the carcass of wood.
Soon, the flames began to lick and dance around the pyre, gradually engulfing the man in an inferno. His body, stoic and still, began to shudder as the fire's intensity grew. Yet, even as the pain must've become unbearable, no screams escaped his lips; only the muffled sound of anguish could be heard from beneath the gag.
The smell of burning wood soon mingled with the acrid scent of charred flesh. A few onlookers in the crowd looked uneasy, glancing away or covering their faces with handkerchiefs. But many remained riveted, faces lit by the fiery glow.
Even if she wanted to, Lily could not turn her head; her mother was still grasping her hair, keeping her gaze affixed on the terrible spectacle.
That’s when something happened; the gag the [Librarian] had been wearing somehow loosened, almost cued by his last moments.
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For a second, the man surveyed those who had condemned him to immolation, but in the next, he spoke amidst the inferno that slowly reached his feet.
“Your lesser God is lying, you—”
A sickle of pale flames had formed from the [Cardinal]’s hand and shot toward the [Librarian], decapitating the man before he could say anything else.
Unable to bear the spectacle any longer, Lily yanked herself away with all her strength, leaving her mother grasping onto Lily’s torn hair. But the pain wasn’t enough to cancel the horrors she had just witnessed. And so, she ran, ignoring her mother’s shouts.
“Come back here, Aurora!”
“Aurora!”
“You’ll bleed for this!”
Lily ran for her dear life, directed to the same cordon of [Templars] where they had come from. The warriors that held a free corridor for the most important figures glanced at her but did not bother stopping her even when they heard her mother—the function they were attending was more important than a scared child running away.
Elysium, who had been close by, as his parents were part of the [Templars], ran after her.
...
Lily cried and hugged the other kid, who, without the awkwardness one would expect from a child his age, patted her on the back and listened to her sobs in silence. Elysium’s figure had yet to fill up completely, but his body was sturdy from the rough training the [Templars] underwent even at a young age.
How could Lily’s mother be such a monster? How could she have condemned a man for being a [Librarian]?!
“Books are stupid,” Elysium spoke after a while, as Lily started to calm herself, “but burning someone for reading is stupider.”
Lily chuckled weakly at Elysium’s attempt to comfort her, the heavy weight of what she had just witnessed still fresh.
“Why are they so afraid of a [Librarian]?” Elysium asked, genuinely curious.
“I—I don’t know. He said something about the God of Light, I think—something they don’t like.”
Elysium furrowed his brow. “So, they burn them?”
“Apparently... My mother will probably want to burn me next,” Lily flinched, imagining what terrible punishment her mother would enact next.
He tightened his grip around her, his protective nature coming forth. “You’ll always have me, Lily. No matter what.”
Looking into her young friend’s light green eyes, Lily felt even more tears roll out, her body shaking.
She smiled – it was a weak, shaky smile, but a smile nonetheless. “Thank you, Elysium. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
...
At some point, Lily had to return home. She had tried delaying the inevitable, but she knew that her mother would have been waiting.
In fact, she was brought to the courtyard again, but this time, they were not alone.
“Uncle Aristides, His Light is not enough to guide me in raising this child. I don’t know what to do with her.”
An old [Bishop] whose malicious eyes seemed to dig deep into one's soul looked at Lily with evident disdain. His robes, far more intricate than the other clerics’, whispered authority. He moved forward at a slow, deliberate pace. Three [Templars] followed in his wake.
“Dear Aurora,” he began with a voice dripping with saccharine sweetness. “Do you understand the gravity of your sins?”
Lily stood defiantly, “I don't see it a sin to be horrified by murder!”
The [Bishop] chuckled, a deep and unsettling sound, “Murder? That [Librarian] lived in the shadows and wanted to further the darkness of his creed.”
Lily retorted, her voice trembling with anger, “By that logic, anyone with a different opinion should be murdered!”
“Enough!” her mother shouted. “She is my daughter, Aristides, but if she is tainted by heresy, then I will have no choice.”
Aristides smirked, “Heresy is like a weed. If you don’t pull it out by the roots, it will spread and corrupt the entire garden. Adriana, I have brought you something—this is one of the most marvelous inventions for rebellious children.”
The man took out something that looked like chainmail – but this was a series of concentrical rings chained to each other that had sharp, inward-facing ends, like thorns.
“Have her wear this—her faith shall be tested every day. Each time she goes against the will of the God of Light, or yours, it will prick her skin as a reminder of the pain that heresy brings to our world. Its enchantments are quite powerful and shall be bound by your will.”
Lily looked at the device, her heart rate increasing. The thought of having to wear it, its sharp edges biting into her skin every time she dared to disobey her mother, made her want to scream.
Her mother's eyes scanned the contraption, and for a moment, Lily hoped that her maternal instincts would kick in and she would refuse such cruelty. But that hope was quickly squashed when Adriana nodded in agreement.
“Very well. If this is what it takes for Aurora to see the light again, so be it.”
“Mother!” Lily cried, “How can you—”
“Silence!” her mother snapped. “You brought this upon yourself.”
Aristides handed the device over to Adriana, who approached Lily. “Strip,” she ordered, her voice devoid of any emotion.
“No,” Lily whispered, tears forming in her eyes, “I won’t.”
Suddenly, the [Templars] grabbed Lily, holding her in place as her mother approached her with the torturous chainmail.
“NO!” Lily screamed from the top of her lungs. “You are a monster!”
Her mother paused for a moment, her gaze unfathomable. There was tension in the air, a pressure that made breathing difficult. Lily's tears streamed down her face, her defiance in sharp contrast to the fear she felt deep down.
Adriana stared into her daughter's eyes, and for a split second, there was a flash of conflict there. It was as if, somewhere deep inside, a shred of her maternal love was fighting against the zealous dogma she had embraced.
The [Templars], sensing her hesitation, looked at one another and back at the [Bishop], who was observing the scene with an amused smirk.
Finally, Adriana spoke, her voice shaking, "Put it on her."
One of the [Templars] put a hand on Lily’s shirt and was about to rip it when an otherworldly pressure suddenly filled the courtyard.
“Pray tell, what do you think you are doing to my daughter?”