An old cracked wooden ceiling, that was the first thing that Marianna saw when she opened her eyes.

Her head was spinning and she couldn't think straight. She tried to push herself up to a sitting position, but just as she did, stinging pain shot from her back making her groan in pain as she stopped her movement and lay back again.

The pain wasn't that bad, at least not as bad as she remembered i...

Before that thought could even register itself in her mind, she shot back up, ignoring the pain from her back and the headache and sickness she felt from the fast movement.

What she did was look around her in panic, with a fast-beating heart, hurried breaths and cold sweat going down her body, her blurry eyes scanned the room she was in while she tried piecing together what happened to her.

The last thing she remembered was lying her eyes on John who was standing next to the land steward. Before that, she was barely staying conscious, and that sight only pushed her past her limits.

If she was in a different situation that memory would have made her sad beyond belief, but she wasn't in the state of mind to care about that.

Those were the last memories she had, and they were already a mess, what happened after that? She had no idea.

The room she was in was windowless, dark and oppressive. It was dusty and the bed she was on felt hard and had a weird smell, there was no door leading to the room and understanding that made her more panicky than she already was.

Just as she was about to start shouting, she heard the wooden planks creaking from her side, turning her head hurriedly to the voice, she found an old lady looking intensely at her.

'A witch!' Marianna almost shouted those words out loud but she managed to force herself to swallow them down somehow.

The old lady had a hunched back and was wearing a long brown old robe, with a hood thrown over her head. Under that hood was an old weathered face, with deep wrinkles covering it and murky unfocused eyes.

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The more Marianna looked at the old lady the more she felt that her thoughts were true, she really was looking at a witch, she might have been accused of being a witch, but that was just a lie spread by the land steward, she had no relation to witches and she feared them just like everyone else.

"You're up," the old witch opened her mouth and a hoarse harsh voice sounded out.

As she spoke, the old witch started moving slowly towards her, making Marianna retreat further into her bed.

"Hmm? Not even acknowledging me as I talk to you, how rude," Marianna was able to make out a hint of laughter in the old witch's voice.

Finally standing at the foot of the bad, her voice turned serious as she asked:

"What's your name?"

Unlike the other times, Marianna felt as if something was different in the witch's voice and she couldn't help but open her trembling lips:

"Ma... Marianna," her words were shaky and her eyes kept on moving around trying to avoid looking at the old lady in front of her.

"So Marianna, can you tell me why you were almost burned? And why people there called you a witch? Because I might be old and my sight might be getting worse, but I can clearly see that you're no witch," the old witch continued in the same voice.

"I... I was framed..." The young woman answered, she only wanted to say that much, but seeing the old witch's murky eyes still looking at her without making a sound she added reluctantly while averting her eyes, "It was because I refused the courting of the land steward..."

"He must have been quite an idiot, the amount of money needed to get a priest to give a false reading isn't small, and in the end, he won nothing from this, hehehehe... instead, me intervening will probably put a lot of attention on this, his little play won't stay hidden, his days are numbered," the old witch seemed as if she was talking to herself, yet she spoke in a loud enough voice for Marianna to hear.

From how fast Marianna turned her head to look at the old witch when she completed her words, her neck hurt, yet she didn't care, she just looked at her blankly as her mind tried to understand the information in those words and what they signified, the most important of which was:

"Yo... You saved me?" She asked.

"Huh! Of course I did, I thought a sister got caught and I was even ready for it to be a trap, but who would have thought that what I would find when I get there was a normal lady getting burned, it was quite a surprise I tell you," there was a hint of amusement in the old witch's voice as she shook her head.

"I..." Marianna started but her words got caught in her mouth and she lowered her head.

The old witch returned her attention to her with a small frown, as if wondering what was the problem with her. Seeing nothing wrong she said after a bit of musing:

"Rest for now, we will talk later," leaving those words she turned around and started walking again.

She had walked just a few steps when she heard the young woman's trembling voice:

"Wh... What's your name?"

"Hehe... A young girl asking for a witch's name, isn't that something?" The old witch cackled as she turned slowly towards Marianna before adding, "It's better if you don't know somethings."

Just as she finished her words, right in front of Marianna's eyes, she disappeared, leaving the young woman staring wide-eyed at where she was just a few second ago.

She soon returned to herself and, after calming her frightened heart, she thought of what she noticed before.

When the old witch was shaking her head earlier, Marianne was able to see a bit of her neck that was hidden before, and she noticed that the skin there wasn't wrinkled and hanging like the rest of the old witch's visible skin was, instead, it was youthful and wrinkle-free...