“So our bodies pave the way to his own transformation?”
Baraqiel’s anger knew no bounds that day, their eyes burning holes on the floor while Gabrielle sat beside them, nervously awaiting for an answer. Her hands restlessly played with each other, looking for answers she really had no way of getting: How did Father even reach these conclusions? She did press the possibility of the old man being deceived by someone else, but both Sisters denied it quickly; Where did Baraqiel and the other children down there come from? They clearly weren’t all from Gwynedd! Everyone in the church (except for Father, of course) were girls, and Baraqiel was…
… She honestly couldn’t tell, and felt in no position to ask. It wasn’t important anyways.
There was an uncomfortable silence in the Shed. Two children sat side by side, while the two nuns waited outside with their arms folded. Baraqiel accepted the fact that Gabrielle trusted them, and they were open to receiving help– but at the same time there was a part of them that simply couldn’t look at a member of the same church that had abided by their torture and imprisonment; and honestly, neither of the Sisters could really blame them for it.
“I always wondered what he wanted. Of course, I always knew it was going to be something terribly selfish! But never to this level…”
Arianna and Alejandra looked at each other for a second, listening intently to the children in the shed. They heard angered sobbing and frustrated grunts, the rustling that comes with a hug and quiet whispers of comfort. Their little lie had ignited the flames of anger much more intently than they thought it would, and now the guilt was weighing on their backs.
“It’s not like we are lying.” Mouthed Arianna, just feeling Alejandra’s dissatisfaction in those eyes. “The man is absolutely deranged, no matter how ‘selfless’ he thinks himself to be.”
“This whole ‘angel’ deal makes no sense.” Alejandra shook her head slowly as she turned to face her comrade. She had never been the kind to keep quiet, at least not for too long.
“Trying to bring magic back to the world at large via child torture doesn’t make much sense either, does it?!”
Silence. Both women took a slow and deep breath to try and temper their indignation, before going back to angrily whispering.
“Then just tell them that.” Alejandra’s frown grew heavier and even more frustrated, to the point where she took a step closer to tower slightly above the much smaller nun. “Why did you have to cling to this whole ordeal?”
“What if they suddenly decide that it is worth it, eh?” Arianna refused to back down, even if she had to stare right up at a woman a few heads higher than herself. “What if they decide to help the guy instead of us?!”
“After going through that torture!? There’s no way Baraqiel would do that.”
“But Gabrielle?”
Another moment of silence. That little girl really was a rogue element in the whole ordeal and both sisters were perfectly aware of it, but Alejandra recovered by clinging to her faithful view of things:
“She’s smarter than you think, Ari! She wouldn’t join Enrico’s doomed cause just because!”
“We do not know that for sure!!” Arianna stomped a foot down on the mud.
“I do!! She’ll help us even if we speak truthfully!”
“Well why don’t YOU tell her, then!?”
“Because we’re together in this, and I am not going to push against you now!!”
Both sisters stared at each other, just feeling the heat of the argument dissipate for a moment as they grew slightly flustered with how close they had gotten in the middle of it all. Arianna took a step back, crossing her arms and looking away with an angry expression in her eyes, while Alejandra simply sighed and turned on her heels. She didn’t want to apologize or back down on anything she said, but her big heart was already aching for reconciliation.
The shed’s door opened right between them, letting Gabrielle walk right out while helping an irate yet determined Baraqiel. After taking a moment to process the whole situation, one idea had become terribly clear in the child’s mind: their hatred for the Demiurge was way bigger and more important than their growing grudge towards the Church of the Saints.
“I will help you.” They said, letting out a slight sigh and looking back at the two sisters. “Just tell me what I have to do.”
Things felt a little awkward, at least enough for Baraqiel to notice, but the frustration had grown to such an extent that they simply could not effort to care much for what the nuns could be bickering about; Gabrielle, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice much of the strange air between Arianna and Alejandra.
With a heavy sigh, the bigger nun took the word.
“Thank you so much Baraqiel, I swear things will only get better from now on.” Ale smiled, trying to ignore Arianna’s chastising gaze. She had absolutely no certainty on that! But apparently lying about the future is much more acceptable than preventing a panic.
However, this did not register as a lie in Alejandra’s eyes: she believed, with every inch of her being, that things would go better one way or the other.
“The people of Genesis will come in around four days, if what the Chamber Priest said was correct. We just need to keep things calm for that long, and after that, they will ask you some questions about what happened.” Arianna stared at Baraqiel’s eyes, setting up the details of her to-do list. “You did something that night, didn’t you? Something… unnatural.”
Baraqiel gulped, turning to Gabrielle for help. The girl nodded slowly, and this gave Bari enough strength to speak again.
“Yes. I–”
“No.” Arianna lifted a finger. “No, you did not.”
“... What?”
“Baraqiel, you have to take it to your grave, do not tell a single soul about what you did, or what you saw, understood?” Arianna’s eyes grew even more serious. “It’s a secret, and knowing it puts you and anyone else in danger. If you can, forget about it. If not, wait until Genesis is gone and then we can talk about it… but until then, do not tell anyone about it. Understood?”
Baraqiel gulped. It was a little too late for that, wasn’t it? They could see Gabrielle taking a deep breath, ready to spill all the beans! Would this endanger her as well? They had to act quick, no time for doubt! So, before the girl could let it all out, they simply raised their voice.
“Alright. Not a word to anyone. I promise.”
“Good.” Ari nodded slowly, turning around. “Gabi, Ale and I will get you food for Baraqiel so you don’t need to take entire pots anymore. It’s only four days, so hang in there and not a word to anyone, alright?”
Gabrielle nodded slowly, letting the others continue to talk about plans and the importance of silence, while the gears in her own brain were turning at a slow and heavy pace, trying to understand. They were taking care of everything, right? With both Sisters around, Gabrielle wouldn’t need to do a thing anymore! But then, what was she good for in this? She would be useless, a problem to deal with again.
And they had more than enough trouble with the Demiurge already.
What is with all this secrecy? Were they truly that afraid of Father? Despite his burly physique and authoritarian voice, Gabi never felt especially afraid of the man.
Maybe they just don’t know enough about him. Sister Arianna always says that people are afraid of what they don’t know.
The connections were easy to make, really. If they were afraid because they didn’t know what that man could do, they had to learn more about him! And with everyone so busy either keeping the secret or
All she needed to do was to find more about the Demiurge…
—
“I swear, I saw her– I mean, I saw it cry today! Right in front of me, she looked so pitiful when apologizing!!”
While Gabrielle walked out and was being undoubtedly punished for her latest outburst, the rest of the girls in the Chapel had finished their chores and now frolicked around without a care in the world– except for four of them, the biggest, tallest and oldest ones, now hanging out together while sitting on the stairs at the Chapel’s entrance.
Samantha had remained by herself for a bit after her last conversation with the nuns, trying to wrap her mind around a new discovery and the ideas that came with it.
Gabrielle the Witch had always been, in the eyes of the girls, a sort of abomination of nature: she never cried, she never complained, and she obeyed every little command the nuns gave her like a boot licker. That and the strange, unnerving red hair made her stick out way too much for everyone else in the Chapel to deal with anything she did! Sister Marina always spoke about how she found the kid buried and took her in out of pity, not keeping her out of obligation… a horror story in its own right.
But today, after a long and hard fight, Samantha had seen the girl cry her eyes out, and legitimately beg for forgiveness like any repentant kid would. And for the first time in who knows how long, it felt like she had interacted with a regular human being.
“Her eyes were swollen and red, her lips all pouty and rosy!” Sam insisted, feeling her cheeks reddening just by remembering the expression on Gabi’s face when she accepted her apologies. “She was… she was almost cute!”
“Samantha you are useless, your words are as reliable as the witch’s.” Kimberly, or Kimmy for the friends, crossed her arms and shook her head slowly. “It’s a trick, clearly.”
“Okay, first of all! That’s rude!!” The red on Samantha’s face only got worse. “And secondly, you can’t fake crying like that!”
“Yeah you can, if you’re a witch you can do anything.”
Kimberly was the oldest girl in the church, seconded only by the feisty Amber and Gabrielle herself. She was a closed-minded, cantankerous girl with quite the vendetta against the so-called “Swine Witch”: her red hair always called the attention of adults and kids alike, and rumor was that the fisher boy in Gwynedd (her little crush) had slipped several times staring at the witch while working.
Between her inhuman behavior and all the attention she was getting, Kimberly simply couldn’t stand her.
“Yeah! Besides, remember how she beat your ass!? She bit you and all, like an animal!” Amber was quick to jump in as well. “She’s screwed in the brain, I tell you.”
Kimberly and Amber were always together, the latter serving as both the strong arm and the echo of Kimmy’s opinions, a way to keep the Chapel under their influence. In terms of raw power and intellect, Amber was often compared to an ox of sorts. A particularly aggressive, dimwitted ox.
“Well, yes she did, but we beat each other all the time.” Samantha tried to appeal to reason there, rubbing the spot in her arm where the redhead had bitten. “And have you seen her? I know that if she wanted, she could have broken my nose or something!”
A hand patted Samantha’s head. The quiet Francisca nodded slowly, apparently seconding the tall girl’s opinion. Francisca was the smallest out of the four older girls, taciturn and severe in her looks. People often said she already looked like a fifty-year-old spinster despite being only nine.
“The witch is like an animal, but not all animals are bad.” The girl nodded. “I’ve told you not to tease her that much, she’s starting to attack out of fear now.”
Kimberly huffed loudly. “Let her snarl and scream as much as she wants! I can put her back in her place no matter what. Right, Amber?”
“Yes! No problem at all. If she lifts a hand I’ll punch her so hard I’ll leave her seeing stars!”
“I don’t know.” Samanta sighed, crossing her arms. “Maybe… maybe we can start giving her an easier time? At least we won’t have to fight her much more if we leave her be.”
“Ohhhh, you already like her don’t you? You like the pig girl! Ewwwwwww!”
Kimmy and Amber were ready to start singing and laughing loudly, but Francisca pulled both of their ears before they could start.
“Owie!”
“None of that.” The small girl shook her head, sighing. “She has a point. Things would be way easier… she’s bigger now, strong enough to lift you and throw you around. Imagine how it will be in a few more years.”
Amber smirked, still confident in her abilities… but Kimberly gulped. That was a good point: Gabrielle did throw them around like empty pots, how strong could she get when she gets older?
Best to get on her graces… but, how??
“... I say we give her a test.” Kimberly decided. “Just to see if she has really changed into something actually normal, as Sam says.”
“A test?” Samantha tilted her head to the side. “A test of what?”
And then, an idea popped into Kimberly’s brain… a way to get rid of the Witch, or at least profit from her stupidity. Father Enrico had many things in her room, among them was a bowl of toffee he kept all to himself without ever letting anyone to even approach. With a smirk slowly starting to curve on her lips, the girl simply announced.
“A test of skill.”
“So our bodies pave the way to his own transformation?”
Baraqiel’s anger knew no bounds that day, their eyes burning holes on the floor while Gabrielle sat beside them, nervously awaiting for an answer. Her hands restlessly played with each other, looking for answers she really had no way of getting: How did Father even reach these conclusions? She did press the possibility of the old man being deceived by someone else, but both Sisters denied it quickly; Where did Baraqiel and the other children down there come from? They clearly weren’t all from Gwynedd! Everyone in the church (except for Father, of course) were girls, and Baraqiel was…
… She honestly couldn’t tell, and felt in no position to ask. It wasn’t important anyways.
There was an uncomfortable silence in the Shed. Two children sat side by side, while the two nuns waited outside with their arms folded. Baraqiel accepted the fact that Gabrielle trusted them, and they were open to receiving help– but at the same time there was a part of them that simply couldn’t look at a member of the same church that had abided by their torture and imprisonment; and honestly, neither of the Sisters could really blame them for it.
“I always wondered what he wanted. Of course, I always knew it was going to be something terribly selfish! But never to this level…”
Arianna and Alejandra looked at each other for a second, listening intently to the children in the shed. They heard angered sobbing and frustrated grunts, the rustling that comes with a hug and quiet whispers of comfort. Their little lie had ignited the flames of anger much more intently than they thought it would, and now the guilt was weighing on their backs.
“It’s not like we are lying.” Mouthed Arianna, just feeling Alejandra’s dissatisfaction in those eyes. “The man is absolutely deranged, no matter how ‘selfless’ he thinks himself to be.”
“This whole ‘angel’ deal makes no sense.” Alejandra shook her head slowly as she turned to face her comrade. She had never been the kind to keep quiet, at least not for too long.
“Trying to bring magic back to the world at large via child torture doesn’t make much sense either, does it?!”
Silence. Both women took a slow and deep breath to try and temper their indignation, before going back to angrily whispering.
“Then just tell them that.” Alejandra’s frown grew heavier and even more frustrated, to the point where she took a step closer to tower slightly above the much smaller nun. “Why did you have to cling to this whole ordeal?”
“What if they suddenly decide that it is worth it, eh?” Arianna refused to back down, even if she had to stare right up at a woman a few heads higher than herself. “What if they decide to help the guy instead of us?!”
“After going through that torture!? There’s no way Baraqiel would do that.”
“But Gabrielle?”
Another moment of silence. That little girl really was a rogue element in the whole ordeal and both sisters were perfectly aware of it, but Alejandra recovered by clinging to her faithful view of things:
“She’s smarter than you think, Ari! She wouldn’t join Enrico’s doomed cause just because!”
“We do not know that for sure!!” Arianna stomped a foot down on the mud.
“I do!! She’ll help us even if we speak truthfully!”
“Well why don’t YOU tell her, then!?”
“Because we’re together in this, and I am not going to push against you now!!”
Both sisters stared at each other, just feeling the heat of the argument dissipate for a moment as they grew slightly flustered with how close they had gotten in the middle of it all. Arianna took a step back, crossing her arms and looking away with an angry expression in her eyes, while Alejandra simply sighed and turned on her heels. She didn’t want to apologize or back down on anything she said, but her big heart was already aching for reconciliation.
The shed’s door opened right between them, letting Gabrielle walk right out while helping an irate yet determined Baraqiel. After taking a moment to process the whole situation, one idea had become terribly clear in the child’s mind: their hatred for the Demiurge was way bigger and more important than their growing grudge towards the Church of the Saints.
“I will help you.” They said, letting out a slight sigh and looking back at the two sisters. “Just tell me what I have to do.”
Things felt a little awkward, at least enough for Baraqiel to notice, but the frustration had grown to such an extent that they simply could not effort to care much for what the nuns could be bickering about; Gabrielle, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice much of the strange air between Arianna and Alejandra.
With a heavy sigh, the bigger nun took the word.
“Thank you so much Baraqiel, I swear things will only get better from now on.” Ale smiled, trying to ignore Arianna’s chastising gaze. She had absolutely no certainty on that! But apparently lying about the future is much more acceptable than preventing a panic.
However, this did not register as a lie in Alejandra’s eyes: she believed, with every inch of her being, that things would go better one way or the other.
“The people of Genesis will come in around four days, if what the Chamber Priest said was correct. We just need to keep things calm for that long, and after that, they will ask you some questions about what happened.” Arianna stared at Baraqiel’s eyes, setting up the details of her to-do list. “You did something that night, didn’t you? Something… unnatural.”
Baraqiel gulped, turning to Gabrielle for help. The girl nodded slowly, and this gave Bari enough strength to speak again.
“Yes. I–”
“No.” Arianna lifted a finger. “No, you did not.”
“... What?”
“Baraqiel, you have to take it to your grave, do not tell a single soul about what you did, or what you saw, understood?” Arianna’s eyes grew even more serious. “It’s a secret, and knowing it puts you and anyone else in danger. If you can, forget about it. If not, wait until Genesis is gone and then we can talk about it… but until then, do not tell anyone about it. Understood?”
Baraqiel gulped. It was a little too late for that, wasn’t it? They could see Gabrielle taking a deep breath, ready to spill all the beans! Would this endanger her as well? They had to act quick, no time for doubt! So, before the girl could let it all out, they simply raised their voice.
“Alright. Not a word to anyone. I promise.”
“Good.” Ari nodded slowly, turning around. “Gabi, Ale and I will get you food for Baraqiel so you don’t need to take entire pots anymore. It’s only four days, so hang in there and not a word to anyone, alright?”
Gabrielle nodded slowly, letting the others continue to talk about plans and the importance of silence, while the gears in her own brain were turning at a slow and heavy pace, trying to understand. They were taking care of everything, right? With both Sisters around, Gabrielle wouldn’t need to do a thing anymore! But then, what was she good for in this? She would be useless, a problem to deal with again.
And they had more than enough trouble with the Demiurge already.
What is with all this secrecy? Were they truly that afraid of Father? Despite his burly physique and authoritarian voice, Gabi never felt especially afraid of the man.
Maybe they just don’t know enough about him. Sister Arianna always says that people are afraid of what they don’t know.
The connections were easy to make, really. If they were afraid because they didn’t know what that man could do, they had to learn more about him! And with everyone so busy either keeping the secret or
All she needed to do was to find more about the Demiurge…
—
“I swear, I saw her– I mean, I saw it cry today! Right in front of me, she looked so pitiful when apologizing!!”
While Gabrielle walked out and was being undoubtedly punished for her latest outburst, the rest of the girls in the Chapel had finished their chores and now frolicked around without a care in the world– except for four of them, the biggest, tallest and oldest ones, now hanging out together while sitting on the stairs at the Chapel’s entrance.
Samantha had remained by herself for a bit after her last conversation with the nuns, trying to wrap her mind around a new discovery and the ideas that came with it.
Gabrielle the Witch had always been, in the eyes of the girls, a sort of abomination of nature: she never cried, she never complained, and she obeyed every little command the nuns gave her like a boot licker. That and the strange, unnerving red hair made her stick out way too much for everyone else in the Chapel to deal with anything she did! Sister Marina always spoke about how she found the kid buried and took her in out of pity, not keeping her out of obligation… a horror story in its own right.
But today, after a long and hard fight, Samantha had seen the girl cry her eyes out, and legitimately beg for forgiveness like any repentant kid would. And for the first time in who knows how long, it felt like she had interacted with a regular human being.
“Her eyes were swollen and red, her lips all pouty and rosy!” Sam insisted, feeling her cheeks reddening just by remembering the expression on Gabi’s face when she accepted her apologies. “She was… she was almost cute!”
“Samantha you are useless, your words are as reliable as the witch’s.” Kimberly, or Kimmy for the friends, crossed her arms and shook her head slowly. “It’s a trick, clearly.”
“Okay, first of all! That’s rude!!” The red on Samantha’s face only got worse. “And secondly, you can’t fake crying like that!”
“Yeah you can, if you’re a witch you can do anything.”
Kimberly was the oldest girl in the church, seconded only by the feisty Amber and Gabrielle herself. She was a closed-minded, cantankerous girl with quite the vendetta against the so-called “Swine Witch”: her red hair always called the attention of adults and kids alike, and rumor was that the fisher boy in Gwynedd (her little crush) had slipped several times staring at the witch while working.
Between her inhuman behavior and all the attention she was getting, Kimberly simply couldn’t stand her.
“Yeah! Besides, remember how she beat your ass!? She bit you and all, like an animal!” Amber was quick to jump in as well. “She’s screwed in the brain, I tell you.”
Kimberly and Amber were always together, the latter serving as both the strong arm and the echo of Kimmy’s opinions, a way to keep the Chapel under their influence. In terms of raw power and intellect, Amber was often compared to an ox of sorts. A particularly aggressive, dimwitted ox.
“Well, yes she did, but we beat each other all the time.” Samantha tried to appeal to reason there, rubbing the spot in her arm where the redhead had bitten. “And have you seen her? I know that if she wanted, she could have broken my nose or something!”
A hand patted Samantha’s head. The quiet Francisca nodded slowly, apparently seconding the tall girl’s opinion. Francisca was the smallest out of the four older girls, taciturn and severe in her looks. People often said she already looked like a fifty-year-old spinster despite being only nine.
“The witch is like an animal, but not all animals are bad.” The girl nodded. “I’ve told you not to tease her that much, she’s starting to attack out of fear now.”
Kimberly huffed loudly. “Let her snarl and scream as much as she wants! I can put her back in her place no matter what. Right, Amber?”
“Yes! No problem at all. If she lifts a hand I’ll punch her so hard I’ll leave her seeing stars!”
“I don’t know.” Samanta sighed, crossing her arms. “Maybe… maybe we can start giving her an easier time? At least we won’t have to fight her much more if we leave her be.”
“Ohhhh, you already like her don’t you? You like the pig girl! Ewwwwwww!”
Kimmy and Amber were ready to start singing and laughing loudly, but Francisca pulled both of their ears before they could start.
“Owie!”
“None of that.” The small girl shook her head, sighing. “She has a point. Things would be way easier… she’s bigger now, strong enough to lift you and throw you around. Imagine how it will be in a few more years.”
Amber smirked, still confident in her abilities… but Kimberly gulped. That was a good point: Gabrielle did throw them around like empty pots, how strong could she get when she gets older?
Best to get on her graces… but, how??
“... I say we give her a test.” Kimberly decided. “Just to see if she has really changed into something actually normal, as Sam says.”
“A test?” Samantha tilted her head to the side. “A test of what?”
And then, an idea popped into Kimberly’s brain… a way to get rid of the Witch, or at least profit from her stupidity. Father Enrico had many things in her room, among them was a bowl of toffee he kept all to himself without ever letting anyone to even approach. With a smirk slowly starting to curve on her lips, the girl simply announced.
“A test of skill.”
