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When he spoke again his voice had taken on a new tone, grave but engaging, a storyteller’s voice “Gather close and listen well to the tale of the Witch’s Bastard This is not a story for the faint at heart or the weak of bladder This is the htful of tales and when I aiven it voice

“In the darkest part of the darkest woods in old Renfael, long before the tie there dwelt a witch, coht Sweet and kind was the face she offered to the village, but mean and jealous was the soul behind it For it was lust that drove this woold and lust for death The Dark had taken her at an early age and she had surrendered to its vileness illing abandon, denying the Faith and winning power in return, the power to possess men, inflame their desires and have them commit dreadful acts in her nae Factor, a good and kind roealthy enough to arouse the witch’s lust Every day she would wander past his place of business, flaunting herself in subtle ways, stoking the fla away his reason,him prey for her Dark whispered plan: kill your wife and take ht, he sprinkled the poison known as Hunter’s Arrow into his wife’s supper and, co a wo of the Factor’s as taken as sie But of course the witch knew better, hiding her delight with tears when they gave the poorto the Factor with her Dark power: “lavish gifts on ave her, a fine horse, jewels and gold and silver, but the witch was clever and refused it all, e at the i a wo at that How she tor his every advance, it wasn’t long before her cruelty unhinged his reason and, seeking escape from the Dark enslavement of her lust, he stole away into the forest and stretched his neck fro ord of his ill deed and na the witch as the cause of his ers wouldn’t believe it, so sweet she was, so kind The Factor was clearly driven ave hiet this dread episode But, of course, the witch was not done, for her eye had alighted on the village blacks of heart, but even his heart could be twisted by her Dark power

“She had taken to living apart froers, all the better to practice her vile arts away fro eyes As she could turn a man’s heart this witch could also turn the wind, and as the blacksale to whip snon fro hih he resisted with all his th, she forced him to lie with her, a black, evil union from which her dread bastard would be born

“It was shaood man forced to betray his wife, shame that made him deaf to her sweet enticements the next morn, and deaf to the threats she screae where, foolishly, he told no one of what had transpired

“And the witch, she waited As the black seed grew in her belly, she waited As winter gave way to spring and the crops grew tall, she waited And then, when the scythes were sharpened for harvest and her foul creation clawed fros, she acted

“It was a storm unlike any seen before or since, heralded by ashen clouds that covered the whole sky fro wind and rain in terrible abundance For three weeks the rain fell and the wind blew and the villagers huddled in fearful misery until, when at last it was over, they ventured into the fields to find every acre a wasted ruin The only crop they would reap that year would be hunger

“They looked to the forest, seeking ga all the beasts driven off by sory, the old people sickened and, one by one, began to pass into the Beyond, and all the tie in the woods, for she and her bastard always had plenty to eat, unwitting beasts could be easily snared by one so well versed in the Dark

“It was the death of the blacksmith’s beloved mother that finally drove the truth fro thens and how he had fallen under her spell to sire the well-fed bastard she carried through the forest, hter The villagers voted and none disagreed: the witch must be driven out

“At first she tried to use her power to assuage the him of the most terrible of crimes: rape But her power had no effect now they could see the truth, now they could hear the venolint in her eye showing the vileness hidden behind her pretty face And so with torches flahteous anger as she fled into the forest, clutching her vile whelp to her breast, all pretence gone as she cursed theers returned to their ho winter, the witch sought out a hiding place in the dark reaches of the forest, a place where no foot had stepped before, and began to teach her spawn the ways of the Dark

“Years passed, the village buried its dead and refused to die Years went by and the witch becahten children The crops grew, the seasons passed and all seeht with the world oncestorly but a scrawny, ragged boy gone wild in the woods, but in truth possessed of all the Dark she could pour into him, first with the tainted e in their stinking refuge and finally with her own blood For she had sacrificed herself, this witch, this hate filled woh she took a knife to her wrists and bade him drink And drink he did, hard and deep until the witch was but a husk, gone to the nothingness that awaits the unfaithful but succoured by the knowledge of her ieance

“He started with their aniht and found tors were taken, their severed heads ie Fearful, ignorant of the true danger that assailed theers set watches, lit torches, kept weapons close to hand when darkness ca

“After the beasts he ca infants and babes still in their cribs, any he could take he took, and gruesoed, ht tracks, every known hiding place checked, traps set to ensnare this unseen h the autuhtly toll of torture and death continued And then, as winter’s chill gripped the into the village at noon By now their fear was so great no hand was lifted against hied for their children and their lives, they offered all they had if he would just leave thehed It was not a laugh any norh that could have coh, they knew they were dooe burned The people fled to the river but he swelled it with rain until the banks burst and carried theht down a blast of wind from the far north to encase them in ice And when the ice had set, he walked across it until he found the face of his father the blacksmith, frozen in terror for all tih sohts, in a place where it’s said a village once stood, you can hear laughter echoing through the woods, for that is how it is with those who give themselves over to the Dark so completely, release from life is denied them, and the Beyond closed to thehtful as he returned his gaze to the sword in his lap I had a sense that he attached soravity hich he had related the story spoke of a significance I couldn’t discern “You believe this story?” I asked

“They say all myths have some kernel of truth at their heart Perhaps in time, a learned fellow like you could find the truth in this one”

“Folklore is not my field” I set aside the parchment upon which I had set down the tale of the Witch’s Bastard It would be several years before I read it again, by which tiestion

I reached for fresh pages, looking at him expectantly