She was a very strange girl. Everybody said so. Her name was Illyana, and she was the sort of person who went about talking to animals as if they were people. She loved books and stars and flowers. She sang and danced and wrote poetry. She knew things that no one else in the village knew, like the names of constellations and how to find faery circles. She was the village healer, as her mother had been before her, and her mother before her, and so on and so on. Healers were always strange, so no one thought anything of it. Besides, no one could doubt that Illyana was also very, very kind. So although she was so very strange, no one in the village ever thought any harm of her.
Then, one day, the witch hunters came. They were the sort of people who saw evil and corruption everywhere but within. People were terribly afraid of them, and the people in Illyana's village were no different. After all, to speak out against them meant certain death, because, of course, anyone who spoke out against a witch hunter would be considered a witch, and therefor put to death. That was the terrible danger of witch hunters, and these particular witch hunters were very, very dangerous. And so it was incredibly unfortunate that Illyana, with all her strangeness, happened to encounter them on the very first day they were in the village.
She caught their attention immediately. Her many odd habits were obviously signs of witchcraft, at least to them. Whispers began to go around and she was decried as a witch. Then, one tragick day, the kind and innocent Illyana was dragged into the town square to be burnt for witchcraft. You see, the word witch is really an awful word. It turns perfectly reasonable people into screaming lunatics, and dulls their consciences enough that they seem to have very little qualms about setting a very sweet young girl on fire. Because of that word, or rather because of people's reaction to that word, Illyana found herself tied to a stake in the middle of the town square, with flames licking up around her feet. She looked out at the crowd, and no one spoke up for her, no on shouted "STOP!" For a moment, it really did seem as though she was going to die a horrible death.
She might have, too, had it not been for a certain fey gentleman named Andrek. He had been watching Illyana for quite some time. In fact, he was rather in love with her, and had been waiting for an appropriate time to reveal himself to her. It seemed the appropriate time had come. So it happened, that just as Illyana was beginning to faint from the smoke, a pair of strong hands loosed her from the stake, and a pair of strong arms lifted her from the flames.
Andrek stood up, tall and proud, with the half-faint girl in his arms, and looked with contempt at the villagers. In that moment, he looked every inch the terribly powerful fey he was, and when he spoke, none of the terrified villagers dared interrupt him. "Wicked and cruel cowards! Smallminded, spiteful worms! Because of what you have done, I curse this village. I curse the very ground. Nothing will grow here from this day. Not a single blade of grass or stalk of wheat shall grow within a thousand acres of this accursed place. The trees will yield neither leaf nor fruit. Because you would have taken innocent life this ground is barren." As he spoke the plants around the place began to wither and die, and the leaves fell from the trees. Andrek turned to go, and a voice spoke. "How long?" Andrek turned his scornful gaze on the frightened woman who had spoken. "How long? Until things have changed. Until a lesson is learned.Until this village is no longer full of people who would harm an innocent young woman just because she is different." And with that Andrek left the village, taking Illyana with him.
That is not the end of the story, of course. Andrek and Illyana fell in love and got married, and a few years later Illyana gave birth to a beautiful baby girl with very strange eyes. They named her Aayani. How do I know all this? Well, that baby girl was me. It's been twenty-five years to the day since my mother was almost burned at the stake and my father cursed her village. I'm standing in the very square where it happened. My father's curse has held. There is not a speck of green in sight. I look around me, and I see the hearts of the villagers here. I see kindness, acceptance, and compassion. Things have changed. A lesson has been learned. Magick swells inside me, and blades of grass spring up around my bare feet. The curse has come to an end. It is time for me to go home.
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