Chapter 2

Lïn made her way to the village, the patches of blue that populated the sky as she walked the path gave way to a dark and oppressive gray sky, clouds casted their shadows over the village as the air got colder, thunder could be heard in the distance.

The village looked dilapidated, houses and shops stood crooked and in disarray, not many windows had their glass in one piece. Not many signs of life either, that would make her job harder, she had hoped to find someone who could point her in the right direction.

She didn’t know much about Gatersleben, all she knew is that the merchant that took her to Quedlimburg had a shop here, and that’s what she intended to find.

The elders of Quedlimburg had warned her about going outside of the town, “These are dark years”, “Nothing of vale lays beyond the gates”, “We’ll be spare the sorrow that floods these lads as long as we stand behind our walls”.

Lïn knew about the persecution that witches had endured centuries ago, she thought that those were dark ages, left behind once order in the community had been established, but the elders talked about new horrors, that care not about the actions of the witches.

Man made machines that made tales of old powerful witches seem like children games, the noises these machines made were like nothing Lïn had heard before, faster than any horse, they left nothing but dark smoke and destruction behind.

Her dark thoughts were whipped away as she spotted a small black cat, suddenly she felt hope again, these animals have brought good luck to her kind, surely this was the help she was looking for.