Chapter Text
Scylla stood in the middle of the crowded village centre, tears welling up in her eyes as she pushed her way through every cheering body towards the front, finally breaking through to see a woman; hands bound with rope behind her back, a strip of material wrapped around her head crossing over her mouth so she couldn’t speak. An executioner ready with an axe by her side.
“This.. woman” a man began with disdain “has corrupted our village with sorcery!” the crowd roared into angry chants while Scylla stood silent trying not to let her tears fall, but it wasn’t long until her cheeks were wet with the emotion she felt.
“What do you have to say for yourself, vile witch?!”
The young brunette’s anger began to bubble inside of her, reaching boiling point as her sadness, anger, every emotion grew. That woman was no witch. That woman was her mother, taking the fall so she could live. Scylla was born special, as her mother liked to say, a chosen one of the Goddess. She held great power, power which she used to help the small village thrive, cure some illnesses, allow crops to sprout and keep the bad weather at bay.
When news spread to the church community of this work, they were quick to accuse witchcraft and issue a death sentence. But her mother wouldn’t allow it. She swore her daughter to secrecy, a promise she wouldn’t break no matter what might happen. It was a struggle, she hated this promise more than any other, but she would never break a promise with her mother.
Though right now, watching the axe become airborne, she never regretted making such a pact more. She began to chant under her breath, no one could tell she was speaking, even Scylla could barely hear herself, but she couldn’t do nothing. As she continued her working, crows began to fly overhead, of course that was apparently her mother’s doing; an all powerful witch trying to scare the mortal, fragile humans.
"She's bringing her army!"
"She wants to kill us all!"
"Pluck out her eyes! She must be doing it with her eyes!"
The crowd ridiculed her mother endlessly, the onslaught lasting for what felt to Scylla like hours, it was and endless cycle . She wanted to do nothing more than tell them to be quiet, but she knew that would end in the two of them dying. The reason her mother faced her current fate was to save Scylla from such a predicament.
The more they accused her, the more anger burned inside of Scylla. The axe came down as Scylla finished her chorus of work, the most blood curdling scream erupting from her lungs at what she just witnessed, what she heard as her mother's head fell to the ground with a thud and the village began to cheer in victory. She kept her eyes tightly shut wanting nothing more than to find herself waking up from what she wished was just a bad dream.
But her anger and sorrow she would soon learn had caused devastation. Upon opening her eyes, unlike the work she had just performed; a simple spell to simply knock everyone unconscious, give her and her mother time to escape, it hadn’t worked. The raw emotion she felt, the anger which coursed through her veins and work took over. The spell had worked too well.
Everyone was dead, she was the sole survivor in her village. The intensity in her emotion had brought a wind of fire and fury, wiping out buildings and people alike, human or not. Nothing was safe from its destructive path of revenge.
But Scylla didn’t care, all she cared for in the moment was her mother. There was no time to stop and look at the damage when there was only one thing on her mind. She ran, lifting her mother's body cradling her in her arms as she wept, eyes tightly shut as if she would open them to see her mother alive, but it wasn’t to be. As she finally looked around, she saw the now devastated village, a few houses aflame but most buildings were already ash. Nothing and no one was left standing.
Her cries became louder, clinging tightly to the body of the one who raised her as she spoke through her sobs, her voice cracking sounding like she had been broken from the inside out "I'm sorry mom. I'm sorry... I'll fix it somehow. I promise..."
While wrapped up in her grief, she didn’t notice a figure appear in the distance as she spoke, a fair woman hiding in the shadows watching her who, unbeknownst to Scylla, would be the only person that could help her fix this.