The Strength to Uproot Evil

We walked into the slayer’s guild after parting ways with Kegan, who looked like he needed time alone.

Slayer’s guilds always kept a few staff on duty to receive anyone returning late. When the three of us walked in, all of the staff were up. They had known about our plan and were desperate to see our outcome.

All of their heads shot towards the door and the receptionist who greeted on the first day looked at us with hopeful eyes.

“The witch has been laid to rest. The town is free!” Victor exclaimed and the staff all leapt up to their feet and cheered.

They clasped our hands, seated us to see to any wounds, and brought out drinks. Not worried about rationing, they also cooked us up a feast.

Luckily I didn’t sustain so much as a scratch that night.

As I ate a dish of roasted chicken and potatoes, the receptionist looked to Victor and said, “Mr. Troika, for your service today, we have decided to promote you from fowl-rank to falcon.”

I gasped then looked excitedly over to Victor. “Now I won’t be embarrassed to be your apprentice!”

This got the table to laugh and Victor patted me on the shoulder, and we shared a grin. “Congrats Victor,” I said under my breath, and an appreciative glow shone in his eyes. In that moment, I realized my approval meant as much to him as his did to me.

They raised their pints of beer in the air, while Poppy and I raised our cups of milk.

-

It was a cloudy morning, and heavy with mist.

The townsfolk had gathered around the mayor’s house that morning. As Victor, Poppy, and I approached, applause washed over our arrival. It seemed word was sent ahead of the witch’s defeat.

Mayor Windsor was waiting for us with a wide grin on his face. “The heroes of Galebrook! Victor Troika and Caleb Cole!”

“We were only doing our job. Nothing more,” Victor said.

“Nonsense. You have accomplished what five brave slayers failed to do on their own. All higher ranks might I add.”

“I’m proud to say that after slaying the tree, I have been promoted to Falcon.”

The crowd applauded this announcement.

I was basking in all this attention, then looked at Poppy. “Poppy?”

“Well thanks to you, we are finally free of the vile witch’s curse.”

The crowd joined in on the sentiment.

“She wasn’t the vile one, you disgusting monster!”

“Poppy!” The mayor was taken aback.

“Alyssa’s spirit is laid to rest, but she did not get the justice she deserved, because you still haven’t taken responsibility!”

“What nonsense is this, Poppy, please stop this now!”

“I know what you did! I have seen her memories!”

The crowd murmured in fear.

“How can this be?”

“I have spoken with her! She let me into her mind! Who do you think wrote those letters!”

The crowd began to look at her with suspicion then outright anger.

“Wait, Poppy you can’t mean that. She doesn’t know what she is talking about!” The Mayor now came to her defense.

“She’s cursed. She’s with the witch!” A woman yelled.

The town’s justice began stepping forth.

Victor cursed under his breath. “Wait, I’m an expert on curses, Poppy is not under any sort of curse!” He put her behind him and me.

I looked up then noticed that Kegan was there at the front of the crowd.

“That is just like all of you to act this way! Just like how you all killed Alyssa!” She turned back to the Mayor. “You had the opportunity to save her from the crowd’s justice, but you only agreed to clear Alyssa’s name so long as she married you!”

This caused the crowd to look at the Mayor and the color to run from his face.

“I saw her memories while in the town’s jail. You promised to help her escape being put the torch, on the condition that she not only marry you, “but warmed your bed that night, you pig!”

The mayor’s face took on a grim look. “You speak nothing but lies! It appears the witch has truly corrupted her!” He projected his voice. “Constable, take her away! Lest she affects the rest of us!”

Victor shot a glare at the mayor. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”

“Victor, you claim to know witches and curses! But you didn’t know this witch!” He shook his head. “I try to help this girl and she only seeks to defend her master and besmirch my name!”

The constable and some village men began to approach.

“You seriously can’t believe this?!” He opened his tome. “Stay back!”

The crowd and the constable halted and some back up.

“Victor please be reasonable! She is cursed! Let us put her somewhere where she won’t harm anyone for the time being!” The mayor pleaded.

“That’s right, she’s tainted! We all know it!” a man yelled.

“She’s cursed!” Replied an old woman.

“The loudest idiot who stirs the emotions of the masses controls the narrative. The wisdom of crowds,” Victor said to me and Poppy rather than the crowd.

As they approached I felt my anger surge and my blood boil. If this is what Alyssa was shown of the town before her death, I would have died cursing them all. Then the image of Poppy hanging was the snapping point.

“Get back!” A beast’s roar ripped from my throat, echoing through the town.

“Enderan no!” Victor said while I stepped out to face the crowd.

“Enderan?” Poppy asked then I heard her gasp. My arm now had red scales, and my scarf had shifted into a sword.

“He’s a demon!”

“He’s cursed as well!”

One of the town’s folk noticed Kegan just standing there and shoved him. “Brother Kegan, help the constable get rid of the hellspawn!”

He just stared at me. I knew he had already noticed my changes last night, so he wasn’t wholly surprised.

This mob was already on my nerves and stoking my hatred. “I am cursed! And the way you people treat Poppy, pisses me off! I bet you have never seen a real curse, till now!”

“Enderan, that’s enough!” Victor grabbed my shoulder.

“No!” I jerked his hand away. I then recalled the statue of the man my parents called friend. “I am Enderan Ember! The son of Ezrian and Syndria Ember of the Ashborn Lancers!”

This caused the crowd to all be slack-jawed.

“Goddammit.” Victor sighed in resignation.

“This town is named after my father’s friend, Vikrum Galebrook! And I bet he would be ashamed to be the name of this corrupted town!” He turned back to the Mayor. “I know curses! Maybe not a lot, but I have enough common sense to see that Poppy is not cursed!”

I looked at Poppy and she was taken aback by my appearance. This caused my stomach to drop. I knew at that moment that it was reasonable for her to be shocked, but it hurt nonetheless.

I reverted to my human form, then I held up my hand to the crowd. “As you can all see, I have control over my curse so I pose no threat of going berserk. Now let Poppy say her piece and you can be the judge!”

The mayor wanted to object, but he seemed bewildered by my appearance.

Poppy recovered from the shock I had given her, then turned to mayor Windsor. “You had her killed because she wouldn’t love you back! Had you told them this truth, you would have saved this town and the deaths of many innocents!”

“Again you have no proof of these accusations!”

“I do! If you look in the dresser of his room, you will find a ribbon like mine in a box.” The color seemed to leave the Mayor’s face and a smile of triumph stole over Poppy’s. “An old red ribbon that used to belong to Alyssa.”

“Please. Alyssa was an old friend of mine! A horrible witch or not, I kept it as a memento.” He exclaimed in exaggerated melancholy. “Is that what makes you suspicious?! Poppy, after all I have done for you?! You believe me of such an-

“That father façade won’t save you here! The only reason you adopted me was so you could groom me into being your lover!”

I gritted my teeth and my hold on Yoki’s sword form was white knuckled.

“Can you believe this girl?! What-

“Then explain why you’d always ask me if I found you handsome?! What about the way you would take deep breaths of my hair whenever you hugged me?! The way you touched me?!”

I turned to see that the crowd was now glaring daggers at the Mayor.

“You seriously can’t-

“This bow!” She removed it causing her hair to come undone. “This white ribbon that looks like Alyssa’s! Would you have made me change its color to red when I got older?! Would you have made me wear a red one as I tended your garden?! Tell me?!” Tears were spilling down her face. Heartbreak and betrayal, and the release of accusations that have been kept inside, tearing her apart.

It finally made sense to me why the townsfolk had found Poppy creepy just from looking at her. They had probably seen the ghost of a witch.

“You ungrateful child!” He said disbelievingly. “You all seriously believe this?! After all I have done for this town?!”

“As much as it pains me to say,” the constable approached. “Had you really believed in Alyssa being a witch, you would have let us burn her to the stake. But because you loved her, you didn’t want her to die in such a cruel way.” His voice began to break. “So instead you let us hang an innocent woman.” The constable now looked his age. “I thought she killed my nephew! Tell me, did she really curse our town?!”

“Now listen, you have to get evidence for these claims!” The mayor stepped back towards the gate of his house. “I’ll remain here, while you all calm down and straighten the facts. I can see that this town needs time to recover from that witch’s spell over you all!”

Shocked gasps from the crowd drew their attention to the priest clad in his black cassock, a sword made of light blazing radiantly.

Some of the unconvinced members of the crowd cheered in excitement, “Yes, stop the cursed ones!”

“Kill the demon!”

“Lay down god’s justice!”

“Kill the witch!”

“Kegan?” Poppy asked wiping tears away.

The priest pushed past the constable and walked past the three of them.

The mayor believing that Kegan was going to save him, paled when he walked towards him. His face became a painting of disbelief and fear.

“This is for Alyssa.” His sword of light went straight through the mayor’s heart, and the man collapsed, his gaze vacant.

Kegan turned to the crowd with frenzy in his eyes. “You all would have let this monster pull the wool over your eyes for the rest of your miserable lives! Because of your ignorance, the love of my life is dead! And having to live amongst you all these years has been hell!” He looked up to the sky, and spoke quietly. “Alyssa, I hope you can rest well now.” His tears rolled down his face as the sword disappeared and the god’s star fell to the ground, and he went to his knees next to it.

After a few moments of him just sitting there, the constable and a few men approached and apprehended him.

“No!” Poppy reached out, but Victor stopped her.

“He murdered someone, he has to be taken in.”

“But, Mayor Windsor was the monster!” I rebuked.

“I know.” Victor sighed watching as the heartbroken priest was taken away.