1.A.3 - Outfoxed
I have never been on trial in my unlife and only once in my mortal years. If, that is, one is feeling charitable enough to call the perversions of the Inquisition a trial. As you might guess, I do not have that much charity within me.
My late, and unlamented, sister-in-law Sylvania was a coward, and like many cowards had more than her fair share of cunning that she dared to use once. As I neared the eighteenth anniversary of my birth, much of the house was called away for family business in Pisa. My mentor and kinsman, Stefano, had a few weeks prior departed to Roma to secure a few more texts for me to study and had left the care of the parish in the hands of the toad Bartolo. It seems that my sister-in-law enjoyed whispering slander to her confessor, and when the time came when there would be none to offer resistance, the two moved against me. I was taken when I went to the marketplace with my woman to buy some small trinkets for a reason that has, by now, long escaped me.
Any protests or dragging feet were met swiftly and without mercy by pommels in my shoulders. I spent eternity in the bowels of the cathedral, even though I was told that I was only there for two days and nights before Stefano and my father liberated me. I confess that I was more grateful than I could have ever imagined I could be... after being beaten, raped, half drowned, and enduring hot coals baking the skin of my feet until I thought I would forever lose the use of them, by the time my family came for me, I was about to lose the last spark of defiance that I had within. I was prepared to die rather than give Bartolo, and by extension Sylvania, the satisfaction that they were victorious in having me eternally branded as a witch and an enemy of the Church.
I have vague memories of my two wardens being skewered and disembowelled as we left. For a time, Bartolo's fate was unclear to me, but then, a fortnight later, his preserved heart was delivered to me in a rosewood box.
With the blessings of the family so clearly demonstrated, I took great delight in making Sylvania's last few months upon this earth a living hell. But that is a tale for another night.
Muse: Isabel Giovanni Fandom: WoD:VtM Words: 406 Disclaimers: For content (brief mentions of torture). Nota Bene: I am not Isabel Giovanni. This is a role-playing and a creative writing journal. No profit is made and no copyright infringement of White Wolf Publishing is intended.