7 October 2012
Vivian, Mary and Hartley were adorned in white robes and tiaras of thorns. The three women were of incomparable beauty. They shared their deceased mothers eyes and voluptuous figure but as a consequence inherited her occasional penchant for wickedness on All Hallow Even.
Surrounded by a ring of flame, raised arms and looking up to the heavens, the sisters summoned the angel of death to commit justice to those who had entrapped and beheaded their mother. The angel appeared before them and took heed of the sorrow and vengefulness in their eyes.
"No boy shall have a mother, no man shall have a wife, no boy shall have a sister, their death will make things right" said the angel and vanished into the ring of fire.
The sisters were pleased and celebrated the angel with copious mead and frivolity well into the night. Their song was interrupted as the moon disappeared over the horizon by the sound of man and boy, screams that would shatter even the strongest of souls. The sound of despair and loss. The angel had surely fulfilled its promise.
The story of that night quickly traveled far and wide throughout the lands. The village was deemed to be cursed by the church. No man, woman or child was ever to enter that place again. The church also decreed that no man or boy should ever leave the village due to fear that the curse would spread. The village was doomed to die. The three sisters retreated into their home and left only under the dark of night, never again to be seen by man.
The next year on All Hallow Even, the three sisters were again surrounded by flame, adorned in white robes and their thorn tiaras. With hands held high and looking to the heavens they again summoned the angel of death.
The angel did not appear. The fire began to engulf them. Their robes were the first to burn followed by their hair and their thorn tiaras. Flesh began to melt away dripping down the wooden stakes they were impaled on. The three sisters' screams were drowned out as they were reduced to bone and sinus. A dozen children, dressed in black robes and hoods, skipping around the fire as if it were a game, led in procession by the village priest, every one of them chanting in unison:
'God save us everyone Will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns For the sins of our hand Sins of our tongue Sins of our father Sins of our young'
When they were finished and the fire had died and the sisters had reduced to ash, the angel of death appeared. It was pleased by the actions of the village and praised the children for their part in exterminating the evil from their village.
With the curse lifted, news of the event spread quickly throughout the land. The site of the burning became sacred ground and the place where people mourned for and remembered the dead.
__________ Authors Note: The chant is from a song called The Catalyst by Linkin Park, available at all good music stores. __________
Symphonies Of Blinding Light • Opuss № I