Page 15 of A Love of Wrath and Rapture

The candles in the room flicker violently, and I begin to fear that something supernatural might be taking hold of the room.

Has it come to take me?

That’s when the door shakes and rattles.

The noise becomes louder and closer.

“How could they think we wouldn’t want to have a say?” one angry man asks just outside the door. “Who do they think they are?”

“This is the fate of our village at stake! Get the purna out!”

I smile morbidly to myself.

Apparently, they think I’m a purna now.

It makes me feel a slight twinge of power, even as I feel shame and disgrace.

They only hate me because they’re afraid of me.

That’s when the door bursts open, and all at once, a gathering throng of people enters the small room.

“I’m so sorry,” Ephemera says, addressing the council. “I tried to stop them from coming in, but they wouldn’t give up!”

“Damn right, we wouldn’t give up,” a familiar voice says. “Some girl unleashes a curse upon all of us, endangering our families and friends, and you’re going to let her off the hook?”

The commotion is deafening. I hear people screaming at me and see people lunging at me, halted by guards and my few remaining friends. I step back against the podium instinctively, desperately trying to escape their reach.

I wish I was a purna right now. Maybe then I could put an end to this.

“Silence!”

Tully speaks out over the noise, her voice striking like the caw of a karasu.

The noise stops suddenly. Everybody in the room turns their head suddenly, looking across the threshold. My eyes meet hers. They shine red in the darkened room.

Notably, Tully has been completely silent during the meeting. I hope against all hopes that she might be a bit kinder to me than the others.

“Now, I understand you are upset, and that you want to have a say in this girl’s fate,” Tully says. “But you know that’s not how things have been done.”

The mob redirects their attention toward Tully, and I almost feel sorry for her as she recoils slightly.

“We’ve already made our decision!”

But it’s almost impossible to hear her over the noise now.

They must think that the council will take my side, despite all evidence to the contrary. I’m not even sure my closest friends will ally themselves with me anymore.

I see the council members deliberating in the face of growing hostility. I don’t know how they can hear themselves whispering, as their eyes move from me back to the crowd.

I think the only way to appease this angry mob might be to burn me at the stake immediately in the town square.

I chuckle to myself, before realizing that it’s not that outlandish that they might suggest that.

How did things get so far out of hand?

It was only intended as a joke!

I realize that I can’t ever make them see reason.

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