Shadows in the Trees
"Well," Blythe begins, "in my coven, whenever a baby boy was born to a witch, his witches' mark was burned off and he was left in the woods. When we were children, they told us it was a sacrifice to to appease the bloodthirsty Knights, Inquisitors, and Witch-Hunters, so that their bloodlust might be satiated and they would not come for us instead."
She lifts her skirt and shows her crescent mood birthmark with an X burn through it.
"The witches' mark is what lets one pass into the parallel pocket-plane that holds the coven's existence. If it is burned off, you can never return."
She pulls down her skirt.
"As we grew up, we quickly found out that the tales of Knights and Inquisitors and Witch-Hunters were just to get us to stop asking about why they banished the baby boys. They were not sacrifices. Which birthed more questions, and more fears from them: What happened if a baby boy survived? Well--they called them Wvytchmen.
"All the powers of a witch, but all of the wild, animalistic tendencies of a demon. Men of the night that could tear and rend you limb from limb. Their shadows could move independently of their bodies. Their grimoires were scrawled in blood. They rape and rend the corpses of dead animals, kill without mercy, shred flesh with their teeth!"
Knights and Witch-Hunters and Wvytchmen
From Blythe:
"We heard very different stories about knights," she replies, petting the kitty. "When I was little, they told me stories about knights too. But they were hulking men in blinding metal armor who came and took witches away and tied them to stakes and burned them. Their swords were named after the most powerful Matrons they had slain, and they were a scourge upon my people. When I was VERY little and asked why we left the baby boys in the forest and only kept the girls, the Matrons said it was to appease the bloodthirsty Knights and Inquisitors and Witch-Hunters, for without their sacrifice they would come for us instead. But when I got older I found out that's just something we tell the small ones to make them stop asking questions."
Banished Babies
"Oh wow, some things span races and cultures I guess." She looks out over the water. "In my coven, if a child was born a boy, his witches' mark was burned off so he could not return to the coven, and he was left in the forest to fend for himself. There are tales of roaming bands of feral male witches, but I highly doubt any of them survived. A baby is such a soft and squishy target for wolves and other--wait, your mother was human?"
Soren blinks a few times in surprise. "Feral male witches? Are they still considered witches then? Can they do all the magic you can do?" He considers the idea for a moment then stretches laying down onto his back staring up into the sky. "And of course my mother was a human. I am only half an orc. I would be much larger in stature, and obviously not as good looking if I were a pureblooded Orc."
Blythe leans over Soren, inches away from his face, studying all of his features.
She sniffs him a few times.
"I guess you *are* part human," she concludes. "Your other tribemates must have been very jealous of your beauty."
She plops back on her heels.
"Yes, they are still witches. If they are not all dead. Like I said, I'm pretty sure a human baby in the forest is a dead baby. It was probably a spooky story the matrons told us to keep us in line." She shrugs. "And warn us that we could always be excommunicated and thrown to the Wvytchmen." She rolls her eyes and smirks. "I never saw one in *my* exile."
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