Ciara the Sorceress

In a room, in a cabin, in a forest, in Ireland, there sits a woman. A woman impatiently awaiting the arrival of her new husband to their new home.

The cabin is small, but cozy nonetheless. A couple small rooms, a bedroom with a bed perfect for a young couple, a kitchen, and a sitting room. That was all they needed. There were not many decorations, other than a few rugs and pelts lying around. The furniture either in burgundy or hunter green, their two favorite colors.

She sits in a wicker chair in the sitting room, her long dark brown hair spilling down her graceful back. She wears a green dress made out of knitted cotton with a belt tied around her narrow waist and boots, both made of animal hide. She looks out the window with her curious cat like green eyes for her husband, but still does not see him. She slowly stands up and walks over to the looking glass to examine herself in the reflection. She touches her face with her milk white hands as she watches in the looking glass’s reflection. She analyzes the face she sees. The complexion that seems to be flawless, with skin that is so pale, one might imagine she was a unicorn in a past life. She watches herself, and wishes that she had freckles, so when others looked at her, they knew she was Irish. Irish and of the ancient sorceress tribes. She had inherited her mother’s skin, who was the chief of the tribe, and everyone in the tribe knew she was the chief’s daughter just by looking at her. The women in her family were famous for their beautiful skin all over Ireland.

She walks over towards the window to see if he is coming yet. She still does not see him. How long could it possibly take to meet all the other men in the tribe?

A surge of guilt courses inside, as if it was part of the blood that ran through her. She loves her new husband with all her heart, yet she cannot bear to tell him about her past. She had tried so many times, but it never seemed to come out of her mouth. She wants to tell him so badly, of Brennus, and how he had raped her, of when she discovered that she was with child, and the pain of telling her mother. How she had had to endure a miscarriage during the fifth month, and the pain that it had caused her both physically and mentally. How everyone in the tribe had looked down on her. But not because of what most people would think. They did not view her to be a harlot, they understood that she had been a victim; they looked down on her for not being able to protect herself from an unblessed man. For in the tribes, only women had magical powers. Because of all the looks she had received, she left the tribe for a time and that was how she had met him. Through the journeys she had while she lived out amongst the unblessed people.

All the pain she had endured, and yet she could not release her pain onto her husband’s shoulders. She felt that somehow, he would not love her anymore if he knew. That is why she had been so reluctant for such a long time to marry him. He had asked her about once a week for four months until she finally accepted. Then they had come home to her tribe’s land since she had finally made something of herself by finding a husband.

And now she stood here, waiting for him to come home to her. They had built this cabin and all the furniture together with their bare hands, and he had not been inside since they had been married. Once more she looks out the window, and still no sign of him. She turns away to go into their bedroom, when she sees movement out of the corner of her eye. She glanced back and there he is! Thank the gods! He’s finally home! She runs outside the cabin and throws her arms around him as if she had not seen him in weeks.

“I’m happy to see you too, Ciara,” he said smiling at her.

“Donal, why did you have to take so long meeting all the other men in the tribe? Were you not eager to come home to me?” she replies as she rubs her face in his neck in a loving way and smells him.

“Oh, darling. Of course I was. But all the other men were very talkative and would not let me leave until I had spent at least a half hour with each of them. I think it is a ploy they have to keep the new couple waiting to see each other.”

“Yes, I would not doubt that they would do such a thing,” she replies. She begins to tug on Donal’s hand, nearly dragging him into the house. “Come, love. Come into the cabin with me. You have not been inside since we married.”

Donal follows his new wife as she leads him into their new abode. She guides him to the sitting area, where she waited for him, and he smiles at her. That smile always made her feel like nothing could ever go wrong between them.

Donal is a quite attractive man. He is tall and strong, with tawny colored blond hair down to his shoulders, the green Irish eyes, and the freckles. He wears a black leather jerkin and burgundy leggings with hand made boots that come up to his mid calf. Every time he puts his arms around Ciara, she feels protected, and that there would never be anything that could come between the two of them.

She sits down in one of the wicker chairs, and he sits down in one of the chairs nearby. He then says to her,

“Ciara, there is something I need to tell you.”

She looks up at him with a warm smile on her face and says, “What is it darling?”

“Well, I have a confession to make. You see, I have not been completely honest about my past. Uh . . . well, to be perfectly honest with you, I have had marital relations before.” Donal tells her, with his eyes staring at the ground.

Ciara is quite taken aback and does not know what to say at first. She definitely had never expected this. Of all the luck, to have a husband who is guilty of the very same crimes as you yourself have committed. But, she does not know the circumstances, so she had better find those out first before she jumps to any conclusions, she thinks to herself.

“Under what circumstances have you had marital relations? Have you been married before?”

“Oh no, nothing like that. I only had a brief weekend involvement with a young widow in my village. After the weekend I realized what I was doing and repercussions of it, and so I quickly ended the involvement. Can you ever forgive me?” he asks, as he looks up into Ciara’s eyes pleadingly.

She thought for a moment about what her crimes were, and the circumstances of her situation and Donal’s situation and thought that they were pretty similar. She was positive that there was no way that he would not forgive her when their crimes were so much alike.

“Oh Donal, of course I forgive you. I love you, and want to be with you the rest of my life. I won’t tell anyone either, because in the tribe, there is no double standard that it is all right for men to not be pure and not women. It is equally important that both members of the union be pure.”

“That is a load off my shoulders. I am so glad I found a woman as loving and as perfect as you.” he said as he looked at Ciara with loving and adoring eyes.

“Do not call me perfect just yet. I have something to tell you too. I have wanted to tell you, but I just could not. I thought you would hate me and not love me anymore.”

“Ciara let me tell you right now. There is nothing you could say that would make me stop loving you. I will always love you, until the day I die. I meant those vows earlier today and I have every intention of sticking by them.”

“All right, but let me finish.” She than proceeded to tell Donal everything that happened to her up until the time she met him. She kept her eyes glued to the ground for the whole time, just out of sheer nervousness.

“Well, what do you have to say? Is this a forgivable offense?”

He just sits there, with a blank stare on his face looking at the ground. Ciara was afraid to speak to him, looking the way that he did, but she had to know how he felt.

“Donal? What is wrong?”

He looked up at her, with the same blank stare, and it was obvious how he felt. She could see that there was no forgiveness in his eyes.

He replied, “Ciara, this changes everything. You are not the woman I fell in love with.”

At that, her stomach hits the floor. She had not expected this after Donal’s confession. Why is it that it is all right for him to be what he is, but not all right for me to be what I am? I was forced upon, and he was willing, too! Ciara started to cry, as tears poured out of her eyes.

“How can you say that? My personality has not changed, my soul has not changed. I am exactly the same person I was 10 minutes ago.”

“One of the major reasons why I love you is because of how pure you are, Ciara. That is gone now, that is how you are different to me. One of the main reasons why I love you has disappeared. How do you expect me to react?” He pleads, and tries to reason with her to calm her down, but she will not have any of it.

“So, are you saying that you do not love me now?” Ciara asks, while still crying.

“No dear, that’s not what I am saying at all.” Donal gently brushes the tears out of her eyes and gives her a very soft, sweet kiss on the her trembling lips. “Of course I still love you. I just told you that I would always love you. I need to think. I am going to go in the bedroom and collect my thoughts. Just leave me be for a short while, all right?”

Ciara nods, while still crying, and he stands up and gently smoothes out her hair as he walks into their bedroom.

She cannot believe this is happening to her. She finally found a caring man, one who loved her for who she was, and he did not really know who she was, and now was probably going to leave her forever, and they had only been married a few hours. They had not even consummated their marriage yet! Of course, that is probably a good thing, especially if he does leave her for good.

A few hours pass by, and Ciara is still sitting in the sitting room crying while Donal is in the bedroom thinking. Or maybe he’s pleasuring himself, she thinks bitterly. Who knows? Mother always told me not to tell anyone. Now I know why. It was bad enough when the whole tribe found out about one of the men raping me, but this is so much worse. The thought of Donal leaving me is more than I can bear. I do not know if I can survive this much heart ache in such a short period of time.

How can I put her through this? Donal asks himself. Think about what you are doing to her. This does not just affect you, this affects Ciara as well, the woman you love. Oh, Ciara. Why did I have to tell you my secret? If I would have refrained, you would not have felt like you could tell me yours. And it is stupid that I cannot forgive you for this small injury. It is not as if you did anything, after all. You were raped for gods’ sakes! You got pregnant and then your baby died. Although, I suppose it is a good thing that happened, otherwise I never would have met you. Ciara, you have helped me through so much. You have always been there for me, and now when you need me the most, I am not there for you. What attracted me to you in the first place was that you were so different from all the girls in my village. They chased all the boys around, trying to kiss them, and get us to do other lewd things to them. They were all harlots. Then you came along, and saved my village from the dragon, and you were so beautiful. Most everyone in my village has blond hair like me, and freckles. Your hair the color of chestnuts was and still is so handsome. Your pale skin, such beautiful skin, that when I kiss your cheek, I feel like I’m drinking a glass of milk. You never chased after us either. That was something I admired greatly. In that act, I saw pureness in you that I’d never seen before. To me, it was refreshing. That was what initially attracted me to you. I suppose that’s why I feel so betrayed right now. You are not who I thought you were after all. I suppose it is true what they say about things being too good to be true.

* * *

Well, I suppose I need to go out and speak to Ciara now. Tell her what I have decided to do. She has waited long enough. Donal gets up off the bed that would have been theirs and walks into the sitting room where he had left her.

“Ciara?”

Ciara jumped in the air about 10 feet, and when she saw that it was him, she sat up straight and tried to dry her eyes as much as possible.

“I have had some time to think, and I really feel that it would be best if we were apart for some time.”

She does not look all that surprised, and has a very dark expression on her face as she gazes at Donal.

“What do you mean? You mean you no longer want anything to do with me, correct?! Just say it Donal, you hate me now.”

“No, Ciara, I could never hate you, in fact I still love you very much. But we both know new things about each other that are completely surprising, and I think it is best if we give ourselves time to recuperate and gather our thoughts.”

Donal notices a strand of hair in Ciara’s face and he tucks it behind her ear lovingly.

“Why are you doing this to me?” she screams. “It is not fair, do you not realize that I did not do anything wrong? It was all him! Do you think I enjoyed what happened to me? Because I assure you I did not!”

“Shh, calm down. I am not saying you are to blame, because you are not. You have been sinned against more than you have sinned. However, you are not the same person to me anymore. I am going to leave for a while. I do not know how long I shall be gone or when I will come back, or where I will be. Just trust that I will come back. Because I love you and would never desert you permanently.”

Ciara’s face is covered in tears. “You will not come back. You are just using this as an excuse. You don not care about me; you just married me to begin with, because you thought I was beautiful! And you probably thought it would be a thrill to be married to a sorceress! Let alone a chief’s daughter! All men care about is their reputation that they live up to. Well you know what? This sorceress is not going to wait around for you or any other man! I will go do what I can on my own. I do not need you!” She says coldly and walks out the door.

Donal stands in the doorway, staring outside with a perplexed look on his face. Boy, he thinks to himself, it is not wise to anger a sorceress.