The village of Lupu had definitely changed in the years Lisa was away. The population appeared to be more Saxon than she remembered, and those who were not seemed cautious to mind themselves, avoiding the Saxons when they could. Lisa deduced the Church's authority had tightened its grip on the land, having it later confirmed by a fellow villager who came in the dead of night for help. To make things worse, the villager mentioned Saxons under the Church were expanding their influence into the very heart of Wallachia; where they had taken over the administration of the capital city, Târgoviște. Word spread quickly in Lupu afterwards of how Lisa had become a healer who could miraculously cure any ailment that was brought to her, which she sought to refute when she could.
One stormy winter evening, Lisa entertained Mrs. Djuvara with a cup of warm tea when she noticed a particular rattling sound exuding from her elderly neighbour. Lisa ordered her to stay where she was after hearing the awful noise, promising to get her something for the cough.
Mrs. Djuvara hacked terribly while managing to express her gratitude. Lisa sat down next to her at the table while she explained the rales she felt when she took a breath. In support of her plight, Lisa placed her hands on Mrs. Djuvara, reaffirming her previous mention of the rales.
The old woman sniffled as she went off on an amusing tangent about her husband giving her leaves and acorns to become a squirrel no less, she thought. Lisa did her best to hide her smile at the rant. Mrs. Djuvara's eyes then caught the silver band on Lisa's left ring finger, never having realised Lisa was married.
Lisa instinctively withdrew her hands and tucked them into her arms, giving a weary look to Mrs. Djuvara. She quickly mentioned her husband being on travels and was expected to be home before the end of winter. Lisa then stood up from her chair to use this opportunity to finally get the medicine and close the subject on Vlad.
His absence often weighed heavily on Lisa's mind, as they had never been apart for this long since they first met many years ago. While it may have been her idea to have Vlad travel on his own to see the world, it did not leave Lisa unaffected and certainly not him too. Mrs. Djuvara's innocent observation only helped remind her of how she missed him terribly in her life.
She headed to the laboratory to prepare the necessary medicine. Before beginning, Lisa added a pinch of salt to her washbasin before rolling up the sleeves of her dress to wash her hands. She shook the excess water off and checked her notes on pulmonary conditions. Based on the symptoms Mrs. Djuvara presented with, Lisa suspected she had pneumonia of streptococcal nature and needed penicillin to treat it. "Yes," she muttered to herself as the text confirmed her suspicions.
As her hand traced over the open book, Lisa saw her locket on the workbench and picked it up. She unclasped it to view the portrait of Vlad, looking fondly at the smiling image of her husband. She truly hated that he was not with her at every waking moment since his departure, but she loved that he had given her the knowledge and tools to help people. It had been no small sacrifice for him to do all of this, showing how far he had come since meeting her. Lisa closed the locket and held it to her chest before placing it back on the workbench.
After a few minutes, Lisa finished making the concoction and went back with the filled bottle, placing it on the table. Mrs. Djuvara gasped once she saw the concoction, wondering if this was going to have her start making milk with all the cud she had been chewing.
Lisa reassured Mrs. Djuvara, sitting back in her chair, and lifting the bottle to show it was a powder mixed with some strawberry wine.
"A powder? You sound like the old, wise woman we used to have. The powder turned out to be her dried foot skin," Mrs. Djuvara pointed out.
"My God. I'm amazed any of you are still alive." Lisa commented, raising her brows at the unfortunate time the villagers had to deal with in her absence. "No, this powder is a medicine that grows as mould," she reassured Mrs. Djuvara.
The old woman despaired at hearing that, preferring to go back to leaves. Lisa gave her a small smile for extra comfort, asking her to trust in the medicine and take two sips three times a day until the bottle was empty. The neighbour replied meekly, unsure if that was really all there to it.
Lisa invited her to visit next week if she wanted to but was certain her chest congestion should be clear by Friday.
Mrs. Djuvara cried out at the amazement of the magic that was of mould powders. There were many villagers in Lupu who had never seen medicine of this kind, and most could not believe how they coped without it before Lisa returned home.
Lisa handed the bottle over to the elderly woman, who slipped it under an arm. She found herself rebutting again about her practice being magic, knowing it was the product of knowledge lost over the years. Lisa led Mrs. Djuvara out through the entry door.
Outside of the cottage stood a group of clergymen at the bottom of the steps in the rain and thunder. Lisa could feel her stomach drop as she looked at them with their stern expressions.
"Mrs. Lisa Țepeș?" the one in red and gold vestments asked.
"Yes?" she replied. Lisa gave Mrs. Djuvara a tap, commanding her to go home. As her neighbour made her way past the clergymen, she looked back for a moment until one of them saw her. Mrs. Djuvara then proceeded home a little faster.
The one in red and gold vestments continued, introducing himself as the emissary of the Archbishop of Târgoviște, and enquiring as to whether Lisa was the physic serving Lupu.
"I am, yes," Lisa answered, a little confused. "Is there something I can help you with? Has the Archbishop taken ill?"
The clergymen shoved past Lisa and she followed them inside to see them ransacking her home as if in search of something. "What? What is it you need? Just tell me what you're looking for, and I'll give it to you," she beseeched.
The emissary demanded her silence from behind.
Lisa turned to him. "I will not be silent," she admonished him. "Just let me help."
"With Satan's tools?" the emissary blatantly questioned, pausing for a moment before ultimately rejecting her offer.
"Excuse me?" Lisa asked indignantly, her anger rising.
One of the clergymen emerged from the laboratory. "Here, your Eminence."
The clergymen all went in there with Lisa trailing behind. "Satan's tools," the emissary scoffed with pure disgust in his voice. He instructed the clergy to start a fire and clean out the entire laboratory.
Voicing her disbelief at the escalating situation, Lisa felt her head spin as she heard the command while the clergymen rummaged through her laboratory. The emissary finally informed Lisa of the clergy's reason for being here: they had been told that something wrong was going on within the cottage by the old wise woman from before and it seemed she was right. He questioned what Lisa was doing to the good people of Transylvania with such fearsome engines of the Devil.
"I don't understand," Lisa stated in bewilderment.
The emissary gestured to the surroundings, asking her if she denied the things here were witchcraft and alchemy. A clergyman stumbled upon a simple centrifugal device used for blood, falling away in fright when it started spinning. "It moves on its own," he pointed at it.
The emissary's frown deepened as he interrogated Lisa over the device, stepping towards her. "It's medicine," she tried explaining as she was backed into a workbench while the emissary pressed further on how her tools could be physic and not witchcraft.
Lisa handed her text with illustrated notes from earlier in front of the emissary's face, demonstrating it was old knowledge that had been lost to history and that she had been studying it for years to utilise ways to help their people. The emissary took the book, glancing at it before dismissing it as paganism and throwing it to the floor.
Lisa continued. "No. It's just science. It has nothing to do with any god or—"
The emissary's brows shot up. "Nothing to do with God?"
Lisa tried to clarify what she meant when she looked back to see two clergymen surrounding her.
The emissary ordered the clergymen that Lisa was be taken to the cathedral at Târgoviște, where an inquisition will take place on the accusation of witchcraft. She was then seized by them, as they restrained her by her upper arms. She gritted her teeth in defiance of her circumstances. The emissary gave the final order to burn the cottage, so no trace of Lisa's supposed magic be left behind.
Lisa widened her eyes in terror as she thought of the consequences that were about to unfold as a result, begging them to reconsider as they did not know what they were doing. The emissary declared he knew full well what he was doing: saving both Wallachia and Transylvania from witches. Lisa implored a little more fervently, which the emissary took as a threat. She asked to be let go, promising to leave and never set foot again in Lupu. She could not guarantee the safety of the clergy if harm were to come to her.
The emissary had heard more than he could bear. "You dare menace me with Satan?" he waved a hand. "Get her out of here before I strike her dead."
"Not Satan. If you anger him, he's worse. Because he's real. Please!" they began leaving one by one while dragging Lisa out of the cellar, who shouted with desperation and fear. "He's come so far! Don't make him do it! No, don't make him kill you all! Please!"
As she was brought outside, Lisa laid witness to the shattering of windows and flames setting alight her work and the very place she had grown up in. Her mouth was agape at the scene as the emissary stood at the top of the cottage stairs staring her down. Lisa shuddered as the horror set in of what was to befall her.
For days Lisa was hauled from village to village, city to city. She was forced to sleep on filthy floors and given little food while on the freezing march to Târgoviște. Part of the city was fortified courtesy of the Saxons, and it was hither Lisa was brought to. Interned in a cell within the grounds of the cathedral, she passed the time by watching the scattered rays of light that hit the cell floor until it was dark. Lisa was abruptly awoken the next day for the commencement of her trial and presented before a council of religious officials. She was allowed to speak at some point and made the effort once again to prove herself as a doctor and not a witch. The council had made up their minds long ago, however.
Lisa was sentenced to be sent to the stake and what faint hope she had of her husband rescuing her disappeared. By the time Vlad arrived back in Lupu, she would be dead and neither Saxon nor Wallachian would be spared from his unforgiving onslaught. Or any humans, for that matter. The council granted her a last chance to repent for what she had done so that she may find salvation after death.
"If it's a sin to help our communities to the betterment of society with previously lost knowledge proven to work, then I'll be damned as you say," Lisa responded with conviction.
A furore broke out amongst the crowd that had gathered for the trial at her statement. Order was called for by the archbishop, who handed down a punishment of flagellation before the execution. Lisa was led to a room afterwards and tied to face a post. The whip tore all the way down to her flesh, causing her to cry out in pain. Each lash embedded parts of her dress into the skin while also taking chunks of dermis off in other areas. The flagellant taunted Lisa in the meantime as her cries lessened, becoming numb to the rawness of her back.
When it was over, she was stripped down to an underdress and her wedding band thrown to the stone with a resounding clink. A small blade shorn off her long, fair hair, leaving her to look as humiliating as possible to the relentless crowd awaiting her outside. Lisa was paraded around the city, exposed to further jeers and various wastes tossed at her from the crowd. Despite this, she stood as upright as she could in the agonising procession to the square. The stake was already set up when Lisa got there, and she was pushed onto the steps of the makeshift platform it sat upon. "Behold, a witch! She sought to bespell the good people of Lupu with Satan's tools, but now we will cleanse her from this earth! Transylvania and Wallachia can breathe a sigh of relief!"
The mass reacted ecstatically to the announcement while Lisa was bound tight to the stake, her feet suspended in the air. Many flame-bearing torches circled closer and closer to the wooden pile beneath the platform in a dazzling array. Lisa hoped the burning would produce more smoke than flame so it would be over quickly.
The torches were tossed into the pile and a great fire emerged to consume it. The heat rapidly grew unbearable, and the flames soon jumped to the platform to lick her legs. Lisa could do nothing but let out a raw scream at the immense burning sensation, tears streaming down her face. She shut her eyes and quieted down once the feeling dulled, reduced to moaning. When the flames climbed higher, Lisa cried out again and felt her strength fading.
With the deafening roar of the fire and her vision blurring, she threw her head upwards to make one final plea; for the hope her husband was hearing it somewhere out there. "Don't hurt them! They don't understand!" she yelled as loud as she could, coughing hoarsely. "I know it's not your fault, but... if you can hear... they don't know what they're doing. Be better than them. Please!" Lisa screamed again before slumping; her energy spent. Her sight gradually darkened, and she stared blankly at the faceless crowd until she saw nothing.
Lisa opened her eyes suddenly, gasping as she found herself stumbling. Her feet were on the ground again, and the landscape had changed around her. Lisa patted her whole body to find she was back in her dress with her hair long and side-swept in a bow and tie once more. She realised then she was dead and was presumably in an afterlife of some sort. In her life, Lisa held no beliefs in superstitions or divine higher powers. Finding Vlad in her pursuit of actual medicine made her question these ideas, which she sought to solve with logical explanations as best she could. Marrying him and having a child with both of their traits did not help matters either.
But there was nothing though to explain this.
Lisa wandered for a little while, taking in the scorched environment when she saw a lone figure staring off in the distance. She carefully approached the figure, who remained still as she came closer. In the direction the figure faced stood a blazing city reminiscent of Târgoviște. Lisa stopped in her tracks at the spectacle, in fear of what she was seeing. "Come," the figure beckoned, his eyes unmoving. "What do you see there?"
Hesitating, Lisa stepped forward after a few moments. Side-by-side with the mysterious figure, she could discern he was inhuman like her husband and yet different from him. He had a pair of sable wings tucked against his back and darkened eyes that hinted at a mix of sorrow and rage. "It's a city... burning. It looks just like the one I was at..." Lisa fell quiet afterwards before bringing herself in front of the figure. "What's the meaning of this?" she demanded, pointing at the city. "Is it some vision of the future or an illusion to torment me over? I know I'm dead, but why? Why this?"
The figure ignored Lisa's questioning. "I see... differently. I see... a white light coming down to deliver us."
Lisa clenched her hands into fists. "Who are you and what is this place?" she narrowed her eyes. The question was enough to provoke a movement from the figure, who bore his eyes into Lisa, gazing with intensity.
"This place and I are known by many names. You would do best to reconcile with what has happened. For there'll be many more to come," the figure lifted his blackened feet out from the dune they stood on and turned around. "Know this, Lisa Țepeș: should your husband ever join us; this is not his domain. He may try as much as he likes, but he'll still be subject to the effects here like you are. Think of who could be a real threat here. Or not. It doesn't matter when time is endless," he started to walk until he suddenly vanished like a mirage, leaving Lisa alone in the desolate place.
It dawned on her where she was and who she encountered once her own words were thrown against her. A million thoughts rushed into her head for the reason she ended up in this forsaken realm. Was it wrong of her to love Vlad because he was a vampire? Was the emissary and to an extent the council right in that science was no more than a form of witchcraft, despite her good intentions?
Or was it her failure to be more sensitive and understanding of the ways of thinking other people had?
The last thought made Lisa's eyes water. Her entire situation could have been possibly prevented had she stepped back and held her tongue a bit. She may even have lived with only the loss of her medical tools and texts. It would have crushed her to no longer be able to serve her village, but her life would remain intact. Now Lisa had to face the consequences of her actions and forever wonder whether her husband would be the better one or lose himself to vengeance. She wandered off again, enduring the relentless hot winds and occasional hail of fire.
When the winds died down, she saw apparitions of destruction that she knew Vlad could be capable of—homes in ruin with mangled corpses strewn about. Amid it all, Lisa found a ruined cottage like hers and went to it, sitting down on its ground floor. She decided then and there this was the end of her long journey of walking aimlessly. She had seen enough and wanted to rest from now on.
With the winds picking up, Lisa crawled her way towards a corner that held a bookshelf, thinking it would provide the best shelter. The fine sand in the air blotted out the visibility of the surroundings, and having promptly taken cover, Lisa shut her eyes tight.
And so began the start of a new reality for Lisa Țepeș.