The Seeress

Chapter Sixteen

Agnetha's vision was black, rather the dark sky has been shrouded with a new moon. She heard nothing but voices. The same voices that have repeatedly whispered in her mind. Those voices were from those that she knew, those who loved her. Groomed her to the very thing she became. 

"You are the only soul connected to the Aesir," 

"You are the one who could bridge our people..."

"Why do you still have faith in me?" Agnetha said under her breath. She knew those women, those under the orders of her father to make her who she is. She could not even understand much of her purpose. They were like silhouettes behind the veil she constantly saw, but she could hear their voices.

"One day Agnetha, you will understand..." 

"What is there to understand?" Agnetha muttered again. Her mind swirled as faces from her past kept flashing before her eyes. Such as those who will be dead are those who suffer such vision. Visions that women like her are condemned to witness forever.

"You will see..."

"Tie her up!" she heard a gruff, deep voice not far from her. The two men who gripped each of her arms then threw her down to the snow-filled grounds. She looked up, only to see herself in the woods, far away from the fort that she was imprisoned at. Except that they were on open ground, the trees being distant away from them as she saw several tall poles standing beside her. The guards tower over her, as she saw the large pile of burnwood stacked on the left.

Her soul shook as she almost instantly realized what they had intended for her. She had seen gatherings like this,  those hosted by Westerners put seeresses at the stake as the fires slowly eat away their bodies. At that moment, Agnetha knew what they were going to do.

"Leave me!" Agnetha screamed as a couple of men grabbed her. They were too much stronger for her to escape, as her body was tied to the pole. She saw how there was what seemed to be a small band of men clad in red armour, as at the centre of them stood Cuthbert, his stoic nature replaced by fear. 

"Never again, would someone as you haunt us again," he said as Agnetha gasped in horror. She saw how the men quietly threw the burn wood at her feet. She knew that burn wood, contrary to the name, would take hours to be fully engulfed by the flame. But slowly and surely, it will also desecrate and destroy the neighbouring entities tied to it. Such was their popular use in the executions of seeresses like her. 

"No... please..." Agnetha breathed heavily, as Cuthbert himself grabbed the torch himself. She saw his eyes were more vengeful than mere hatred. The ropes tied to her chest already made it hard for her to breathe. She did not even feel the snow falling on her head, as the fire lingers in her sight.

"God... this is for the men and women who died in their hands..." Cuthbert said, his eyes closed for a moment of solitude. And within the moment, he opened his eyes as he threw the torch to the ground, sending sparks of fire and death to seep into her legs. Agnetha breathed heavily again, as the smoke started to crawl into her lungs. Her cries were then pervaded by coughing from such foul smoke. 

Agnetha then murmured her prayers as she tried to gather the air in her body amidst the smoke, not one of escape, but in preparation for forgiveness. To those whom she had failed, and prayers for her loved ones who will not perish with her. She awaits to venture to Helheim, constantly praying that the cold hell that awaits her shall be at most half merciful to her. 

She knew what she had heard of how its mistress Hel haunts over the dead. She remembered how as a child, her nightmares have always consisted of her venturing there. Her eyes herself could picture Hel standing in front of her, with her pale hands lifted in her direction.