Chimera's Call

Chapter 1: Early Summer of Year 347

She stood back and watched. She watched without words, without expression, without making any sound but her breath and the frantic beating of her heart. But she did not watch without feeling. She watched with the silent mix of horror and fear one has when seeing something terrible happen to another being. Horror at the atrocity itself, and fear of it happening to her. For it very well could happen.
The shouts of the crowd seemed muffled in a weird way. As if seen through one of those fancy glass windows in the homes of the wealthy. The sounds of stones hitting the packed dirt of the street were mostly lost in the roar of voices and feet. The sounds of stones hitting cloth and flesh even more so. The clunk of wood being dropped on straw and more wood was mostly lost. The soft pitter-patter of the starting rain was defiantly left unheard in the din. But the one sound in the square that would haunt her was not lost. How she wished it could be lost.
It was the begging screams of the young man the townsfolk had tied to the post that stood in the middle of the square. The same post they had used as a maypole that spring. Those who were not stoning him or piling fuel at his bound feet were hurling insults. All because he had used magic to heal a child. That was all.
Magic was forbidden to these people as the darkest of works. Any practicer of magic would be driven out, or burned. That was the decree of the law, and the people who lived in the kingdom readily agreed. For what good could come of magic?
But as the flames started to consume the clothes of the young mage, he met her moist eyes. He could tell. His eyes pleaded; they pleaded for help, for justice, even for a quick end. But she gave the smallest shake of her head. She would not do anything. For it would only give her the same fate.
She turned away and started walking, blinking back tears that came from a mix of emotion. Fear of the human ability to be heartless to their neighbors. Guilt for doing nothing. Rage at the ones who would support something this. She ducked her head and walked faster. Distance would hide the screams that rain couldn't.