Exorcism

The afternoon turned into night in less than fifteen minutes.

If that was intimidating Gutard or the Bishop, they were not showing it, as they continued with the arrangements. Alexa just tried to spot the little nightingale. She stopped in front of the cathedral, shading her eyes and looking up, seeing the black clouds stirring on the peaks of the building. Looking up and keeping her eyes open wasn't simple, however, with the strong wind and dust.

'Why did he leave like that?' she wondered, imagining that perhaps Alexander was shocked by the illustrations he saw in the tower, and by revelations against his beliefs. Perhaps he had until then had a firm hope that his mother had abandoned witchcraft when she confessed and pleaded the Church for forgiveness. Today, however, his father would burn his mother's body as a heretic.

Or maybe it was something else. At that moment, what mattered was protecting the soul in that fragile little bird body.