Anathema

In the present time, Maevyth stands at the arch leading to the Witch Knell, or the Eating Woods, at the edge of Foxglove Parish Village in the kingdom of Vonkovya, located in the world of Mortasia. No one who enters the woods comes out, and there are rumors of demons in the forest. Maevyth was found at the archway as an infant and adopted by the Bronwick family. Godfrey Bronwick, Maevyth’s adoptive grandfather, wandered into the woods and never returned.

A letter from the king says that Maevyth’s adoptive father died with the Sacred Men, a missionary group in the Vonkovyan army that was trying to convert the Lyverians of the north to their religion of the Red God. Maevyth and her sister, Aleysia, are left with their step-grandmother, Agatha, and they will be forced into marriage or the clergy. Becoming a Red Veil in the clergy involves having one’s tongue cut out and only seeing the villagers at Banishings, when sinners are forced into the Eating Woods.

Maevyth is an outcast because of her mysterious origins and because the villagers believe that she caused another girl’s death when she was a child. She refuses to be separated from Aleysia or submit to a man. On the king’s letter, she writes, “The Red God isn’t real” (33), which could brand her as a witch. As she releases the letter to fly past the archway with the wind, her handwriting changes to read, “God is Death” (34). She reaches for the paper, but a bone juts from the archway and cuts her arm. A whisper in the forest calls her name, and black smoke pushes her back from the archway. A group of ravens, an omen of death, flees the forest, and one is impaled by another bone. Maevyth pulls the bone from the raven. It lays dying on the ground. Remembering her grandfather killing a fawn out of “mercy,” Maevyth uses a paring knife to cut the bird’s throat.

Maevyth buries the raven under a stone and then sees the Crone Witch, an old woman who lives next to the woods. The Crone Witch has healing powers and is protected by Governor Grimsby for saving his son years before, but the villagers fear her.

Lolla, Agatha’s housekeeper, criticizes Maevyth for going to the arch, which could make people think she is a witch. Lolla is missing one arm, which was taken by the Sawbones, a group that collects debts. Maevyth envies Lolla’s colorful dress—she herself is only allowed to wear black with a choker bearing a trinity cross, in keeping with the status of “lorn,” which the villagers have labeled her with. When Maevyth first arrived in the village, the winter was cold and the summer’s harvest failed, and they blame her appearance for the bad luck. Lolla warns Maevyth that the Banishing is about to begin.

Years ago, Godfrey Bronwick, Maevyth and Aleysia’s grandfather, made a fortune on morumberry wine. After his death, his wife, Agatha, wasted his fortune, converting the vineyard into a cemetery and mortuary. Now, Agatha sells oils made from morumberry leaves and poisons made from their flowers.

Lolla cleans Maevyth’s injury, and then Maevyth joins Aleysia in the attic, lamenting how unmarried women cannot own property. Aleysia has blonde hair and a sassy temperament, which contrasts Maevyth’s dark features and mood. Noting the clergy outside, Aleysia promises to protect Maevyth from becoming a Red Veil. She jokes about Sacton Crain, the head of the church, molesting young girls in religious studies.

Agatha interrupts and demands solemnity for the Banishing procession. Agatha’s son Riftyn greets Aleysia and Maevyth, flirting with Aleysia and emphasizing that he is their uncle by marriage only. Felix, Agatha’s other son, is the mortician for the business. Aleysia agrees to meet Maevyth later.

In the world of Aethyria, Zevander keeps the scars on his face covered with a mask and intimidates a well-dressed man who begs him for mercy. The man is a Lunasier like Zevander’s mother and wears a ring inlaid with vivicantem, a mineral forged by sablefyre in the Cor of Aethyria. Vivicantem is required to use magic; without it, those with magical abilities will gradually lose them. The wealthy hoard vivicantem, which is rare and expensive, letting the impoverished masses gradually lose their magical abilities.

Zevander accuses the man of letting Aethyrians starve while he flaunts his wealth. Zevander is a Letalisz, an assassin hired by the king, but this man is not the king’s target. He burns the man with sablefyre, creating a bloodstone with demutomancy, an illegal magic that alters the blood. The man’s bloodstone retains his magical powers, and Zevander needs a number of these bloodstones to overcome Cadavros’s curse.

Maevyth, Aleysia, Lolla, Agatha, and Felix watch the Banishing, in which a man is being sent into exile in the Eating Woods. Grimsby and Sacton Crain announce that the banished man is being offered to the Red God, Caedes, to cleanse the community and forgive their sins. Caedes’s followers believe that the Red God will save them, bringing them into Eternal Light. Maevyth pretends to pray.

The naked man comes out to be banished, and his wife and son watch. Maevyth plans to help this woman since wives of banished men cannot own property, meaning that she and her son will be impoverished soon. Sacton Crain brands the man with the letter “B.” The banished man grabs Maevyth’s injured arm and says, “God is Death” (60), before the guards pull him away. His body is pulled into the forest by an unseen force. The man’s hand flies out of the forest to land at Maevyth’s feet. On it, she sees the five stars and moon that represent the old gods before she faints.

Maevyth wakes up at Agatha’s house. Aleysia says that the banished man spoke a strange language to Maevyth before she fainted. Maevyth says that the man spoke Vonkovyan, but Aleysia disagrees.

Agatha introduces Maevyth to Moros, who owns mines in Lyveria and Sawtooth. Moros asks Maevyth to join him for lunch the next day. Maevyth tries to reject him, but Agatha insists. Moros leaves, and Agatha says that she already accepted a bride price from Moros, condemning Maevyth to marry him. She plans to sell Aleysia, too.

Maevyth runs upstairs, passing Riftyn on the way up and finding Aleysia getting dressed in her bedroom. Maevyth tells Aleysia the situation, and Aleysia says that they should run away. Maevyth recalls when two gay men were hunted down and banished for trying to run away, and she knows that Governor Grimsby would do the same to them. She confronts Aleysia about her affair with Riftyn, which Aleysia tries to deny. Aleysia thinks that Riftyn can convince Agatha to call off the marriage promises, but Maevyth plans to marry Moros and adopt Aleysia.

Zevander goes to a tavern, and people passing by call him a demon. Zevander spots a Nyxterosi child with short horns, a spindling, meaning that the child has no magic. Unlike Mortasians, Aethyrians are immortal, but without vivicantem, they gradually lose their powers and become Nilivir. The children of Nilivir, known as spindlings, are treated like animals.

In the tavern, Zevander finds Dolion, an old Elvyniran with the curse of foresight. He was once a respected member of the Magestroli, the elite brotherhood of mages who advised the king, but now has an alcohol addiction. Zevander gives Dolion the bloodstone, which Dolion places beside five other bloodstones that Zevander collected. The bloodstones can make the septomir, a scepter that can be used to remove Zevander’s curse. Zevander sees a Rapax marking on a nearby man, which identifies him as a pedophile. The sight evokes a memory of Zevander’s own abuse.

Dolion has a vision of the Hagsmist, the forest barrier between the worlds of Aethyria and Mortasia. Dolion needs all seven bloodlines, condensed into bloodstones, to break Zevander’s curse. He realizes that his vision means that the final bloodline is in Mortasia. The king’s calvary and a magic ward prevent anyone from crossing from Aethyria into Mortasia, which is filled with death and suffering.

Dolion also predicts Cadavros’s return, which will bring a Black Pestilence to destroy Aethyria. Only the septomir can stop him, but Zevander only cares about curing his curse. Dolion pays Zevander for the bloodstone with vivicantem and the passage spell needed to cross into Mortasia.

Maevyth wakes up in the night with her arm burning. Her cut looks infected, and her veins have a silver coloring. She hears someone calling for help and thinks it is Aleysia. She goes to Aleysia’s room and finds her sister having sex with Riftyn. Maevyth goes back to bed, only to be disturbed by the banished man covering her mouth with a wet hand. Maevyth’s arm burns.

Aleysia comes into the room but does not notice the man. Aleysia asks if Maevyth is okay, noticing how pale she is. She panics when she sees Maevyth’s wound and walks through the man, who disappears into black smoke.

Aleysia says that she, Riftyn, and Maevyth should run away together. Maevyth knows that they would have to flee out of Vonkovya, beyond Grimvale or into the deserts of Romisir. Maevyth does not trust Riftyn, but she cannot persuade Aleysia, who asks Maevyth to sing. Maevyth remembers finding her father drunk in the cellar singing a song, and she sings it for Aleysia.

In Aethyria, Zevander senses danger and uses magic to find the spindling he saw earlier. The boy points Zevander down an alley, where a shadowy man tries to grab him. Zevander burns the man’s body and takes his bloodstone.

The Rapax he saw earlier is trying to kidnap the spindling boy, and Zevander conjures a scorpion from his arm tattoo to attack the Rapax. A burst of sablefyre escapes from Zevander and burns the man. Zevander returns to his horse, Obsidyen, a violent breed from Draconysia, only to find that the spindling is following him. He uses magic to warm the boy before sending him away. Zevander rides his horse to the Hovel, a seedy area on the outskirts of Costelwick, and the boy continues to follow him.

The king harvests dead bodies from the Hovel to burn in the sablefyre mines and turn into vivicantem. Zevander tells the boy to watch his horse. He goes to a brothel and finds the owner, Ze’Kyra Lazarine, giving her three keltzigs to buy back his sister, Rykaia. Rykaia is popular in brothels because she is a Pain Eater, a person whose magic allows them to absorb others’ pain. She gets bored at their home, Eidolon, and flees to the Hovel when she can.

Zevander finds Rykaia on drugs from her last customer, who drugged her with flammapul, a drug that causes extreme paralysis. He gives Rykaia a drop of vivicantem to undo the effects of the drug and insists that she return to Eidolon. Zevander tells Ze’Kyra about the firebleeding, in which the customer cut Rykaia and introduced flammapul into her system by sprinkling the drug on his tongue and then licking her wounds. He gives Ze’Kyra more money to take in the spindling, named Gavroche, before leaving with Rykaia.