Week 03 Story: The Descendant
The Descendent
Margot, of being pure in chastity and of unshakeable faith, called upon the saints of her line, upon the angels, upon the protection of Jesu Christ. For her faith, she was rewarded and thus feared none and sought to purify corruption. Not to give sway to any inner desires of pride, she grieved for lost souls whom she herself was not meant to save. She drew comfort in another being able to succeed where she failed.
She walked the streets of the city, feeling the great Evil festering in every shadow. The scourging clean of this city would be difficult work.
The first six weeks of her visit yielded no fruit. No eyes nor ears nor hearts would break their shells of stone to believe.
Yet Margot in faith did not wane. Twelve times a day, twelve times a night she would weep in pleading to the Lord to enable her to save the city for Him.
And at once in the evening of the third day of the seventh week, Provost Charys saw Margot fully enshrined in her mourning cloth.
Charys said to her how the cloth would have been better if of white sheer for her current state worked too well to hide her beauty from the eyes of the world.
Margot looked upon him and saw within him evil.
Charys remain undisturbed and, his heart already set ablaze, requested of Margot her hand in marriage.
"If thou lived within the kingdom of Jesu, I would take you."
And Charys laughed and relayed to Margot his baptismal date and named the priest.
"Describe thine god to me and we shall see."
And Charys described the intents and words of his god and all were foul, evil, and hateful.
Margot refused his proposal of marriage. And of the things Charys ascribed to Jesu Christ Margot tore them down. "For He turns no one earnest away. He helps those who come to His table and provides them bread and wine. Jesu Christ is love. For that is who He is before all-knowing, all-seeing, ever-present. And you do not worship the true God."
Upon hearing this, Charys threw her down in a rage and called for her to be taken away and beaten. When nothing could pierce her skin or crush her bones, all there were converted.
Furious, Charys ordered her to be imprisoned for a week with no food or water.
The first two days went by with no incident until the third day when a small child walked to the bars of her cell and cried for her to ask Charys's forgiveness. He sighed and wept and gripped at her through the bars.
Margot turned away and prayed if the child be a demon his true form be revealed. She made the sign of the cross and the boy melted to a puddle of slithering tar.
The demon slithered toward her underneath the bars. Without fear, she stepped on the demon and it was held there.
She ordered him to tell of his master, and it responded saying, "The master of all Evils hath sent me to inspire fair Christians to sin." The demon's oily hide smoked beneath her foot.
Margot let the demon go upon hearing he would receive punishment for failing to deceive her. It melted through the floor and disappeared.
On the sixth day, a pink worm with the face of a hag attacked Margot in her cell. It's long stringy hair wrapped around her and pulled her toward it. It devoured Margot whole, but Margot remained unafraid.
She made the sign of the cross. The demon's teeth shattered. Its eyes exploded. It screeched and fell ashen to the floor and there remained unmoving.
On the seventh day, Margot was freed, and Charys, finding her stronger than before and seeing the dead demon, fled the city. All there who witnessed were converted.
Author's Note: The story I drew inspiration from was the story of S. Margaret. The original has S. Margaret encountering demons in her prison cell who try to trick her into sinning. In this retelling, I made Margot a descendent of S. Margaret and gave her some of the same personality traits with an active will against demons. All the stories in the Women Saints unit are told in an old English style, so I tried to kind of recreate the same feeling.
Bibliography: Saint Margaret from Christianity and The Golden Legend edited by F. S. Ellis
Hi Natalie!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your take on this story!
I actually did mine on the same story, so it was really cool to see how someone else did the same story.
Mine was more in line with the original, so I loved seeing your different take on it :)
Also, the use of a writing style similar to older forms of English was a fun little detail!
I love your descriptions of Margot's encounters with demons in this story. You make it very easy to picture everything in my head as I am reading. I do wonder about the demon on the 6th day. It swallowed Margot whole and then when she made the sign of the cross, its teeth exploded. I imagine the rest of it probably exploded or turned into goo as well.
ReplyDeleteBut I do just have to say - the visual of someone making the sign of the cross while inside this monstrous form is fascinating! Is it a huge worm, no legs and Margot is all squashed up in there, moving by millimeters? Or is it a giant wyrm, big as a house, and Margot is pacing around, waiting to get out? Either option is fascinating to think about.