Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer, #51: Ethical Sorcery: "Avenging Earth"

The question of ethics is one that often takes odd directions. In C. S. Lewis' novel That Hideous Strength, he has a character he calls an "honest thief." This is a man who steals, knows stealing is wrong, does it, gets caught, and is ready to take the punishment for what he did; unfortunately, he is taken from jail to an organization that does not value human life, has no ethical base, and is willing to exploit and brutalize human beings (he is going to be used for medical experiments). Lewis is making the point that a thief who does something he senses is wrong but does it anyway to serve necessity or just because he decides to disregard the law, is better than an organization that has no sense of what is moral or ethical—that operates devoid of human decency and traditional ideas of right and wrong.

My story, "Avenging Earth" explores this same sort of question. It centers on two of my ongoing characters, Kathy Farisi and Alessia Bernini. The latter is a streg, a witch who practices "natural magic," magic that does not derive its power from evil but from nature and from traditions passed on from practitioner to practitioner from the Middle Ages on. Alessia and Kathy have become friends, though Kathy, recovering from an adulterous affair that broke up her best friend's marriage and damaged her life as well, is often censorious of Alessia and critical of her use of magic. At one point in this particular story, she castigates Alessia for using magic that caused a woman to suffer. Still, they maintain their sometimes shaky friendship.

Alessia Bernini, streg

Alessia finds Kathy at church. She has come to pray for a fifteen year-old girl named Alana, who has been blinded and has lost both her parents in a terrorist bombing. The terrorist is not a member of Al Qaeda or ISIS but is an eco-terrorist named Corey Allen. Allen bombed the home office of Paul Fusco's construction company because they were beginning to develop an area of land that Allen did not want to see developed. His wife and daughter happened to be visiting when the blast went off. Only the daughter survived but with the loss of her eyesight. While Kathy is praying, Alessia slides in beside her. They pray together and then Alessia says she needs Kathy's
help and wants to meet with her later in the day.

She finds out what her streg friend wants. Mr. Corsi, the head of the local Mafia, has paid Alessia a large sum of money to find Allen and to punish him for what he has done. (Fusco and Corsi were related, though Fusco was not involved in organized crime). Kathy has called together some of her friends to assist her in the ceremony she must go through to locate Allen, who knows no magic but who has power from his association with the earth and his innate grasp of its natural force. Kathy agrees. The ceremony frightens her and the other three friends. Alessia is battered by what she encounters but survives the ordeal, is able to locate Allen and give his location to the Mafia. Kathy asks if they will kill him. Alessia says he doesn't get off that easy.

Later, Alessia asks if Kathy will come with her as she does the spell that will be Allen's punishment. She agrees and watches with horror as Alessia casts her spell on him:

A transformation started at Allen's face and spread over his whole body, as if he had turned to dirt. For a second he looked ashy, like a mummy. Then his body broke apart and fell in a heap to the ground. Kathy gasped. Her heart felt as if it had stopped.

She heard a man’s scream.

The heap of dust into which Allen had collapsed resembled a human form. Suddenly the wind struck it, blow it into the air. Another scream rent the silence. She saw Corey Allen’s form, his face distinct in the swirling cloud of dust the wind blew violently into the water of the brook. After another pause, she saw a wave rise—a wave that bore Allen’s horrified, astonished likeness a second or two. She heard more screaming as the wave dissolved into the streambed.

Corsi says he is satisfied and asks if Allen will stay in this state of disembodiment and pain. Alessia tells him he will "as long as earth endures." Corsi is satisfied and goes his way. Alessia begins to sob. She has done justice. But to condemn a man to an earthly hell, where he will be transformed to elements and incessantly torn apart and assembled in other forms to be torn apart again, is something from Dante's Inferno. She asks Kathy to carry the suitcase full of money she has been paid for the job, and Kathy agrees. As they walk off to Alessia's car, they hear screaming from the wood. Alessia is crying. Kathy understands why her friend needs her, why she wanted her to come along. Doing what is right is sometimes wrong—or painful—or both at the same time.

The story appeared in a magazine called The Edge of Propinquity. It has an archive but says my story is missing, unfortunately.

A great story that is not missing is my novella Le Cafe de la Mort. You were astonished to find out your lover is the Angel of Death; more so when you find out she has been sent to Gehenna for violating angelic law; but even more when you are told you are the only one who can free her. 

 

For more titles, visit my Writer's Page.

 

I would love to hear your comments.