Assassin's Creed: Fragments – The Witches of the Moors

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Assassin's Creed: Fragments – The Witches of the Moors (French: Assassin's Creed: Fragments – Les Sorcières des Landes) is a French novel by Adrien Tomas. It was released in France on 20 January 2022. It is the third and final novel in the Assassin's Creed: Fragments young adult series by 404 Éditions. The novel is set in 17th century France during the Labourd witch-hunt of 1609.

Official synopsis

The following content was translated from French by Soranin.

Dive into the Inquisition and witch hunt in the heart of the French Landes with Assassin's Creed! 1609. The Inquisition is raging in Europe, massacring thousands of men and women on charges of witchcraft. Raised in the Landes region of France, Margaux and Ermeline, 16 and 17 years old, are initiated into the practices of healers to follow in the footsteps of their adoptive mother, Catherine. While her youngest sister flourishes in this simple life, between hunting and apothecary, Ermeline dreams of something else, of settling in town, far from the forests of south-west France. This peaceful life comes to an end when Catherine, denounced for witchcraft by a patient, is taken to Bayonne with her eldest daughter to Pierre de Lancre, a master inquisitor and Templar in search of an artifact belonging to said witch. When she refuses to talk, the Templar burns her alive, in front of Margaux, who had managed to flee and hide, and in front of Ermeline, whom he keeps as a hostage and manages to coax. Margaux, distraught, is taken in by Nicodemus, an Assassin close to Catherine, who will secretly train her in the Creed, while the anger of the French people rumbles against the Inquisition. Separated, the two sisters will have to mourn their happy youth, but also make choices about which path to take and which destiny to join. Assassin or Templar? The path of blood, or the path of the heart?

Summary

Prologue

At Bayonne, running within the Château-Vieux, Judge Pierre de Lancre held his documents and settled in to escape the heat. Impatient, he waited inside the castle while going his directives for the day such as acquiring troops and studying the land where his task leads him. From the documents, he hopes to find what the courts may have overlooked from its testimonies and statements. However, most proved to be made of petty feuds and rivalries. Assessing them, he wants to interview the condemned at the castle's dungeons and to discern the true stories from the fake ones.

As judge, Pierre knows that his rule would be paramount due to his decisions on administering fatal judgments on the so-called "witches". He sees that anyone who strays from the traditions and law will need to disappear. While reading, he soon feels the hand of fellow judge Jean d'Espaignet, whom he despised for his two-faced demeanor. In public, d'Espaignet holds a firm grasp on the law, but in private, he was a drunk and idiotic in his profession. Jean's disregard for etiquette and chastisement leads Pierre to be enraged whilst in his proximity.

Tasked by King Henry IV, both Pierre and Jean were tasked to be inquisitors in Bayonne to settle these "ungodly" matters. The region of Labourd was their destination and noted to be mainly made of women, due to their men working overseas. However, Jean admits that he will not be able to go due to the king's order to have him mediate a situation with Spain. Elated, Pierre feigns congratulations and wishes Jean well. Jean states that he wished to stay but knows Pierre is more than capable to do the job.

After Jean bids him farewell, Pierre smiles and knows his fellow Templars' plan to stir conflict between Spain and France worked. Alone at the helm, he now has free rein over Labourd and its upcoming trials.

Chapter One

Ermeline looks at a flashy robe and wondering about her life away from here, but is placed back on track when Catherine tells her to ready to help a yelling woman. Ermeline is a young seventeen year-old girl who helps Catherine in her surgical sessions and provides a calm demeanor for the patients. In this situation, the patient is ten-months pregnant and the doctors told her to wait, causing her and her husband to seek Catherine's help.

Catherine works as the mid-wife in these situations and her stature and personality was on par with no one else. Her daughters knew all too well. Catherine decides to induce labor and has Ermeline help her ready the procedure. Ermeline wastes no time and finds the necessary equipment, knowing it by heart after five years daily. Retrieving boiling water and setting down the materials, Ermeline prepared the tea concoction and handed it to Catherine.

Catherine gives the tea to the pregnant woman, who spits it out. Catherine continues to give her the tea and soon the woman becomes calmer. She soon determines that they would have to perform surgery instead of natural birth. Preparing the linens, she mixes them with some essences. Thanking Ermeline, Catherine tells her to leave to rest and take care of the husband outside. Outside, a sad Ermeline takes a breath and goes to the husband. Beginning to reassure the man, the pregnant woman lets out a scream as Catherine makes the first incision. Ermeline stops the man and tries to convince him of how childbirth is usually painful.

The man says that her doctor mentioned her moods were the reason for her late delivery, much to Ermeline's chagrin. Ermeline tells him that it is neither his or his wife's fault but noticed that the doctors did not want to tell a wealthy merchant the truth and waited too late to act. Ermeline comforts the man and tells him that God is testing him and how he will react under his test. The man is shocked at her knowledge of the holy script but the women of Labourd have always held the same level of knowledge of the texts as the men. Yet, she does not care about his views and wishes him hell if he is against her.

An hour passes and Catherine exits the cottage to hand the baby to the father. Telling him that the wife needs to rest, Catherine and Ermeline leave him with the baby. However, Ermeline sees that the surgery did not go well as Catherine tells her to shut the door. She tells her that the woman has lost too much blood and will not survive. Catherine tells her to find the cloth but Ermeline asks to wait for Margaux. However, her mother tells her that she was out wandering, which Ermeline always disliked due to her working most of the times with their mother. Also, Ermeline was not fond of using the cloth but Catherine insisted to use to save the woman's life and what good is it without saving those who need it.

Taking the cloth out of its secret compartment, Ermeline placed it on the woman per Catherine's insistence. Soon, the scar on the belly began to heal but slower than usual. However instead of being scared, she lets the cloth work as it tried talking to her. Soon, the woman is fully healed while Ermeline hides the cloth quickly. With the woman awake, she asks how she does not feel any pain. Catherine explains that she is really good with sutures while Ermeline uses the best mixture of balms. Reminding the woman of the bandages, Catherine readies her while Ermeline knows that her mother will receive very little due to all she has does.

While Ermeline wants for them to live in the city and have their medicinal miracles make them wealthy, Catherine had put moot on that idea and wanted no part with jealous city people. Also, Margaux always sees herself outside and loves the fields and the woods while Ermeline condemns her immature behavior. She knows that Margaux also has the tendency to find herself in tremendous trouble.

Chapter Two

Margaux lies on top of Mathurin's sheepfold and seeks to enact justice. However, she notices how unwell the man's sheepfold was and how lazy he was in upkeeping his place. Once he left, she climbs down and is greeted by the sheep. Frozen, she looks around but Mathurin did not come back. Finding the goat Blanchette and her kid, she takes them quietly. Seeing how Mathurin tends to his herd, Margaux is tempted to take them all but knows Catherine will be lightly upset with just Blanchette and her kid. Yet, upon leaving, she realizes that this was payback for him stealing Blanchette and her kid in the first place. Back towards the forest, she finds her mother's special walking staff and continues back home.

While taking in the scenery, Margaux stops and feels uneased. With her vision, she spots two bandits in the distance. When she blinks, the vision goes away. She has had this gift for a while but she knows that if it becomes public, it would add more unwanted attention to all of them. Although she hides it from them, Margaux had continued to finesse her skill and understood the colors of grey, red, and gold held their own meanings. While walking forwards, she is confronted by the bandits, who threaten her for her money. Studying them, Margaux drops her staff and begs for them for mercy but they refuse. When one bandit goes closer, she immediately attacks and incapacitates him with her staff.

The other bandit, one-armed with a sword, attacks Margaux and grazes her. Fighting against him, she quickly opens a bladed metal point of the staff and manages to kill the bandit. Horrified, she quickly gathers the goats and leaves for home. Stopping herself and crying, she thinks about what to say to Catherine and Ermeline even though it was self-defense. With her dress ripped, all she could do is explain to them. Heartbroken over killing the bandit, Margaux continues her walk home with the goats.

Chapter Three

TBC

Gallery

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  French cover