Gretel Hagbane

When they were children, Gretel and her younger brother Hansel lived near the Bilebog, a place of man-eating quicksand and bubbling fonts of boiling tar-mud. Their father, Bertel, was a widower and raised them to be woodcutters like him. One fateful night, while looking for herbs for a stew, the children ventured too far afield and got lost in the bog. They were relieved to see the light of a small, cozy cabin on the horizon. Approaching, they were greeted by a charming maiden who called herself Nell, and said she lived there alone, gathering swamp herbs just as they were. Nell offered them a warm, dry place to rest and delicious refreshments, which Hansel was eager to accept, but Gretel sensed something odd about the woman’s story. How did a young woman live alone in the bog safely? Why had they never heard of her, having lived nearby all their lives? As Nell plied Hansel with sugary treats, Gretel rejected Nell’s insistence that they stay the night rather than try to leave the bog in darkness. She wanted to leave at once, if Nell would just point the way. Gretel’s reluctance and constant questioning infuriated Nell and she gave up her pretensions in a fit of rage. The maiden revealed her true form, that of a gangly, monstrous hag, and rushed at the children before they could flee. She snatched both up by the legs and held them at arm’s length so that they dangled helplessly. Deciding to eat Hansel first after he’d sweetened himself with her treats, Nell stuffed him into her oven. Horrified, Gretel reared up and grabbed Nell’s sharp-clawed hand, fighting against her iron grip. Biting hard on one of the hag’s fingers, she made Nell flinch and release her, and in the process Gretel pulled one of the witch’s beaded bracelets off her wrist. It barely registered to Gretel, in her terror. She lunged for her brother and pulled him out of the oven. As she did, the illusion that Nell had woven shattered. Gretel saw now that it was no oven, just a smoky bonfire, and that the hut was made of blackened bone and gore-wetted mud. Hansel hurled a flaming log into Nell’s face and, with Nell’s horrid cries ringing in their ears, Gretel led the badly-burned Hansel as they ran away as fast as they could. After half an hour of flight they found a pebble trail like the ones Bertel used to lead them home when they were separated cutting timber. At its end they found their father searching for them by torchlight, and told him their terrible tale. He vowed to take them far from Nell’s lair. As the shaken, haunted family traveled to the Land of Rebirth in search of safe, forested land where they could resettle, Gretel heard of the Purifiers, a group within the Sacred Order dedicated to destroying monsters and witches just like Nell. She told Hansel, who was immediately eager to join their ranks and avenge their ordeal. But Gretel and Bertel told him that they were too young to become soldiers, and Bertel admitted that he was growing old and needed their help more than ever. Gretel convinced Hansel to stay and strengthen their bodies working in the timberlands before they both joined. Gretel grew to womanhood, stern and disciplined with a sharp-edged beauty. Shortly after that Bertel’s age and grueling work caught up to him. He became feverish and eventually died, despite the care of his children. Before he did, he urged them to join the Order and save other children from evil. Hansel vowed he would, his righteous sense of rage and vengefulness was palpable; the grievous outrages perpetrated by Nell had to be answered. Gretel was more pragmatic, seeing the path of the Purifiers as a way to do good while incidentally being the best way to seek to eradicate Nell. She feared for her brother’s obsession, but believed were he to see it through, it would calm the storm in his soul. When they heard Hansel and Gretel’s tale, the Sacred Order accepted them readily. The siblings honed their skill in battle – their talents strong but unrefined — and later undertook witchfinding missions and purgation of shape-shifters to prove themselves. One heretic witch who boiled captive children alive to make magic brews was sickeningly familiar to the siblings, and when they searched the hag’s belongings, they found a beaded bracelet exactly like the one Gretel still carried as a token of her struggle. When the charm Gretel took from Nell years before thrummed in the presence of the witch’s, Gretel took this as a sign that Nell was toying with them, urging them on to a final confrontation, one which the monster would no doubt rig in her favor.