Eventually, the girl wanted to escape and they came up with a plan. When she didn’t stick to it, he grew worried. Thoughts swirled through his head: maybe her parents kept her in, or she even changed her mind at the last minute.

So he came into the Hearth, worried, not wanting to leave without her. She’d told him where she lived, and he peeked in her window.

He was seen.

The Hearth would automatically recognize someone not of their own, especially this boy in his synthetic clothing, bright green hair, moving tattoos on his knuckles.

They grabbed him, dragged him to the main chapel. Mana-ma had been roused from bed. I can imagine her, hair wild around her face, wearing her dark robes like a witch. The boy was nervous, probably a bit sheepish. Thought if he apologized and left, it’d all be OK.

Instead, they didn’t let him go.

He was thrown into one of the empty rooms that nobody used. They managed to get out of him who he was and why he was there. Then they went and got the girl.

The girl had planned to go. Her parents had caught her leaving with a small rucksack under her arm and locked her in her room. They were the ones to alert the watch, who had found the boy. The girl was more scared than the boy. She didn’t like the blank looks on their faces. They could be thinking anything.

Mana-ma was incensed. This boy had infringed on them, slipped past the toll roads, the infrequent park wardens, the fence, to come into the inner sanctum of the Hearth itself. The whole place would have to be Purified to prevent his presence from poisoning everything. The girl was sobbing, but the boy didn’t say anything. He knew crying wouldn’t solve anything when they’d already made up their minds.

They were all up all night, or at least all of them except the boy. He died at sunrise.

They didn’t kill him quickly. Mana-ma did most of it, with only her three trusted right-hand men. (Importantly, my parents weren’t involved. I think they learned about this after, and it was what put the biggest dent in their faith.) One restrained the boy and the other the girl. Throughout it all, Mana-ma lectured about the sins of evil and darkness, all while she tortured a boy to death in front of the girl who loved him. She used a scalpel, and she was delicate and dedicated in her work. The room was soundproof, so nobody else heard the screams.