“I, Nicolo Malatesta Vacini, son of the city of Siena, never believed in the miracles my mother professed to have seen. Unlike my brothers and sisters I had always been a cynical youth, dark of mind, worldly and irreligious. When my sisters cowered from descriptions of wrinkled, hunched witches, I chuckled at their stupidity. When my brothers rose, shouting as one, demanding that father take them into the dark brooding forests to fight the half men half beasts that dared to steal the district’s cattle, I laughed at their false bravado. Never did I imagine that one day, I would be forced to face my own demons.”

15th Century Italy. A place of Machiavelli, a place of discord. War and plague ravage the land. Death is a constant companion. Superstition is rife. The masses flock to the Church for spiritual solace but some, appalled at the corruption in Rome, seek heavenly life through rapture. The Inquisition hunts these mystics. Captured, the fortunate are forced to repent by pilgrimage, the less so are burnt at the stake as heretics.