Angel of Fire

By: Valery Bryusov

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

''It is difficult for one who has seen too much to remain silent.'

Ruprecht, a man of humble origins who had risen to knighthood, begins his tale with those words. After a turbulent youth, he had found his way to the Americas and returned to German lands with a pocketful of gold. He was not deterred by the war raging in his country, what we would call the Thirty Years War. His war would be a personal and mysterious one. He looked only to renew ties with his family and return to New Spain

Germany in the age of Martin Luther was a land of religious faith and religious discord. It was called by some 'the land of the three churches.' It was a land in which the dark arts thrived.

Years before, an angel of fire had appeared to a young girl, Renate. He departed and her life became a quest to find him once more. She was willing to use any means and paid for her hubris with great suffering.

On his way home, Ruprecht encountered the mercurial, beautiful and noble Renate. Ruprecht struggled to understand her nature, at times wishing to escape her influence but helplessly enthralled. He believed her to be pure, he suspected she was mad, he saw her possessed by demons. Hardly understanding what he was about, he fought to help her realize her desires and found himself caught between the worlds of light and darkness. Renate's quest became Ruprecht's quest. It led him to meetings with the sorcerer and scholar Agrippa von Nettesheim, the learned Doctor Faust and his companion, the sinister Mephistopheles.

The fantastic phenomena following in Renate's train could not escape the notice of the Inquisition. For Renate, that was a death sentence.Could she escape with Ruprecht's help?