Disclaimer: Don't own or profit from.

Summary: sequel to The Covenant. At the time of the witch trials, the men of the Covenant of Silence chose The Power over family. For over 300 years the daughters of Ipswich have not forgotten. A curse laid on both sides now comes to focus as they are reunited after 15 generations. Has either side learned anything in that amount of time? (Reid/OC, Tyler/OC, Pogue/Kate, Caleb/Sarah, probaly more)

Prologue 1: Survival– A Covenant is Formed

They ran from persecution in Europe, hoping the New World would provide an opportunity for a new life. A place where people could start anew without the bitterness and suspicions of a paranoid people.

But paranoia followed them across the sea.

The five families of power were five familes joined because of a common birthright, a common practice, persecution, and friendship. For several generations they had lived together as friends, allies, confidants. As the New World proved to be as unfriendly as the old, they bound together for survival. An oath was taken to protect the power, and with it, themselves. No one was to speak of the power, to share the knowledge and who held it with outsiders. By keeping it amongst themselves it was hoped that persecution and the fears of others would leave them untouched.

It left them vulnerable to themselves.

As the villages and paranoid people of the New World, who claimed they were fleeing from persecution, turned to persecute them they stuck to the oath more tightly than ever.

But the colonists were out for blood.

Too soon, they turned to the five families. The five who were wealthy, who were powerful, who were friends with each other . . . everything they had come to fear in the Old World. Even if they didn't have magical powers they still feared the families. When the villagers attacked and slandered the families they said nothing in their own defense hoping the attacks would die away. Falsely, it was hoped if they didn't demonstrate any real power the villagers would have nothing to persecute them for.

Husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters (for way back when it was not unheard of for a family to have a son and daughter) kept their oaths not to reveal themselves to the panic-induced villagers. It was all for naught as the villagers continued their plight against the five families. The daughters of the five families fell victim to the ravings of the simple-minded peasants. When they turned to their families they were left to their fate as each brother chose to maintain the oath, and with it their own safety, over the lives of their sisters. As each sister, one by one, died by the crazed villagers the brothers feared the villagers would turn to them next and each solemnly vowed that above all, the oath would be maintained and formed a Covenant of Silence

So their sisters had to be sacrificed.

And disappear from the record.

But they, unknowingly to their brothers, had the last word.