Camilla watched the byplay without comment, thinking on the situation. The stigmata of mutation was a real and terrifying risk across the known world. If Karl's eyes really had gone white, then there was little they could do for him. Most mutants started out as horrified by the changes that they manifested as anyone else, but whether by a twisting of the soul or the constant threat of exposure, they all fell to chaos in the end. The teaching on mutants was dogmatic but had only one constant. Suffer not the Tainted to live.

"You should leave signorina," Camilla counseled her, moving quietly to one of the shuttered windows.

"I... I can't leave everything I have is here," Eloise almost wailed. Camilla peered through the wooden shutters out into the street. Young men were straggling down towards the house, lead by the group they had driven away a few minutes ago. 

"Even if you survive this," Camilla said gently, "the next time there is a crop failure, or plauge or bad luck, they will turn on you." She shared a long glance with Cydric.

"We have seen it often enough." In the street the men began to mutter among themselves, voices raising as they drew encouragement from each other. Several appeared to be grabbing piece of rotten fruit, others were opting for loose stones to throw. The cry of witch rang from first one throat and then another. Within a minute the whole crowd was chanting WITCH WITCH WITCH! and the shutters began to ring with improvised missiles. 

[@POOHEAD189]