the young witch, adorned with her modern pagan tattoos, smiles with glee

Hundreds of years ago a young woman ran through what was once Poland but now Germany on a cold October evening. Gasping for breath, fearing for her life, she looked back at the lanterns glowing in the dark and the men chasing her. 

Her only chance of escape was the river. If she could get across she might just survive.

But she couldn't swim! 

What had led to this?

She had opened her mouth too much. Questioned the wise words of the church and old men. Worst of all, she had slept with married men and never married herself. And her body was marked with strange pagan symbols.

They were going to burn her now. At the stake, for all the old men to watch. Make her pay for her sins in agony for all the carnal pleasures she had enjoyed. 

She plunged into the icy waters and fought to reach the other side. But she was too weak. She couldn't fight any longer.  She was drifting away. Perhaps for the best. At least they wouldn't torture her, grinning as they did so.

The next morning she awoke, shivering, on a sandy riverbank on the other side.  How could this have happened? Was she really a witch then, by not drowning? Whatever the case, she had survived! 

But where to go now? Somehow she would manage in this man's world.

The centuries pass. The young witch is long dead, but had given birth to a beautiful daughter before she passed away, out of wedlock. From this precious daughter came a daisy chain of other descendants reaching far into the 21st century. 

It is now October 2023 and Poland has been reborn on the map of Europe, and is currently experiencing a new Jagiellonian age. 

Money had flowed in from the European Union in recent years.  

But Poland is at a dark point also, fearful of the chaotic and violence strewn world beyond, threatening mass migration and the dilution of Polish culture. Poland's fertility rate is falling and the government has banned abortion and introduced higher welfare to try to mitigate this. 

A descendant of that now distant witch now walks the streets of Kraków. This granddaughter possesses what would be considered magic in the days of witch burning - an iPhone.  

She also possesses the rebel nature and love of carnal pleasures of her ancient grandmother. But she fears both childbirth and abortion. 

She dare not have another child. From the ecstasy of sex followed the agony of childbirth, when she felt like she would die. She gave birth to a beautiful daughter like her medieval grandmother. But never again she sighs. 

But she has just voted in the most important elections since the fall of communism in Poland. The Conservative, right wing government is thrown out. She rejoices with her young friends, the generation of young people who voted in record numbers to change the direction of their country. 

But what does the future hold? Will Poland now lose its identity and be controlled by the liberal world order?

For now the young witch, adorned with her modern pagan tattoos, smiles with glee, safe in the knowledge that if she falls pregnant again she no longer has to travel to Czechia or face that agonising childbirth ever again, as a punishment for her wicked delights.