*Edit* Some parts of the old prologue have been moved here, and I've added paragraph breaks to make it "more readable," although I'm really not too happy that it had to be done...
I wanted to post the prologue and Chapter 1 at the same time, but it would have been a massive post if they had both been in the same thread. I highly suggest reading the prologue before this, because it gives important information that this chapter uses. Rated 18+ because of some of the descriptions.
Chapter One—Tragedy’s Touch
It was a cool morning at the beginning of the second quarter of the year when the lives of Hannah, Charity, their parents, and many others would be changed forever. It was the fourth hour of the day (where days started at the morning twilight) when Hannah’s parents received a message about a meeting that was to happen in half an hour; a meeting where plans would be finalized for deposing the governor.
The meeting was to be held where it always had been, in the basement of the house belonging to the leader of this rebellion. No one knew what his name was, as he never gave it out in the name of safety. When Hannah was told they would attend this meeting, she urged her parents against it. Her father, however, was steadfast in his decision.
“I feel like something isn’t right about these meetings,” said Hannah to her father.
“I understand that there is a degree of risk, but if we don’t do something, who will?” replied her father.
“I just don’t understand why you keep going when the man doesn’t trust you enough to give you his own name.”
“His reason for not giving his name is understandable; he has a lot to lose should someone leak what is going on, whether purposefully or accidentally.”
“And what about you? Do you not have a lot to lose as well?”
“Of course I have a lot to lose, I have everything to lose, but this man is the one coming up with most of the main strategy, and everyone agrees that it is the best idea.”
“But what if he is the one that leaks the information?”
“This man has done more for our cause than any of the rest of us. To think that he would do such a thing is absolutely absurd; we have to trust him,” her father said as he grabbed his jacket “but,” he paused for a brief moment, and walked over to his daughter, gently rubbing her cheek with is thumb, “if that was the case, then it makes it all the more important that you remain here, and not get involved.”
“I don’t understand what protecting his name does. Wouldn’t leaking the location alone be enough to ruin everything?”
“I suppose,” replied her father, “What is your point?”
“Protecting his name means absolutely nothing. Someone could tell the officials where the meeting is happening without even using his name.”
“Hannah, this is the last meeting,” said her father, refusing to discuss it anymore. “This will be the last time you ever have to worry about us being in danger.”
“Okay, just please be careful,” she said after a short pause.
“Aren’t we always careful?”
“I guess I just always worry that you won’t come back.”
“I appreciate your concern, but you have nothing to worry about.”
Hannah watched as her parents walked out the door, and didn’t find much comfort in her father’s words. She decided that no good would come from worrying about her parents any longer, and resigned to tidy up the house and prepare lunch while they were gone. She looked at her sister and thought about her father’s words.
“If something were to happen to you,” she thought to herself, “I don’t even know how I could protect her. We all know what happens to children who are orphaned.”
Hannah briefly recalled the law that stated any female child orphaned before reaching the age of seventeen would be sold into slavery. If a child was found to have no parents, regardless of whether siblings over seventeen were a part of the household or lived in the city, the child would be seized by the city guard and taken to the governor’s mansion. There, Jarod would treat the guard responsible for bringing the child to his choice of worldly pleasures, whether they came from the governor’s purse, kitchen, or harem. He would then decide whether to keep the child for himself in his harem, or sell her into slavery for a tidy profit.
The situation with orphaned males was a little bit different. On a boy’s fifteenth birthday, his lot was cast as to whether he would become a member of the army, or could choose his own occupation, with the odds being weighed sixty percent toward conscription. A male who was fifteen years old had already cast his lot, and so nothing was done should he be orphaned. If he still lived with his parents when they died, then it was up to him to find a new home or pay taxes and fees on the property left behind by his parents. He could opt to join the army or go on living his life as he wanted. Orphaned males under age fifteen were taken to the military academy, where they started learning to how to be soldiers, since there was nothing else to be done with them.
This horrible thought had snuck into her mind, and she refused to dwell on it any longer.
As the meeting went on, Hannah’s father sensed a certain uneasiness about the man that he had not seen before. He would have been more alarmed, but this was to be the final meeting before attempting the coup, and uneasiness was understandable. The man went on and talked about how a secret entrance to the governor’s mansion had been found. It was actually an emergency exit, but they had someone on the inside, close to the governor who could let them in through this secret route.
The man went on to explain:
“We have an informant in the Governor’s mansion, one of his slaves, who can get us into the mansion through and old underground tunnel that connects to the basement. This basement is more of a dungeon than an actual basement. It is where he sends his slaves when they disobey him. The informant says that he found the secret passage one day when he was left in the dungeon as punishment. The access door opens only from the inside, but this informant can get it open for us. We will be able to enter the mansion without anyone knowing, but we have to coordinate with him about it. Tomorrow night, just after dusk we will head to the exit of the tunnel system, and wait for the informant to open the door for us.”
He paused for a moment, and looked at the door, as if expecting someone.
“So does anyone have any questions?” he asked as he moved his eyes back to the crowd.
Everyone was silent for a second, and then whispers could be heard among the attendees.
“How do we know that this isn’t a trap?” said one of the men. “Can we really trust this informant? Who is he?”
“Yeah and how did we acquire this information; where is this tunnel?” another man piped in.
“Slaves aren’t allowed to leave the mansion, and any that did would certainly not go back. Why should we listen to anything anyone says about supposed tunnels?” said Hannah’s father. “If there really was a tunnel from the dungeon, a slave would not remain imprisoned, he would get out as soon as possible and never return.”
Beads of sweat started forming on the brow of the man who was standing before everyone in the room, and his anxiety was now showing more obviously as he rubbed his hands together nervously.
“Besides that, a slave of the governor would not have any idea about what we are attempting anyway!” Hannah’s father was now on his feet and almost yelling at the man who kept glancing back at the door.
“Look at his reaction!” screamed Hannah’s father “He knows it’s all a lie! We’ve all been deceived!”
Hannah’s father reached for his jacket and turned towards the door when all of a sudden a contingent of city guards burst into the basement.
For just a brief minute, time seemed to stand still. All eyes turned towards the door, and saw the guards marching into the meeting room. In an instant, the guards drew their swords began slaughtering all those in attendance. Hannah’s father watched as all of those closest to him in his endeavors to ending the evil regime were butchered like animals before his eyes.
Time seemed to be passing much more slowly as he watched the broadswords slice through human flesh with ease. He saw the apparent joy that it caused these men as they hewed off arms, legs, and heads. Men and women, some who had reached their adulthood only weeks prior to this meeting, were brutally murdered without any hesitation. Although the attendees fought back as best they could, they were no match for the war-hardened soldiers.
These men did not find causing a swift death as enjoyable as a long painful one, and they made these rebels suffer as much as they could. Those who tried to fight back found themselves begging for a quicker death, as they lost their arms and legs. It was as if these men fed off of the suffering of others.
As Hannah’s father was bleeding out, he watched in horror as the man in charge of the meeting, the one who everyone had trusted watched the massacre and received payment from the guard captain for his service as a spy. Everything had been a ruse; everything they had planned and everything they had talked about was all a setup. As Hannah’s father lay dying he longed to hold his wife in his arms one last time, but this was now impossible. He thought of his daughters, and how they would be sought out.
He realized that Charity would be seized and made a slave, and his anger continued to grow. He wished that he had listened to Hannah, but it was too late now. He saw his wife’s lifeless dismembered body and called upon heaven for vengeance on the evil men who wrought this suffering and brutal death upon them. His cries were eventually silenced as the fiend who had set them all up walked over to him slowly.
“You were right, it was all a lie. I’m glad it took you this long to realize that though.” The man said. “It’s too bad about your daughters,” he remarked snidely, “but don’t worry about them, they will be dealt with momentarily.”
“You…bastard! At least tell me your name!” screamed Hannah’s father in a fit of rage.
“My name,” said the man as he picked up the guard captain’s sword, “is Kalais”
And with that last comment, he decapitated the man with one swift slice.
Hannah was at home preparing lunch for when her parents returned while Charity was playing with her dolls when the guards burst into their home.
“What’s the meaning of this?” demanded Hannah
“I’m sorry, but your parents were in an unfortunate accident, and are both dead.” The guard replied.
“No, they can’t be, I just saw them a couple hours ago.”
“Sorry about your loss, but we have come for your sister. Since your parents are dead, she is to be taken to the governor’s mansion for her…well being.”
“You’re not taking my sister; I will take care of her.”
“Law is law, she is to be taken to Jarod, who will determine how best to care for her.”
“That’s a lie, you mean taken to be sold into slavery!” She was now furious at the lackadaisical attitude of the man in front of her.
“Mind your tongue woman, and remember who you talk to.”
“I know full well who I’m talking to: one of the corrupt guardsmen of a corrupt governor looking to line his wallet.”
“Regardless of what you think, we are taking her nonetheless,” replied the guard as he snatched up the eight year old who was now crying.
Hannah grabbed the hot iron skillet from the fire and lunged toward the guard with it. Before she could strike him with it, a second guard grabbed her arm with a grip so tight that she dropped the skillet on the floor and cried out in pain.
“Assault on a guard is a punishable offense, you’re coming with me,” said the guard who had grabbed her.
“I’m not going anywhere with anyone!” She screamed as she pulled a knife from her boot with her free hand and plunged it into the guard’s eye.
The man roared angrily and the other guard turned around to see his partner on his knees holding his face, with blood dripping through his fingers. Hannah knew that she could not stand alone against the second guard and ran out of the house through the back door.
“I’m sorry Charity, but I will come back for you,” she thought to herself as she ran as fast as she could.
The wounded guard, furious at the audacity of the young woman, got off the floor and raced through the door to chase down and punish the now fleeing fugitive. Hannah charged down the street, looking for a safe place to go, and thought of some of her parents’ friends who lived nearby. As she got closer to the house, she saw guards leaving the house with two children.
“No, this can’t be,” she thought to herself as she continued running with the guard chasing her. Her heart sunk as she realized what had happened, but she refused to believe it right away, and continued running to the house of another family friend. When she arrived, she discovered that the door had been knocked in, the house ransacked, and the little girl who lived there with her parents was no-where to be found.
She knew now what her heart had told her minutes before; that everyone she knew, and everyone who went to the meeting was dead. She had no safe place to go to in the city, but knew that with the guard chasing her, there was no way that she would be able to leave through either of the gates. She knew that if she slowed down, the guard would catch up to her and she would surely be killed. Hannah raced out the backdoor of this house and saw the western wall of the city; the wall that separated the city from the haunted forest of Selliadora.
Selliadora was a forest that had been around for ages. Books written thousands of years before had mentioned Selliadora as “the haunted forest.” No one alive knew what the truth about the forest really was, but everyone heard the stories. Many had even claimed to have seen the sorcerer that made that place his home, and attacked anyone who dared to enter.
The stories about that place were as immortal as the sorcerer alleged to live there.
Generation after generation passed while living behind the walls of Aeir, and stories passed from father to son, to grandson. Children were naturally curious about the massive wall of trees on the western edge of the city, but parents made a point to teach them never to go near it. There were inevitably some people who would climb over the walls and wander in, either on a dare or to prove themselves to others, but these fools were never heard of again. It was as if something, or someone, had gotten to them.
Some claimed that the sorcerer had power over the animals and the trees themselves, and could see and hear everything that went on within the borders of the forest. The city was built against Selliadora for a particular purpose: to provide it with an entire side completely guarded without having to use manpower or finances to guard it. This was a very strategic move for the men who decided to found this city, as the stories and legends of Selliadora were enough to keep anyone from attempting to gain access to the city through the forest.
Hannah hesitated briefly because she knew the stories told of that place, but when she looked back, and saw the guard was already in the house coming straight for her, she tossed her reservations aside and decided to make for the wall. In her mind, her only choices both involved death; either she would die in this house at the hands of an angry city guard, or she would die to the sorcerer who lived in the forest.
…Charity was kicking and screaming for help as she was being taken out of the house. It was so loud that people had come out of their houses to see what was going on. When they saw the guard with the girl slung over her shoulder, they just went back into their houses, knowing what it meant and refusing to help. She wasn’t the only one being seized that day, but by far she was the one who screamed the loudest. She pounded on the guard’s back but he just ignored her and kept moving. As he entered the governor’s mansion he threw the little girl down to the ground in front of Jarod.
“This one has been a handful,” said the guard
Charity ran towards the door, but it was no use. The guard quickly snatched her back up and tossed her to the ground again.
“I can do this all day little girl, you aren’t getting away.”
Jarod took out a small sack of silver and handed it to the guard who brought her in.
“Thank you for your service,” said Jarod.
“Thank you sir,” replied the guard, “now if you’ll excuse me I must go check on my partner.”
“Oh why is that?” asked Jarod.
“This one’s sister attacked him after he stopped her from assaulting me while trying to get this one out of their house. She stabbed him in the eye with a knife and took off; he took off after her.”
“She assaulted a guard, and then tried to run?”
“Pretty amusing isn’t it?” said the guard as he turned around and jogged out the door.
Charity was now alone with this monster that was the governor, and she was terrified.
“Don’t be scared little girl, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said “what is your name?”
“Charity,” reluctantly replied the girl.
“Well then Charity, come with me, and I’ll take you to where the other kids are.”
Jarod took her by the hand and led her through what seemed like a maze of hallways before she finally got to a room filled with other terrified children.
“Well, this is it, have fun,” he said as he closed and locked the door behind him.
None of the children said anything; they just stared at each other, wondering what was going on, and what would happen to them. Charity didn’t know it, but one by one each of the children were being taken out of the room, and they were never seen again. It wasn’t until she saw a couple of the children led out of the room, and never return that she realized why everyone got tense every time the door opened.
She couldn’t do anything but sit there, and wonder when it would be her turn to leave this room and never come back. After what seemed like forever, the door opened and a large man grabbed Charity’s arm and hauled her out of the room. She was taken down into the basement of the mansion where she saw the man who took her to the room hours before.
He looked at her for a bit, and then grabbed a long rod out of the fire. It was glowing red hot, and had some sort of design engraved.
“Lift up her dress,” he demanded.
After the strong man lifted her dress up, the one who made the demand placed the red hot iron on her inner thigh and held it there, so as to brand her.
The girl shrieked as the pain surged through her body, and tried to thrash and escape, but she was not strong enough to escape the grasp of the man holding her down. Tears poured from her eyes as she continued screaming while both men just watched, unaffected by her anguish. This brand was the governor’s seal, and it signified the person as a sale sanctioned by the governor. It was applied to the inner thigh of the slave, and any person trying to sell a slave that did not have this brand would be subjected to heavy fines and/or imprisonment.
“Ok, take her to the holding dormitory,” said Jarod to the large man.
Charity had passed out because of the excruciating pain, so the man had to carry her to the dormitory, where she would stay until the day of her sale. She would remain here for four days, so that the city authorities could verify that her parents were in fact deceased, and finalize the records of it.
When she woke up, she could still feel the pain pulsating through her body as a result of the branding, and couldn’t do anything but lay in the bed. She thought of her parents, and wondered why they weren’t rescuing her. She thought of her sister, and wondered if she would ever see her again. She looked around the dormitory where she was, and realized that there were many others with her, but no one was saying anything. It was an eerie silence, but one that nobody wanted to break…
Hannah, now almost completely exhausted and on the verge of collapsing, ran at the six foot wall and leapt with all her remaining strength to get over the obstacle. She pulled herself over the top of the wall and rolled off the other side, painfully landing on the ground. As she lay there, she realized that if she could get over the wall, the guard wouldn’t have a problem doing the same.
She tried to shake off the pain and exhaustion as she limped towards the woods. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw her adversary coming over the wall behind her. He had thrown off all of his heavy armor, and had with him only a long knife but this was more than the unarmed young woman had.
“Have I really come all this way just to be murdered?” she thought as she continued toward the massive trees.
Her side was bruised from rolling off the wall and every step she took was more painful than the last. Tears streamed down her face as she thought about her family—her sister, who she was supposed to protect, and her parents, who died in an attempt to make everything right.
She had barely passed the first massive tree when she felt a horrible, sharp pain surge through her body. She collapsed to her knees under the agony, and cried with such an excruciatingly loud cry that even the birds of the haunted forest fled. A cold shiver ran down her spine as she looked down to see a pool of red collecting on the front of her shirt. While she was on her knees she felt yet another sharp pain, and saw the blood soaked point of a knife come through her body near where the first pool of blood had started collecting. She then felt a forceful kick to her back that thrust her to the ground; her face hit a stone that was laying there. She couldn’t scream, she could only cry as she felt a strong hand grab her shoulder and wrench her onto her back. The guard was there, and as soon as he had turned her over onto her back, he thrust the dagger once more into her soft flesh.
“You thought you could get away,” he laughed maniacally as he slowly pulled the knife out of her body and held the bloody knife to Hannah’s throat.
“You didn’t think you could take my eye and get away with it now did you? We came for your sister, but you just had to try and be a hero. Oh, but it would be such a waste if I were to just kill you without first knowing what you felt like…inside.” As he made this remark, he moved the knife away from her throat and to her thigh.
He took the point of the knife and dragged it up her thigh, and watched as the cut released more blood from her body. She cried out loud as she felt the blade carving open her skin.
“You’re going to die here, so I guess I can be a nice guy and at least allow you to experience some pleasure first”
The man grabbed her skirt with one hand, and began to cut it off her body.
“Please, no, just let me die!” Hannah pleaded, not wanting this monster to be the last thing she felt before she went to join her parents.
“Oh what are you so afraid of? Are you afraid that you’ll like it?” The guard cut off the rest of her clothes, and her body was now fully exposed, naked on the ground, and soaked in her own blood.
“Please…if anyone can hear me…I beg you…Help me!” She cried as loud as her lungs would let her, though every breath was excruciating. With every breath she could taste her own blood.
“Oh, I’ll help you alright,” said the guard who was now unbuttoning his own trousers, “You just lay still and let me handle the rest.”
Hannah, exhausted from the chase, and unable to fight back because of her wounds, closed her eyes, and prayed that she would die before this man touched her. All of a sudden, the loudest, most ferocious roar ever to be heard thundered from within the forest. The guard with his pants at his ankles looked up to see an enormous brown bear up glaring into his eyes. He was so startled that he dropped his knife and trying to take a step back, tripped and fell to the ground. Hannah looked up to see that the bear was standing on its hind legs, and was positioned so it was standing just behind where her head was laying down. The guard scrambled to his knees and tried to crawl to grab his knife, but the bear charged forward and slashed the knife out of reach.
The beast seemed to ignore the almost lifeless woman, and fixed its eyes on the man. The guard, whose pants were still around his ankles, started to crawl away back towards the wall, and didn’t realize that the bear was following him slowly. As the man reached the wall, he reached down to pull up his trousers as he stood up.
“By the time that bear devours the girl, I’ll be over this wall and back to safety,” he thought to himself. “Although it is such a shame that I didn’t get to enjoy her as I wanted.”
As he was still pulling up his pants, the man turned around to find himself staring into the dark red eyes of the beast. The bear gave another roar and with one slash it took a chunk of the man’s face off, and knocked him to the ground. The man’s cries of anguish allowed Hannah to smile briefly through her pain. Though she knew that this was inevitably where she would breathe her last breath, it brought her at least some happiness that the man responsible for her most immediate suffering would die first. The bear lunged in for the kill this time, as it slashed the man’s throat wide open. Blood gushed from the dying man, and he was unable to utter even a sound. Nothing but gargling noises would come out of his mouth as he choked and drowned on his own blood. Seconds later, the man collapsed on the ground lifeless, with blood soaking the ground where his head now rested, and his hands at his throat in a futile attempt to keep the blood from pouring out.
Hannah watched as the bear turned around and began walking over to her. Her vision was becoming fuzzy, and she couldn’t make out anything anymore. She felt lightheaded, and knew that it was because of the amount of blood she had lost. She felt her self passing out, and hoped that she would be unconscious when the bear decided to make her its next meal. Just as the bear was almost upon her, she went completely unconscious and slipped away into a world of her imagination, seeing her past, and once again seeing the familiar faces of her parents and her sister.
She felt like her spirit had left her body, and was experiencing the past as an observer.
“This must be what death feels like,” she thought “it’s not so bad after all.”
She didn’t understand what she was experiencing at first, but as she flew along, she saw what was unfolding before her. She had gone back to the moment that her parents were walking out the door to go to the meeting, but this time, she could follow them and see what happened. She followed them as a sort of apparition, seeing what they saw and hearing what they heard. She watched the group of twenty or so sit down to begin the meeting, and listened as the man gave his explanation of the final plan.
“That’s nonsense!” she thought to herself as he told them about a supposed slave informant on the inside who would help them “Is this the best this snake could come up with?”
She watched as her father questioned the man’s explanation, and was thankful that he at least realized that this could not possibly be true. She then watched in horror as the guards stormed the house and slaughtered everyone within except the one who was in charge of it all. He instead was rewarded with a sack of silver. She heard her father cry out for revenge and listened as the man told her father his name.
“If I could do something, I would” she thought, still supposing she was dead and drifting slowly to be reunited with her parents. “This Kalais must pay. If only I could still do something I would.”
After the end of the slaughter, her vision turned into a haze, and everything became a blur. When she could finally see straight, she found herself in a small hut, lying on a comfortable bed. She examined her body and found bandages on her wounds. As she rolled onto her side, she saw a handsome young man sitting at the side of the bed, reading through some sort of book. She was still exhausted, but she was startled at the same time, and sat up quickly, which caused her to become dizzy.
“Woah now, careful” said the young man in an almost poetic sounding voice “You’ve been through a lot, it’s probably best that you rest. You’re safe here; no one will harm you again.”
“Where am I?” said Hannah
“You’re in my home,” said the man “In Selliadora”
“The haunted forest? You live there?”
“Yes, I live here.”
“But what about the old man of the forest, the sorcerer?”
“My friends call me Ezekiel.”
