The Extraordinary Accounts of One Lost Girl

-17-

I was awakened by a scream that was akin to someone being skinned alive. I had never heard the scream of someone being skinned alive, but that was what I imagined. I hurried out of my room, fearing that maybe the temple was under attack. You can never know when a place will get attacked. All the maids and guards rushed to the source of the sound in a hurry. It was a silent night before the scream broke its silence.

To my surprise, the source was near to my room and when I found the sound, I was able to witness Syanaam convoluting on her bed as maids held her down, crying. But the maids were not strong enough to hold her as she trashed her arm around. Men didn't dare to even enter her room. Seeing as I was the only female who was not at her side, I went into her room and caught hold of her arms while a maid fell down, cried and ran out of the room.

I just hoped she brought a doctor of even the high priestess. She seemed to be having a seizure with her eyes wide open.

Her eyes were white while she practically screeched. Soon, to my outmost horror, I watched black markings began to develop on her skin. More than markings, they looked like characters of some strange language that traveled all over her skin, starting from her fingertips and her toes that traveled up her limbs, her abdomen heading straight to her eyes.

Someone came from behind me and held down Syanaam. A familiar voice spoke.

'Have strength daughter. The pain is only short lived.'

I watched as the black characters reached her eyes and pooled their ink into the whites of her eye ball, turning from milky white to a void of inky black darkness. The convulsions gradually stopped and the white returned to her eyes. Syanaam closed her eyes with s sigh of relief as the high priestess fell to her knees near the bed. She seemed drained as a maid though a candle near to her face. For some reason, the high priestess seemed years older than she was during dinner. She looked up at me.

'It is done. I no longer bear the gift of prophecy.'

I looked at Syanaam. What I saw made me think that maybe, maybe not everything can be explained with sciences. Maybe there was some mystic force out there. Maybe, maybe we didn't know everything as we thought we did. The maids fanned Syanaam, who was sweating profusely. There was chattering outside the room as people peeked in.

Slowly Syanaam opened her eyes. Her eyes caught mine first. They widened in an expression I could not place. It was not hate, it wasn't relief, and neither was at anything I had expected of her. It seemed like fear, guilt and disbelief all mixed together. Her unwavering gaze caught the high priestess's eye as she turned to me. No one spoke for a long time that night.

As Syanaam became accustomed to her role as the high priestess's successor, I was filled with anticipation onto what my biological mother had planned for me. Asith was excited for the fact that I would be wed to the City Lord's Heir as she forced me to make myself look pretty. She was excited as being my personal attendant; she had a chance to catch a glimpse of him first hand. What she didn't know was that my fate lied elsewhere. Even Mara took extra care so that I will look presentable to be a beautiful wife.

The notion sickened me to the bottom of my stomach.

It was the fate I was trying to avoid for so long. For some reason, I was glad the high priestess was not planning to wed to someone soon. Mara didn't take my disinterest well. She one day snapped, 'You should at least try, alkahina. A girl would normally be happy that she would marry a good man. You are underestimating what you have.'

'You do not know what I have, Mara,' I said as calmly as possible. I stared at the vanity mirror as Mara fixed my hair for the day. It had grown unto my waist during the stay in Malhawk. 'Besides, there is nothing you can do for this face to make it presentable.'

Mara slapped my shoulder. 'You have alya's face and she's a beautiful woman. You will grow to be beautiful woman.'

'It's temporary Mara. It doesn't matter.' I said with a sigh. 'It's shameful to try so much to impress a man I hardly know.'

At this, Mara's gaze softened as I watched her face from the mirror. She smoothened my hair as she said, 'So it true, alkahina. But it's not a shame to try to look beautiful. You are a girl and a girl has all the right to be beautiful, more for herself than for a man. Outwards beauty lasts while one is young, it is wrong to enjoy it?'

I wasn't in the mood to enjoy it.