Tears of Faith

The Beginning

"STOP!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "Let me go!" I was being held (against my wishes) by two tall, overweight, incredibly foul smelling guards. It was a cold, chilly day of the month Aftov; It was the month of the Goddess. Every lunar year all the people of the kingdom come together to pay tributes to the Goddess. Today all the villagers stopped in their tracks and watched my arrest.  

"Shut up you whiny brat. All ready in enough trouble as it is." The red haired behemoth roared.  

"But I'm Innocent! And WHY is a young orphan girl being arrested during the holy month of the Great Goddess? I am only here to express my loyal allegiance."  

"Well, you sound like a rich, snobby daughter of a duke. Using all them big fancy words." Okay, so maybe the orphan part was a lie, and the loyal allegiance part, and the innocent part as a matter of fact. I gave the two guards my best I-hate-your-guts look. This is the part were my story really begins.

"Mevldina! How can you be such a clumsy girl! Straighten your back. Hold your chin up. For Goddess's sake can you not yawn with your mouth gaping wide like a wild animal?" Etiquette class is probably one of those boring classes that convinces every child that its soul purpose is to choke the living spirit out of you. My instructor was an old, eccentric, nasally voiced twig of a woman. Mrs. Golden, the woman that could even make pirate stories sound blander than sand. I rolled my eyes at her comment and continued to pick up the broken pieces of a tea cup I managed to break. 

"I shall try my best." I mumbled through gritted teeth.  

"Child, at that volume not even a mouse has the chance of deciphering what you have just said." Dear Goddess, was Mrs. Golden ever going to stop running her mouth? Her mere presence annoyed me. I sighed and turned around to face her. Her bird like eyes scanned over me numerous times. Then she let out a sigh of her own.  

"Why can't you be more like your sister?" My muscles tensed. My sister? The two faced convincing vulture? No thank you, I rather not be like her. It's probably not healthy to have this much hate towards one person, but she deserves every single drop of it.  

"Because I have no intention of becoming like her." I spit out the word her like it burned my tongue and I know Mrs. Golden felt the venom that clung to it.  

"Very well, but may I remind you, she is the head council advisor to the royal family." 

"You don't have to remind me of anything." And with that I turned around and marched out of the room.

In the stupor of my sleep I thought I heard a soft knock on my door, after untangling my self from the covers, I sat up and croaked in a groggy voice, "Come in." The door slowly swung open and my maid stood there with a timid look on her face. 

"Sorry to d-disturb you, but y-your parents are asking for your presence." I couldn't grasp the reason for her behaving so strangely. I stared at her as if the answer would be written across her forehead.  

"Is that all?"  

"Your sister is here too."