Cadente - Where Legends Are Born

Prologue

If the rest knew what the blessed have to lose to receive the mark of their gods, then they would understand why they were chosen and did not choose to be it.

Everyone wants to be chosen, until the moment they are. And then when they become one, everyone wants to have the choice not to become one of us.

On that specific day, a different glow snaked through the gray eyes of the firstborn on the throne of Alardina.

It was her younger sister's sixteenth birthday and in less than forty days hers would arrive too, she would finally reach the age of majority. The moment when every blessed was honored with the powers of their respective gods, when their full strength emerged, establishing their blessing and their mark. The age at which she would finally be worthy to assume the throne of the vast deserts of the sun god, Ravi.

It was her sister's sixteenth birthday and Estela was witnessing in the background the premature coronation of the youngest member of the family.

Maryn was already positioned in the center of the palace. The sun, almost at full strength, illuminated the vibrant skin of the girl with almond-shaped curls even more.

She was the big star there, as praised as the god Ravi himself, even the dunes seemed to move to see her being crowned. The deserts wanted her as queen. The people acclaimed her as her chosen one. And soon her title would be hers and Estela could do nothing but agree obediently with her head down.

Estela was nothing more than a weak light, too pale, an evil in favor of a greater good. She was nothing more than a curse solved by birth.

"Kill her!" Rahab whispered once again in the girl's mind.

The goddess used to do this, sneak into Estela's mind, to the point that she no longer knew what her or Rahab's thoughts were.

Estela's hands were shaking. She seemed like an intruder within her own mind, her own kingdom, the territory that should be hers.

"I can't do that", she also whispered to the goddess.

"Kill her before she kills you first".

"She wouldn't...".

"Her first command as a queen, Ravi's first order to her, will be to cut off your head. The moon soaks your skin, girl, the darkness of the night plays in your hair and the brightness of the stars betrays your eyes. If you think that any God will allow someone with the mark of death to stalk his territories every night, so I made the most foolish decision in choosing you. Kill her before she kills you. End it, now!"

Estela took a step towards her sister.

"I will be rejected. It's not me who they want, it's always been her, it will always be her. There is no point in being a queen without a people. What power does a nobody's queen have?".

"Have the power to condemn their heads, Estela, and they will fall at your feet. It doesn't matter if in a sign of surrender or already detached from their necks. Then, my queen, you will see that only the weak depend on acceptance. Those who have true power need to conquer nothing, as they can take everything for themselves. So, dear, your much praised sister will become just a forgotten whisper in history, as insignificant as a speck of dust in this damned desert."

"She's still my sister, I love her...".

"Don't finish that hateful sentence. Blood relations mean nothing when there's power involved. You can love her, she can love you, but no amount of love will stop her from slitting your throat the moment the sun reaches its peak in noon. When that crown lands on her head, you will be dead. Dead."

Among the crowd, Estela staggered away from her sister. She needed to get away from there as quickly as possible before she regretted any poorly thought out or manipulated action.