Trunks of jewels and coin laid open sat in the candlelit room Anisse sat. Her clay hands ran along a string of golden chain adorned with emeralds and amethyst inlaid, her dark eyes doing their best to etch the sight into her memory.
"Have you gathered the sacrifice," her mother asked, watching as Anisse sat the chain atop the others.
She gave a nod. Too much had happened, too much had been lost, not to give the wealth of her nation to the tiny pea sized child in her womb. A husband whom didn't return with desperately needed help, the foothold the Spellforger had won with the help of tall, broad Sentinel was lost. The only hope that remained was all wrapped up in the warmth of her own body.
And, with little ceremony, the gold and platinum of a national treasury was gone along with every other piece of jewelry worth anything to anyone in the land of Easter.
Her mother laid an old, thick veined hand against her shoulder for a moment, offering the only momentary comfort she could give.
"It is done, Anisse."
Anisse did not remove her gaze from the floor for a long moment, hoping to feel something, a great change within herself to assure that she'd been blessed with the heavy sacrifice being honored.
None came immediately.
None came for the next six months.
Her stomach swelled with the child's growth and like a dagger, on the thirteenth day of April, as she molded a clay pot, the pain of a contraction shot through her midsection.
The labor was short yet intense.
The child, a girl, screamed as she burst into the world. Good lungs for such a small thing weighing no more than 2 pounds. So small she could have slept in a shoe box if she were not born of such nobility.
Anisse's sister, a midwife, handed her the child wrapped in a clean and soft white blanket. She smiled through the exhaustion and then, looking down to her daughter with the chosen name of Aisha, she hoped her eyes would open. Would they be dark like her own or the sea blue of her husbands? Would they be cloudy as other Spellforger children upon birth?
No.
When Aisha opened her eyes, the practical glow of blue jewels shocked Anisse and, in just the right light, clockwork rings appeared in them.
It was then that Anisse knew that her sacrifice was honored. Easter would have a savior after all.
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This is how I was born. And, the ensuing, is how I die.
YOU ARE READING
Clockwork Girl
FantasíaBorn into an era of great upheaval across a deeply magical planet, a girl by the name of Aisha must be found and resurrected in order to save not only the inhabitants of the world, but the magic of the planet itself.
