The Chains of Darkness

Chapter 2

Trigger warning: This chapter contains graphic violence, description of blood, sexual abuse and substance use.

Every year during fall they would come to recruit people for their order. Each town had to send at least one girl to the Great Mother in order to be trained as a priestess. In addition to this, many girls were also either going willingly, or being sold off by their families to go to the capital. Most of these girls would be sold to different households as either wives or as workers - most of them usually the former due to the lack of women in the capital. Guardians of the capital as well as their own private line of holy guardians would accompany the priestesses to collect these girls. Some were hoping to get early pickings from the lot. Many families considered this an honor, to have one of their daughters selected by a guardian, or to become a priestess - and of course, some families just needed money as the families were heavily compensated for their trouble of letting their young ones go. Many poor families were eager to contribute by selling off their kids.

This is why my heart sank as I got closer to our cottage and saw several guardians gathered nearby. Behind them were carriages with logos from the Holy Order as well as ones with the crest of the crown on them. Some of the carts were already full with girls, all seemingly nervous. As I walked by, I recognized two of them, both were wearing the newbie robes signifying they had been recruited to become priestesses.

One of them was a girl from one of the fishing villages not that far away from ours - she used to come here often, selling fish at the market for her family.

I think her name is Mindy, and if my memory serves me right she had three younger sisters, which explained why she would be the first to be selected.

The other girl was from my village, Sarah. She was the baker's daughter. It was a great honor to be chosen to become a priestess, and having two from poor families was unusual. This also meant that the order had gotten the recruits they needed from our area this year - and I know I did not volunteer to become one of the girls to go to the capital, so the soldiers being here could only mean one thing.

I swallowed hard, feeling the nausea climb up my throat as I entered the door. Inside, my father and brother were sitting at the kitchen table, along with one priestess and four men.

The priestess wore a long dark blue cloak, and her face was hidden behind a dark veil. Around her head she had silver pendants with the symbol of the Great Mother. All the sigils indicated she was one of the higher priestesses. The only thing visible was her mouth, and now she was smiling at me, a soft and cautious smile.

I threw the items I had managed to carry from the cart outside on the floor with a heavy thud and spun around to face my father.

"How could you?" I hissed at him, my voice barely more than a hoarse whisper. Refusing to meet my eyes, my father shifted carefully in his chair and cleared his throat. He opened his mouth to speak but before he got that far one of the guardians stepped in and put a hand on my shoulder. "You must be Thalia", he exclaimed with a cheerful tone.

Turning to look closer at the man behind me, I could tell he was one of the commanders for the guards here. He was wearing a more elaborate uniform from the others and he had clear insignias on his shoulders and chest. "My name is Victor Kreel" , his tone being low, calm and silky.

My father finally managed to squeeze out "I'm sorry Thalia, we had no choice".

My stomach felt like it was going to fall through the floor, and my mouth went completely dry. I stared hard at him.

"We can't manage another winter like last year, I had to" he croaked on, still not meeting my eyes.

The room started spinning as the words finally sunk in. "No", was all I managed to say while choking on sobs.