The Hated Sin

One: Her Silent Vow

"You will not leave this room until you have memorized every scroll laid before you." The voice of the man this sin called father rang clear in the mostly empty room. His back was turned to her and his gaze was set in a hard glare staring straight ahead. Not once since the day of her birth had this man ever looked into her eyes. Nobody did. She was the cursed child, the abhorred daughter, the silent sin. She didn't respond to him, and he didn't expect a response, she hadn't made a sound since the day of her birth. The only time she ever made any sound was when somebody touched her. When people touched her, her eyes became white and she seemed to zone out, and so everybody avoided even coming near her, everybody except for those who lived in the palace, and even then they often tried not to get close to her. She was obedient, following every order she was given without flaw. She was passive, never showing any sign of having emotions. She was quiet, never making a sound, no matter what. She was feared, being avoided as if she were death itself. She was hated, being the daughter of a concubine that'd been raped by the emperor, her father. She was unwanted, being born 'cursed' and as a girl, and being the product of rape. She was a bastard, and that is how it would remain.
The door to the scroll room shut as her father walked out, and she was once again left alone. Ebony hair fell like a curtain over pale, silver-purple eyes surrounded by a ring of pitch black as they read every word carefully. She read the same scroll over and over for hours on end without a break for rest, food, water or even to use the bathroom. She read each scroll over and over, ensuring that every word was permanently engraved into her mind. Scrolls of sealing and scrolls of war, she memorized each and every scroll, one by one. Battle tactics and secret jutsus were engraved into her memory. She didn't stop until she had finished the last one. And finally, when she memorized the very last scroll, she stood on unsteady legs, stumbling to the door. She pulled at the sliding door, but it wouldn't budge. It was locked, and when she came to this realization, she stumbled back before collapsing. She was dehydrated, starved, and exhausted, but she knew she would not be aloud out until she was at the very brink of death. It was how her father controlled her. She would be brought to the brink of death over and over, and then healed just before she passed away. For the first time in the eight years since her birth, she cried. Tsumi cried as she lay, unable to move, on a hard wooden floor littered in the scrolls of a country she was heiress to. She lifted a weak, frail hand, wiping away her tears and silently vowing to never shed another tear again.

(Picture is Tsumi. Tsumi means Sin as I'm sure many of you may have guessed by now.)