Inheritance

Part 2. Chapter 31: Fear

Eory stared forward. He was incredibly disturbed by what the old woman had told him. "My ancestor... Owns your body?"

Pollyanna ran the knife through Eory's hair one more time, enjoying the clean sound it made.

Shhk.

Hair floated to the ground like beautiful feathers.

She circled around in front of the fairy to look at her handiwork. The haircut looked good—but he looked sick to his stomach at her words.

She smiled. "You look very handsome as I predicted when we met."

Eory couldn't help but blush at that. He lowered his eyes bashfully.

Pollyanna smiled sweetly at him while his eyes were down.

He made her stomach churn.

In a moment, however, he stood up.

He looked up at Pollyanna compassionately, and the gaze made her feel naked.

She knew he pitied her.

"We should go to bed." Pollyanna suggested, turning on her heel.

Eory seized her wrist. "Tell me why my ancestor owns you. I order you to."

Pollyanna stood as still as a statue when he asked her.

His soft hand tightened around her wrist and he grabbed her other free hand with his own—making her look him in the eyes.

The pair gazed at each other silently for a spell.

Pain pierced Pollyanna's heart with every moment that she didn't tell Eory the truth.

He gave her an encouraging smile and whispered, "you can tell me..."

Pollyanna wrenched one of her hands away and used it to rub her arm uncomfortably.

She hadn't realized how reluctant she was to tell him something so personal; she never thought of it as being something hard to tell, but then, she had never been forced to tell anyone about it before.

But she had to tell him now or she would die.

Pollyanna brushed past him—walking past the piles of yellow hair she had previously shorn from his head until she came upon a step at the back of the empty room and sat down on it. Eory followed her—his boots echoing on the tile ominously—and sat down next to her.

Pollyanna hunched over and lowered her eyes.

She took a deep breath.

"Human women have a precedent for the way they think their daughters should behave and act, and I didn't fulfill that precedent. Because I didn't, none of the men in the town were interested in me. Among humans, if no one is interested in a girl, that girl usually ends up at a convent."

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Pollyanna was fifteen and was expected to marry like all human women were at that age. If she didn't find a suitor, she would be sent to a convent at age eighteen as it would be frowned upon for her to pick up a trade like a man would.

Pollyanna had dreams of her own, of course.

She wanted to be a grand heroine; she wanted to travel the lands protecting the innocent from both monsters and villains alike. She wanted to learn swordplay and be a knight, but her mother would never allow it.

Pollyanna, while she was a devout and religious girl, did not want to end up at a convent. She wanted to do something legendary with her life, and it was impossible to do anything of the sort living the humble life of a priestess.