Chosen of the Sun

🔴 TRIGGER WARNING | Violence 🔴

---

Lina dropped the pot.

The light of God was upon her, shining through the ornate circular window - and her future was in pieces at her feet. The many colored marble tiles did nothing to hide her shame, nor did the disapproving wizened faces lining the outskirts of the chamber. The silence from the bookshelves behind them however, was the worst of all. All the time she spent training... wasted...

Lina dropped to her knees, numb. No tears, no panic, no reasoning. Only shock remained.

Her life as she knew it was over.

"Child of the Sun!" The voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. "You are hereby banished from this temple! May the light of God always evade you!"

The voice reverberated through her body, forcing her to get up. She left the chamber as she entered it - proud, stoic, unbroken. Too stubborn to accept her fate.

"Lina!" Maria hugged her as soon as she entered the hall. "Come to my house later! We'll -"

"Step aside priestess." The guards pried Maria away, her face like that of another person - red and pudgy. Why did they make her cry... But as Lina turned to tell the guards off, they grabbed her by the arms and hoisted her up and out of the temple.

They threw her on the scorching ground with a mob of angry peasants around her.

"False priestess!"

"Stone her!"

"Begone demon!"

The insults were guileless and vicious. They slid right off her like water on rock. The pieces of rotten fruit however, left pieces behind. By the time she left the Grand Plaza she was covered in filth. Her stench apparent to even her.

"My baby!" Her mother wailed as Lina returned home. "Gods be good, girl! You -"

"There is only one God mother, the God of the Sun. Everseeing and allseing above us." The response was reflexive, recited. It sounded vile as soon as she said it.

"Baby girl..." Her mother, the person Lina considered a heretic all her life, was broken. "Get out of those clothes. Let me bathe you."

They were silent. Her mother rubbing the stench off of her. She talked - about her Gods, about Lina's God, about the world. Lina nodded but said nothing. How could she? Her mind was blank. Hollow like the Void.

Lina found herself in her childhood room, a simple linen sheet covering her disgusting form. Disgusting. She was a failure to everyone she ever knew. The tears wanted to come but she wouldn't let them. She didn't deserve them. She held them in so hard her throat started to hurt. But nothing came out.

Father... The thought came unbidden to her mind. A suppressed part of her that couldn't wait to get out. She went to her old drawer, filled with dolls, balls, and drawings. She rummaged through her memories, throwing them on the floor. Until she reached the fake bottom and the letters underneath.

Lina curled up in a ball on her bed, reading father's letters with poignant slowness. Soon, the lump in her throat disappeared, her smile returned, and with it, finally, the tears.

When she came to she lay in a puddle of her own making - the letters crushed in her hands. She unrolled them, placing them reverently to the side. Her mind was no longer blank.

Mother and father were right all along. Lina paced in her small, dingy room. *The Chosen treated me like trash, like dirt, like I was a stain on their robes!" Her pain was gone, replaced by anger. Red and pure and terrifying, it surged inside her like a tempest. I made a vow to father. I gave my word! I... I lied...

Lina stopped pacing.

She thought about going to Maria, decided against it the very moment. No. She would do this herself. Alone.

She opened her father's 'study', a small, narrow room with one half-empty bookshelf. She went to the painting of the Twelve Deities - the Gods that Lina once shunned. Behind it was another secret compartment. "Father sure liked keeping secrets from mother..." Behind which was a medallion of green stone and an unsheathed blade.

The medallion felt right around her neck, as did the grip around her father's sword.

The moon lit her way towards the Grand Plaza. The night was cool, calm, and quiet. Apart from the hungry dogs feasting on piles of discarded fruit. They bared their teeth as she passed, but did not move.

The Grand Plaza was clean, orderly. It's elaborate mosaic invisible at night.

The two temple guards did not move as she approached. "Sheathe your blade and walk back, girl! We won't hesitate to -"

Father's sword came out of the other side of the guard's heretical mouth. The other fumbled in shock but for a second, more than enough time for his head to detach from his body. The once pristine plaza was now defamed with the blood of the wicked.

Two whips of fire struck her as soon as she entered the Temple of the Sun. The marks they left burned - until they didn't. Lina sprinted towards the Casters, slicing their hands and leaving them stunned. The Great Hall was littered with them, each throwing spells more vile than the last.

Lina was like the wind - fast, piercing, unpredictable. She removed hand after hand after hand after bloodied hand. Until the Great Hall was nothing more than a grouping of wailing old men, eyes wide in disbelief.

The armored guards came in next with their spears and shields. Lina led them to the Inner Hallways as the Great Hall became difficult to manoeuvre. She funneled the fools where she wanted, decapitating them with swiftness unseen. She fought so long her mind became dazed. her body however knew what to do.

Lina approached the High Matriarch's quarters with feral eyes and skin reddened from heretic blood. The Royal Guard only stared as she passed. She let them live. Someone had to bare witness.

The High Matriarch sat in her bejeweled throne, her two children clutching her legs. Heretical spawn.

"That medallion! You... you monster!" The High Matriarch's booming voice sounded hollow in the empty chamber. "H-How? How I say!" She stood, placing herself between Lina and her children. "I must not let you live!"

The barrage of power that left the High Matriarch's body was something out of legend. But it was to no avail. Lina calmly walked through it, impaling the scum through her heart with a precise thrust. The two spawn ran over to their mother. Heretical seeds sow heresy. She slit their throats instead. See father? I can be merciful as well...

As she departed the once holy temple, the blade clattered to the many colored marble tiles. Leaving screams, and limbs, and pleas in its wake.

She exited the temple crimson and grinning. She spent the night dealing out justice to the wicked and dawn was over the horizon. She felt exalted, dropping to her knees and spreading her arms wide.

No tears, no panic, no reasoning. Only conviction remained.

Lina closed her eyes, the rays of sun starting to peak in the distance. The medallion on her neck shining, and shining... and burning! Lina embraced the pain like an old lover as it spread through her body, boiling her from the inside. The sun's rays were relentless. And from the piercing light, darkness followed.

Leaving behind a pile of bones and a medallion of green stone.

So this one was pure discovery writing at its finest. 😁 Each line I wrote was a surprise to me, and by the time Lina returned home, I knew what I was going to do. 😈

Feedback is always appreciated. 😌

Obligatory shout-out to the 🍕PIZZA🍕 gang, 🤙 gang. 🤙

👊 Follow me on my HIVE blog 👊

Image source.

Have a good one folks!