Chapter Text
Jewels, tens of them, no, hundreds of them, no still more as row upon row is dumped beneath her feet. Even her dark sun kissed skin held gold and ruby and emerald. She was praised and worshipped as a Goddess from birth, a mark on her skin a prophecy told by the elders. Her future was bleak. This was not a kindness that these men and women were showing. Her village all sought the truth and worshipped the stars, and the prophecy they spoke of, with an heir born to the chieftain her skin baring the mark of the Gods, sacrifice her on her 16th year. Shower her with praise and glory, and once the god sheds her skin your tribe will be blessed.
Those were words spoken all the time. She could not forget, her fate would send her to an early grave. She could not run and she could not escape. Her life was forever tied to this plane and even knowing her end fate, she would live happily. A short life but one that was by far kinder then the others in her village.
Gold fabric trailed down her back. The beauty it held was magnificent. Trim in marble green, gold specks waved into lace. She felt the beauty she was.
Upon her reflection she saw dark, straight hair, a compliment to the warm glow of her skin. Her deep crimson eyes reflecting fire in her soul. One day that fire will be sniffed out though, as she leaves the mortal body for the immortal one.
“Days soon princess, we’ll soon all bask in your power. We will soon be free from our suffering,” the priest spoke. Her eyes trailing the finely sewn robes. White, made from the lily of the valley. His headdress sewn with a red trim made from the hibiscus flower. They showed his status of an elder and wise man.
“Dear priest, I have lived to serve our gods. If I too become one then I will have lived a joyful life worthy to bring our fair village its freedom, and if I don’t and continue to reincarnate to help our village then that is too a joy in itself.” She spoke her words happy and light.
“To you Arahabaki, shall we live through your power,” the priest bowed his head. She bowed in turn.
Upon the full moon of her 16th year she stood above the alter, envied in silks of their finest weavers. Her head covered in a lace veil and her red eyes turned toward the rising moon. Today she’d leave and she’d her mortal skin. Her blood and magic to change the fate of her beloved home.
The priest spoke in the ancient tongue passed down from elder to elder. His words rising to the gods and her heart fluttered. To be free of her bonds and to save her village she’d gladly lay down her life.
She closed her eyes as the final verse was being spoken when cries and shouts echoed in the valley they called home. Her eyes snapped open as the scene played before her. A slaughter of man, woman, and child seeded into her mind. The men that they’d been warned about by other tribes. They sought to steal and take what was not theirs.
“Halt, you dare desiccate a sacred ceremony,” her father spoke after grabbing ahold of a man from the horse. The skin of these beasts in human skin were grey and demonic. The worshippers of devils stood before the purity of gods.
The men only laughed at the bravado. She could not stop the next movements as her father was cut in half. All her people lay in pools of their own blood, and she and the priest were all that was left.
To her surprise a grey man tossed a bag of coins to the old priest. The implications of fowl play stunk up the entire ceremony.
“You sold our people to these devils?” She asked.
“Times are changing, I’ll go with the flow,” he said as the men grabbed the young maiden.
“You are foolish, you will be cursed for your betrayal Barthello, our gods will see to that,” a sword was shoved through her chest, the crimson flowing down the steel blade. Her life coming to an end.