Brides of Solis

A work in progress.

What day is it? Even I cannot remember. How did everything come to this? Why?

I haven’t seen the light of the sun or felt it’s warmth since the day I was ripped from my life. I lost everything, my friends, my freedom, and worst of all, my family. My life was never of any consequence, Ive known since the day I could form my own thoughts that my life was not that of my own. When I was old enough to walk, I started planning my escape, by the time I could run I had found my freedom.

Was I not born a free being like all other humans? Do I not have the right to live, love, breathe, and die free? How can anyone deny me such a basic human right? Why am I to be punished for the sins of my foremothers? What have I ever done to be forced into a life of servitude and slavery? An arranged marriage, arranged before I was a thought in my mother’s womb, and before she was one in her mother’s.

Chapter 1.
Brides of Solis

"Should I suffer this fate?" The woman's eyes pleaded as they gazed into the eyes of her captor. "Am I not too old?"
“Please Petrus, No one beyond the age of 16 has ever married a dreamer. We do not know of the consequences. It’s just not done” A pale woman stepped forward and spoke with her head lowered. Lowered as to signal she felt the pain of Arien.

“How dare YOU speak?!” Arien’s voice trembled “She who betrayed me? She who has sent me to my accursed fate, and stolen from me what little happiness I had obtained for myself. Do not speak as if you could share with me the wound that being born here has inflicted upon my very being, the wound I have nursed my entire existence”. Arien’s face was flushed with anger. The woman stepped back to hide from Arien’s anger. At one time, not long ago Yalesa was Arien’s first, best, and only friend. But like all humans Yalesa was weak. Her desire for Arien’s life drove her to jealousy. Her jealousy drove her to deciet and ultimately deciet became betrayal.

"No matter how hard you tried, he would have never loved you, Yalesa." Arien smirked "Did you think you could turn me in, drink from the fountain and claim Aram as your own?"
Yalessa cowered in the shadow that shielded her face from Arien. Her hands firmly clenched at her sides. A quiet laugh came from Arien’s lips. “No one escapes this place, drink from the fountain and suffer the same fate as mine.”

“Quiet!” Petrus had finally spoken.

“Why?! Why should I be silenced, shouldn’t I have the decency to tell her exactly what immortality means?” Arien tried to break free from her captor.

Petrus raised his hand to strike Arien. “GO AHEAD!!” she yelled “Strike me and break another law, so many were broken to bring me here. What’s one more?”

“Those who have sinned against the order should not speak of broken laws” Yalesa had finally gathered her courage to step back into the light.

“Oh! the deceitful tongue speaks of sins!” Arien scoffed. “I will speak of the sins of women such as yourself. Full of greed, desire, and hunger. Hunger for things they know not of, for eternity, for immortality.”

“I have a right to want to be young forever, a right to want what you so freely have thrown away!” Yalesa’s eyes swelled full of tears she tried to hold back.

“Tears?! Yes cry, go ahead. No one here will pity you. There will be no pity as they mount you nightly.”

“Quiet!” Petrus grabbed Arien by the arm and shook her until she fell to the ground.

“What does she speak of?” Yalessa inched nearer to Petrus and his captor.

“Tell her Petrus, tell her of her true fate. Explain at length the duties of Solis brides of Mael.” Arien could feel her strength slowly draining. She slumped further down on the ground. Her breathing became shallow. A dull pain grew in her womb and shot through her legs. Petrus turned his attention to her and knelt beside her. He quietly smelled the air around her. It had a distinct smell, one he could never forget. The smell of copper and death.

“Arien, what have you done?” He whispered as he lifted her from the pooling blood beneath her.

“What I had to, my child…” warm tears fell on Petrus as he cradled the bleeding Arien. “My child would never live a life such as mine. She will be free…” Petrus watched the light fade from Arien’s eyes.

"Arien..." Yalesa's face was full of shame and fear. She had not taken into account the child that Arien carried, Aram's child. The life of the innocent was now gone and the blood would leave a stain upon her.

Reviews

[Sigarda]

I very much liked the introductory paragraphs. It had a fast, almost breathless feeling to it as if the speaker 'had' to convey something quickly. Then as the rest of the chapter unfolded I found that I liked the interplay in the dialogue. It had the feel of a genuine argument and I couldn't help but imagine facial expressions as I read each line.

If I'm honest it's the type of opening that would make me want to read more. It's catchy enough to get my attention and although there were some things that I wasn't sure of they were framed in such a way as to imply that reading further would make them clear. In particular the depth of the relationships between the speakers.

I shall certainly read more.

[Matienne Hoshi]

Thank you, I hope to post more soon.

[Valkyrie Warrior]

This is intriguing but I am left baffled. I hope it will all revel it's self later in the story.