𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐃│✔

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟔

Pandora

♡

Trembling hands grab onto white silk sheets. Grunts and moans of forbidden pleasure resonate against the white walls of, what's supposed to be, the most honoured place on our territory. A place to honour our Gods. A home where those who seek for safety pray to find their way to Heaven, not knowing that devils hide beneath these roofs, dressed as children of the skies.

My eyes absently stare at the paintings covering the ceiling, following the ritual of Holy Priests praying to the Moon Goddess Chantara for the protection of our people, back in the times where we were no more than servants working for the Dynastra Clan and its ruler.

The continuous pain in my core and lower abdomen overshadowed by the silence covering the walls of my mind, distancing myself from all that's happening around me, and in me. Until I find myself floating over my own self, looking down to the fourteen year old girl who has long ago accepted that no amount of pushing, kicking, or screaming would keep the man from mercilessly pounding into her until he found his weekly release. Until he filled her with even more emptiness than before. She was still naïve, back then. Thinking that there would be a limit. A stop, to everything.

No.

High Priest Chokha would never have enough.

Not even in the long years to come.

I rub my eyes as an attempt to come back to the present. Appeasing phosphene bringing some form of hue to the dullness roaming. Yet, once I open them to what's in front of me, I feel the need to blink again. Just make sure that the sight surrounding us is real. All around us are walls and a ceiling made entirely of glass, breaking incoming sunlight into the most vivid rainbows. The white marble floor has cracks of gold, and two colossal crystal chandeliers hang above our heads. I had always thought our Palace to be worth a fortune. But this, it must have taken centuries to build up the expenses for this architecture.

"Where are we?" I ask in awe, before looking back at he who's standing there with amused eyes, as if the sight of gold and diamond isn't worth a penny. As if it couldn't feed an entire House's mouth.

"We call this the Crystal Room."

"It's mesmerising."I answer truthfully.

"It is," he chuckles, "Wait until you see the Mirror Room."

I turn to him, and as I'm about to say something, the large doors open widely and a group of high ranked shifters scurry towards us, chins held high. As if they walk on the same clouds we admire above. My eyes land on the resplendent woman who smilingly approaches me, arms wide. I awkwardly stand there as she comes closer and closer, until I have to take a step back for our chests not to collide. But no matter how many steps I take back, she takes a larger one in my direction, and eventually approaches me close enough to embrace me, and kiss me welcome on the cheek. The memory of a ghost blush creeping up my ears remembers as well as I do the last person who committed in such affections act.

Dhalia Leveque, the daughter of one of one of the Royal Mages from the House of Aelfdene, who lodged at out Palace for some time before my coming-of-age ceremony. I had freshly turned seventeen sun years, and had no idea as to why the enchanting woman was so keen on converting with me. At fist, I thought that she wanted to befriend me. Gods know she desired so much more. It wasn't love. That, I am sure of. But I can't deny that it could've blossomed into something of the kind hadn't I stepped away from it the moment it rendered me vulnerable to even more hurt.

It started out sparsely, her stares would prolong and dart between my eyes and lips obviously. Nobles introduced to me as plausible husbands would find themselves under her hypnosis, doing the most embarrassing things. It's only when her touches gained purpose that I cached on the her feelings, and she didn't hesitate a second longer to plant her lips on mine when I answered to her advances. It was fleeting, it was undying. Only for a few months in which I would have a place to go when my blood dirtied me and she would cleanse me. Everywhere Uncle stained, she purified with the same touches. Whereas he used me, she venerated me. That's why I had to leave her. Because I knew, I knew, that just like everyone else that had the heart to ever care for me, she would end up choking on her own blood with hazy eyes and empty gaze.