Song of Sapphire【Book One of the Lost Gemstone Chronicles】[Under Editing]

Chapter 2

VELESSYA

The meal of the morning passed swiftly in the blink of an eye and the golden bells on the clock tower chimed merrily in the distant, signalling the first duty of the morning is to begin. Eris downed her last swig of wine from her chalice of silver and nudged me, "One more thing before leave the halls, Velessya: priestess Vanya would like to inform you that you are required to visit the High Priestess in the Centre Yard. She didn't look too joyful when she told me the message."

I stopped drinking the wine midway and nearly choked myself from it. This couldn't be a good thing. After coughing down the wine, I asked, "Pardon me, Eris, but the High Priestess wished to see me? What have I done to induce her wraith?"

"How am I supposed to know? Eris placed the chalice on the table of wood and shook her head helplessly. "That you'll have to ask the High Priestess herself, I'm afraid. Priestess Vanya hadn't told me anything else, as if she had sealed her lips with bee wax. The only way to truly know what she summoned you for is..."

"Yes, I know, Eris," lowering my head, I rubbed my hands together, a bad habit I often do when I am nervous. "Time is slowly slipping away; I must not waste another second of my time. I must not keep the High Priestess waiting to further enrage her."

'You must not be too depressed, dear Velessya," Aaliyah chimed in, her silver voice shedding some starlight into my worrying mind. "Priestess Vanya might have mistaken the High Priestess' meaning." She gave me a warm embrace and gently comforted me, "You shall be just fine. I shall inform the Maestro that you shall be excused from the first lesson. May the Gods bless you and shine on you."

"May the Gods shine on you too, Aaliyah and Eris," I bid them farewell and left for the High Priestess.

"Am I to be deemed unclean? Am I to be condemned outside the walls of my disobedience?" I mulled over the baleful thought as I walked towards the Centre Yard, shoulders bumping into robes of white and hair of gold. The corridor seemed never-ending; "What if it leads to my doom?"

I sulked along the corridor; for once, the light from the star shone too brightly in my eyes, almost blinding me. I had never disparaged the starlight – it had always been beautiful, brilliant in my mind. I turned to the red roses in the Rose Garden, hoping that they would perhaps deliver me out of my gloom, but I quickly pushed the incorrect thought away. I must not give myself too much hope; if the High Priestess had summoned me, it must be because of something sinful.

"Make way, make way!" a loud, clear voice cried out in triumphant. "Make way for the Gods!" I could care less about triumph ― it was not a jubilant day at all. What happiness would be left when I might be thrown beyond the safe walls, banished for an imperfection that I could not change? What joy would be left when I could not even secure a place in the Temple?"

I sunk further into my thoughts as I walked straight towards one of the poles that seemed to bathe in the golden rays of sunlight of the carriage without noticing it.

"Ah! What in the name of the gods was that?" I yelled loudly, unlike a priestess' behaviour.

"Watch where you are going, lady!" a rough voice shouted in reply. "You are blocking the God's way and must be punished! What is your name?"

"Vel-Velessya Aelius Faeveren," I choked back, trying to hold my tears back, and dropped to my knees. I knew this was the end of my life as a priestess. This time, without noticing my surroundings with caution as a priestess should do, I had let myself sink into my mindless worries and hit my head one of the carriage poles of pure gold. I had made too many careless mistakes, and I must pay for my carelessness. "Please. Please do not report this incident to the High Priestess. I am in too deep of careless mistakes to wade further in. Please, I beg you, kind sir. Please do not report me!"

Everyone stared at me as if the world's judging gaze was all burned into my head. Trying to ignore the deafeningly silent disapproval from the onlookers, I rubbed my forehead gently and embraced the sweet suffering of pain. A pair stream of silver, salty tears slithered down my cheeks, unknowing to me but crystal clear to the rest of the world. Velessya Aelius Faeveren was a clumsy, careless and naïve maiden, inept for the sacred, cautious role of a priestess of Edorias.

I was helpless; I could do nothing to avoid this inevitable fate of being thrown beyond the wall. This must be the Gods' decree, and I must follow them. There is no way to escape this – what is predicted must happen.

Everything I heard or saw seemed ever so near, yet so far away, as if they were in another kingdom. I could hear people shouting and screaming, I could people whispering and murmuring. I could see priestesses gesturing at me, the four strong men carrying the holy carriage staring at me. They were as if faint shadows, illusions from another world. The only thing I could see as clear as the sky was a pair of beautiful, rainbow eyes calling out to me, gazing into my very soul. They were inviting, a bright light that glowed magnificently in the dark. Those eyes of iridescence were an anchor, a silver lining I could grasp to pull myself out of the deep despair.

I felt something touching my shoulder, but I could not identify who or what it was. "What?"I groaned, tears still streaming down my face like two trickling rivers. I touched the object for comfort; it was a hand, the hand of those sparkling rainbow eyes, the eyes of a God.

"A god?" I gasped under my breath, just aware of the embarrassing situation I have gotten myself into. Realising my heart racing, I quickly retracted my hand and placed it on my lap, heaving heavily. Of all the things I'd done in this luckless day, this had to be the most scandalous. It would be no time that rumours would fill others' minds, this I am sure of.

How more misfortune could I get within one single day?