Beasts Of Blackcastle

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen: Another distortion in reality and ripples of time all leading down the same tunnel of unavoidable fate

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Once she had been made aware of her enemies, the princess knew that her only allies were the ones who had crossed into the planes of reality that she had. There was a legend that was engraved in the night, only the night could tell the tale and the night had spoken to her. The stories it made all made sense now that she had journeyed far and wide and had opened her eyes to the reality of the universe. There she was, in every reality she suffered some form of imprisonment or the other and in every plane of time, in every realm, in every reality she ended up in that forest; straight to her destiny: the beast king. The night had always told her that she can't run and it was very right. Every version of her in their different worlds had tried to run but always ended up meeting their fate.

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Elysium time, the past

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Since the dawn of Forssien Crane, tales of Arbayeka would reach children's terrified ears and they grew up knowing that the last thing you want to see on the grim reaper's harrowing face; is a charming smile.

A great darkness had befallen the kingdom of Derchuen and most of the heinous calamity had targeted the hopeless town of Forssien Crane. The legend was that he had risen from death and was coming for all of those who descended from the one who had put him to death. The Beast king was to make a return and in preparation, the town's High Priest had given his blood to the dark forces the Beast king had aligned himself with and had turned into his evil henchman. The High Priest was sacrificing women, spilling blood for the Beast king in a dooming ceremony every Eve of the Witch's Eye. Every girl of eighteen years was in danger of being one of the sixteen girls that the evil High Priest picks out.

Ordelade had recently turned eighteen. An extremely gorgeous young woman of fair skin and sparkling eyes. Her dark hair made her a vicious beauty coupled with that fierce look she always had in her almond shaped eyes. Ordelade was determined to put an end to this terror once and for all. She was not going to succumb to the ill fate hundreds of other girls had. Not for the beast king.

"Mother, why did you decide to have more children? Why do I have siblings yet you knew of the legend?" Ordelade asked her mother, her tone accusatory and her eyes pained as she leaned into the window and stared at her eleven year old little sister, Opal, and her sixteen year old brother, Orlean, running around the backyard without a single care in the world.

Mauve sighed deeply at her distressed daughter's question. She understood Ordelade's frustration and anger towards her selfish decisions- because cruel and selfish in the woody town of Forssien Crane are the closest words to describe a woman who decides to have more than one child or to even have children at all knowing of the legend of the Great Forssien Crane Maiden's Curse.

Ordelade had religiously expressed her rage towards her every single year since she learned of the legend at the age of nine and understood what destiny it could possibly enforce upon her. Every time when the Eve Of The Witch's Eye threatened to rear its ugly head and the sky changed, Ordelade would become entrenched by unsuppressed anger and great sadness, because unlike some of the girls who could be optimistic about not being one of the Sixteen Bloods, she found herself battered by that reality every single year when she became a year older.

For the past five days Ordelade had been a dark cloud of negativity, she had been skipping some meals, locking herself up in her room for hours and hours and the only time when she would speak, would be to pelt her mother with harsh words and express her hatred for her circumstance. She had gotten much worse, she was even more angrier today seeing as it was her eighteenth birthday.

Mauve had asked her how she wished to celebrate after hugging her and showering her with kisses at the crack of dawn, but Ordelade had irately shot down the idea of celebrating her entry into adulthood and flatly told her she would be insane to cheer over her doom.

Ordelade was born a day before the Eve Of The Witch's Eye, she was a month premature and birthed under strange conditions seeing as she was unexpected, but she was born healthy and without a single fault. Mauve named her Ordelade, "The Red Sun", because the one time phenomenon of the Red Sun took to the afternoon sky just before she parted from her body. It was so beautiful and majestic that Ordelade did not cry when her eyes first opened to the world like other children, she just looked up at the phenomenal Red Sun with wonder and her eyes seemed to will it away as it slowly disappeared behind a blanket of clouds as if too shy to bear the intensity of her stare. It was a magical moment, the moment Mauve knew that Ordelade was a special child; the light of her life. Ordelade's existence had not breathed much life into the damned town, but it had made Mauve's existence worthwhile after years of feeling invisible and with no value.

When Mauve looked into Ordelade's eyes for the very first time, she knew that the gods favoured her child.

Mauve watched her daughter absorb herself in her siblings blithy spirits, their carefree joy was maddening and it made her even more miserable. Ordelade had requested some space, hence Mauve had to stop herself from bringing her breakfast in bed this morning, but when she heard her sobbing, it became too evident that her misery needed a mother's loving touch to be nullified. Mauve stood from her chair and abandoned the pearl necklace she was assembling.

She brisked to the window and first noticed that the azure summer sky had taken a deeper shade of purple than an hour ago, signaling to the melancholic, mentally anguished masses of Forssien Crane that the Eve Of The Witch's Eye was only mere hours away.

When she placed a hand on her bare shoulder, Ordelade cringed lightly at the contact, but soon eased into her touch as she lovingly stroked her back.

"Have some faith, my bonsu, remember that not all are sacrificed to that heartless monster, I know it in my heart that my daughter will not be one of the Sixteen Bloods." Mauve spoke softly though with frail hope of her words soothing her. In the morning she had tried to convince her to be more optimistic, but reminding her that she and her three aunts had survived did nothing to bring Ordelade out of the clutches of pessimism and misery.

Ordelade did not spare her mother a single glance, her puffy eyes were fixed on her little sister, her beautiful little sister who was still oblivious of life's cruelty. She watched her, her gay spirit shined through as she built the wooden instrument for her upcoming coming of age hall with her older brother.

Opal did not know that she might not have a sister by the end of tomorrow.

"One day Opal will also turn eighteen and find herself standing before the High Priest, I love her so much, she is so innocent, it is not fair, she does not deserve this. I can't imagine her feeling like this, she is too good for that. Why, mother? Why is life so unfair? Why is it a death sentence to grow up and see eighteen years? Why must it be a death sentence to be a girl? What did we ever do to deserve this?"

Ordelade sank into her mother's warm embrace and began openly weeping, letting her tears to fall freely. The possibility of her imminent death allowed her no respite, but it's hold on her neck was not as compressing as the thought of her little sister, her sweet Opal one day having to go through all this.

There was not a single being in existence she resented, loathed, abhored with a burning passion like King Arsix. So many sisters, cousins, aunts and daughters had fallen because of that bloodthirsty, despicable animal.

Ordelade prayed to the gods every night to strike him down with vicious lightening and roast his body before his hideous soul can burn in the pits of Hell for eternity, but to this day the gods had ignored her pleas and the bastard still lived and could still kill. This enraged Ordelade beyond measure, especially because she knew that physically she was incapable of changing hers and the destiny of the fifteen other girls the High Priest will take sickening pleasure in hand- picking for that evil king Arsix- but if she could end that bastard's tortuous existence before the Eve Of The Witch's Eye, Ordelade would sell all her organs, even her soul to the Devil if that would ensure Arsix's death.

If she were a witch, he would have suffered fate a hundred times worse than any form of death.

The fragrance of death was palpable and flared her nostrils. The distant howls of Arsix's ferocious army of beasts the previous night erased any hope Ordelade had of surviving the selection like her mother and her three sisters. Death was in the air and mere hours away and Ordelade could just feel it in her bones that the High Priest's finger was going to point at her. Acceptance was painstaking, an excruciatingly painful death of every bit of happiness she had ever known.

But she had accepted… accepted what could be.

"These hours are not your last, I am not going to lose you, nysu mi yé (light of my life)." Her mother told her with staunch faith as she rocked her back and forth like she always did when she was a little girl during her moments of lamentation and woefulness.

Ordelade flexed her elbow and her fingers swept away her tears. She was done crying. If tears of his slaughters empowered him, Ordelade did not want to give him more power than she already had.

Nestling her head in her mother's neck and squeezing her tightly, Ordelade made a request to her plaintively. "Mother, please allow me to spend the night away, there is one experience I want to have before resigning my life to Arbayeka (collector of souls, the grim reaper)."

The sky was changing every hour, taunting that her life was ticking away. Right then and there, as she pinned her eyes to the indigo sky, she made a vow to the gods and a promise to herself.

Before King Arsix drives a dagger through her heart and death takes her, she will leave him with an unforgettable reminder of her short existence.

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"Then I will look him in the eyes and spit on his face and before he kills me I will curse him. With my curse his d**k and balls will fall off and he will never ever enjoy a woman again, oh and he will also lose his sight and never go to any battleground again, then he will lose his hearing and never again hear the voice of the High Priest again." Saveya declared maliciously, her high pitched, gruff voice roaring around the theatre.

Ordelade had fixated her attention entirely on the girl as she strutted along the stage with her clique of drama queens and made her way the back rooms. She pursed her lips as she turned to face her younger brother, who was softly caressing his guitar with a small cloth to wipe off the traces of fingerprints on its shining surface.

"That is the most sensible, smartest thing that has ever left Saveya's mouth." Ordelade remarked pensively, such a comment, unexpected coming from her seeing as she would never speak any good of Saveya, instantly captured her brothers attention.

Curses were not going to work. She was not a witch and the last witch this town had seen had disappeared decades ago. Ordelade had a simple plan and she was going to see it through no matter what.