Prompt Post No. 16
Welcome to Round 16 of the Inception Kink Meme.
Prompting System
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“Arthur,” Cobb stopped at the door as Miles slipped inside the Temple. “Why did it have to be you?”
“You'd have to ask Yusuf that one,” Arthur made himself remain calm. There was no telling what might happen if he showed any hesitation. Cobb might call off the whole Sacrifice, and there the village would go, consumed by drought and stalked by lions.
“Damn Yusuf. What kind of a god takes the greatest man of a village away from them?”
“Don't curse the gods, Cobb. The God of Luck has made his choice, and not even he could change it now. You can only make the best of the situation.”
Cobb sighed. “Come along, then. Miles will want to fill your head with legends before you go.” Cobb led the way into the Temple.
Arthur listened to Miles talk for two hours, and the only useful information he came away with could be condensed into two sentences. On the night of the Solstice, Arthur would be taken to the Alter of the Sun, which was ten miles outside of the village. He would be left there, chained to the Alter, and no one knew what would happen to him after that. Arthur couldn't decide if he was more annoyed with the vagueness of the whole event, or with the outstanding waste of time it was for him to listen the Miles.
Miles turned him over to the head priestess, Marie, once he was done talking. Marie seemed to be a little too fond of her job, which was to dress Arthur up for the opening festivities this evening. She and her attendants bathed Arthur and ensured his hair dried in the soft curls it favored. They dressed him in a white loincloth and draped him with more gold and tourmaline and citrine; necklaces and belts and bracelets and anklets and armbands and even a coronet. In place of his boots, they gave him a pair of sandals that laced over his ankles. Arthur wasn't enamored of the look, but the priestesses cooed proudly over him. There wasn't much he could do about it.
Marie tsk-ed at him when he asked to keep his sword with him.
“Whatever could you want a sword for, honey? You are Eames' sacrifice! If anyone attacked you now, they would bring down all the wrath of the god upon themselves!”
“I just- I would feel better if I had it, Marie. Please? It's not like it would ruin the effect or anything-”
“Oh, sweetie, that's just what it would do!” Marie sighed and then held out her hand. “Well, give it here, duckling, and I'll see what I can do about it.”
“Thank you,” Arthur grinned and handed over his sheath.
“Oh, it's not a problem, really,” Marie patted his cheek and scurried away. She returned a short time later. She had capped both ends of the sheath in gold and wrapped it in tourmaline and citrine. “Put this on now, lamb, and lets see how you look.”
Arthur complied, and Marie fussed over him for a minute more before stepping back with a smile.
“There you are, honey! You look beautiful! Now lets go present you to the village. Girls!” Marie called together the other priestesses, and Arthur followed them out to the feast.
As soon as they were able, Ariadne and Cobb attached themselves to either side of Arthur and did not step away for a moment all night, bemoaning Arthur's status as human sacrifice. All the people of the village offered their own sympathies, a line of not-so-discretely weeping people trailing behind him wherever he went.
Arthur wasn't sure how he would survive a week of this.
==
Of course Arthur did survive the week; it was only the end of it that was ever going to kill him.
There was one more festival to get through before he would be given up to Eames.
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