A Day in the Life of Student X (1/1)
The night surrounds me, enveloping. For some moments I walk in its shadow, before finding it pierced by light. I see a group of women surrounding a fire, chanting strange incantations.
There doesn't seem to be anywhere else for me to go, so I approach. As I do so, twelve heads rise to observe me. Suddenly, I am clothed as they and I turn about, examining my new garments. They are dressed in purple, and I in white. I join them in their circle. My arms raise and my throat joins with theirs as they chant:
"Zakdom-de cha'a'na de...Zakdom de cha'a'na de...Zakdom!"
My alarm rings. I raise myself and my day unfolds.
****
Night has come, and around me it is dark. Darkness at night has always held something for me, and has long ceased to frighten me.
I drift.
I am standing before them again, and they seem to be expecting something of me. Words flow from my mouth, somehow I know what to say.
"I am to be the next priestess of the moon." I state in a loud voice, full oc confidence. A crowd bows before me. I speak to them, then retire. An old woman has followed me.
"You did very well. I have never seen anyone inspire them so." She gazes at me with an expression which shocks me. It is awe. My smile, offered in return for her statement, is mysterious.
I enter my chamber and suddenly I am awake. The dream was so real.
****
My day is over now and I must sleep. I dream again.
"Mistress! Mistress!" A short lower-priestess comes running.
"What is it?" I ask of her.
"We are being attacked! It is the Valore!" I snatch my foretelling crystal and run outside. There I see a group of hufe winged creatures with leering faces. Somehow I know they are searching for blood. One of them swoops down and narrowly misses a servant girl. I am quickly surrounded by cries of fear and pain.
I raise my crystal. If I cannot do as the ancients could, we will be destroyed. I close my eyes and feel my life pulsing through my veins. *If you are to take a life today,* my soul chants, *it will be mine.*
I raise my crystal, and in the sky lighning bolts are born. They tear into the flesh of those that would make us bleed. I sense their lives through the crystal. Only one breath of intent and they will be dead.
I hold my breath, and they leave.
My aide, a beauty seemingly carved from the night I sleep in, rushes to my side. "Why did you let them live?" She asks of me. "You are nothing but a fool!"
I look at her with calm resolve, still feeling the pulsing of life in my veins. I turn away as her hysteria continues. She believes she would have made a better High-priestess.
It is an opinion.
****
"What are these Valore? How did all this start?" My aide stares at me. She dislikes me intensely, I can feel it.
"They came ten years ago." She finally answers. "One day they simply came and began attacking us. On that day, I lost my mother." She gives me a hard stare, and will not tell me more. Resolutely, I turn to the short priestess next to her.
"Do we know who and what they are?" This one looks at me blankly.
"They are animals." She says simply, when she finally does speak. I dismiss them.
I decide I must know more, for how am I to fight an ennemy I do not understand? Understanding my position here is also essential, and set myself to that task.
****
I am the priestess of the Moon, the High Priestess of her temple. I am one of several holy priestesses (there are twenty of us) which serve the Moon Goddess Ashima and protect the local populace. The Goddess and the Sun-Maker Of All Things, Azerra, being ennemies, our presence is necessary. Only when Ashima reigns can our people an crops live, and so it is to her that we priestesses pay tribute, and it is her will which we carry out among the people.
****
"What is the radius of..." I examine the sheet of paper.
It is white.
I am so tired...
After some moments of vacancy, I begin to write.
****
I dream.
I awake in the temple, hearing a screaming in my mind. AS my spirit floats, I drift into another's perspective. Blood oozes out of wounds in my body, I am beyond pain. My brothers have decided I must die. But why?
My point of view shifts, and before me I see a pair of eyes in a leering birdlike face. The face is leering, but as I observe it, the eyes strike me differently.
They are begging me, telling me of its pain. I rise, move towards it.
It is gone.
****
There is no couch. I had always imagined there would be a couch. I sit down.
"I'm Dr. Shane." She is saying to me. "How are you today?"
"Fine." I do not elaborate. How could she understand?
"Well, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?"
****
A crowd follows me and the streets are buzzing with the news: the High Priestess is walking alone among the streets! My priestesses have refused to come. I have, it seems, done the unthinkable.
I lower my veil further.
As I near a series of poorly made dwellings, I stop and gaze at the children surrounding me. It is time to begin, for if we are to survive, we must be ready.
"Fetch your parents." I tell them softly, simply.
****
A scream tears me from my slumber. I wrap my robe about myself and take up my crystal.
It is time.
****
As I step outside, the changes are evident: houses are boarded up, which should provide safety for the people inside. My foolish priestesses, however, are another matter. I must defend them.
As I step outside, I realize the gravity of the situation: the creatures have not been appeased from their usual previous kills in the lowlands where our people live. Ravenous, they will focus on us.
Was I wrong?
I step out among the fray, a scene full of screaming women. Quietly, I raise my divining crystal. I have gone beyond fear, it has died before my determination. I feel my life pulsing steadily. I will not hesitate to sacrifice it.
The screams and scurrying increase in pitch and tempo as the ennemy draws nearer to us. I raise my crystal.
"Zakdom de cha'a'na de...Zakdom de cha'a'na de..." I yell my chant. One fo the creatures swoops towards one of my screaming priestesses. My eyes close, I feel it, and knock it away. One after the other I send them away, back from whence they came, bound by my strength.
My eyes open. We are victorious, and we are safe. I put my crystal from me. Suddenly, I feel my flesh tearing, my entrails are exposed. A dagger shines forth from my heart.
I hear the shrieks of my priestesses as I fall to the ground, mortally wounded. As I leave this place, my spirit floats above.
*What have you done?* I see a servant girl ask my aide.
*What had to be done.* The beauty answers.
****
I am awake.
THE END
*****