Chosen By The Emperor

THE ISLAND OF AMOSTRA

"I wasn't the unborn servant, so there's no way I'll go now." Those were the words she had uttered, her eyes filled to the brim with anger. She turned away from the pleading eyes of her beloved mother, making up her mind that whatever was going to happen, she wasn't going to the Imperial World.

Her mother walked up to her and softly took a hold of her hand. "You mightn't have been chosen, but the only way to save us all is for you to go, Sevim."

She slightly took her hands away from the cold and grazing hands of her beloved mother and looked away. Because she knew that if she kept looking, there was nothing that her Mother's eyes couldn't make her do. Going to the Imperial World included, and becoming the soul-less servant.

"Mother, you're just trying to waste your time with me. What's there? Tell them the truth, maybe they can help us find him. You can't just force me to go there as his replacement." The pain of what had happened was still afresh in my mind. And even though she mightn't be able to avenge for him, hell, to even start looking for him, she would.

"How many times do I have to tell you this, Sevim?" Her eyes were no longer pleading as she walked up to face her, she was shedding a few tears now. "Your father died in the hands of those men, do you want that to be our fate as well? They won't believe me. They'd say I knowing hid my son and won't accept a no for an answer. This was a millennial promise, Sevim. We have to fulfill it at all costs."

She watched as her mother wiped at her tears. Something so strong and painful struck at her and she couldn't understand what kind of fate their family had. "Why did it have to be just our family, Mother? I can't comprehend how it's only us that are chosen to be the soul-less servants! We want to live too!" She bellowed angrily and that gave way to her tears.

Her Mother yet again wiped at her smile with a painful smile on her lips. "It's not just our family, Sevim, it's the entire Aanakocra Tribe, can't you see? And this time, it's our family's turn to sacrifice one of us to be the soul-less servant..."

She softly cut her mother off, realizing that whether she liked it or not, she had to step up and do this. "That's basically like killing me, Mom. Of what use would I be for myself or my family if I'm soul-less, Mother?" No matter how much she tried to be strong and not give way to the pain ripping at her heart, a stubborn tear rolled down to her cheeks.

"For the last Emperor, it came from the Polaze household, and can't you see how their lives turned out?"

"That's before the Emperor killed her, Mother! He killed Narcisa and then what? Not even her body was brought back to them and now they're outcasted because whoever got himself killed by the Emperor meant he has sinned greatly and they aren't to be associated with. Do you think that should be the reward of being the soul-less servant? If I'm going to sacrifice that much for one man everyone choose to call an Emperor, at least my family should reap the benefits of my labour."

"Narcisa's case is different, there was an Imperial war at that time..."

"Caused by the current Emperor, am I right? What makes you think that he, too, won't find a reason to kill me? Mother, I'm not going to be the soul-less servant. And in fact, didn't they say that he chose Rezi because he had an unquenchable hatred for women? What do you have to do about that?"

She watched as her Mother got lost for words. Looking around their tiny hut, Sevim thought of what she would do to escape this situation. The best thing she'd have to be doing right now was planning how she could find Rezi's killer and she believed it was none other than the Emperor himself. Who could kill a Soul-less servant other than it's owner?

Yes, Rezi mightn't have been officially the soul-less servant yet, but he was born as the unborn servant. He was chosen by the Emperor 200 years ago to be his servant, even before they were born...that brought a pause to her thoughts...

Sharply, she turned to look at her Mother that was still thinking. "And what do you plan to do about the Unborn Servants mark on his shoulder, which I don't have? And do you think the Emperor is a fool not to recognize a soul he had chosen himself? Please, make it believable, Mother."

"For the mark, we could go to the God Of Souls and have him sort it out. And for the soul, you're his twin sister, Sevim. You two share the same soul, there's no way he'd distinguish between the two of you..."

"And for these, what would you say about them?" She pointed at her blossoming breasts and her Mother flashed her only a single look and looked away.

"We're going to meet the God of Souls tomorrow. You should sleep on time." She wondered what had gotten into her Mother's head, can't she see all that she was trying to point out?

She watched as her Mother acted as though she had fallen asleep, even though Sevim knew for a fact that she would never be able to sleep. She had known that she hadn't been sleeping for a while. Since the day it was announced that the red moon had been sighted, which meant the days left until the Unborn Servant left for the Imperial world were closer.

She got up from her bedding, if a pair of blanket and woven mat could be called a bedding and walked out of their tattered hut. She stared at how in shambles their house was and felt as pain tried so hard to lacerate her entire being. Theirs was the most wretched household in the entire Island of Amostra. They were said to be the poorest and it was all due to her Father's death. Dead in the hands of these monsters and her Mother wanted her to go and serve their Emperor? She couldn't.

She knew so well of what it took to be the unborn servant. That was why her biggest achievement was after she had found out what it took to be one and realized she wasn't the chosen one. And she could live her life on her own terms and not think about a certain Emperor that was presented with a number of unborn souls and he chose hers to be his servant.

She walked away from the hut. It was so dark and eerily silent that her footsteps echoed throughout the woods. She wanted to see the ocean, it was the only thing that could calm her and help her make a decision. While she walked through the woods and the stones, the trees and the faint light caused by the moon, Sevim thought of the days she walked together with Rezi.

She inhaled softly and thought of the day his body was brought back to their hut. She had stared at his body longer than five minutes and could still not trust the fact that Rezi was dead. He was killed. By something unknown.

His friends, whom he had went to hunting with that day had said that Rezi went missing for some minutes and then they heard his growl. When they reached out to him, he was laying soul-less on the ground. And they brought his body home. She had checked his entire body to see if she could find something, a clue that could lead her to his killer, she found none.

She still hadn't forgotten, but she'd never let it go. Rezi didn't just die like that, he was killed. Or in better words, his soul was stolen and she'd do all she could to bring his soul back to where it belonged.

The ocean started appearing to her eyes and despite the pain she was feeling, Sevim felt as a soft smile start embracing her lips. She walked through the trees, paving her way until she stood by the shore and stared at her reflection on the ocean.

"I wonder why you're here at this time." She heard a voice so enigmatic, yet so soothing in some way. She shrieked and turned to look at him, feeling the way her heart was thudding painfully in her chest.

"Setlesh, you gave me a fright." She said, gasping softly as she moved and sat on a stone that had somehow became her favorite place to sit on.

He looked at her for a minute and moved back to the stone he was seated on. There were lots of pebbles by his side, and she needn't ask what he was doing with them. He was throwing them in the ocean as he thought.

Setlesh was Rezi's best friend and in as much as Rezi's death had taken a toll on her, she believed it was the same for him. He was still yet to get over with it. It was illegal for her to be found seated with him here, but she didn't mind. He would be punished by the elders of Aanakocra even though she might've been the one that violated the rule of the tribe.

"I asked you a question," he said, not even staring at her.

She didn't know if it was possible for someone to be as cold as Setlesh was, yet, she found it amusing. She wondered how he did his things and all. How it must feel to live in seclusion and be punished if you were caught having as little as a simple conversation with the other people of your tribe.

"I came to clear my head. We had a conversation with Mother and I haven't agreed to it yet." She said with a low voice, sinking more into the stone she was seated on. Maybe Setlesh could provide a solution for her. He always did.

Maybe she even came to the ocean knowing so well she'd find him there. She had always found him there. Even though he hardly spoke to her, and somedays, he left immediately she came to the ocean. But on days he stayed and spoke to her, it had always been uplifting.

"She wants you to step up as the unborn servant?" He asked and all she did was nod her head and he looked away from her. "You don't have to do it if you don't want to, you'd end up dead either ways." He said, and his voice held something she had never sensed in him. It was so dark and painful that she wondered how could one accommodate such in his soul.

Even though she had her own fair share of darkness in her soul, caused by Rezi's death. And now that she thought about it, Narcisa...she was Setlesh's sister. She gasped, and it had never occurred to her mind. It was like Narcisa was deleted from everyone's memory in Aanakocra.

"Setlesh..." She said with a soft gasp. Was it possible to forget the reason he became an outcast? Having her brother become best friends with someone he wasn't even allowed to meet in daylight? Some people even said it was Setlesh that killed Rezi, but she had never taken any of those words to heart.

She knew Setlesh would never harm any of her family. She didn't know how she knew, but she did.

He turned to look at her after she had called his name. "What is it? Aren't you going to the God Of Souls tomorrow? You should go back home and sleep, trust me, it's such an exhausting thing to do." Maybe this was the longest he had ever spoken to her.

But how did he know that she was going to meet the God Of Souls with her mother tomorrow? Was he a witch? Because many people in Aanakocra said he was. Some were frightened of him even before they were outcasted. But she wasn't, she never have been. Instead, Sevim was fascinated by him.

She loved the dark color that hovered around his eyes. The way he hardly stared at her while he spoke, and if he chose to look her way, it felt as though he wasn't just staring at her face, he was staring right into her soul and then he'd abruptly look away, as though he had seen something deep within that he shouldn't have, or hated that he had.

She got to her feet the same time he did. "You have a chance to ask the God Of Souls a lot of questions. I'd kill to be in your position." And then he walked away, just like that. With little to no explanation to what he meant.

As she walked back to their house, Sevim thought of what his words meant. She had a chance to ask the God Of Souls? Would he answer her if she asked? What did she even want to ask him? She wasn't going to step up as the unborn servant and that was final. So, why would she look forward to seeing the God Of Souls?

As she walked back home, she heard the soft growl of her dragon. Well, it wasn't her own to say, but it felt like hers. Everyone in Kingollds World had a dragon, or just any other creature they took care of and made use of, except the Aanakocra Tribe. She wondered why it was that way but whoever she had asked didn't have the answer to it and the elders weren't willing to answer her.

She whistled the way she had always done for him to show his face, smiling as she moved toward the way he hide. She didn't know why he chose Island Of Amostra as his hiding place of all places to hide in Kingollds. They met halfway and she smiled when their eyes met.

This was her own little secret that not even Rezi knew. She called him Cuzeoss, protector of the forest. She fondled Cuzeoss's forehead and smiled warmly at him. He laid down so they could be at the same height and she smiled, placing her head on his back. She could somehow feel his spirit if she did that. There were days she swore Cuzeoss spoke to her. She just felt it.

And like those day, she felt it today too.

She closed her eyes and listened as their souls conversed. "I don't think I should, Cuzeoss. It's too dangerous to be the soul-less servant, I'd have to forget about everything I know, yourself included."

It might be her hallucination, or just her desperation for closure, but Cuzeoss assured her that being a soul-less servant wouldn't make her forget who she was, instead, she would find who she actually was. And for the first time in her life, she thought about who she was? Was there more to herself than she knew?

She woke up with a gasp as she placed both hands on her chest to labored her breathing. She had had a dream, unlike any other dream she had ever had in her life. Like, she hardly ever had dreams and whenever she did, what happened in the dream turned out to be true. But she didn't want this to be. She didn't that she wasn't just crying in her dream but even in real life until she felt the lone tear cascaded down her cheeks.

"What is it, Sevim?" Her Mother asked her with a soft voice and Sevim quickly wiped at her tears before she shook her head.

"We're still going to see the God Of Souls, Mother?" She asked, her voice raspy from the sleep and how much she had cried in her dream. She watched as her mother nodded her head and got to her feet. "Then we better set out in time." That was all she said before she walked out of the hut.

It took them some time before they left, even though her Mother kept insisting that she ate something, Sevim knew she couldn't. She had to go and see the God Of Souls, and if she was lucky, he'd answer even one of her questions and hopefully...

"Sevim, what is it that you've been thinking about?" Her Mother asked as they walked through the island. It would take them some time to reach Benevento Kingdom, which was the capital city of the entire Kingollds world. And if they reached there, Sevim had no idea how they would be able to get into The Golden Garrison.

Which served as the palace and where all the high officials of the world resided. She hated every single immortal living in there. Because one way or the way, Sevim felt that they were the ones that made the lives of the entire Aanakocra tribe this difficult.

She could still feel her Mother's eyes on her ruminative face and knew that she was still waiting for her response. So, she turned spoke to her. "I was thinking of how are we going to enter The Golden Garrison, Mother? You should know that only High immortals are allowed into it and their workers. Do we have the pass, no?"

Her Mother smiled triumphantly, as though she had been expecting al sorts of questions from Sevim that could stop them from this trip. "Even if we don't go there ourselves, they'd send for us, Sevim. And you're our pass anywhere in this world, not just the World Of Kingollds, but even in the Imperial World."

She scoffed and turned to look away, walking deeper and tirelessly into the forest. "I'm not the unborn servant, Mother. You shouldn't get your hopes up, okay?"

"I'm only trying to save us from a painful death."

"It would've been better if this would guaranty our safety, Mother. We're just embroiling ourselves into more danger."

Her Mother ignored her and Sevim figured that she must've already been tired of her. So, they continued to walk in silence until Sevim saw as her mother took a different route than the one that lead to Benevento Kingdom. "Where are we going, Mother?"

"We're going to Sundikar cave, Sevim." A few feet into the path her mother had taken, the light that had filled the woods began turning to darkness and there was this ominous energy surrounding the place. They kept walking deeper, feeling the energy surrounding them as well as the trees in that area until Sevim could sight the cave and she stopped walking.

"What are you trying to do, Mother? What is all this?"

Her mother turned to her and with the little light illuminating into the forest, Sevim managed to figure that her mother's eyes were no longer their usual shade. "She's going to solve all my problems. Now, keep silent as I announce our arrival."

"Mother, what are you..." She began to speak but before she could say a world, her mother flicked two of her fingers and she felt as though something so powerful had gotten a hold of her lips. She couldn't speak no matter how she tried to.

What was happening? What was her innocent and soft mother trying to do.

She watched, with her heart pounding beneath its ribcage as her mother knelt in front of the cave. She began making some incantations and making some movement Sevim knew no meanings to. Spells and magic was forbidden in the Island Of Amostra. Like, no one even knew how to pull one, she heard that only those High immortals living in The Golden Garrison could cast spells and perform magic, but what her mother was doing seemed to be related to all these.

What was going on? The more her Mother chanted the incantations the more Sevim felt as though there were shadows surrounding them, the forest was getting darker and it was getting scarier. She didn't know what was going on until she felt as though they were surrounded by a thousand people and then a smoke broke out from the opening of Sundikar cave.

Sevim had to close her eyes due to the smoke and then an eery silence befall on them until everything became clear. Slowly, she felt as the bind stopping her from speaking loosened but instead, she was pulled to her knees by a force so strong she couldn't stop it.

She looked up to the figure that stood before them and it was a woman. She couldn't exactly pinpoint her age but she was both old and young, depending on the perception one was looking at her. It was as though she was there and then she wasn't. An Immortal and then she looked like a shadow.

"Mother," Sevim whispered, with her mouth wavering a bit. "What's all this? Who's she?"

Her Mother threw her a dark look, "She's the Goddess Of Shadow. Pay your respect."

What? The Goddess Of Shadow? What was going on and what is going to happen to her? Was she evil or good? What good would she do to her now? Was she going to force her to the Imperial World even if she didn't want that to happen? She was about to speak when her Mother placed her head on the floor and speaking out some incoherent words, just like the ones she had incanted when they stood before the Sundikar cave.

"Aleron, I know what brought you to me." Said the woman, and there was a timbre in her voice that forced Sevim to looked up at her.