In a small village in Thaleia, the sun had only just risen but the streets and farmlands were already flooded with people doing one thing or another. It had rained the previous night and the morning was a chilling aftermath. This village could be said to be the most insignificant village in the whole of Thaleia. Just like the rest of the villages in Thaleia, this one was blessed with hills and fruitious lands, honest and caring people who looked after themselves, the only problem these people had was the greedy head of the village.
A man with a belly big enough to absorb all the food in the land. In the name of the monarch, the village head would demand for harvests that the village could not provide. Though he had a wife and several children, he still acquired a lot of concubines from different villages after wooing them with money and fake promises only to bring them to a place of suffering.
The village head had no farmland or source of income which was very unusual for the people of Thaleia, their great Kings had ensured that all men and women of Thaleia were gifted with capital that would help them to produce greater results for the Kingdom, some were gifted with lands and others money or shops, whatever it was, all the people of Thaleia had at least one means of income.
However this village head was different and other than his laziness, he was also very cruel. If any were to go against his orders which mostly entailed bringing in their harvest to his house, he would descend on them a very vile punishment. No one could speak against him, not even his honest children or his wife.
In this village lived a young girl who lived with her aunts. They were sisters who could not find the importance of men no matter where they looked except to produce children, but when they found a child in the river, abandoned by God knows who, they decided to adopt the child and call her their own.
Twenty something years and it could be said that they did a profound job in raising a child that wasn't theirs, showered her with so much love and gifted her the things she ever needed, but discipline was delivered when the need arose.
On this cold day, the young girl was busy feeding the pigs in the pen. She was one of those people that woke up before the sun did and already had her chores done before the sun settled in the middle of the sky. She was hard-working and said to be very nice by her fellow villagers. So nice, the village head took notice of her and vowed to get her married to his first son.
It wasn't much of an issue because the first son was unlike his father and If he were to become the next Head of Village, the people would be very blessed. Other than the boy being dutiful and honest, he was also very charming, the two of them were a perfect match for each other.
However, even after knowing that they could probably spend the rest of their lives with each other, they still had not said even a complete sentence to one another and when their eyes would meet, which was very often, they would both shy away and blush. They held each other dear to their hearts. Or so it seems.
"I heard you wake up last night," one of her aunts came to her while she was feeding the pigs. She looked up from the pen and met the eyes of her aunt, and as she did, the soft glow of the morning sun graced her features in a perfect shade, changing her hazel eyes into one of translucent brown.
"Another nightmare?" Her aunt asked, concerned.
The topic brought a frown to her previously smiling face when she was thinking about how cute her future husband was, but everytime she is reminded of the reoccurring nightmare she has been having for a while now, just like now when the topic of her nightmare was brought up, her mood will become the opposite of what it normally was.
"Yea" She replied.
"Was it the same one, red eyes?" Her aunt prodded again much quieter than before, as if she was cautious not to allow the wind take their conversation to ears that needed not to hear.
"Yes," she replied again.
In the nightmare she had been having, she would see the gender, the face, the clothes, everything needed to know about the owner of that pair of eyes, but when she woke up, she would forget everything and remember only those eyes. Many days she would spend pondering over what those eyes could mean, she had first thought it to be ruby gems but ruby gems don't blink, nor do they have eyelashes, long eyelashes.
"You should be careful, it's an auspicious time now, do not relay this to anyone else other than your aunt and I" Her aunt ordered. The usual care in her eyes had hardened, the playfulness disappeared, replaced by a stoid seriousness.
The change in countenance was not a surprise for the young girl. The reason why her aunt was cautious of course was very understood by her. It was an auspicious time solely because the next day was the eclipse. The following day, Thaleia would find out who next would serve her as her Priestess.
For this role, there was only one candidate; Her Highness Princess Aelia. For many ages now, the Priestess always came from the Royal family. The first Priestess was the sister of the King, she had fallen for the Marquis and they got married. While the wife of the King produced a male child, the Marquis and the Priestess gave birth to a female child; the next Priestess.
So this time, the next Priestess would obviously be the Firstborn Royal, Her Highness Princess Aelia. However, Aelia knew that this time around, the role and powers of the Priestess would not fall on her.
The Priestess of Thaleia ought to be holy, pure, calm and righteous. Aelia was none of those things, she was bloodthirsty, arrogant, in a nutshell, Aelia was different moreso when she deviated from the norm. That day she guessed that she would never be the Priestess like her Kingdom expected her to be.