1.1 CHAPTER SIX: THE UNDYING PHOENIX FIRE
Karme felt weird for the last few weeks. She could not understand why. She felt sick, especially so in the morning. The food she once found deliciously, she could not even stand to smell. She was like a completely different person.
The only solace she had was her mother's tree. So, each day she'd lie down in the garden to rest. It was a place where she felt safe. A place where she could be utterly defenseless.
It was a place where, despite the cold air of the coming winter, Karme felt warm. It was like–her mother was lying down on the wet grass with her.
"KARME!" A voice bellowed.
Karme jumped up to her feet as her eyes darted in fright. Her father's booming voice across the garden shook her to the core. He rarely displays anger towards her out of the four walls of her room or his library. None had ended well for the lady in the rare occurrences that he did.
She watched, frozen in her place and shoulder hunched, as her father marched towards her. His face was so contorted with anger he was almost unrecognizable. Karme kept her head low; she'd like to avoid angering him more than he already was.
"Have I done something wrong, your highness?" Karme asked in a low voice, almost squeaking from fear once her father was near enough.
His hand raised, and Karme squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the hurt. She heard a rustle as a soft object hit Karme, not her father's palm. Shocked and confused, Karme opened up her eyes and saw a piece of paper lying near her feet
"You dare ask what you have done?" he growled. "Do you think me a fool, you brat?"
Karme yelped, "Forgive me, your highness! But I have no awareness of what you are talking about!"
The duke pointed at the paper, slowly soaking up the little snow on the grass. "Are you telling me you have no knowledge of this blasphemy?"
Karme's chest was starting to constrict. She was finding it harder and harder to breathe with each passing second as anxiety and fear ate at her. She shook her head adamantly and repeatedly told her father she could not comprehend what he was talking about.
"How did your name end up in the fire, Karme?!" he snarled.
Karme trembled. Her father was far more dangerous when he was not screaming. She shook her head more determined than before to convince her father that she could not understand where his anger was coming from. She could not remember a single thing he would be mad at. She had kept well away from his sight for the past few weeks.
"I didn't do it!" she replied, begging. "Please, your highness, I do not know what you are talking about!"
The Royal Duke gave her a hard stare. Without warning, he grabbed her in the arm so tightly Karme yelped at the contact. He started pulling inside. All those they passed by simply bowed their heads in greetings to the duke, but none had helped her.
Her father stopped walking. Karme peeked through her hair that fell into her face due to the circumstances she unwittingly found herself in. And her blood turned cold when she realized where it was.
The library.
Despite Karme's passion for reading, her father's library was a room full of nightmares. It was where her father always punished her, aside from her own room.
Her chest continued to constrict as her father threw her in. Her stomach felt hot, as if a fire was building inside. She stumbled to the floor, her knees scraping the carpet that adorned the whole floor.
She looked up as her father locked the door. She watched him walk towards his escritoire, where he kept his favorite weapon for Karme, his whip. Karme looked down at the floor upon seeing the brown rope in her father's hand. She heard a whooshing sound as he uncoiled it.
She whimpered.
The sound of his footsteps as he came towards her was like a drum beat towards her doom.
"Please, your highness," she begged.
"Do you take me a fool?" he asked, thoroughly disgusted. "How dare you embarrass our family? How did your name come out of the undying Phoenix fire?!" he screamed as he whipped her with his weapon.
Karme cried out as it hit her in the back. "I do not know! Please! I really do not know,"
But he continued to strike her, not listening to her pleas. With every hit he gave, Karme bled more. Her cries for him to stop fell on deaf ears. As with each strike came down harder than the ones before.
"Krianna should have been the one! Her name should have been the one the Phoenix fire produced!"
He whipped her once more.
Then twice.
And more before he stopped to gather his breath. Karme saw his hand were whitened with how tightly he was holding his whip.
"The king had sent me a message. He said the Phoenix fire suddenly flared last night even though the Choosing is still days away. And out came of it is your name. What have you done?! Krianna was supposed to be the next royal mage!"
The undying Phoenix fire was as old as the world. It was an artifact created with absolute power. Even Celeste, the most powerful sorceress that ever lived and current royal mage, could not overrule it. Karme heard enough. She could not understand why even something out of her hand was her fault.
So, in a moment of courage, she looked up at her father.
"Then why did it not?! It's not my doing. I have not seen the Phoenix fire once in my life! How do you expect me to influence it?"
But Karme's courage immediately fled as her father's eyes blazed in unsurmountable anger. And it was the last thing she looked at before everything went black.