Jackia's Point of view
"Chosen?!" I all screamed at the top of my voice, there was a clear crescent mark on my forehead that must have been why everybody had been staring at me like that but what did he mean saying I was chosen by the moon goddess?
He took a step towards me and crossed his hands together as he agreed heavily.
"Yes, you have been chosen..." He said in a voice that was blank and the closest emotion I could seem to read out of it was disappointment, well he wasn't the only one.
"Your majesty this has to be some kind of mistake. I am a warrior there is no way that the moon goddess would choose me for something like this to become a..."
He watched me struggle for the appropriate word for a while until I finally gave up and looked at him pleadingly.
"Please your majesty, this is not what I planned I'm supposed to be an elite warrior...I..."my voice was cracking as I spoke and I hated it, the last thing I wanted was to be crumbling in front of a man so I put myself together even as it felt like the world beneath my feet was shattering right where I stood, what are all those years of training and sacrifice been for if at the end what I was supposed to become was a baby maker?
With his hands still crossed and his eyes avoiding me even though he was looking in my direction he told me bluntly that this had nothing to do with my own choices and neither with his own that it was the tradition and it had to be obeyed no matter what.
I was really struggling to wrap my head around this, I looked at the mirror again hoping that the crescent mark would have disappeared but it was still there still undeniably printed on me and I was close to tears, but of course I was not going to let a man see that.
"What is going to happen to me now?" I said struggling to keep my voice neutral and emotionless as I spoke, then I almost jolted a little bit when I was still looking at my reflection and then I saw him standing behind me.
"You will have to remain in the palace, initiate the search for the other women that have been chosen by the moon goddess... Finding them is going to take a while and by that time I'll decide what else needs to be done but you'll have to understand that tradition must be followed..."
I bit my bottom lip, holding back the urge to squeeze my fingers into tight fist, this was my life he was talking about right now this was the goal that I had been viciously working towards and making so many sacrifices for... This was the promise I made to my brother before he passed away and now he stood behind me heartlessly saying that tradition had to be followed even if it meant pretending that I had nothing that I had ever hoped or dreamed for.
When I left my father's house this was exactly what I was trying to avoid what I was trying to protect myself from having my life being completely swept away and controlled by one man, having backward traditions bending me to their will... And somehow all of my actions had still had me up here.
He stood for a while without saying anything and then suddenly raised his fingers until they rested on my shoulder and immediately I stiffened up like a plank of wood.
"I understand that this must be very frustrating for you right now but... Eventually you will come to accept it we can never escape our fate,"
After saying that he just left, telling me that his servant will soon come and escort me over to my new room, I just nodded without saying anything. It wasn't as if my words mattered, true to his words a maid came, and led me over to a guest room.
If it wasn't because my heart had completely sank in my chest I would have been able to admire the architecture just a little bit more, but I glanced through everything from the linen curtains, marble floors and even the exquisite furniture that someone of a low rank like me had never really expected to be exposed to like this.
But all of this were frivolities in my eyes knowing that it was nothing but bribery to make me forget what I had been fighting for all these years, in the in the 3 days that passed I was presented with tailored dresses that would leave a princess jealous, rare jewellery and the food I ate was out of the world.
But I wasn't so foolish to surrender my dreams because of this, I knew that the alpha King expected that with these little trinkets he had bought me but it didn't matter to me they were pretty but not enough to give away the Independence that I had worked so hard for.
There was no way that I would become a royal baby maker, it didn't matter just how much he flaunted his wealth in my face it wasn't going to change the fact that I would never live under his shadow, however I pretended as if I had considered to him and his traditions and I believed he trusted it enough because I was mostly free to roam around the palace which gave me the perfect opportunity to plan my escape.
And then when the night was full I knew it was the perfect time as I climbed down from my bedroom window and using a tree that was hugging the fence of the palace I made my way over to the other side avoiding the guards as I did so, of course I had some supplies gathered with me in a bag.
Finally,I was leaving this wretched Kingdom and finding life somewhere else.