Anathema's Veil
written by axisixas
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Chapter 1: The Land of Fae
Dawn in the winter night, the bell sang its blood curdling toll. The wind whistled a tune haunting and inhumane. Manon looked down on the manacles bruising her delicate skin, a sigh escaped her lips.
It had been days since the last time she saw the light. She had forgotten how warmth feels against her skin, all because she was exposed to cold hard floors day and night. Her back felt stiff. She couldn't even rest it against the wall.
Here in Feyren, they hated humans to the core. Humans were beings inferior than animals. And inferior than inanimate things that the Fey use and toss around.
It was impossible to leave Feyren. She tried once when she wasn't in manacles, all to be thrown in the coldest part of a dungeon to suffer slow death from the bitter cold. All to never see the sun shine again.
Another prisoner told her, when you enter Feyren, you can never leave.
Manon had seen other humans but they weren't themselves. They were enchanted. Entice by these beings that rule this world. They would dance for hours while their cheeks were drenched with tears, their eyes dull and clouded. Some would continue dancing until their ankles had torn apart from its joints, and even when their flesh had been eaten by maggots and flies had laid eggs on the rotten wounds.
Manon was just awaiting her fate. She had lost faith as she stopped counting the days she had been locked and abandoned.
Until hours later one of her prisoners came. This being had scales glistening against small fraction of light. They slither across the floors like a snake, slow and sure. Their lower body mirrors a snake while the upper part resembles a human body. Their teeth sharper than knives and longer than canines.
These beings were called Nuwas or lower species of Nagas. And they were a huge part of the trading in Feyren.
"Rise, human. Someone bought you."
She gulped. Fear rising against her throat. She learned that obeying is better than fighting these beings. They can pulp a human with their tails. Manon didn't want her insides scattered on the floor. She'd rather live.
Manon knew better than being stupid so she followed the Nuwa. Their snake-like body never failed to amaze her. They come in different shades and colors of scales. Some could come translucent, some biolumenscent, some just plain colors. Nuwas generally had plain colored-tails while the higher species called Nagas mostly had shades too otherwordly for her eyes. Oddly, she find the colored tails beautiful.
She had forgotten how outside looks the first time she was kidnapped from home. Where she lived. Where human beings lived. Staying here in Feyren made her realized that a world can exist within a world and no one would have realized it until they were brought in a land were mythical creatures rule and exist.
Her head pounded at the bright sun, she blinked to adjust her eyes from months of darkness. She was brought here on a winter night, now she got out with the sun so bright. She didn't know that lakes sorrounded the land where her prison stands. She almost screamed when one-eyed monsters gave her a dirty look when they smelled her.
The Nuwa tugged her collar abruptly, pulling her eyes away from creatures that looked at her disgustingly.
Manon eyed the lake, noticing Nuwas swimming to transport humans inside the beige fishing nets that remembers her of the way humans catch a shoal of fish. Nuwas haul the nets using their tails with three or four humans trapped inside unmoving but still breathing.
The Nuwa stopped in front of another 12 feet Nuwa to talk. Manon looked around to see how the humans varies from different ages and genders. But they were from the same race.
If Manon was right, today was the day before the end of The Holy Week in her world. People usually go to swim during this week. And Manon remembered when her mother once told her that during holy week, the lakes, the rivers, and the seas will take a life when you spend this holy week in self-indulgence and debauchery.
Like she did. The first day of holy week. She went with her family for a vacation towards the nearest wawa. She swam. It was fine for a few minutes, her family was with her. Until a certain part of the lake felt deeper, and then she slipped. Something pulled her. Manon first thought it was just vines, or maybe snakes. She didn't know it was a Nuwa bringing her to a mythical realm where faeries exists.
She remembered there were a lot of deaths reported every holy week, people swimming in stagnant lakes and rivers to take advantage of the holidays. Manon thought that it was because of the volume of the tourists, little did she know creatures of an extended world captured the humans and brought them here in Feyren in disguised of missing people and dead bodies.
Manon wondered about her family. They must be heartbroken. Manon loved her family so much.
"Never caught that much human in a while. You know, not many are as lucky as you. Some would be served as meal to the high lords in the coming festival," a cyclops said while expertly pulling the human nets. His height was like a 4 year old human child. "Some would be slaves to the Fae Poppy, forever trapped in the fae world. Some would be slaves to fae's who fetishizes human mates. You, lass, you're lucky you're sold to the Dark Hold."
The small cyclops was done with the nets so he was about to walk away when Manon stopped him.
Dread filled Manon's skin. She could imagine her fate and the other stolen humans. Tears wouldn't come but she felt her burning anger inside.
"Wait! Dark Hold? What is that?"
Before the cyclops could speak, the Nuwa had started slithering forward and she felt the tug of her chained neck. She wouldn't fight the scrape of hard metal against her delicate neck.
So she followed. Fear envelops her entirety as they near a brig. A large ship. She saw the symbol on the mainsail. It was a coal-black symbol resembling a pierced wing.
The Nuwa stopped before a cloaked man. He was about 6 feet, shorter than the 12 feet Nuwas. He was covered by the black cloak from head to toe, not a skin can be seen. He was terrifying in Manon's eyes.
The Nuwa talked to the cloaked man as he received the payment for her. The Nuwa checked the money. The coins were shaped like small tree branches and they were made in silver and bronze.
"Please take me back to my world. Please," Manon pleaded the Nuwa as he removed the chains around her neck.
"You're fully paid, human. Obedience is more appealing than defiance. The Shadows are the most dangerous beings in Feyren. You do not want to anger any of them," the Nuwa said as he met her eyes the very first time he was in charge of her.
Manon only looked at this Nuwa's boring brown scales that looked dirtier on the ground. But among the other Nuwas, his scales where very distinct and uglier than the rest of the other Nuwas. She would never forget him.
"This is an advice. Do not jeopardize the luck other humans didn't have in Feyren. You have sound mind unlike every spell-enchanted humans out of their wits. Try being clever. It will maybe, help you, survive." He then shrugged as he slithered away from her.
Manon had the urge to run as fast as she could towards the lake where she first emerged. The only transport that would lead her toward the other side of the lake, where the human world stands.
She didn't get why they unchained her. How else could they keep her from running away when without the chain, temptation to swim to escape cripples her?
Until she found out the reason they didn't need a chain.
The Shadow as the Nuwa said, just touched her forehead and she felt a chain around her heart. She gasped, she recoiled from the pain. She heaved as she felt her lungs grew clouded, as if her ribs became vines squeezing her heart. Pain shot through her as she fell down on her knees.
Hot tears filled her chocolate-brown eyes. Defiance ruled her emotions.
"What did you do?!" she choked in each words. It was becoming harder to breathe between beats of her heart.
"Now listen, do not attempt to run away or I will have your heart burst in pieces. You do not want that little thing to break, do you?"
She let the tears fell on her cheeks as her stare burns a hole through his cloak-covered face.
One day, she swore. One day I will escape.
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