The Sacrifice of Aeva

The guards left her for a long moment, until she felt the tip of a boot probing against her side before a loud voice odred her.

- “Up, slave!”

She didn’t know if she could. She had to try. Her arms were shaking uncontrollably. Her hips and knees hurt when she tried to put weight on them. Once again she couldn’t hold a scream.

- “Aaaaaiiiih! It hurts!”

Rugar and the guards did not care. They repeated their order until finally she did it. And mustering all her strength, she once more put a foot in front of the other, slowly, clumsily. It hurt so much she was limping, badly. But the true devastation came from her people having turned against her. Despite the certainty of her fate, she couldn’t handle this turn of event. She tried to stop thinking at all, to concentrate on the pain in her body, so that only her suffering existed. That was the only way she could even hope to have the strength to keep moving forward.

The procession resumed its way, at a slower pace, with the naked, tied, and now bruised and limping prisoner opening the way. Soon they got to the last of the dwellings and engaged on the narrow, steep winding path that would lead them to the Sacred Rock. She tried very hard to keep herself together, to live up to her own expectations of a worthy offering to the Gods, walking proudly to her fate. Her reality was unfortunately far more miserable than she could ever have imagined.

The pain, however excruciating, was helping her to keep away the harrowing feeling of her soul being ripped apart by the destruction of her past, and the people she loved violently turning on her. She tried to tell herself that it didn’t matter, but the powerful emotions she was trying to keep at bay were the living proof that it did. 

No, her best ally was the pain, and she felt a lot of it. Everytime she moved a limb it hurt, everytime she breathed it hurt. She could also count on the fire in her loins, that companion she had lost in the last years of her life was now back for good, more powerful than ever and it helped. 

But even as powerful as her suffering and her lust were, there were cracks in the armor, and the harrowing thoughts were making their way into her mind. As a last resort she tried to picture herself, walking with dignity towards the sacred rock. But even that goal, a fantazy she had held onto all her life, felt now out of reach. Despite her best efforts, the image shattered. And all collapsed in her distressed mind.

Her heartbeat accelerated to an impossibly fast beat. She was breathing faster but was unable to get any air. Cold sweat appeared all over her body, chilling even the rain. She started shaking. The picture of her house collapsing under the flames, the rage in Shaileen’s eyes, the violent assault of her people started flashing in her head in a whirlwind of horror, and each image was like a blade stabbing her heart. Her legs froze, lost all their strength, and she collapsed on the rocky trail. She was in shock, shaking, hurting, out of breath, with her heart pounding as fast as it had ever gone in her chest.

She could not bear all she had lost. And with her resolve gone, the most powerful fear she had ever known took hold of her body and mind. For a moment, she forgot her pain craving lust, leaving her healer self alone and in mortal fear of her now ineluctable fate. She screamed.

- “Noooooooo! Noooooooooo! I don’t want to die! Please take me away……! Please take me home……!”

The impact of Rugar’s boot in her stomach knocked the wind out of her.

- “Stop this nonsense and get UP!” Rugar’s voice commanded.

- “Huff… No… Please no…” She said, breaking into tears.

Another kick came, harder on her already bruised side.

- “Aaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiieeeee!”

- “If you can’t walk then you will crawl!”

The violent kicks and the commanding voice managed to snap Aeva out of her panic. Her heart lowered its beat slightly, and she could control some movement in her arms and legs again. They were close to the platform of the rock. Trying to get past her fear she dug deep, mustering what little she could scrape of her remaining resolve and will. And she crawled, slowly, like a slave without any dignity, for the last hundred yards or so of the steep trail. 

She made it to the top, and finally, she could see the rock, but that was all the strength she had left, and she collapsed again, panting, her eyes on the massive black stone. The platform of the rock was a large space, seemingly carved in the stone of the hill, overlooking the village. With the storm, the clouds and the darkness, it felt like an island of rock, floating in the realm of the Storm God.

In the center of the area stood the Sacred Rock. An impressive column of rugged, sharp stone unlike anything else. It was as tall as three men and wider than one man laid down. It was a sight both very familiar and yet on this day scaringly imposing. Her attention was particularly drawn to the iron rings that were affixed on and around the Sacred Rock. There was one in the center, well above the height of a man, and two bolted down on the rock ground on each side, away from the base of the rock by about two feet.

Still trying to regain her resolve, she tried all she could to make herself walk to the rock, with at least a semblance of dignity. But it was hopeless. There was simply no strength left in her aching limbs. Rugar and his guards, it seemed, understood her condition. She felt two powerful hands grabbing each of her upper arms, just beneath her shoulders and dragging her like a limp doll to the base of the Sacred Rock where she was left on her knees. She instinctively looked up the imposing monolith, to see that a long chain had been passed through the hoop high up. The long end was pooled on the wet ground, and two bright metallic shackles hung from the dangling end, resting against the dark stone. 

The cold touch of a metal blade on her back made her jerk and shriek in fear. But the blade only cut through her leather ties and freed her bruised wrists, returning feeling to her fingers. One of the warriors walked in front of her, grabbed her wrists and lifted her on her feet in a violent gesture. She caught sight of his face in the corner of her eye. She knew him well, his name was Niel. She had tended his sick mother for months and he even had gifted her sweet fruits to thank her. 

He held her firmly while Rugar locked her hands inside the hanging shackles. Niel stepped back and pulled on the long end of the chain until her arms were fully extended up, as Rugar was removing the heavy chain from her neck. Finally with a powerful thrust he shoved the front of her body against the rock. She felt the sharp dark stone prickling on her skin, most strongly on her breast. The Sacred Rock was unlike any known stone, it was incredibly hard, intricate and sharp. Some of the ancients claimed that it came from a mountain of fire, but that was legend. To the Dubhcloch clan it had always been there and it was a gift from the Gods. 

Aeva felt one more pull on the chain painfully straining her wrists and her shoulders. She was slowly lifted up, her breast, belly and thighs scraping against the jagged surface of the rock. Looking over her shoulder she saw two warriors tying the chain to one of the rings bolted into the ground. 

There was nothing she could do now, she straightened her head to face the dark rock. She thought the obstructed view might help calm her down and decrease her sense of panic. She tried to force herself to take deep long breaths, like she was sometimes instructing her patients. It worked a little. The fast beats of her chest slowed down, and the trembling in her legs diminshed. 

But the fear was still set into her and did not leave. The dread of her fate was here to stay. She had finally understood the terrifying ending she was promised to, not only in her mind but in her guts and bones. It was not an abstract idea any more. Neither was it a more intense version of the punishments she had experienced all her life. No, it was the total and final destruction of her person, to be performed in the most painful way. 

To her dismay, it was with these dark thoughts that the lust in her loins returned. Her body and in her mind had now fully understood the terrible fate that was awaiting her. And her twisted nature  was turning it into an unbound, morbid craving for extreme pain and torment. Like a moth attracted to a flame that would burn her in the most gruesome way. The thought frightened her to no end, and at the same time set her loins burning into a vicious, twisted fire of lust. 

It is in this state, impossibly caught between these two destructive forces, the fear of an horrific end and the craving for the most extreme pain that Aeva spent the next hours. Meanwhile, more clansmen and clanswomen were emerging from the trail and taking a place around her, and the noises of chatter were slowly increasing. The waiting lasted until the voice of King Silas broke the silence and said.

- “May the Sacrifice begin.”