for twobucks

[learnandshift]

[The so-called Temple is actually more of a castle, close up, and the priests and priestesses have certainly tried to make it feel more like a home, so far. If the chosen Bride had any fear of being strapped to an altar and sacrificed immediately on arrival, the attendants hope the hospitality will soothe it.

When she first arrived, she was seen to a luxurious private bedroom and allowed to rest, then given a tour of her new home (all but one foreboding room behind a white door at the highest point of the highest tower.) Then came a sumptuous wedding feast of every delicacy imaginable, and some perhaps even unheard of. The Lord was strangely not in attendance.

"He'll see you later tonight," said the high priest, a portly man with kind eyes. "He wants you to enjoy yourself in the meantime."

After dinner it was off to the baths, where the Bride was soaked and scrubbed in hot mineral springwater and fragrant oils, then dressed in nothing but a white silk robe tied at the waist. There is little doubt what is to happen now, as the high priestess walks the Bride up to that white door in the high tower.

"Only do not shun him," said the priestess. "He will not hurt you. But do not refuse."

With that discomforting little message, they open the doors and usher the Bride inside what appears to be a featureless room, gray stone. At the far end is a flat stone altar, and behind it a throne.

In the throne sits nothing but a cloud of shadow, immense and as featureless as the room except for pinpricks of light, glowing orange eyes.]

Comments

[twobucks]

[ To say she'd been confused was an understatement. Arriving at the castle had seen her needs tended to and almost every kindness shown; the only thing missing was her "groom". It didn't escape her notice that her questions about him were deflected at every turn. As the evening grew longer, she found herself worrying, thinking back to the children in the village, teasing and singing how she would be eaten.

It was a silly fear, and the attendants had helped to assuage it, but it was coming back, and she found her nerves building as she was wrapped in a robe and led to the tower.

At first, when she enters the room, she doesn't notice the shadows at the throne, only thinks it to be the light playing across the room. She glances back at the attendants, trying to hide her nerves. ]

Am I..supposed to be on the altar?

[ Tentative steps as she walks to it, running her fingers across the surface. An instinctive shudder slides up her arm and down her back as she does, and only when she looks up does she notice the shadows, the lights. A surprised gasp, and she catches herself in time to keep from jumping. ]

...hello?