Cineris walked towards the exit doors, her light blue dress swinging left and right. She opened the doors and stepped out, saying, "Not this year, not yet," as she swung her head side to side.
Everyone gathered around the red carpet who had knelt sighed. To their friends and family beside them, they said, "We contributed the sacrifices this year. I hope we pushed the line closer to us."
"Indeed we did," Cineris said, walking past them. "Every year is a step closer to Our Lady's resurrection."
With sad faces, the villagers slowly stood up. Chatter filled the room, and a child stood and ran to the doors. Cineris's eyes followed him.
As he opened them and walked out, a cold breeze swooped past her ankles. In that second, as he stepped onto the snowy wooden patio, an arrow engulfed in flames struck him in the head, pinning him to the ground and killing him instantly.
Cineris's warm eyes turned into utter terror as she called out, "Marre!"
People hearing the commotion turned toward the doors and saw it. The previous priestess shouted, "Everyone to arms, immediately!" She grabbed Cineris's arms and dragged her back into the prayer room as shouts echoed from the dining hall.
She dragged her to the left top corner of the room and pushed a drawer aside, revealing a secret passage leading far outside the village. "Listen, child!" Grandma grabbed her by the shoulders with all seriousness. Cineris's blue eyes were wide open and filled with tears.
"You go down there now and get away from here. I won't tolerate any excuses," she said, letting go and walking toward the exit.
"B-but Grandma! What about you? I-I can't leave you here alone. I can't leave anyone here alone!"
"Shut your mouth, Cineris. You will leave us here and escape now!" Grandma said as she walked out, meeting men covered in full-length cloaks with white fur framing their faces—casting shadows that concealed their identities. They clashed with the villagers in a 'fair' dispute of power.
Grandma gripped the doors, slowly pushing them closed while pouring mana into them, giving the wood a bluish glow.
"B-But Grandma, I can't leave you here. I will never be able to forgive myself!" Cineris shouted.
"Shut it. Run," Grandma demanded. "I will not tolerate any more of your tantrums. Run now. This room will be sealed so no one will be able to enter—no one but you or Our Lady."
"Please take care…" As she spoke, an arrow struck the back of her head, pinning her lifeless body to the door in front of Cineris's eyes.
"GRANDMAAAAAAA!" Cineris shouted at the top of her lungs, tearing her throat until it bled.
Tears flowed like a waterfall down her cheeks, dripping to the ground as the doors shut permanently, blocking out any danger that might befall her.
She tripped and fell face-first into the doors, pounding them countless times, shouting, "Grandma! Grandma! Grandma, no!"
A torrent of anguished sobs was torn from her as blood trickled down her chin from her mouth.
She pounded the doors until blood gushed from her hands, desperately crying out as her voice slowly diminished: "Grandma! Please, it's my fault!"
She wiped her tears, gritted her teeth, and turned toward the armor. Tripping, she ran toward it.
She ran behind it and pounded on the metal cage with her bare knuckles, breaking them in the process. Gritting her teeth with all her might, she ignored the pain and broke the lock that held the box.
She ran to the secret exit and looked once more at the door and the armor. She closed her eyes in fear and fell face-first to the ground.
And so she ran down the dug-out passage, barely wide enough for her to fit, with her eyes closed.
***
After an excruciatingly long run, she arrived at the end of it. A wooden trapdoor, overgrown with grass, yielded as she pushed it open and walked out.
There, she fell into the snow by the leafless tree on the hill overlooking the village from afar.
That village—where she had spent her newborn age, her childhood, her teenhood, and what would soon have been her adulthood—was gone, engulfed in flames. The scorching heat could be felt even from such a distance on Cineris's skin.
As tears poured down her face and snot fell from her nose, she pounded the ground with her knuckles, staining the snow around her with bright red blood.
Just as she pounded, a hooded man appeared. His full body was hidden in a cloak, his face fully in shadow as Cineris, in shock, looked up at him. Every part of his body was hidden by the black cloak.
She asked in fear, her now hoarse voice breaking in the process, "Who a-are y-you?"
"Me? Oh, I'm someone of little importance. Who is important here is you." He pointed with his arm, fully covered by the cloak, at her chest as he said, "I will fulfill any desire you need. The resurrection, the revenge, anything you desire! Anything!"
"So please, come with me. And whatever you want, whatever you desperately sought to acquire, to fulfill, I will grant it. For a small price of your help in my grand plan," he said in a deep, chilling voice. And as he said it, a sound of bones striking themselves could be heard from within the black cloak.
"A-anything?" Cineris asked.
"Yes. Anything, I promise."
Cineris swallowed the saliva mixed with blood, and she nodded, saying, "I will. Please, help me get revenge on those people that savagely slaughtered my village! And please, help me resurrect our Lady!" Cineris fell to her feet, gripping his cloak, and begged as she humiliated herself.
He just watched with hands behind his back, under the tree.
He gazed lingered on her before saying, "I will… I'll fulfill aaaanything you desire. I promise."
Cineris forced herself to smile at the person before her, revealing her porcelain white teeth stained with blood as tears fell down her face.
I swear, I will avenge my family. You worthless pieces of people don't deserve to live in the slightest. No, no one deserves to live in the slightest that is affiliated with them. NO ONE!
I promise on the one true God, the Creator, the mighty creator of the three Gods that descended upon our land, that I will slaughter every single one of them, leaving none alive. No woman, not even children. As long as even a droplet of their blood circulates through anyone's veins, I will never rest until that ceases to exist!
Please, allow me the pleasure to see them suffer as they made my family suffer.