CHAPTER 1...part 1

(Stay, I Pray You — Anastasia cast)

BETRAYAL weighs heavy.

The blade of severance cutting mans' heart in twain — any attempting to mend the broken bond remains futile as the river styx gains another battered soul.

The understanding that all scars fade over time becomes null, the sustained pain far too much to bear.

Pain unjustly bequeathed.

And Matthias Helvar felt it all as he was yanked through Hellgate.

A man falsely accused by a woman of wiles, Nina Zenik. He thought her trustworthy — how foolish was the drüskelle to put his faith in grisha.

He would now — and forever, be branded as a slave trader.  The hot iron scalding his skin as the poisonous words marked him like a scarlet letter.

Two burley men flanked his sides — their grips harsh and tight.

The thrust him into a small cell, walking away as Matthias bashes his knuckles against the firm iron.

Then, there was a laugh — filled with such contempt and acidity that caused him to pause.

"It is useless." She drew out. "You will be dead before you even feel the sun."

Her accent, he thought — hoping she hailed from Fjerda, how the lilt of his mother tongue coated her words. He peered towards the voice, finding a pale blonde woman sitting in the cell beside him.

As his eyes traveled down he noticed a branding on her left forearm, red and irritated where it lay, taunting Matthias.

The woman, seeming to notice Matthias' fixation, lifted the brand up, allowing the only light in the Hellgate to shine upon it.

"Do not worry," she stated, "this is not from them."

The woman said the words with such condemnation that it almost felt as though the words were meant for him, like a viper striking from the shadows.

Matthias grunted, unwilling to speak at the moment, the still fresh wound from Nina's betrayal stained red with blood.

***

Sersi Rietveld was accustomed to betrayal, already used to its fatal thorns, unflinching to the way the beautiful rose deterred man from saving themselves.

It was not surprising that Pekka Rollins sought out revenge for Kaz Rietveld's sins, how he jeered when Sersi thrashed in The Menagerie's hold.

The saints allowed for her to escape, but her means of survival dragged her back to the status of sinner.

She supposed it was better she was imprisoned rather than condemned to an existence of loneliness, leading a life in eternal damnation.

But somehow Sersi survived.

The blonde never allowed the ghosts of her past to haunt her, to scream at her for what she had become.

Sersi Rietveld was a disappointment — and she was completely fine with it.

Her mind numbed to the pain, used to the feeling of blades and hot iron held against her skin.

Because no pain could fair against the pain of losing her family.

KOREY SPEAKS !

writers block made this
an absolute bitch to
write.