Chapter Text
You gasp for air, wincing as sharp stones prick at your bare feet. You’re scared to stop. Terrified of what could happen to you if you do. These people you’ve known your whole life, hellbent on “punishing” you, for something you have no control over.
You trip over something. You’re not sure what, but you cut up your hands pretty bad trying to save your face from hitting the dirt. Or… what kind of rocks are these?
You hold your breath. You listen. All you hear is the rapid thudding of your own heartbeat. No footsteps. No shouting.
Are you… free?
The exhaustion catches up to you. Your lungs burn, your chest aches. You can’t get up, too weak to run any more. So you fall. You collapse onto your back. The heat of the sun warms your face as you heave and wheeze, fighting to breathe normally again. You cough, mouth dry. You didn’t think to bring anything; you couldn’t. You had to get out of there as fast as possible to preserve yourself. Nothing else mattered outside of that.
But now you’re realizing just how futile your position is:
You have no idea where you are and you can’t go back.
You have no food, water or shelter.
You have nothing to defend yourself with, nor any idea if something is going to attack at any second.
And you’re blind.
Your groan under your heavy breaths. “Fuck.”
You sense the presence before you hear it. You bolt upright, clutching at the stitch in your side.
“You’re trespassing.” The voice is deep, dark. Dangerous. The hair on the back of your neck raises.
“I’m sorry. Just- if you can point me in the direction of the next civilization, I’ll leave.”
The stranger scoffs. “There are punishments for trespassing,” he warns. The threat in his voice hangs heavy over you.
You pull off the symbol of your faith from your neck and hold it out where you believe he is standing. “This is all I have. Take it to spare my life and I promise I will never come back.”
The silence is stiff. Stifling. You frown, tilting your head to listen closer for any sound of the stranger. Did he leave? How could anyone be so silent?
“Hmph. A blind mortal. Where are your owners, little thing?”
You bristle at the insinuation. The threat of death is forgotten entirely, overshadowed by your anger. “Excuse you, sir! I am my own being, perfectly capable of taking care of myself! I am not a pet to be owned!”
“Some capabilities,” he drones, teasing and unimpressed. “Do you plan on eating the gravel and drinking the sand to survive?”
You drop your hand, anger fizzling out. The symbol of your faith, hand carved from the heartwood of an ancient tree tragically felled, clatters hollowly against the stones. “My life was more important to save. I could not spare a moment longer on anything else.”
You listen closely as the rocks shift under something’s weight. The sun’s warmth is hidden from your skin. You feel something hard slip in the loop of the necklace and you let it go on instinct.
The stranger hums in thought. “This is the symbol of Astra, is it not?”
“It is.” You nod. “I’m his chosen.”
“Meaning?”
You tilt your head up at him. “You don’t know?” You open your mouth, but quickly shut it again. You just got chased out of the city for precisely this reason. Are you so recklessly prepared to force yourself into that same situation again? At worse odds?
He chuckles sardonically. “You have such a feisty mouth on you, but now is when you choose to shut it?”
“I just…” You lower your head. You have never been good at lying. The last time you lied, it was to tell a young man that his wife would survive childbirth. Astra had punished you then, and you have sworn yourself to the truth since. “I am surprised anyone doesn’t know about Astra’s Chosen. You must not be from the city.”
“No, I’m not.”
The sun touches your face once more. The rocks shift in front of you, beside you, behind you. You pray Astra will not allow you to die here. You know he will not hear you; he doesn’t listen to his puppets.
“Tell me what it means.”
“Will you let me go if I do?”
“Depends on what you decide to tell me. I may just enjoy keeping a little thing like you around.”
You glare, aiming it over your shoulder and up toward the voice. His steps falter. “Stop calling me that. I have a name, just as I am sure you do.”
You cannot run, you cannot hope to have any chance of survival out here alone, nor hope to survive whatever this stranger deems punishment. If you must die, you will not die a liar.
You sigh as you face forward once again. Your palms are covered in scraped skin, flecking away from the sensitive under-layer. Thin lines of blood show just where the unusual rocks have cut into you. You pick idly at the flesh and answer his question: “When Astra chooses someone, they become gifted with foresight. Through us, He shows glimpses into the future, prophecies of what is to come.
“Now,” your voice wavers slightly, uncertain, “will you let me go?”
Something wraps harshly around your waist, pulling you from the ground. You struggle, your back held firmly around something solid and warm.
The ground disappears beneath your feet.
You scream in innate fear. You dig your nails into the thing around your waist, trying to break free from its grasp. For all you knew, the stranger was about to drop you into a nearby pit or canyon. The idea of surviving the fall and being forced to die slowly with broken bones and in agony makes you fight harder, trying to kick at him.
The stranger huffs an annoyed sound by your ear. “I wouldn’t struggle so much, pet. You might make me drop you.”
Your head spins, trying to figure out which way is up. You cling desperately to the thing around your waist (is this an arm?) and allow your legs to fall limp, pulled by gravity. “Where are we?!” you cry out. “What are you doing?!”
Gusts of air blow past your face, cooling your skin from the hot sun - wherever it may be now. The arm holds onto you tighter, nearly crushing the air from your lungs. “I’m taking you home.”
Ice floods your veins. “Home?”
“My home, pet,” he corrects harshly. It instills no peace within you.
The wind stills. Something touches your feet, solid and firm beneath you. The ground again? You fall to your hands, knees buckling with relief as soon as the stranger lets you go. Your whole body trembles. You can’t seem to get it to stop. All you can do is cling to the ground and urge your mind to stop spinning, stop grappling with the fact that you were in the air somehow, and focus on reorienting yourself.
“I found a new treasure.”