DRAMA NOVEL ONLINE Hope (Chapter 23)
Rachel:
What is wrong with me?
I lean against the wall in one of the hallways between the Antechamber and the priestesses’ quarters. Thankfully is it deserted at the moment.
I am a mess. My heart is beating heavily like I have been running and I think I might be sweating? Shit, maybe I’m ill.
I close my eyes. Images of the Master Priest flash behind my eyelids and I almost groan aloud.
I am never like this- never. I am not the sort of dainty woman who acts coy or teenager to get nervous in front of her boyfriend after the first time they have sex. I sleep with men almost every day, several times a day. I should be confident as hell at the point.
It’s disgusting really.
I run my hand over my face.
“Rachel!” drowning in my own misery I failed to hear someone enter the hallway. I spin quickly to see it’s Marie and I straighten off of the wall giving her a small smile as she approaches.
Marie stops just in front of me, “are you okay?”
“Of course, I just… ya know…” I say this knowing how Marie will interpret it and hopefully will not question me further. We all understand the toll being a priestess takes on our souls. There are few priestesses I haven’t walking upon crying in a hallway or staring blindly at a wall. Our suffering is shared, but separate- I rarely hear of anyone speaking it out loud, it is too painful, too private, and without hope- at least before I got to know the Master Priest.
I expect a nod and a soft acknowledgment before moving on, but Marie shocks me by grabbing my hands, “yes, I heard about Ava.”
Her eyes say everything: her alarm, her horror at Ava’s fate with the Redeemer. I sometimes forget that Marie has real emotions with her singular focus on setting herself up for her life after being a priestess. But her business-like attitude is only a facade- a convincing one to be sure, but one nonetheless- which paints over the scars she cares underneath.
I feel guilty. Ava is separated from her children and with the Redeemer and I- well, I am fussing over a crush in the hallway.
“Yes,” I whisper out and grip her hands back. Better that she thinks I am distraught over Ava than upset over an encounter with the Master Priest.
Marie takes a step closer and leans in to whisper, “but your efforts to bring down you-know-who are working, right? I mean, surely someone has agreed to testify”
“Yes,” I don’t explain further not wanting to implicate Sarah or anyone else for that matter.
“Then she will be free in no time”
There is something about Marie’s confidence, her conviction, which feeds into mine. Yes, this is exactly what I wrote to Ava and this is exactly what we are going to do. And not waste any more of our energy thinking about a certain Master Priest, or I guess, only in the context of our mission.
“Yes, she will,” I say more strongly this time.
Her eyes light up, “have you seen the square?”
I shake my head, “No I came in through the side street on my way back”
She ropes her arm through mine and begins to tug my arm, a smile breaking out on her face “Well, then I have something to show you”
Despite her smaller frame, I let her drag me through the temple’s many corridors and hallways. While the main areas of the temple where the worshipers’ visit are straightforward, bathing rooms near the entrance, the antechamber, the inner chamber, and the dressing rooms, the parts of the temple out of the public eye were like a maze from a horror film. Stone tunnels crisscross the building with no natural light and few torches leading to offices and private rooms and storage closets.
Our robes swish against the stone floor as Marie leads me in determined strides across the temple. A minor priest is forced to jump out of Marie’s way and he gives us a look over the pile of cloth he is carrying. She drags me through one door to another corridor before pushing me in front of one of the few windows- if you can call it that- facing the market square. It’s a carving through the thick stone walls of some Pinn flower or another and so most of the space is still stone with only small cutouts of leaves that have been covered with poor-quality glass.
The window is probably two stories above ground level and I have to bend at an awkward angle to peer outside.
“Do you see them?” Marie asks impatiently.
“Who?” I see glimpses of people, but there are always people on the market square.
“The women, the protesters in front of our temple”
I look down and immediately see a small group of women gathered in front of the temple steps, some holding signs. They are standing stoically as some Pinns pass, staring at them, ignoring them, I see a boy point his finger at them.
Marie scoots in next to me, also looking down at the protestors, “They are protesting the temple! They are there because they have been following the senate’s investigation”
I can’t help but smile, pride swelling in my chest. I am a part of this- however small my role has been- I am helping to make our lives better. I look over at Marie and see that she is looking back at me, we share a wide smile.
“Oh my God, we might actually be able to do it,” I say to her in disbelief. I mean, I hoped, I really hoped, but somehow those few women standing out front who have never seen the inside of a temple- who have probably never seven spoken to a priestess, make it feel real.
“Yes, and once we get our freedom we can maybe save them from their life of servitude to their partners” Marie replies her eyes shining “together we women can help each other”
*****
In Fledgling Whispers is COMPLETE on my Patreon. You can read it today for only 3 Euros a month (+VAT, multiple currencies available). Check out the link for more info: https://www.patreon.com/heatherjacobs
Happy reading!
Heather