Dear enemy

A shaky breath left her throat as she attempted to calm herself down. Slowly, she lifted one of her trembling hands to her face to wipe away the single tear that rolled down her cheek. Her heart felt like it was about to pound right out of her chest as she turned her face towards the wall of the alleyway she had taken refuge in. Hidden, like a coward, she hoped that no one would find her. Especially not one of them. They thought less of her already, and she knew it. She despised herself for her own weakness, bit her lip until it bled and forced herself to just breathe. After a few minutes, most evidence of her crying had completely disappeared. It had only taken one spark of recognition. She’d recognized him as a client, back when she was nothing but a common whore, and he had recognized her too. His masochistic grin had torn her down in mere seconds. All this, for a man.

Lore straightened her back, put her chin up and her chest forward and, just like that, turned into the epitome of unshakable faith again. Sometimes it was that easy. She didn’t dare to breathe as she marched over the square, feeling countless eyes being drawn to her as she walked by. She was a sight to behold: clad in a pure, white dress and an excess of golden jewels. It was something she’d never get used to. Caught up in her own thoughts, she didn’t notice the man approaching her at first. It wasn’t until he spoke to her that she looked up. He asked if she was a Priestess of Sol and for a few seconds she was inclined to say no. She regained herself, putting a smile on her face. “What gave it away?” she replied, as if the answer wasn’t obvious. He looked intimidating: taller than her, covered in tattoos. Still, his expression nearly seemed friendly. He reminded her of someone she knew. Of a good man.

Loraelei didn’t falter when a stranger approached her. Not too long ago, she’d keep away from every single man that tried to get anywhere near her, but that had soon proved to be unrealistic thing to keep up. As a priestess of Sol, she needed to expand the faith, to lead the way into spirituality for both women and men. It had frightened her at first, but in due time she learned to accept it. The fact that men treated her completely differently nowadays helped too. Apparently, they had far more respect for priestesses than they showed towards courtesans. Who would’ve thought?

For a second, she held in her breath as an unknown man approached her. She put on her best poker face, which looked like a warm and comforting smile, although she wasn’t entirely sure if it was all that convincing. The man in front of her chuckled when she asked him how he’d recognized her. It wasn’t exactly a mystery. Then, the actual reason he approached her ensued. Apparently his sister had fallen ill and he was in search of a priestess to help communicate his prayers to Sol. Her very first instinct was to turn around now and run for the hills, but she then reminded herself that she was a priestess of Sol now. She had a duty to fulfil. He slightly reminded her of Kaz somehow, one of the few men in her life who had been kind to her. Because of the resemblance, she was willing to look past his intimidating exterior, although that would soon prove to be a mistake. “Of course,” she then replied, with a small nod. “It’d be an honour to help you reach our god.” She wasn’t entirely sure if her doubt was audible in her tone. “Please, lead the way.”

Every fibre of her being screamed at her to leave. It felt unnatural for her to trust a man so blindly, but she had to. The minute she decided to dedicate her life to Sol, she signed up for things like this. It was her duty to help Sol’s followers communicate with him, even if those followers were total strangers to her. She told herself to have faith, like she was told at church so many times. To believe that her god would look out for her, that he’d keep her safe. Still, she couldn’t help feeling like she was making a big mistake.

A grateful smile appeared on his face as she let him know she’d come with him to pray. Her heart was beating quickly as he turned around, pointing towards one of the streets. She’d lived on Sunfall for a while now and was completely aware of the layout of the island. The district he was pointing towards was mostly inhabited by traders. Not something she would worry about, except for the fact that most merchants were occupying the market right now, so the district itself would be rather quiet. He thanked her and she forced a smile, nodding at him. Cursing herself for being so naïve, she followed him down to a back alley. At this point, she was already sure of what was going to happen. He told her he’d let her in through the back door and Lore let out a shaky breath. Before she knew it, he’d taken hold of her, causing her to release a high-pitched yelp. His arm constricted around her throat, making her gasp for air in a panic. In a desperate attempt to get free, she pressed her nails into the skin of his arm as hard as she possibly could, trying to ignore the immense amount of fear she was feeling. The words he whispered into her ear sent shivers running down her spine, and slowly but steadily, she began to feel a painful burning in her lungs. Lore kept scratching and clawing at him, to no avail. She softly whimpered a few words that resembled 'let me go' as she felt her legs give out, leaning into him for support. A faint ache in her head was the last thing she felt as her vision went black, a single tear finding its way down her cheek.

Lore seemed to be continuously torn between adhering to her god and her ingrained instinct to avoid every male thing on the planet. If she wanted to enlighten herself, to truly become something good and holy in the eyes of Sol, she would have to spread his word, regardless of her own fears and doubts. However, every single moment in her life had taught her to beware of men, because they carried around dark intentions most of the time. The moment she followed him down into the alley, she knew something bad was about to happen. It wouldn’t be the first time a man had used her against her will, but this time, she didn’t expect to make it out alive.

Her hands were slightly trembling the very second before he grabbed her. She yelled, knowing no one was around to hear her. Nobody would come and help her. She was well and truly on her own, making her very easy prey. Somehow, it hurt her pride to know that it would be indeed that simple to end her life. She thrashed around a little, trying to hurt him with her nails in every way she could. Her final thought was a cry for help to any god that was listening, before everything went dark.

Lore had no recollection of how he lifted her up and carried her to the beach. She awoke with a slight pounding in the back of her head. A dull, almost hangover-like ache. She could hear the faint breeze of the ocean, the rushing of the waves. At that point, she wasn’t all that confused by the fact she was suddenly on the beach yet. She opened her eyes, blinking a few times as she fixated her gaze on the bright blue sky. The next things she noticed were the scratching of sand against her skin, and the pulling at her wrists and ankles. The latter managed to drive up her heartbeat a little, and as she tried to move her limbs, she noticed she couldn’t. The ropes that were tied around her dug their way into her skin, but the pain was far from her only concern. She was tied down, and the tide was slowly moving in to get her. Her eyes looked for something, anything, and found the man she recognized from before. Nothing was left of the friendly expression that had been there before. Her eyes widened, looking at him in horror. “Untie me!” she yelled at him, not even trying to hide the desperate tone in her voice. “Now!” She started struggling to get free, but it had no use. He’d attached her to the poles tightly and her fighting back only made the rope carve into her skin even deeper. Tears started to well up in her eyes once more, as she started screaming for help at the top of her lungs. There had to be someone around who could help her. There had to be someone.

Panic struck as soon as she realized she couldn’t move. At first, she moved around a little, testing the strength of the ropes that were tied ever so tightly around her wrists and ankles. In a matter of seconds, however, she found that they were not going to give. Whoever he was, he’d done this before. Pieces of what happened started coming back to her. She could recall his excuse to take her away from the town square, to the back alley where he’d suffocated her. From there on, everything was pitch black. She had no idea how much time had passed since then.

What she could tell, was that he hadn’t used her like other man had. Besides the throbbing headache from the lack of oxygen and the rope digging into her wrists, her body felt fine. It was only a small comfort, though, since she was completely sure he was going to hurt her in other ways. It took her a while to notice the chest that was inches above her head, although at this point, she couldn’t care less about what was inside of it. All she wanted was for someone to come around and get her out of here. She wasn’t going to just give up, but all she could do at this point was scream. So, that’s what she did.

Lore shut her mouth as soon as he knelt beside her, afraid he was going to hit her for making so much noise. She looked him straight in the eyes as he told her that no one was going to come for her. A slight frown appeared on her face when he suggested she pray to her god instead, in the hopes of Sol saving her. He sounded sceptical, mocking even. At that second, she knew what this was about. She was going to die as a favour for some pagan sea-god. Another tear ran down the side of her face as she looked at him. No god was going to save her now. “You’re here. You can hear me,” she said, her voice trembling. “Please, don’t do this. I beg you.” With every word, her sobbing became more uncontrollable. “I’ll do anything, I swear,” she whined, pulling at the ropes a little. Her faith was nowhere near unshakable yet. Sol wasn’t going to get her out of this, and neither was whatever god the man next to her was speaking of. Her only chance of survival came in the shape of the very person kneeling next to her.

Realization started to hit her: she wasn’t going to get out. There was no way she could escape the ropes that were tied around her wrists and ankles, and she was sure he was not going to let her go. Her heart seemed like it was about to pound out of her chest. It couldn’t end like this, not after she was finally freed of every man that ever held her down. As much as she didn’t want to show any weakness, tears started welling up in her eyes. Her muscles were burning from pulling at her restraints, but they simply didn’t give. She was stuck, and no one was coming from her.

As a last resort, she opened her mouth and begged. Begged for him to help her, hoping to reach the tiniest inch of humanity he might have left. Maybe she could convince him to let her go, so she promised to give him anything, anything, if he’d only let her go. His gaze was strongly fixated on her, and as soon as he started speaking, she knew it was over. She felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as he argued that Sol had angered his god. He then continued by telling her she wouldn’t be the last one: he was planning to do this to all her sisters and brothers. Lore softly shook her head while she looked up at him. “You can’t,” she softly whined. “Please.” Another tear found its way down her cheek when he smiled. Arguing with him had no use, he was a religious fanatic, like everyone had expected her to be. She was going to die because she believed in the wrong god.

A quiet sobbing stemmed from her throat as she felt the first wave reach her feet. It managed to light a new fire inside her, and she raised her voice, screaming for help once again. She tried pulling her feet back up, as if those few inches would be able to save her. Her throat started to hurt from all the yelling, but someone hearing her was her only chance of survival right now.

If there was anyone on earth who was capable of reachin him, it wasn’t her. The way he was looking at her, she wasn’t even sure if he processed her pleas for mercy at all. He was cold-hearted, if not heartless, and with that realization her final hope of escaping slowly but surely died. He was a religious fanatic, a maniac devoted to nothing an no one except his god, and he was going to let her drown in favour of his god. A gift clad in white, decorated with golden jewellery that was ever so meaningless now. Sol was going to let her die.

As she screamed again, he stood up. Her gaze didn’t follow him this time around, as she deemed it useless to keep an eye on him. Whatever he was doing, he wasn’t going to make her situation any worse. She had hit rock bottom already. Her cries for help slowly started sounding more like high-pitched sobs as the salt water started touching the soles of her feet. Wet traces of tears stained the skin on her cheeks. It couldn’t end like this. She closed her eyes, mentally praying to whoever was willing to listen. And just at that moment, the man came back, cutting through the ropes that were holding down her right arm. She looked up at him with a mixture of shock and confusion. Was he letting her go? Her lower lip trembled as he put the blade in her hand, not understanding what was happening until he said those words.

“I want you to tell them.”

Lore kept staring up at him for a few seconds, trying to get hold of her own breathing. She knew what he meant. Knew exactly what he meant. And she’d have refused, if it hadn’t been the mercy of his God that had saved her life just now. For a second, she grasped the blade a little tighter. There was no way she would overpower him, so she scraped her throat, speaking with a voice hoarse from screaming. “Who is He?” she quietly asked. She knew he was speaking of a God, just not which one. As a former courtesan, she wasn’t exactly educated on matters of the faith. Still, she needed to know the name of the One who had saved her.