The Offering

Chapter Five - Daella

I am slow to wake this morning, my body feels well rested which is strange in itself, and my bed feels soft and warm, not the usual scratchy sheets and lumpy mattress I'm used to. I open my eyes suddenly trying to bring back my last memory. Fae. They had come for the offering, they had chosen me, they had taken me.

I sit up quickly, looking around the large room blinking repeatedly as the bright light strains my eyes. The light seems to sparkle and shimmer like stars in the night sky. I squint and try to focus. I'm not in my home, my sisters aren't sleeping in their beds in the room they shared with me. I scramble out of bed looking around the strange room, colours of glimmering gold and shining ivory surrounding me, everything so beautiful and lavish and dream like. My head spins and I struggle to stand upright.

I shake off the feeling and rush to the door gripping the handle, locked from the outside.

I turn around, eyeing the fireplace, the chaise and chairs, another door, I rush to it and find a bathing room, everything is so shiny. I move back to the room finding a large window, I push back the curtains and shield my eyes with my hand as the sunlight streams through. God's why is everything so bright? I find the latch and open the window. I am met with the view of a lush garden, it is a startling bright green and is more spacious then even the entire village I grew up in. I look down at the ground and see the drop, I am too high up to try and jump.

I can't remember the journey here.

I think I remember being on a horse, then they tied my hands and someone touched me, and then...nothing. Fae magic, they used magic on me, whoever touched me had sent me to sleep. And now I am locked inside this room where everything hurts to look at.

There is a quick knock on my door and then it opens and I tense as two young women enter, wearing matching grey dresses with white aprons.

"Good morning Miss, we are here to help you get ready." One of them says with a small curtsy.

"Ready for what?" I ask, wary as I take in the way they wear their hair in matching braid crowns. I watch as they walk into the room and stand side by side waiting.

"Ready for the day, you're still in your old clothes Miss, and you haven't bathed. We need to be quick Miss and make sure you are ready for the Advisor." She answers, moving further into the room.

"I'll draw the bath." The other servant says, moving into the bathing room.

I stare at the closed door, wondering if I would make it out before they stopped me.

"I wouldn't if I were you Miss," The servant girl says watching me closely.

I turn to her, her voice lowered. "There's guards Miss, you have two outside your doors, and more cover the entire wing for the chosen. You wouldn't make it far at all."

I look back at the door, the chosen, is that what they called us.

"It will be much easier if you just go along with it Miss, you will be treated very well in the palace, you are very important to the Kingdom and very valuable to the King." She says softly.

I nod and follow her.

Valuable, important, they were the words she used and it made me feel like an object, a great treasure, not a person.

I am scrubbed everywhere, rinsed and washed until my skin is raw and I smell like a garden in spring time.

I am dressed in a light blue gown that is made of a type of fabric I have never seen before, it is soft to the touch and the nicest thing I have ever worn. Then I am sat at a table with a mirror in an ornate golden frame while the one of girls brushes and braids my hair back and I do my best to remain calm while internally I feel like I am about to self-combust at any moment. Or perhaps this is all just a wild dream and I will wake up back in my house, lying in my lumpy bed with my scratchy sheets and everything will go back to normal.