Fan Fiction ❯ Mystify ❯ Freya ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2: Freya

 

By: Brynn Parker

 

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“So, have you discovered anything new about the outside world, Freya?” the High Priest asks me. Inside, I panic, wondering how he knows, but on the outside I'm calm, using the skills I've been taught to dampen my emotions and independent thinking.

 

“I don't know what you're talking about, High Priest,” I say formally. How could he know I've been observing the villagers again...my mind was too far gone for any of the psychics to realize I had left meditation.

 

“Freya, your absence from your body makes it evident that you were off making mischief again.” The High Priest has a smug look on his face, and I long to use my powers on him. If I decided to, I know that I could wipe out the High Priest and most of his henchmen as well.

 

Medea, the High Priest's magic-using assistant, gives me a knowing smile from her constant position beside him, her milky white eyes glittering. I could never get past Medea; any move I made, she would know before I made it. Her gift of foresight makes her valuable to the Empire, and they treat her well for a slave.

 

They say that I could enjoy such luxuries as well if I didn't have a personal agenda against the High Priest and the Emperor.

 

“You have no proof of my mischief,” I say just as smugly as the High Priest. “You fat, arrogant - “

 

A sharp slap across my face stops me mid-sentence, the High Priest's rings biting into my snowy white skin. “Don't talk back to me girl,” he hisses, “You don't need to be disciplined again, do you?”

 

I want to tell him it didn't work last time, so there's no use in trying it again, but I just glare at the floor as Medea sends me a message with her mind. I can sense her unrest. Use your wisdom child, I know it's there! she scolds. Although her appearance remains calm, the older magic user has uneasiness radiating from her. The High Priest, being the ignorant fool he is, doesn't seem to notice.

 

“I'm sorry High Priest,” I finally say, gritting my teeth, “It won't happen again.”

 

He slaps me again, smirking at the fact that I won't do anything about it, and then stands up straight and walks away, Medea at his side. “You may continue your meditation now, Freya,” he says over his shoulder.

 

“As you wish, High Priest,” I say. I know that they're trying to break me, and soon I will become a lifeless slave to the Khryssan Empire, I'm sure. What else could be my fate, when there hasn't been a free magic user in these lands for almost three hundred years?

 

After meditation, I follow the other students to the teaching rooms, where the lower priests teach us the evils of the barbarians outside of the Empire. I suspect that most of these tales aren't true, but the priests are so convincing that I often wonder. More and more, I find myself going along with what my teachers say, easier to accept than to know the truth and not say anything. The last time I had been disciplined, which was when you were taken to the lower areas of the Temple and beaten, was after I had argued with the High Priest during a lesson, and that was strictly forbidden. I learned then, and I will not argue again.

 

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I'm called out of my cell for a meeting with the High Priest later that night. However, it is not the High Priest that I see when I come down the stairs; it's Medea.

 

Come, we must talk before I am missed, she thinks to me, taking my hands and gazing into my eyes. Her milky white irises are unnerving, and when I look into them I am immediately barraged by a lot of loud noises.

 

One that stands out the most is the High Priest's loud, arrogant voice: “Freya is almost done with training, so we'll soon take her to the dungeons to be broken in.”

 

Broken in? Me? Medea releases me from her mind and I try to calm down, but can't manage it. Medea just stares at me. She knows what's going to happen...I can tell.

 

Not even Medea could stand up to this treatment.

 

I'll be broken.