The Flames of Elisira

Chapter 3 - There is always light

''Agatha! why Agatha?! Gods, what has gotten into me?'' Seraphina cursed herself as she paced around the small room she was given by Dinah's mother. 

''Of all the names in the world, I had to choose that of Varog's favorite harlot?'' she sat on the equally small bed with her head between her hands. ''Agatha, ugh,'' she gagged.

It was evening , and the sun was setting, Illuminating the whole kingdom with its beautiful orange hues before welcoming in the night. To say the day had been long for Seraphina would have been an understatement.

First, she had to help Carissa, Dinah's mom, prepare lunch. When the woman had called out to help in the kitchen, she had been outside the house soaking in the sun. She almost said no, but her rumbling stomach disagreed. And so, she dragged her feet to the kitchen and helped the woman cook lunch, which was rice and guinea fowl stew.

Her own lunch however, consisted of leftover rice and gravy from the stew. Once again, she was denied her meat.

Secondly, and probably the worst of all. She was introduced to Dinah, who looked at her like she was some street rat. Gods, she hated her.

She hated that the girl took Timothy away from her, she hated how she had looked down on her, she hated how she had perfect raven black hair and beautiful doe like brown eyes. She hated how Dinah was perfect in every way while she was flawed and weird. No wonder Timothy never had any romantic feelings for her.

When Carissa had told Dinah that Agatha, as in her, Seraphina, was going to help her prepare for her upcoming wedding. All the doe eyed girl did was hum, and without so much as exchanging another word, turned on her heels and snapped her fingers at Seraphina to follow her. As much as she didn't want to, she had no choice. 

Also, Carissa pushed her from behind, so there was that.

And last but not the least, Dinah's green eyed younger brother, whose name she had not even bothered to learn, had peeped through the window in her room, and caught her changing. She had marched up to Carissa and told her about it, but the damned woman blamed her instead!

She somehow managed to make Seraphina look like the bad guy, while her son smiled at her cheekily from behind his mother's skirts. No matter how hard she tried to explain, the woman was unrelenting. In fact, she even went further to accuse Seraphina of trying to entice the young boy.

Just the mere thought of that made her cringe. In what gutter had the woman's head been in?

Her, a seventeen-year-old girl, enticing a boy who was no more than ten years old, disgusting.

Because of her whorish ways, Carissa's words not hers, Seraphina was denied dinner that night and was asked to stay in her room until she was called for.

The smell of freshly baked bread wafted to her room, causing her stomach to rumble even more. She got up and poured water into the glass from the pitcher she was provided with and filled her stomach with it.

As she sat confined in her room, there was only one thought going on in her head, she had to leave this place. She couldn't stay here anymore, she had to run. ''Staying here is going to do me no good,'' she whispered to herself as she looked out the window and at the setting sun. ''I need a plan, now.''

Luckily for her, the thought of locking her bedroom door had not crossed Carissa's mind yet. Sooner or later however it will, and she didn't plan on sticking around to find out.

And then there was also this voice at the back of her mind, pushing her to take this action. It was almost like there was another person inside of her, telling her what to do, and for some uncanny reason, she trusted it.