End of Serenity

2. The Preparation Ceremony

                                                              25/4/649 SE

It was the 25th day of the 4th month. The year was 649 of the Age of Serenity. My sixteenth birthday. For most sixteen year olds in Aelia,* the day would mark their transition from childhood to adulthood. They would be required to take the "Partnership Examination" a test implemented by the High Council to match them with a suitable partner from their tribe of the opposite sex, whom they would later wed. But for select individuals like me and Erik, things were different.

As nobility, Erik's partner had specifically chosen and raised from birth directly by the Priesthood. She would have been brought up in isolation just as he was, with specific qualities and characteristics to make her suitable to one day join the Imperial Household. Upon Erik's sixteenth birthday, exactly one month before mine, I was instructed by the High Council to deliver the name of Erik's future Fated Pair* to him: Yngvild Nordness. I hadn't obeyed that command.

Why was this girl the one betrothed to Erik? She had never met him, and he wasn't even aware of her existence. It wasn't fair. I was the person who knew Erik the best.

Is this what jealously feels like? I thought to myself. No. I couldn't be jealous. I wasn't allowed to be. I was the future bearer of the Seraphim of Balthazar.* Unlike the other sixteen year olds, I wouldn't be matched with a Fated Pair.

After taking the "Partnership Examination" there were always a select few who were left unmatched. It was a small number, usually only two to three percent of the population, but they were the ones chosen specifically to be admitted into the Priesthood or Imperial Guard.

It was a special honour. The Priesthood was the highest authority an average citizen could find themselves in. To be admitted meant that one represented the epitome of mankind. The only downside was that they were prohibited from marrying or having children. It was seen as dirty and unclean. Priests and Priestesses had to remain pure and chaste their entire lives, free from sin and defilement. Breaking this rule resulted in the harshest of punishments.

As a member of the Tumen Family, I was different. The Three Holy Families, including mine, took the "Partnership Examinations" at the age of twelve, rather than sixteen. Once every half century, there would be a single child from each of the three families left unmatched. They would become the future bearers of the Seraphim.

From the Tumen Family, I was the one left without a Fated Pair. That meant that I had undergone the Cleansing Ceremony at the age of twelve. As the name suggests, the ceremony involved cleansing the subject of physical and spiritual impurities. For the unmatched males, part of that process included castration,* a practice often used by ancient civilizations, to surgically render an individual sexually sterile. A similar process was carried out for females.

Seraphim were regarded as semi-divine beings, and therefore it would constitute as an abomination for them to  possess reproductive abilities. This was one of the the most important rules to keep. It was said that if a Seraphim produced an offspring, the child would be born a demon who would bring about the end of mankind. Supposedly, such an event is what marked the end of the Age of Chaos* and led the destruction of human civilization 649 years ago. Such an event must never be repeated.

"Nehemiah, we're almost ready," my sister's voice pulled me from my thoughts. I was seated on a chair facing a mirror as my siblings combed out and tied up my long, silky-black hair. The room we were in was a small, dimly-lit, domed-roof chamber, with a tunnel on one side winding its way upwards towards Erik's wing of the palace, while another went in the opposite direction, deeper into the Earth, towards the Hall of Sacrifice.