Choosing

[One day earlier]

Sephora gave a sympathetic smile to the grocer after paying for a few cooking apples. But the poor woman didn't return the smile, instead she turned to her next customer, her tired grey eyes brimming with anxiety. Hardly a surprise really, everyone was afraid today.

Today was the day of The Choosing.

It was an event held every year on the day before the evening of Samhain; the night when the veil between the Mortal world and Igritann was at its thinnest.

Whoever was deemed as The Chosen, would have the whole day of Samhain to do whatever they wished.

Most of the time, it consisted of having one massive party, when everyone could get devastatingly drunk and have as much sex, food and drink as they could possibly feeling their stomach. For some people, they considered being The Chosen as the best way to go out.

But once it reached midnight, The Chosen would be taken deep into the Leath Forest, where the veil between the two worlds waited. The chosen would be thrown into the veil as a sacrifice to the Ardanam people.

It was a tradition that went back to the time of The Great Purge, when one of the Ardanam Lords brought down the veil and laid siege to the humans, in an effort to rule over them. But it was not possible for the two worlds to co-exist. The Atmosphere of the Ardanam people was different, heightened, almost radioactive in a way. It poured into the Mortal lands, and killed thousands of humans - but also changed some of them.

The atmosphere of Igritann, was said to be able to ignite your soul. It's common knowledge that the soul is a force of pure energy and power; it gives your body life and also makes you who you are, but it also has the possibility of giving you something else. Once a human soul was ignited by the atmosphere, two things could happen. The first, which happened most frequently because their souls were weak, was that you die; because your soul burns out at the extreme surge of energy. Or, you could be reborn and become a Nuanam. A Nuanam, was the term used for a newly ignited soul, a soul that was previously human, but was now just a lower species of Ardanam. You were gifted with the same supernatural speed, strength and endurance that an Ardanam had; only you don't have a soulborn power, nor did you have the gift of immortality.

Nuanam were looked down upon and considered inferior, and we're mainly given the lower ranking job in the Ardanam society.

It was uncommon for even an Ardanam to possess a Soulborn power, which was a power that complimented and mirrored your soul and personality. It could be anything from mind-reading, to invisibility, flight, darkness, shapeshifting. The possibilities were endless.

Unsurprisingly some people possessed the same Soulborn powers, as they had similar personalities; and not only that, but depending on how strong an individual you were - your Soulborn power would reflect that. Those Ardanam who were gifted with a Soulborn power, most frequently were given the most high ranking and rewarding positions. For instance, it was an Igritann law that an Ardanam Lord or an Alpha must possess and prove himself by using his Soulborn power in a tournament before he can earn his title.

On top of all that, as an Ardanam, one of the most important times in your life - aside from discovering your Soulborn power - was to find your mate.

Your soulmate and life-long partner, who would ultimately make you and your power stronger. It was so important in fact, that it was strange to find an Ardanam Lord or warrior without one, as strength and power was an important factor in their survival. Some warriors even trained their mates, so that they would both be empowered on the battlefield as they fought side by side. This was why the casualties of the humans were so great that they had begged and pleaded for an end to the fighting.

Eventually settling on the treaty that Mortal lands must send a sacrifice every year and this would make them not to invade their land ever again.

That treaty was made over 500 years ago. But it hadn't failed the Mortal lands yet, and so the tradition went on, regardless if the Ardanam Lordship had changed in that time.

Sephora was lucky no one in her family had been chosen. she didn't know what she'd do if her little brother was selected as The Chosen.

Zach was only 5 years old. Not to mention, herself being so lucky having survived this long to the age of 19. She had already experienced the trauma of being forced to watch some of her friends being The Chosen, from a young age. She had very few friends left.

She kicked the loose stones under her feet as she walked up the gravel path to her house. It was a quaint little house from the outside; what used to be cream painted walls, was now more like a muddy beige after all the years it had stood here. The oak door had aged well, just as oak should, and was a gorgeous dark brown, with an adorable bronze knocker in the centre. Sephora easily pushed the old door open and closed it behind her, hanging up her shoulder bag on the coat-hooks to her left.

"I got them!" She announced. Her call made its way into the kitchen, where another voice warmly replied, "Great timing! I've just put the base in the oven!" they yelled.

Sephora smiled and followed the stream of sunshine bleeding down the hallway, from the kitchen. She breezed through the door, to be greeted by the beaming face of her mother, her blue eyes glowing in the sun Ray's. Sephora tried to surpress her laugh as she took in the scene before her.

The smile suddenly melted off her mother's face and became somber. Sephora tried to squash the guilt tugging in her gut, at the sight of it. Wishing they hadn't accidently fallen onto the subject of The Choosing.

Sephora sighed, "Today will be fine. We've lasted this long."

But Sephora's mother didn't turn from the sink, her head dipping lower as she simply nodded and continued to wash the apples. Again that guilt rose up to meet Sephora. She didn't know the right words to comfort her mother. if anything there weren't any, it was out of her control. But there were other ways to comfort her.

Sephora silently left her mother in the kitchen and made her way upstairs, heading for her parent's bedroom in search of her father. She had a strange relationship with her father, as in she knew he loved her, because that's what parents were expected to do, but with him it felt more like an obligation.

Not that Sephora ever had time to care or really be bothered by it, her father spent so much time working that it was a surprise that they didn't regard each other as strangers.

Her father was a member of the Elders, not because they were old and wise, but simply because they were in charge of running the Mortal lands and keeping the peace. Needless to say, running an entire country can take up a lot of your time. But to say that her father didn't love Sephora's mother, would be a severe misjudgment.

They acted as though they were still a young couple, completely infatuated with one another, and completely at each other's mercy.

Sephora loved it, if only because she was grateful that her mother wouldn't ever be unhappy as long as her husband was at her side. At worst, Sephora could only be envious that she didn't have someone who would love her in the same way.

She found her father in his office, or is man-cave - as Sephora preferred to call it. He never seemed to emerge, and he did indeed look like a caveman on some days, when he indeed decided to show his face.

At the mention of her mother, Sephora's father looked up, an understanding flashed across his face. Sephora gave a grim smile. If there was anything her and her father had in common, it was their love for her mother. He got up without another word, Sephora opening the door wider for him to pass, he quickly made his way downstairs. She tried not to hear the sound of her mother crying, as her father murmured words of comfort to her. And tried not to think about what was going to happen in only a few hours…