Chapter 1

Our village lay deep within the mountains, hidden away from the outside world, where ruby mines ran through the earth.

There was an old legend that said if one could craft an entire bed from ruby and sleep on it long enough, it would grant eternal youth.

Ruby was rare and even harder to mine, but that was exactly why our village was so prosperous.

Yet, for all our wealth, our village was a strange place. There were no men here, only women.

I had two older sisters, but I should have had three older brothers as well. They were all drowned at birth.

I witnessed the execution of a male infant once. The boy had just been born when they covered his mouth, not allowing even a single cry to escape.

"Men are born wicked. If their cries anger the mountain spirit, our clan will be destroyed!"

They carried him to the deep pool at the back of the mountain and tossed him in. The baby struggled for only a moment before sinking beneath the surface with a faint gurgle.

I crept behind them and peered into the water. The pool was vast, filled with skulls that had been floating there for years. Some were so old they were little more than hollow, insect-eaten fragments.

Grandma was the village chief, ruling over everything without challenge. No one dared to defy her.

My eldest sister, Lily, was about to turn 18. Soon, it would be time for her coming-of-age ceremony.

However, Grandma, who had always doted on her, had forbidden her from attending. When my sister tried to protest, she was struck across the face.

"Enough! I said you're not going, and that's final."

Even though Grandma was 99 years old, her strength had not left her. Lily's cheek swelled almost immediately.

Seeing her beloved granddaughter's tears, Grandma let out a sigh. She stroked Lily's cheek tenderly and said in a soft voice, "It's for your own good. Once you've gone through the ceremony, you won't be able to become the chief."

Lily's eyes lit up. "You want me to become the next chief?"

Grandma smiled but said nothing. Her withered fingers traced Lilly's pale arm, and her usually cloudy eyes gleamed with a sharp, knowing light.

The young women of the village, all dressed in their finest robes, lined up to enter the ancestral hall. One by one, they came out with flushed faces and wore shy smiles. Some could barely walk straight, their legs pressed tightly together as they stumbled out.

Lily grabbed one of the girls who had just stepped out and asked what the ceremony was about.

Why did they all come out with expressions that showed both pain and joy?

With a warm blush on her face, the girl's voice trembled with an uncharacteristic sensuality. She opened her mouth as though to tell Lily, then stopped herself after recalling something. A mysterious smile crept across her face. "Oh, it's nothing. Just a little pleasure, that's all."

…

Lily woke me up in the middle of the night to keep watch while she sneaked into the ancestral hall to find out what was going on.

"But Grandma said if you want to be the chief, you can't go through the ceremony," I reminded her.

Lily's grip tightened on my wrist. "This stays between us. If Grandma finds out, I'll know you snitched. Why shouldn't I be allowed to attend? Grandma just doesn't want me to experience any fun."

Her eyes sparkled, full of anticipation. It was like she already knew what secrets the ancestral hall held.

The night was eerily silent, and the dim candle light flickered through the cracks of the hall's door, the flames dancing in the wind.

I hid in the shadows, swatting at mosquitoes. The sharp slaps echoed in the stillness.

Huh? Something was not right. Noises seemed to be coming from inside the hall. I heard soft sobbing too. It was Lily.

"Lily! Are you okay?"

I thought something had happened to her, so I pushed the door to go in, only to find that she had locked it from the inside.

"I-I'm fine…"

Her voice dragged with a strange, teasing rhythm. It was softer than the hum of cicadas on a summer night.

The noises inside grew louder, and I could not shake the feeling something was wrong. I climbed up to a window to make sure she was safe.

The window was too high. I could not see much of the room even if I stood on my tiptoes.

Still, I could make out there were four thick iron chains tied to the pillars, rattling violently as though something was straining against them.

I could see Lily sitting there in only her fitted undergarments. Her smooth back arched and undulated sensually, rising and falling in a steady rhythm.