Seven
“Miss, you must eat.” A young serving girl said.
“No. Go away.” She rumbled her grey eyes cold as steel.
“Please, you will become ill if you don’t keep your strength up by eating.” She argued.
Irisi fixed her with a furious glare, sending the girl skittering away in fright. She settled against the bed again, irritable and full of wrathful indignation. Her dark fury grew with each day that her mother did not come to get her. She had tried to leave, and was refused, halted by the high priestess herself.
“It is your mother’s wish that you enter temple service.” A calm voice said above her.
“Is it not true that service to the temple should be voluntary and not forced?” she retorted.
“Normally that would be true, but I have been instructed by a higher power to train you in our ways.” She said sitting down on the bed.
She stood and turned to face her, “But I don’t want to! I know what I want from life, and it is not temple service. No offence to you or anyone else. But I know what I could expect from my life. Now I don’t! I just want things to go back to the way they were! I want out! I haven’t seen any of my friends since the day before arriving here. My mother tricked me! She only did it so she could have things her way instead of allowing me to have some happiness.” She told her, tears brimming in her eyes.
The high priestess looked at the young woman before her, and her heart softened, “My child, you have led a rough life. The loss of your father was a slap that you never truly recovered from. You were forced to live with a mother who hated everything about you. And now you find yourself in a place you know little about, with only the desire to return to your life as it was only days ago. But where would you go? Your mother has abandoned you, she has trifled with the pharaoh’s plans, and he will not let that go unpunished.” She said, “I will do something for you. I am going to the palace today, if you promise to eat everything put in front of you at every meal today, I will let your loved ones know where you are and what happened to put you in this situation.”
She sat down, her face a mask of worry. She could not afford to not have those who cared about her know where she was. “You’ve got a deal.” She agreed stiffly.
“Very well, I will let them know today.” She said.
Irisi said nothing more as she left and the serving girl brought her plate of food in for her.
