The Marking

Chapter One: Collection Day

I love my family, seriously, I really do. I've always been close to them. After all, family is forever, right? Well I seem to be forever stuck in this perpetual shithole soap opera that is my life. Everyone in my family is perfectly normal. My father and mother are both perfectly normal retired Tailsman, with perfect service records, and my brothers, Kelton and Kilner, and my eldest sister, Marina, were born into their perfectly respectable and normal footsteps. The marks on their arms prove that.

Both of my brothers carry the same mark, it's common for that to happen to twins. Four lines form a square with one line running straight through, corner to corner, signifying their service to the king, crown, and country. My two older brothers followed in my parents footsteps, planning to bring miraculous change to the kingdom. Five lines forever mark them as warriors for the state, heroes. They'll go to make history for our house, to be written in the castle's chronicles and their tales told as campfire stories in hundreds of years. This is their destiny, the glorious purpose they were burdened with as a madman would say.

My oldest sister was born a gente, a long vine that curls from the tip of her left ring finger to her shoulder. She moved to the castle the day she chose her path and became a lady in waiting to the queen. Now she runs through the castle in glittering dresses, attending to the queen's every whim and wanting for nothing. Marina visits as much as she can but because of her mark she'll never marry, never have kids, or a family of her own. The other ladies, her new sisters, are her only family.

I however fall under no such obligation to be a good person as the rest of my family. Three dots have sealed my fate, ruined any chance of a good future, and sold my soul to the apparent doom and destruction.

"Karina! If you don't hurry you will be late for your brother's ceremony!" My mother yells from the downstairs. I love my mother because I firmly believe she is the best mother in this galaxy. She defends me from my father who cannot, for the life of him, understand why his only daughter has those three damned dots on her arm.

"I'm coming mother!" I respond, streaming down the stairs. Speed and agility, two main gifts bestowed on me at my birth. Because someone obviously has to be able to outrun the hunters that will eventually be chasing them down.

"Hurry! Don't you want to see your brothers chose?"

"We both know they will stay with their markings." I say, walking into the kitchen. "It's not like they haven't dreamed about doing this for their entire life."

"I know but all three of my babies may be leaving me within the same month." She cries, pulling me into a hug. "I thought I would have at least another two, maybe three years, with you but it looks like I won't." Pulling away from her we both look down at my forearm. For years my marking has been faint and almost impossible to see but now it's as dark as it'll ever be.

"Don't worry Ma, I'll be home whenever I can! I'm sure you'll see me lots and lots! Just like Marina!" I reassured her, trying to cheer her up. I can't bear to see my mother upset. Sadly, I'm normally the one who makes her most upset.

"Oh Karina," She sighs. "We both know that won't happen. As much as I want to see you everyone knows the Acers never come home once they leave."

"I wish I was born different! Everyone else gets a choice! Why can't I?"

I guess I should explain the markings and their classes. Basically, everyone is born with a mark somewhere on their skin. This determines their fate when they turn seventeen, the legal age for a decider. Two vertical stripes down the wrist are the equalizers. They become the lawyers, judges, and protection for the smaller cities and towns. A ginkgo tree leaf represents the nurses, doctors, surgeons, and anyone who specializes in the field of healing. Tailsmen have a square with a line running through it. They work for the government and intelligence. They are the ones who lead armies and strategize the ways of winning a war. My father and mother both met through the program and ended up binding and having my brothers and I. That leads us to the warriors. A weird geometric shape of five lines marks them. They fight as the top-dogs in the armies and have the special job of guarding the royal palace.