Payden's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Payden swept the floor of the small concrete house she shared with her best friend, Athena, her eyes drifting to the window that faced the high castle walls. She had hunted the man behind those walls for most of her life. The king did not know her name. He had killed her parents like it was paperwork, and left a six-year-old alone to learn knives instead of letters. She kept sweeping. Athena hummed in the kitchen, unaware. Then the bells rang. A crier shouted the announcement again from the square: the Purging Trials needed the second person born with two powers. Payden's broom stopped. They were looking for her. She could refuse and be hunted, or step forward and walk straight through the gates she had never been able to cross. She set the broom against the wall. By dawn, she would sign her name.