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Chapter One

Lenore

The Sacrifice was so behind closed doors

It was the phrase thrown at children to secure good behavior

Do your studies; You don't want to become The Sacrifice, do you?

Watch your tongue; I don't want you to be the next Sacrifice

Unfortunately for my mother—and, as it turned out, irl with far too many opinions, and far too few inhibitions I was always running when told to walk, singing when I was told to be silent, proud when I was told to be humble

See, The Sacrifice was both a verb and a noun

An action

And a person

In this generation, that person was me That action to be taken was my life would be handed over

There was nothing to be done

Nothing my mother could say

Nothing I could do to prevent it

The day began before dawn,open, a dozen sets of footsteps quietly filing in, trying not to wake ht before Which hen they'd told eneration's Sacrifice

I only got one night's notice because they didn't want to risk e was surrounded by guards to prevent any temptation to take my chances with the woods I had known as my home my entire life

Our little village was far away froly outside world, with its superficiality and cruelty

I would never see this village again

That was a thought that had plagued ht before as I walked numbly back to my room, dropped down on my bed

This place, these people, this way of life

It was all being taken away from me

I tried to block out the sounds ofin the other room

The only daughter of an only daughter of an only daughter, our faenerations While otherat their skirts, sitting at the tables learning the ems, my mother had only me

And now she was losing me

My heart ached for her

But it raced for myself

Because no one knehat happened to the Sacrifice once she was handed over Assumptions ran rampant, of course, as they would in any sirls invented tales to be told around a cahost stories