"King Osip has passed." The voice comes and the priestess turns her head to the messenger that was sent to her. "Has he?" She asks, the sympathetic tone comes easily to her, though she feels no remorse in the stallion's passing. To her he is little more than a hurtful, evil creature that deserved no afterlife for the sins he'd committed and the lives he'd taken.

"Master Naum requests your presence immediately." The messenger girl continues on and this makes the priestess sigh with barely contained annoyance because she feels that the entire family were far too demanding. Every time they called for her they expect her to drop everything she is doing, whether it be tending to the sickly by giving them their last rites or praying for their healing or simply meditating she was to be at their beck and call.

"I will be there shortly." She says and turns her head away, clearly dismissing the young messenger. "But Master Naum..."

"I will be there shortly." The Priestess says once more and the messenger is baffled. "Master Naum will be most displeased!" She squeaks and Naja can hear that the young filly is scared to bring news that she will not be arriving right away. If there is anything at all that Naum is known for it is his temper.

"Tell Master Naum that I must complete my meditation, I will be down once I am finished." Her head turns once more and she looks at the young messenger, who nods her head. "Yes ma'am." She says and she turns and leaves. Naja listens to her hoofsteps fade as she walks down the long hallway and then all is quiet. The Priestess sighs and turns back to her window, at the land that stretches out endlessly.

It is several hours later when Naja descends from her room to the King's quarters where Naum is waiting for her outside the door, his anger barely contained as he looks at her. "So nice of you to finally arrive Priestess." He growls. Naja only smiles pleasantly at the seething heir and succeeds in making him angrier. "My meditation took longer than usual." The lie slips easily past her lips. Naum's eyes narrow but then he turns his head toward the door, taps a hoof against it and it swings open as the guards inside pull against it. 

There, in the middle of the room, lies the deceased king. In his age his body has withered, his once onyx face white and bearded, his eyes wide open and staring into nothingness. It matters not to the Priestess what has killed the King, it only matters that he is dead. Finally dead. Had he been a good King, fair and just, kind-hearted and warm her heart would weep for him. But he was filled with nothing but hate, selfishness, lust, and blood thirst. As her eyes sweep across the room she finds his soul leering at her, tucked away in a corner. It is just as black and wretched as she always anticipated.

"You see him." Naum says as he sees her eyes change from their natural gold to a filmy white. This time she cannot lie. She nods her head as she continues to stare at the leering spirit. "I do." She says. "Good. You will pray for him and release his soul." Naum instructs. Naja looks away from Osip's spirit and to his heir and as she does so her eyes return to their normal color.

"I will not." She thinks but she does not know if she has the fortitude to force the words from her mouth.

"What are you waiting for?" Naum growls, his patience wearing thinner with each passing second that she stands there staring at him, but she barely hears him. She is remembering Osip in his younger days, with his raiders overtaking herd after herd. She remembers when he targeted her own herd, remembers how he mercilessly slaughtered her family and friends one after another, how he only spared her and two other fillies.

She remembers her teachings when she is forced into the lifestyle of a priestess. "Only those who are prayed over by a priestess will be released from this life. Some unfortunate souls do not have this privilege and become confined here, unable to ascend to the afterlife, and so they remain trapped here for eternity."

She remembers her vowed revenge as she thinks of her family and friends, slaughtered and left to rot, their souls left to wander endlessly.

"No." She says and Naum turns on her, unable to believe that she told him no. He glares, he slams a hoof into the floor as he tries to intimidate her. "WHAT?!" He bellows, but Naja does not move, she simply stares.

"I said no." She repeats and it makes her almost giddy to deny the King his ascension.

"You will." Naum hisses.

"The only prayer you father will get from me is that his soul be cast into the deepest, darkest, hottest pit of hell." She says evenly.

"You bitch!" Naum shouts at her, he lunges and shoves her back and as he does so the guards spring into action and move to each side of her, each of them grabbing a delicate wing in their jaws. "Take her to the dungeon!" He shouts angrily. "Shackle her, lock her away until death takes her and let her soul rot."

Naja remains silent as Naum passes quick and harsh judgement on her, and she remains silent as she walks with the guards to the dungeon. She does not protest as she is shackled to the floor, nor when the wizard comes with his cloth and blindfolds her, curses it and tells her that if she removes it her eyesight will be lost forever. She finds it curious that Naum would have this done when he intends to keep her there until her death, but she doesn't question it.

She simply stands.

She waits.

She has faith

---

Her head lifts when she hears the screams from above and she wonders if the gods she'd prayed silently to for rescue have heeded her. She hears the guards shuffle uneasily, listens the heavy hoofsteps as someone descends to the dungeon. One of her guards shouts, the screams from above continue and then is accompanied by the screeching of metal twisting as her cell door is torn from its hinges.

Naja waits expectantly, assuming that there will be another battle waged right there before her as there is in the world above, but it is surprisingly quick. There is little more than shouts and those fall silent rather quickly. The shouts inside fall silent and the shouts outside follow suit. It is deafening after so much racket. It is the silence that comes with death. She can feel his presence looming over her as he enters her cell, hears the pops as her shackles are broken. He tells her to go with him but she remains still, her blindfolded face turned toward the voice. "Who are you?"

"."

To the ends of the earth would you follow me?
There's a world that was meant for our eyes to see