Alice spent most of the day preparing fruits for the Wine of life. She was a part of a select group of people hand chosen from goddess Karma to cure illness and restore the injured to their original state. They were called Devinity. Everything was peaceful, humans living their full lengths of life without fear of passing before their time. However, the tyrant King Kareem found a way to convert their magic into a wine that extends a person's life. Once he completed his discovery it was the era of downfall for anyone born apart of the Devinity.  Her people were now prisoners to their gift, forced to create the wine for a wicked king and his chosen followers.

For years they have been captured and enslaved throwing off the balance of harmony and peace, any child born with purple eyes and white hair were stripped from their families and forced to live in the dome. Anyone who defied the ruler was to be imprisoned and later hung until dead before the world to see, unless they were killed by guards beforehand.

Alice spent her childhood in bliss, with her mother and father. She bared little resemblance to them sine they both had dark Hair and dark eyes, but she was still beyond loved by her parents and praised by the community. Her heart and mind could never forget the day she had been taken from it all, watching as everyone who protested and fought back were ruthlessly murdered. She was only 15 then. That was 5 years ago, and the memories showed up every night to haunt her, she found little peace in anything anymore with one exception. A guard who worked tirelessly to ensure the comfort of everyone there, Seth. He was the only light in a world of darkness she lived in. He would visit her at night when she was fighting off her nightmares and hold her to calm her. He would give her extra portions of food and make sure she had proper clothes. If anyone was struggling, she would let him know and he would help them out Aswell. He let her know from the beginning that he wasn't there to hurt anyone, and he didn't believe in any of this. He was there because he wanted to help and the only way he could was to play the part of a slaver, to successfully enter the dome and assist everyone from the inside.

The days that passed the closer they became; she allowed him into her heart completely giving him the most precious thing she had left. Her very own purity, and after some months passed, she realized she was to be a mother. She couldn't have been more thrilled, her heart full in a place of dread. She loved Seth and, in her heart, knew he would take care of her and their child. She just had to let him know.

One day while picking fruit she stumbled across something she had never seen in the dome. Poison mushrooms. So poisonous that just touching them could cause death. She kept them a secret from everyone. 

"What should I do?" she pondered playing scenarios in her head. If she poisoned the king and his select followers, would her people be liberated? She played it out over and over again pacing back in forth forgetting to pick the bush for berries.

When the night came Seth made his regular visit to her room.

He could tell Alice was nervous and was pushing to understand why.

He smiled warmly at her, his Brown hair curled in a messy way that always stole her breath. she reached out touching it calming her nerves.

"Alice," he hummed, "what is bothering you? you know I can tell when something is wrong."

She sighed knowing he she didn't require much push. She was not a liar and struggled keeping anything secret. It's been a week since she discovered her pregnancy and its time he knows.

She grabbed his hand placing it on her belly.

"I've missed my last 2 cycles. My belly is growing firm and pushing slightly out. Seth, you are to be a father."

he gasped pulling back surprised. shock covered her expression, and she looked into his eyes for an answer.

"But what if our child is one the select. What do we do?" He explained, while running his hand through his hair as she did to comfort himself.

She stayed silent for a long time contemplating what to say next.

"I understand the worry, Seth. This life of a prisoner is not what I want for my child. It's not a life anyone should have to live. But what if I had a solution? a way to free everyone from this pain?"

His silent frustration grew into intrigue. "How could that even be remotely possible?" 

Her mind and heart raced, and she felt ill at the thought of taking a life however if her child was born like her, they would be born a slave. She would free everyone if she did this and be able to live a life with the ones she loved.

Her decision was made. "I found something growing in the domes forest that had never even grew in this region. Pierce Mushrooms. If I put it in the Kings wine tomorrow night, he and everyone that drinks it will perish before they even know they've been poisoned.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Seth was rendered speechless. He touched her face gently and kissed her forehead. "I can see why you looked so pale now. To go completely against what you were created for is not something to take lightly. I'm glad you told me instead of holding it in." 

she relaxed into his arms. "I'm glad I told you Aswell. We will be a family, a correct family. I love you, Seth." she stared into his eyes needing his warmth to envelope her as it always has.

he pulled her into his lips slowly removing her clothes with the gentlest touch. "Not as much as I love you." 

The next day brought anxiety and hope. Hope was such a rare thing to have. Alice went out to forage with the rest of the women and carefully picked the group of mushrooms wrapping it delicately and hiding it. she spent the rest of the day doing basic chores and watching the lifeless faces of everyone around her. She had to free them. The Dome grew with more children outweighing the adults, and her heart broke to think of all the families that had been torn.

Eventually it was evening, she entered the kitchen with a few other select Devinity getting the preparations ready for blessing the wine. everyone had their task, one person the blessing the bowl, 3 to ladling the wine in the bowl, and the last person to sanitize the equipment with boiling water before and after the process. Alice volunteered to handle sanitation and secretively put the mushrooms in the boiling water. While everyone was busy doing their parts Alive slowly filled a bottle with the now poisonous water and waited patiently for the blessings to be completed.  Finally, everyone began to clear the room, signifying that the process has been completed, Alice straying behind the rest.  She walked to the bowl and hesitated before pouring the mixture into the bowl and asking Karma for forgiveness. As she mixed it together, she felt a hand touch her back. she tensed turning around and caught a glimpse of the person behind her. Her body relaxed when she saw Seths face.

But something about it was different, he looked tense, and empty. When she reached to touch his face, willing it to be calm. But once her fingertips fell onto the man that she loved, she felt a piercing pain enter her belly. Confused she looked down, and there resting on her abdomen was Seths hands, in them the knife he was gripping.

Her eyes filled with tears as confusion turned to despair and betrayal. Her baby, and her life was to be taken by the one person she thought she could trust. She felt a wave of dizziness hit her as he shoved her to the ground. grabbing the knife that laid to rest in her body she pulled it from her and slowly got up stumbling towards him. Her anger opened a pandoras box within and she launched forward with every intention of taking his life. she landed a strike on his cheek, but she knew it wasn't fatal. It would leave nothing more than a nasty scar.

"You're a traitorous bastard!" she coughed out. He just snicked while holding his cheek and backing away.

Before she could say or do anything else blood forced its way into her lungs, and she fell to the floor listening as the world before her began to fade. Her soul began to exit her body, and she could see herself laying on the ground, beside her soul a smaller one clung to her. They began to ascend together, her spirit weeping as it held tightly to her baby, however another force ripped it from her hands pulling it in one direction and her to a completely different one. She succumbed to her woe, everything was gone. She lost everything.

Now it was up to karma and Punishment to judge her Soul, sins, and decisions. She knew she would fail; that's why karma took her child's spirit and separated them because she wasn't fit to be around her baby in life or in death. She knew when she entered the afterlife it wasn't going to be good. What of the poison wine she created? How many lives would be stacked on her for Karma to judge. For punishment to deal.

As she feared, her soul entered the realm of damnation, she knew that she would never see her baby. It was decided that her soul was to be purged for eternity, and the only thing she had left was the hopes of seeing Seth and the Bastard king there too. She would be the first to welcome their souls as she spends eternity in pain and reflection dying in different ways. feeling her soul burn and freeze, while her own monsters tormented her.

She felt betrayed, by everyone including her own goddess. "What was the point?" she wondered as she sunk into her abyss of personal misery.

Karma the goddess of wisdom and judgment watched the years go by as the world she loved was in complete chaos and turmoil. "How did this become?", she wondered.

She cannot control the decisions these humans make; she can only create good outcomes with righteous decisions. Once someone chooses wrong the outcome it is out of her hands, falling into her brethren's Punishment. The humans have been sent astray, and even the ones with the biggest of hearts and conscious have been lost to punishment their souls stuck in the world of damnation. Shes losing many to punishment and it is causing her to fade further and further from the world. She felt that this land was no longer hers.

Punishment had a diabolical grin as he floated towards her. His dark hair flowing over his angelic features. She couldn't help but to roll her eyes.

"You had such high hopes for these humans. You even gave them the ability to live full healthy lives. I always told you the impure outweighs the pure."

She cut her eyes at him. "They just need a chance to right their wrongs. They will clean their own souls with the right guidance, and I know they will make the right choices." Hope shone through her eyes, causing Punishment to chuckle.

"If you truly believe that then let's, make a bet. I will give you five impure souls of your choice to do with as you wish, you get five souls to turn the tides of fate. If they cannot clean their souls and this mess created by humanity, then you fail, and I will be allowed to finally provide divine punishment to humanity purging it from the earth itself. Keeping them in the realm of damnation eternally."

Karma sucked in a breath "and if I win?" she said thoughtfully.

"If you win, I will no longer keeps souls for eternity. Their souls will stay mine until they are wiped clean of all malicious intent, and I will turn them back to you to reincarnate. However, your chosen Five must turn the tides in your favor and rescue the enslaved divinity by making only correct decisions. If one falls astray, and puts the decisions in my hands you lose."

Karma floated alongside him silently. Her glowing yellow skin illuminated even more by her glowing pink hair showed the annoyance in her features.  "How long do I have to choose the five saviors?"

His grin widened "I will give you a year to judge the impure souls, therefore you better choose wisely."

She sighed heavily and nodded. "You have a deal."