A woman stood in front of hastily handmade graves that were placed near a ruin. She wore a silver ornate dress that touched the ground. Her hair was short much like a man's and had the color of her dress. Her eyes were also silver and so too were the uniforms of the people accompanying her. She stood at 170cm and her chest was nonexistent.

She stood like a goddess basking in the sun while she deprived the graves of light. She had found these graves while waiting for her helper to come back with news. Just as she was getting bored, she saw her helper running towards her with a satisfied smile.

Her helper wore an outfit that wouldn’t look too strange on a priest had it not been dyed silver. The hood was down so one could see his face. His hair was snow white and his eyes were red. He was deathly pale, so much so it hurt to look at him. The rest of them wore very similar outfits save for the helpers' unique red marks. He had five in total and each one looked like someone had dipped their finger in some blood and made tally marks.

The helper bowed and readied himself for his god's questioning.

“What did you find?”

An elegant voice leaked out of the woman’s mouth and vibrated through the servants’ ear. He felt so much happiness at that moment he almost forgot to answer.

“We found an assassin dead. No sign of the one who killed him.”

“Diener, read the book for me please.”

Diener elated that his god had just used please, frantically rummaged around his robes searching for the book. After feeling the binds, he pulled it out. The book was about the size of an Encyclopedia and weighed just as much. Inside were countless pages but none were filled. Every single page in that book was blank.

Diener flipped through the book found a good page and began to read. Words that weren’t there before started to appear in red. As he read more and more forbidden knowledge his head grew hotter, and his eyes heavier. Crimson flowed down his cheeks staining the page as he read more and more.

“That’s quite enough now.”

His god’s firm words stopped his eyes from reading anymore. He closed the book and awaited further instruction.

“What did you see?”

“One year and two months from now the sword saint will be in Priscillaca. She will be accompanied by four others and then they will die save for the one.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Is he the survivor?”

“Yes.”

A sinister smile crept onto her face and her loyal followers burst into tears at the momentous sight.

“Good work Diener. With that little business out of the way can we start the show?”

“Of course! Bring them out!”

Robed men carried four tied up local villagers and tossed them at the feet of Diener. There was one woman, one man, one boy, and one elderly woman. They started screaming for help but that didn’t do anything but make the god smile once more.

“I love humans. So cute, so sinful, so free. Please do the honors, Diener.”

Diener bowed and then threw a knife down at the feet of the tied-up man. He leaned forward and put his red-stained face directly in front of the man.

“We will usher you into true freedom. The freedom to choose your fate. I’m going to let you go, from there you have three choices. One, kill yourself with that knife. Two, kill that woman with the knife. Three, kill me with the knife.”

Diener removed the restraints on the man. The man picked up the knife and his hands trembled.

“Now choose your path. Choose your freedom.”

“Why? Why are you doing this?”

The albino priest tilted his head in genuine confusion.

“Why you say? Because I am free to do so and nothing more. Now choose”

The woman pleaded and pleaded but the man could no longer hear. All he could hear was his own heartbeat and the god's bated breaths. He screamed and the knife pierced through the woman’s skull and her cries were ceased. The man dropped down and let the knife go.

“Excellent! Excellent! That was freedom. Don’t you feel freer? Don’t you feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders? Everyone please can we give this brave man a show of respect!”

The hooded figures that surrounded the area like a sea of silver clapped their hands in unison while tears of joy left the face of Diener who had been greatly moved.

“Can…can I go now? I can go now right!?”

“Of course! Head on home to your family and let them know about the wonders of true freedom.”

The man bolted and the silver sea parted for him. He ran and ran until he was out of sight. The man would never tell anyone of what had happened there for as long as he lived.

Diener took the knife and wiped it off on the woman’s clothes then gave it to the elderly woman.

“Choose your freedom.”

“Hmph, an easy choice.”

The woman stabbed herself in the heart. The child cried and the onlookers watched with attentive eyes. As she lay on the ground bleeding out to the sounds of cries her kidnappers smiled. They smiled because this, this was freedom as well. The freedom to die. The freedom to kill. The freedom to live. The freedom to fight.

The god walked forward towards the boy who was still crying.

“Shhhhh, it’ll be all right. Let me make it better.”

Her hand touched the boy's head and his cries stopped. His breathing stopped, his heart stopped, his brain stopped. With her authority, all function in the boys’ body stopped at once. She turned around walked away from the blood pools. Diener followed on hand and foot.

“Was it to your liking my lady?”

“It was very nice Diener.”

She turned around and touched the face of Diener lovingly. She stroked his hair and wiped away some of the smears of blood. As she did this Diener felt like his heart would explode.

“Will you do something for me, Diener?”

He looked up to the face of his one true god and declared.

“Anything for you Lady Freiheit!”