Unfortunately for Nina, the closest temple was not, well, close. The two monks carrying her quickly distanced the pair that escorted the two stumbling men whose brawl had started all of this but it still took them the better part of an hour to reach the temple of the Virtues.

Although she'd grown numb to the pain while laying unmoving on the ground, it had come back with a vengance when they'd started moving her about. She would have been piercing their ears with shrieks of pain had her voice not been almost completely extinguished. As it was, she could only emit feeble rasps of pain every time they jostled her about with every slight disruption to the pace of one or both of them. Noises that they blatantly ignored except for one that was louder than the others when one of them stumbled over an uneven stone and let go of her to catch himself. A swear and a glare were all the reaction she earned.

When finally they arrived at the temple she weakly raised her head, bringing her gaze up from the monotony of the paved street to stare at the structure before they carried her in to 'repent' from her 'chaotic actions'. It was a tall building of immaculate white stone. Very wide at the base it narrowed as it rose, plateauing every few meters to create a floor. It was crowned by a multitude of tall columns that supported a triangular roof under which Nina knew you would find the Virtues likeness. Golden statues under the gaze of which the temple's high priest would conduct the most important rituals of the faith.

A stairway carved into the building rose to reach the sanctum, parting in the middle to give way to an opening in each floor. Two monks that were coming out of the entrance of the bottom floor nodded to the ones carrying Nina as they started ascending the stairs. She gasped with every step but fortunately there was only a few of them as they entered the corridor that led into the second floor.

Nina had to squint her eyes as the bright light of the afternoon gave way to the dimly lit interior of the temple. She was carried through a small chamber into a large room. More long than it was wide, the room was lined on each side by braseros that gave the place a solemn atmosphere. Towards the end of the room three statues, one against the back wall and two on the sides, surrounded an altar a dozen meters wide, at the end of which sat a massively wide iron bowl suspended by thick chains over a fire.

A priestess stood in front of the bowl, currently in the process of laying her hands upon a kneeling man's face. As the two monks carrying her drew closer, she noticed a few people observing the scene at the foot of the chest-high platform. The priestess's voice resonated throughout the room drowning out the low crackling of fire and the shuffling of feet that had been the only thing disturbing the otherwise silent room.

"Joram the enchanter, your patron's offering has been found adequate and his plea shall be answered. By the grace of the virtues you are given worth, by this worth you are made individual. Rise, slave and take your master's name." The monks stopped a few meters away from the altar, waiting respectfully so as not to disturb the sacred ceremony. Not having much else to do, Nina raised her head to gaze at the scene. The priestess had removed her hands from the mans face and seemed to be looking at him expectantly as he rose to his feet, though it was hard to tell in the dim lighting of the room.

"I Joram Quell, swear eternal service to the house of Quell and to be equal to the worth given to me this day until the end of my life." As the man pronounced the words the priestess turned and plunged her hands into the iron bowl, pulling out a mask-shaped lump of red hot metal. Protective runes were now brightly glowing from what Nina thought to be gloves as she brought the heated object in front of the man's face.

He flinched at the sight but steeled himself as she pressed it against his face with one hand while holding the back of his head to keep him steady with the other. A sizzle was briefly heard before a loud growl of abject pain completely overpowered it echoing between the walls of the spacious chamber, making Nina flinch in empathy. The growl turned into a wimper as the mask quickly cooled and the priestess removed it from his face, carefully lowering it back into the iron bowl.

"You may proudly bear your master's mark upon your skin, for you are worthless no longer." She took a step back and he bowed to her before walking towards a small flight of stairs to the side of the patform. With the ceremony over, the two men carrying Nina approached, walking around the altar towards a door-shaped opening in the back wall that Nina hadn't noticed.

As they passed the altar, the newly annointed slave came down a set of stairs and a man hurried to his side before embracing him in a worried hug. The slave hesitated for a few seconds before reciprocating with clear affection. The mark on his face looked nothing like the grievous burn it should have been, instead presenting itself as a face-wide tatoo of intricate shape and colours that represented the entity he'd sworn himself too. It gave off a light glow that was quickly fading as the magic ran its course.

A few people, who had probably been respectfully waiting for the ceremony to end as well, came out of the doorway. Most of them clutching different parts of their bodies in obvious pain. They went through after letting them past and arrived into a long and wide corridor. The right wall was lined with doorways, each obscured by a thick red curtain and flanked by two small braseros hanging from the wall. The left wall was naked except for a single much larger doorway in its middle and a monk who sat behind a flat desk of white stone right next to the entrance they'd just gone through. Her carriers stopped in front of their desk as the monk tilted their head, seemingly intrigued by the situation.

"Why the princess treatment? What's the girl in for?" Yup, definitely intrigued judging by the tone of her voice.

"Theft, her leg was broken in the process of arresting her."

"I see..." Was it just Nina's imagination or was there a hint of judgement behind the caustic scepticism of the feminine voice? The awkward pause extended for a few seconds before the female monk talked again. "Third room then."

"Thanks, may the Virtue ward you from chaos sister." The man sounded very uncomfortable.

"You too brother." Nina hadn't known you could put that much spite and disdain into such a cordial sentence. The woman had practically spat the words out. It warmed her heart for an instant before she was carried away and the sudden movement drew a small pained whine out of her.

She was brought into one of the rooms. It was a fairly small space where a woman, marked as a priestess of Order by the fact that she wore no mask but instead bore a tatoo of a puma's head on her face. Monks were slaves to the Virtue they'd sworn to as well but only priests and priestesses were allowed to show the naked mark of their allegiance.

She was tending to a smaller version of the massive iron bowl that had been on the altar of the main chamber and turned her head to the side to face them. Her brow raised as she assessed the three people and she frowned as her gaze stopped on Nina's leg.

"What is this child's sin brothers?"

"Theft, priestess." One of the monks answered, bowing his head as he did.

"Hands then, bring her above the bowl."

The two brought her closer and with them holding her to shoulder height Nina could see the inside of the heated bowl. Hand sized pieces of charcoal were piled inside, glowing with a threatening red that got brighter as the pieces were closer to the center of the bowl. Being held just above the edge of it, Nina was a hit with a wave of searing heat that washed over her and with it she finally felt afraid.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The pain of her broken leg had kept her mind off of it but now that she was so close the realisation finally dawned upon her. She was about to have her hands burned. They were going to plunge her hands into this mound of burning charcoal. She started sweating profusely and hyperventilating as visions of her hands blackened and falling apart started popping up in her mind. As panic started taking hold of her, the priestess grabbed her hand in a gentle grip.

"It's alright child do not worry, you have done something that is very bad but the Virtue is very kind. I have no doubt that She will forgive your transgression." The woman's voice was a gentle, any hint of the strict tone she'd used with the monks completely gone. She grabbed a single coal from the edge of the bowl with her enchanted gloves while she stroked Nina's shaking hands with the other.

"You just need to be brave for a tiny little bit, just a few seconds alright? You are going to hold this in your hands and I will ask you a question. You can't let go until you have answered the question, do you understand?" Nina nodded, her shaking and panic subdued. Her heart was still beating impossibly fast and her stomach was still doing loops and knots inside her belly but she felt a bit more ready. If it was only a single one of the things then maybe it wouldn't be so bad right? This one had been taken from the side and it was barely glowing red. It probably wasn't even hot.

The priestess raised the piece of coal and told her to grab it with both hands on the count of three. Nina nodded again and the two monks wordlessly shifted their grips so that she could bring her hands together. On three she clasped her hands together on the piece and the priestess instantly clasped her gloved hands over Nina's.

Immediately Nina realised one thing: it wasn't hot, it was unbearably hot. Her flesh sizzled as the coal seared her skin and she immediately tried to let go of it. To no avail, the hands of the priestess held hers firmly in place and no matter how hard she tried to pull her hands apart she couldn't even get the adult's grip to loosen slightly. She barely registered the priestess as she started to intone a religious litany about sin, chaos and the Virtue's forgiveness.

Nina couldn't give two shits about any of it as what had began as a incredibly painful stinging became an unbearably painful stinging and she lost her mind. Her earlier panic returned turned up to an eleven and she tried over and over to get out of the hold the three adults had over her. The pain in her leg that had been a constant since that thug monk had broken it was completely forgotten and her mind went blank. Her world shrunk, reduced only to the burning piece of coal and the scorching flesh of her palms. She started shouting, the pain in her throat having been reduced to nothingess by the overwhelming sensation of her flesh burning.

"AAAH! IT HURTS! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" Her voice sounded as though her vocal chords had been shredded with a razor's edge. The priestess seemed to be trying to ask her something but she couldn't hear, she could only feel her burning palms and desperately try to get away from the thing that was bringing her pain to ever higher heights.

The priestess was shouting at her now and the urgency in her voice pierced through the veil of pain that had fallen upon her senses.

"-PENT? CHILD, YOU MUST ANSWER! DO YOU REPENT?" There was a slight panicky tremble to her shouts and a pressing urgency to her voice. Nina answered her with a primal cry.

"YES! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP! I'M SORRY! I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN JUST MAKE IT STOP!" The woman instantly pulled her hands apart and the stinging dimmed. Nina's cries trailed into an incoherent drawl mixed with pained rasps and sobs.

"Then the Virtue forgives you child, you may bear your scars with pride for they are the mark of your atonement." She sighed in relief before she raised her gaze to the two monks. "Bring her to the clergy of Growth that they may heal her."

At that the monk holding Nina's right side up protested. "Heal her? Priestess she's a thief!" She glared at him and answered him in a scathing tone.

"She has borne the punishment for her sin and bears the mark of the Virtue's forgiveness on her very palms. She is a thief no longer brother. Or perhaps you mean to put Her judgement into question?"

"O-of course not priestess! W-we shall bring the child to the healing ward as swiftly as we can!" The man sounded mildly terrified as he and his companion turned her around, jostling Nina quite a bit. She had a vague notion that something should've hurt but she could only feel the unending sting of her burned hands. The two monks almost ran out the room but she didn't care. Tears were running down her cheeks, searing their way through the irritated canals of her tear ducts. She vaguely noticed the pair bringing her outside for a brief moment and before she knew it she'd been laid down on a rough bed in a small room and a gentle looking man was bent over her.

"By the Virtues mercy my poor child, whatever happened to you." She refused to answer, he seemed kind and had a gentle voice but so had the woman who'd kept her hands stuck to that searing piece of agony earlier. She'd almost forgotten, she was a worthless, she was alone and nobody was going to help her. The pain must have been altering her senses for her to have trusted anyone. She silently watched as the man dipped multiple lengths of bandages in a wooden bowl filled by a green liquid, refusing to answer.

"It's fine you don't need to tell me, I can guess given who brought you in. I know my brothers and sisters who've sworn themselves to Order can be... overzealous at times. Although it is rare that they go this far." It wasn't, Nina knew, they simply didn't carry people to the temple when they did. She knew the only reason she was here getting healed was that her particular case of overzealousness had happened in plain view of people who found it unpleasant and had the power to do something about it. If she'd gotten caught deep in the Districts she would be laying on the ground in some alleyway with both legs broken or worse instead of getting away with 'just' burned palms and a soon-to-be-healed broken leg.

It pissed her off that even one of her fellow monks was blind to it. He lived with those people, healed their victims every day. Did he really delude himself into thinking every single one of the people who came in with broken bones was an isolated case? She shrugged the thought off, its not like she could do anything about it anyways. She didn't even resent them, she knew she would do the same if she were in their shoes. They were like her, they understood the primal gratification of exercising ones power over others, of reminding them of their inferiority. After all, what was the point of having power if you didn't make full use of it?

No, she didn't resent them, not even the one who'd broken her leg. Oh sure he'd pay for that eventually if she ever found out who he was, she remembered his silhouette but it wasn't very distinctive. She'd have her revenge if she ever found herself in the position to get it but she couldn't find it in herself to hate him. No, the ones who really pissed her off, the ones who she was really starting to hate were the hypocrites.

"I'm going to put your leg back, it is going to hurt quite a bit but if I don't do it, your bone won't fix itself properly. Here, bite into this so you don't bite your tongue." He handed her a smooth piece of wood and despite her reluctance she took it and put it in her mouth.

"Ready?" She nodded and he put his hands on her leg, grabbing fimrly around her knee. "I'll do it on three: one, three!" He pulled and Nina shouted through the piece of wood in her mouth. Her teeth bit into it hard as intense pain exploded in her body for the third time in a single day. This time however it faded quickly and the intense stinging in her palms quickly took center stage of her sensations once more. she spat the piece of wood out as the man started collecting the bandages from the mixture before carefully wrapping them around her hurting knee. It gave Nina time to go back to her thoughts.

Yeah, hypocrites like this asshole who'd just fucked her over with his rigged counting, he probably liked to hurt people under the pretense of healing them. Or like that priestess who'd kept her hands clasped on that fucking piece of crystalised agony. People who abused their power like everyone else but had somehow deluded themselves into thinking that they were doing it for the good of those weaker than them. These fuckers seemed to think that because they did the same things but with a sad look on their face it somehow made them better people that the ones they condemned.

"The alchemical concoction should ease the pain while your bone fixes itself and the bandages will help hold your knee still so it doesn't fix itself wrong. I'll put a splint on it as well to make doubly sure." She groaned as the pain in her leg faded, though it mattered little given that her palms had been hurting a lot more than that for a while now. He fastened some pieces of wood around her leg with bandages, making sure it didn't have any give to it before he handed her a wooden crutch.

"You'll need that to walk around for a while, the bone will grow back over a couple of month and you'll need to keep the splint on until then. Try not to let your feet touch the ground, it will let you heal faster. Take the bandages off in one week, the alchemy will have done its job by then. Try to keep the splint on for three months just to be sure it heals properly. You can go." Wait, Nina thought, what? That's it?

"What about my hands?" He looked uncomfortable for a few seconds and took his time before answering.

"Well, they have to heal on their own. That's the only way to properly earn Order's forgiveness. To help them heal in any way would be blasphemous." He looked at her with a sad look in his eyes. Oh yeah, she thought, this guy definitely likes to watch people hurt. He just likes to do it when people can't hurt him back. She grit her teeth in anger, forcefully grabbed the crutch he'd been handing her and stood up on her own for the first time since her leg had been broken. She walked out of the small room with its help, wobbling for a few steps and holding back a whimper when the wrong feet accidentally touched the ground. The priest started to put away his medical equipment and as she pushed away the thick red linen obscuring the doorway he couldn't help himself and opened his stupid mouth again.

"May the Virtue ward you from Decay, child." She grit her teeth in suppressed anger before answering, mentally cursing herself to the Calamities for her weakness, her lack of power. She had never hit anyone in her life, but in this moment she wanted nothing more than to punch this hypocrite in the face. To punch him again and again until his stupid smile had become bloody and toothless. But she knew she couldn't, knew she was too weak to be able to do that with impunity. Not to mention that he could easily stop her. For now. So she did the only thing she could and simply answered him. Had her throat not been completely destroyed by her shouts earlier in the day she would have shouted but the only thing that came out of her mouth was raspy whisper.

"Fuck you."