RITUAL

The room is poorly lit, the only light coming from a few braziers.

You're standing facing against he wall, head down, trembling. You're bare from the waist up, sensitive to the uneven temperature in the room: the coolness of the stone, the heat from the flames. You know what's coming. You're scared.

Hands grab you, force you into the center of the room, where a stone table waits. You're tied down and gagged, but not before you scream, "No! Stop! Stop!" Your pleas fall upon deaf ears. You're left to scream against the gag as the hot knife digs into your back.

Over and over again.

You're bleeding.

You're crying.

Everything hurts.

And after hours of horrific, agonizing pain - after they clean your bleeding back, wrap you up and send you off-- you're trying to find someone.

He's sitting in the dark. You're so angry. Enraged. There's still tears in your eyes.

"Rishid, who do I hate for this? Tell me."

Your anger is interrupted. You see that Rishid is bleeding, too.

"If I cannot take your pain, then at least allow me to swear allegiance to your family with this scar." He says.

You start to laugh. You're so mad. You're crying. And now you're laughing, too.

"Good, Rishid... I like it... 'cause even before I was born, you've always been my shadow! Kahahahaha!"

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