1 Chapter 01: Suffering Soul

"I BELIEVE to immaculate hearts that reside in every soul - sentient or not."

Pisces Code - 1:1

Under a moonlit night glittered with a stark of red stars, a delicate young lady was standing still in a garden behind her home. Her perfectly aligned eyebrows over her twinkling eyes with deep dark irides that made anyone who looked directly at her eyes enticed by an abyss of wondrous things, her pointed nose over her thin lips were perfect features that seemed sculpture by the finest artist of the world. She was admiring the silent night over her deep black irides, disregarding the sweet cold winds that caressed her bare shoulders that can be compared to porcelain - unscratched. The winds caused her purple gown to rustle as her velvety black straight hair, adorned by intricate headdress, swayed.

Her taciturn personal maid behind her was beaming in glee for a definite reason she'd been waiting to happen for their young lady.

The young lady broke the silence with her blissful words, "I can't wait for tomorrow Salis. I wonder what the prince is doing right now." She eyed the golden wedding ring on her ring finger as it glinted through the moonlit.

Salis coughed, indicating that she didn't have the answer.

The young lady abruptly turned around, making up her mind to sleep as she needed the strength for tomorrow. Suddenly, she felt coldness sipped through her skin, the scene shattered like a frail glass and her body slumped on the ground.

"No…" she murmured under her breath, stretching her hands to grasp the scene as she shivered, but eyes betrayed that wondrous dream when she opened it. Damped broken cages with scents of rotten animals greeted her senses as the wooden plank she was laying was wet and filthy even ruining her already ragged purple gown. Rushing waters from atop leaked just behind her but she disregarded it. She could hear a faint music of raindrops above her landing on the deck. An irony for she was wet but she was thirsty.

Her face sting from the bruises she got from those who captured her. She didn't know how many days it had been and all she knew was that they had been sailing for too long. She tightened her embrace to herself with her wounded hands that began to rot.

'Why?' tears begin to flow. She closed her eyes to stop it but it streamed more than she wanted. Her stomach rumbled but she shoved it aside knowing she wouldn't be able to eat anyway. She rolled over the plank feeling and thinking nothing, just letting her tears dry.

A moment later, a man with a frayed-eye patch on his left arm came, banging the door she was locked in. His brawny physique hauled her easily outside where his other companions were waiting seemingly agitating for a show to behold. She was hurled in the middle of the crowd - all men and robust in build - as they were talking about something she couldn't understand with an accent unfamiliar to her.

She doesn't want to listen to their irritating laughter and tone akin to human speech whilst gurgling water. The rain washed her up and the stingy smell of the men which were favorable to her sensitive smell. They looked rag and broke with their tattered clothing and dirty nails but for unknown reasons, they hadn't robbed her.

'Mother, father, Salis,' her heart was throbbing in pain but her eyes failed to show it as her tears were already dry.

A middle-aged man strode down from the poop deck with his heavy feet thumping the wooden plank of the ship they were sailing. He bent his body, extended his arm and snatched her hair hard enough that she was forced to stand up and hold his wrist to lessen the pain on her scalp. She silently growled whilst biting her lower lip.

The man began to speak in a tongue she understood, probably, the only man who could talk like that, "You are such an expensive ware. What a pity that our boss' order is definite."

She squeezed words from her dry throat, "Who ordered you?" She knew she wouldn't be able to avenge herself, but somehow, deep inside her, she wanted to know who might be the person she offended the most. She had lived low and kind as far as she knew, so nothing came to her mind. She wanted to know where she went wrong.

The man rolled his eyes over his men, a clear gesture that he didn't want to answer her. He walked next to the rear of the ship hauling her with her hairs. Even weak, she tried to struggle with her frail body up to the maximum strength she could pull but it was just for naught. He shoved her just a foot away from the edge of the rear feinting to let her fall.

"SAH! SAH!" His men hailed him for such action with eyes fixated on them waiting for more show.

The man brought his lips near to her ears, "Heard that?"

"I'm not deaf!" she growled. She hadn't received any answer, so better be a gall and die with pride than beg for a thing she couldn't change at all. "You reveal such pitiful bullying? What a coward you all are."

The man chuckled but she couldn't tell if it was his displeased reaction for her pedantic reply or found it amusing that she can refute in the midst of her suffering and the sure end she will meet sooner.

The man pushed her a little towards the edge of the rear that only her toes and the grasped hairs supported her balance. He raised his other hand as if embracing the intensified cheers of his people.

The gigantic waves of the ocean hit the ship hull violently that almost cost her to slip. She looked down and saw the deep black water rushing like crazy and hitting the hull. Her eyes were drawn to it as if it was attracting her to rush towards it and vanish in front of those men but her hands betrayed her as it grabbed the man's wrist tightly that she unconsciously dug her nails on his skin causing blood to flow.

The man seemed pleased with that as he smirked, "Afraid? That's good!"

His eyes met hers and she knew that any moment from then, he would let her drown. Grabbing the last opportunity to spit out what she wanted to speak, she parted her lips that sting from the wounds at the both sides. "In the name of the 12 Almighties, I swear that your comeuppance will knock on your door. You think you're impassible? I will tell you now, you are nothing and always nothing in front of THEM."

"Your didactic lecture is not needed here, your highness." there was no hint of obeisance to his tone at all. Just as his last word fell, he let go off his hand causing her to lose balance. Her nails screeched through his flesh but it wasn't enough to avoid the fall.

Swoosh!

Her figure was eaten by the water as the waves continued to hit the hull. The man gazed under and saw only the seemingly endless pit of the water as the rain poured around them. His men were cheering for something they believed to be a success.

After seconds of enjoying the view below, he waved his hands indicating his men to go back to work.

Under the water, she was like a jelly being mercilessly pummeled by the force of waters here and there. Her hands and feet weren't tied, but bruised and broken they were, making it hard to believe that she could swim her way out of the hellish waves.

She was slowly losing her breath but didn't do anything to struggle against nature. It was impossible and useless. Instead, she adored the view above, listening to the music of the deadly waves on her ears. Behind her, a ball of violet light seemed swimming towards her. She hadn't realized it even after she blew her last breath depriving her from sensing anything.

Unknown to her, the ball of light coated her body, healing her as it pulled her deeper below until she lay on the ocean bed, ocean's faunas in different sizes gathered hovering around her body, guarding the most precious being on the ocean.

Hours had passed but the body didn't show a hint of being awake even after the wounds were all sealed and healed.

When the ocean calmed down, the eyes opened revealing a purple hue but lifeless as if the body was a puppet that only moves through invisible strings. The body stood up defying the gravity and force of the water as if she wasn't underneath the ocean. She pushed her palm over the water, closed her eyes and let its coldness slip through her skin. She dived into meditation and found herself swimming into a memory of someone else.

Minutes later, she opened her eyes again with clarity. The eyes scanned the body searching for any fault but found none. The violet glow all over the body did subside as she swam above looking for a shore and the faunas flitted sensing her leaving the haven.