The Order of the Radiant had a dirty secret hidden underneath their ivory white keep, beneath the catacombs of long-dead archbishops and paladins of ages past, there were training halls and barracks dedicated to the brutal conditioning of demon hunters known only as The Sisters of Scorn.
I was born to a family of serfs with already too many mouths to feed, scraping by a meager living as vassals working the rocky land belonging to the Count of Lorcaster. Winters in the north were harsh and food was scarce, forcing many families to make some difficult and often immoral choices. Unwanted children had only a few options available to them. Some were sold to the brothels in the city or simply left in the cold to die, while others were given over to the state to become foot soldiers for the kingdom. The Mages Guild paid gold for any children with powerful latent magic allowing some families to trade a gifted child for enough coin to stay fed. Female children with only a small amount of magical abilities like me faced a truly difficult path.
The Order took in "disposable" children and trained us to use the limited magic in our blood to summon and control demons, the price being a piece of our soul each time the dangerous blood magic was cast.
"With my blood, I bind those that crawl among the dead..." I whispered, fearful of what would happen. Fearful of the pain.
"Speak up, child! Only a firm voice will call a demon from the void," the cruel deacon hissed inches from my ear. Reverend Owen was in charge of determining if new girls brought by the Seekers were capable of bringing even the lowest nether creature into our plane of existence. The methods they used for the first summon included intimidation to full-on torture.
"With my blood, I bind those that crawl among the dead!!!" I screamed the phrase again as the deacon's henchman sliced my forearm with his blade, the red runnels of my blood dripped on the filthy floor.
This time the blood bubbled like a kettle of water over a roaring fire before a small impish creature pulled itself up through the rip in our reality.
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