A Sinner's Eden

***Tirnanog, Thich***

***Evanne***

The priest stood on a podium, surrounded by several strong-looking warriors in full ceremonial armour. I was sure just a single one of them could have easily beaten all of the assembled congregation. Our former teachers stood to the side of the great hall, lined up like soldiers as they watched the ceremony with dead eyes.

“All humans are not created equal!” the priest announced with utter conviction in his voice, hushing the few whispers coming from the people around me.

His icy gaze wandered over the crowd, sending a chill down my spine and forcing me to lower my eyes in fear, afraid he would send his guards after me if he sensed so much as a shred of defiance. It wouldn’t be the first time for a hapless recruit to be punished for daringly holding eye contact with a superior.

“The weak have deceived you!” the priest continued after his ominous pause. “In the olden days, the settlers would say that the meek shall inherit the world. That the strong should protect those who cannot defend themselves. To stand together and face Tirnanog’s dangers united.”

A murmur ran through the crowd and someone screamed in pain when a guard at the edge of the congregation took measures to silence the unrest.

“And it is all a lie!” The priest thundered over the masses, hammering his staff into the pedestal beneath him and silencing each and every one of us.

“It was all a cancer of the mind, poisoning our ancestors!” He spread his arms and raised his ornamental staff, indicating everyone in the hall. “If those who had been left behind by Earth hadn’t fought for their survival, none of us would be here right now! If they hadn’t stamped out the weakness within themselves, the monsters beyond the walls would roam this place! Our forerunners managed to rid themselves of societal weakness formed over centuries of growing soft as those who deserved so much more dragged the rest of humanity’s undeserving scum with them out of the dark ages into a new era. We, the Thich, are the new pinnacle of evolution! Strength, speed, our minds and our abilities, are far beyond those beneath us! We learned that the strong must look out for themselves! Only then can we survive! And you, you are the inheritors of this legacy which our ancestors left behind.”

He paused once more, his single, remaining eye wandering over the congregation. The other was overgrown by a scar so deep that even a starfish mutation apparently couldn’t fix the damage completely. It made his slightly crazed gaze all the more imposing.

“Those who are too weak to live must perish for the sake of the strong so those who are deserving can become even stronger and flourish! Power must be exercised and claimed. Wealth is taken from those who cannot keep it! Your position in society is purchased with your sweat and blood! And that is why you unblooded children deserve nothing!”

His eyes narrowed as if in contemplation. “Not yet at least.”

The priest once more scanned the crowd before he continued, “You have no clue what your ancestors had to sacrifice to allow you to stand in this place here and now, but soon you will get at least a taste of it.”

He looked around, smiling dangerously. “Only those capable of claiming power and rising above the rest will survive! To slay those who yet cling to the feebleness of a society too weak to survive this world. For the weak must serve the strong who rule.”

The priest gestured at the sandy fighting pit in front of his podium. “So come forth if you think yourselves worthy of being more than a mere servant! Demonstrate your right to command your lessers, or stay silent forever more and accept your rightful place.”

I clenched my fists and eyed the fearful expressions of those around me. If I wanted to survive in this world, I had to become stronger. Especially after Ivonne had disappeared, I was now the only person I could rely on.

Seeing this as the only way, I took a step forward.