When we arrive, the dining hall is already full with hundreds of staff arranged in rigid tiers. At the apex, the High Table glows under its spotlights. The Sovereigns’ throne-like chairs are empty, but I know they’ll come. My sadisticmasters wouldn’t miss this.
I descend to my usual table with Lira, aware of every eye following my movement. Rae is already at her table, a spectacular bruise darkening her grey cheek, and her nose is covered with a white gauze. She could have gone to the medical center; she’s choosing to make a show of this.
The Sovereigns enter soon after we sit. The hall rises in silence, every head bowed as Lorian begins the invocation.
“Goddesses who see all, judge us by our devotion. Strip away deceit, expose rebellion, and make pure again those who defile your order.”
His silver eyes lock on mine as he speaks the last words, and my heart begins to hammer.Is this the moment he calls me out for what we did earlier? The Eclipse Kiss?
Then Rafe adds,“The goddesses do not forgive easily. Nor do we.”
But the prayer ends, and the hall exhales as if released from a grip. Platters of food glide across the tiers, the meal beginning as if nothing has changed. I can’t touch the food placed before me. Instead, I drink the wine, telling myself it’s liquid courage even though I know it’s only medicinal desperation. Whatever waits for me tonight, it will not be merciful.
As the meal winds down, Rafe says, “Eve, Rae. Approach the High Table for punishment.”
The clatter of cutlery and conversation dies around me. Hundreds of eyes follow us as we climb the central steps, two condemned women ascending to judgment.
We kneel before the Sovereigns.
“Staff are forbidden from violence,” Rafe’s voice cuts through the hall. “Yet you disgraced yourselves in the canteen.”
“I was provoked, Sovereigns,” Rae says.
“Silence.” Rafe gestures to the guards, and the Collar of Contrition is locked around her throat. With one soft chime, she chokes mid-breath, clutching at it.
Then his gaze falls on me. “And you, Eve. You struck a fellow employee, breaking her bones. Do you deny this?”
“I do not, Sovereign,” I say, louder than I intended to.
“Do you repent?”
I feel every eye in the hall drilling into me. Rae’s green eyes shine with hatred beside me. But I will not take back what I said. Not to her or to anyone. “I regret nothing.”
The hall gasps.
“Then you will be made an example of.” Rafe nods to the Umbral Cohort.
Faceless, in black armor and red visors burning like predator’s eyes, they come for me. My arms are seized and yanked behind me. My wrists are bound with luminous restraints. Gloved fingers tear at my uniform, splitting the tunic down the front, fabric shrieking as it gives way. My trousers are wrenched from my hips and stripped to the floor. In seconds I’m naked, shackled, and trembling, my breasts bare and heaving, the damp heat of my sex exposed.
The Shroud of Shame is dropped over my shoulders, a translucent veil that magnifies me, displaying my naked human body to all.I should feel humiliated to be on display like the slaves in the lobby, but surprisingly I’m not.
“Confess,” Lorian commands.
“I struck Rae in the canteen,” I say shakily.
“And?”
I meet his eyes. “I do not repent, Sovereign.”
The shroud pulses violently, shocking me with a thousand needles of pain. My body convulses, breasts tightening under the translucent fabric. The hall watches me shake, whimper, and cry. Still, I don’t take it back. Rae deserved what she got.
“Do you repent, Eve?”
“I. Do. Not.”
“Public penance,” Rafe declares. “Until Eve learns humility.”
The Cohort drags me to the center of the floor, where a transparent cage descends from the Staff Dining Hall with a hiss. This must be the Scorn’s Cage.
