The Prophetess *COMPLETED*

Chapter 1

My mother Ainna was 15 years old when she got married to my father, Baron Ainsley. He was considered old, already 35, and my grandfather hesitated only momentarily in accepting his suit. My mother, blond and green eyed like a divine angel was not getting younger, and grandfather detested the young Smith she had fallen in love with. Most ladies of her age were already wedded and had a child, but he refused to give her to someone of inferior status like a lowly smithy. 

He had no hope of acquiring another match like my father's, or even one half as suitable, for they lived in the countryside and there were no more gentlemen of suitable station nearby. He knew the reputation of cruelty from the Baron, and he did not care. No matter how loving he thought he was to my mother, he loved fortune and titles better. My mother was given to the Baron. 

Their wedding was small, and my mother looked like an angel, or so they told me. She wore her knee length black curls were loose over her forest green wedding garment, and her throat was adorned with emeralds so pure they were a perfect match to her eyes. She looked fey in her beauty and my father preened like he was the proudest, most  beautiful rooster in the coop.

Her life, needless to say, was everything she hoped it would not be. On their wedding night, he forced himself upon her with no regards to her pure state and virginal fears, hurt her dreadfully and boasted about it to his men afterwards. He beat her constantly and amused himself in that fashion, marring her beauty with bruises and scars. Ainna, who was meant to be the lady of the house, was treated as nothing more than a slave on her own abode, albeit she only had one person to fear. 

Nine months to the wedding, I was born on a cold and unforgiving December day. Ainna Ainsley laboured for hours. The bedchamber was cold despite the several lit fireplaces around the bed and brasiers keeping water and rags warm, and all the woman in the keep despaired for her. The hours passed by slowly and my mother's pain continued unabated. Her body was too small, the birth channel too scarred, her strength too little, for everyone was weak from winter's cold. The midwife prayed for our safety and just when they thought all hope was lost, I was born. 

They say my mother, upon seeing me, smiled as no one had ever seen her smile before despite the exhaustion and ghostly paleness from blood loss. My father was called upon the bedchamber and upon seeing he had sired a woman beat my mother, almost costing her the life the women had worked so hard to preserve, and told her that she had failed him in the only task at which he needed her for. He wanted an heir, and instead had me, a useless daughter who would not inherit his estates.  

My mother was forbidden by the midwife from carrying another babe lest it cost her life, but my father was a ruthless man and he didn't love her. As soon as my mother was fertile again, he once again forced himself in her bed until she conceived, but it took many years until he got his wish. I was 5 years old at the time. 

From birth, my father despised me and ignored me. He acted like he did not see me, and I learned to get out of his way as much as possible. I was young, I did not understand why he hated me, but I was not blind to what happened around me. Every night I saw him enter my mother's bedchamber, she could barely move the next day, looking pale and in extreme pain. Later on I understood that he was a man who could not take his pleasure without harming the woman he used. His sadistic nature demanded the use of the whip, the knife, the cane, anything and everything that could cause pain. There was nobody to make him stop.

The servants loved my lady Ainna and therefore me, because she was kind and in her Lord's frequent absences let them fish on our river and hunt in our woods. They were aware that they should not breathe a word of it to my father though, for he would have them arrested and the servants beaten. Even with their little power, they protected me from my sire's wrath and when they knew he was home and I was playing outside with the pups, they led me through the hidden corridors so that I could take a bath and present myself to him like a lady, though I was only a small child who could not be expected to know better yet.