Chapter One

Silk, masks, and blood.

The Purity Ball is hosted once every year, an event the high-class wait for excitedly and the lower-class dread the moment the high-class step into the ballroom.

Well, not every lower-class peasant dreads the day, they linger patiently for when they'll be invited to kneel and the steel is lifted to their neck. They are the sacrifices chosen, the ones captivating enough to impress even those with the highest standards, and the ones pristine enough to rinse away the evils committed by the ones who sip from the sacrifice.
A complete year of planning goes into each event, beginning the very following day of the ball and finishing the day of.

Then again, not everything can go according to plan.