Czerno's marked you.
*****
Day of the Schism
Immortal World
Peasant quarter of the imperial city
Duty, honor, courage, selflessness. Jenn, the only daughter of a low-ranking noble's servant, repeated the mantra of the Guardians for days before taking the sacred oath. She looked around at her family and that of her mate. She steeled herself for their rejection, reminding herself she did it not for them, but to give her daughter a better life.
"I joined the Guardians yesterday." She braced herself for their reaction. All talk hushed around the tiny table where their families shared their first and last meals of the day. The wooden table had one leg propped up by firewood, and only three of the eight chairs matched. The tiny main room of the small dwelling was lit by one window.
"Then you'll unjoin," her father said first.
"Today," her mate added. "You have a daughter. You can't be so selfish."
She toyed with her food, gaze going to the closed door behind which her two-year-old daughter slept. Her mate and father were near the same age, over double her eighteen years. They agreed about everything when it came to her life.
"They pay more than shoveling shit," she said.
"You should be grateful you shovel shit in a noble house and not a whorehouse," her mate replied calmly.
"There's more to life than shoveling shit! I can create a better life for Talia in the Guardians."
"The Guardians are for warriors, Jenn. You're not a warrior. The mortal world is no place for a mother of a small child," her father said.
"Mother, please! You must know I want what's best for Talia. This is the way to get there," she said, turning to her mother.
"Do as your father says. You should be grateful for your station. If he hadn't saved that nobleman's child years ago, you'd have been sold on the auction block," her mother said. "You have a comfortable life."
"The child should've settled you," her mate's mother chimed in. "The apothecary has calming herbs. I'll fetch some next time I am in town."
"Besides, you should focus on producing more children," her mother added. "You have a noble master who will find places for all your children."
"I don't want more children," Jenn said, shoving her plate around. "I don't want the one I have to grow up like this!"
"Be grateful," her father snapped. "We have more now than we ever did."