Both of them staggered back.
"You talk as if you're doing something noble," Kendra yelled, eyes red and hot, tears streaking her face. "Selling me for wealth, for status, for power cultivation is that what parents are meant to do?"
She turned to her mother, voice shaking. "You called me selfish? Who is the selfish one here? Me, for wanting to live freely? Or you, who tied me down, poisoned my food so I could temporarily lose all my power, and locked me in this room these past weeks so I couldn't even try to escape?"
Her breath came in ragged sobs.
"I know this is a kingdom law," she continued hoarsely. "I know the Veil Ascension Rite is something no one dared go against in the whole Elarian. Every girl at eighteen has to participate in the Veiled Goddess selection. But look outside!"
She lifted a trembling hand toward the window. Sobs tore from her throat, her eyes blazing with fury as tears streamed down, wild and unchecked.
"Other parents are praying their daughters won't be chosen tomorrow. They're crying because they have no power to stop it. But you, you celebrate. You smile. You're happy to sell me for money, for status, for cultivation, for power and titles."
Her voice broke completely.
"You're wicked. You're monsters. I curse the day I was born your daughter."
Her father's eyes narrowed, dark and unyielding. The room seemed to shrink under his gaze. Every line in his face, every deliberate movement radiated authority. Kendra's chest tightened, her breath catching as if the air itself had grown heavier.
"Whether you hate us or not," he said, his voice low but cold as ice, "whether you like it or not, you are attending the Veil Ascension Rite, and you will be chosen tomorrow." He paused, letting the weight of his words fill the room before continuing. "And if, unfortunately for you, you are not chosen, do not dare return to this house."
He stepped closer, the faint creak of his boots against the floor echoing in the silence. "If you dare step in here tomorrow without being chosen, you will be married off to the rich widower at the outskirts by the week's end. And no one in the whole kingdom of Elarian will be saving you. So stay in here and cultivate your power all night, so you will be more than the best option tomorrow."
He said it angrily, still radiating silent power, then stomped out. Her mother followed without looking back.
Silence swallowed the room.
Tears streamed down Kendra's face as she slowly lifted her gaze to the open window. Beyond it, lanterns swayed in the night breeze. The sky stretched wide and endless. For a moment, she imagined running, bare feet on stone, hair loose, lungs full of air. Seeing the sky whenever she wished. Touching the earth without permission. But it seemed that was just a dream that would never come to pass for her.
Eighteen years of life.
And all she had ever wanted was something that simple. Freedom.
But with the fate her family had chosen for her, freedom would never be hers. Not as a daughter, not even as a goddess. She would always be a prisoner to her own people.
And tomorrow the kingdom would decide which prison she would belong to, whether it would be her family's prison or the kingdom's prison.