Snippet #2091578

The brazier was deceptively deep and broad, and the task of filling it with kindling proved to be a longer and more arduous one than Zoe had expected. So much so that she was starting to feel surprised that she had been sent to do it by herself. Time was ticking by after all.

Absentmindedly she began humming a traditional island folk song to herself. It wasn't that it evoked feelings of warmth and affection for her homeland, it served more as a reminder that whatever she might be called on to do was for the good of her people. To curry the favour of the god, this was clearly the root of the Tarshan's good fortune.

She took a deep breath. That was an easy thing to say. It hadn't been so easy to say in that dread moment when it seemed certain that it was her blood that would be spilled to appease the deity.

She realised she had slowed in her work, when her thoughts were interrupted by another person entering the room. She immediately leapt back into action, grabbing handfulls of dried wood and pushing them in amongst the coals. Aware of the newcomer joining in the task, she said nothing at first, but glanced up to see who her help was. She recognised him immediately. Samuel. She didn't know that much about him - slaves weren't afforded much chance for idle chit-chat after all - but she knew that he was born into all of this. What then, she wondered, was his own personal justification for taking part in the bloodoath? That he'd never known anything different? Or was it simply that he had not choice. Did Zoe herself even have a choice, having found justification for her actions?

"Clean..." she repeated after him, looking around. The place looked like it had scarcely been entered in a whole year. She wasn't sure how neat and tidy it was required to look given it's purpose...certainly the poor soul being branded wasn't going to care too much about cleanliness. But, as Samuel said, it was something 'Miss Edwards' would want.

"Yeah, we should." she said resolutely, turning and facing Samuel for a moment. She couldn't remember much about his involvement in previous bloodoaths. Perhaps that was a good thing. If he'd been there looming over her last year...this would have been a much more uncomfortable situation.

"Have we, er..." she began hesitantly, "...heard anything about whole will be taking the roles tonight?"