11: Exiled

   [ ❉ The Next Morning - September 15th 2016 ]

   It was at noon when the gates of Central opened and a small party of people exited. The sun was high, and it bathed the group in an uncomfortably warm glow. Jeongri was surrounded by guards, her hands shackled and a blindfold had been wrapped around her eyes, but the sunlight pierced through the thin fabric, making her squint. It almost felt like it was burning her pale skin. After having spent the last two weeks locked away in a dark, windowless cell, it was hard to get use light again. 

   Jeongri’s hair had been brushed to lie poker straight over her shoulders, and the sombre black dress she had been made to wear had a tight mandarin collar coupled with long open sleeves. The thin chiffon material fluttered ever so slightly with her shuffled movements, barely hiding the angry scars that covered her back and arms. They also didn’t hide the heavy iron chains that shackled her hands together. Jeongri winced a little, trying to keep her head upright. The wound on the back of her head continued to ache even so long after.

   For her failure in completing the ceremony and letting herself be undermined by members of the HLV, she had been thrown into solitary confinement and sentenced to exile at the orders of her father. Jeongri protested heavily at first, banging on the door of her cell with her weakened arms, crying tears of frustration but as the days crept by, she let the depression settle in, and hopelessness began to consume her mind. She had no visitors during her time in confinement, not even her parents came to see her. And on such a historic day like today, they were absent still.

   Today was the day where Jeongri, the failed demon princess, was to be exiled from the royal demon family and the grounds of Central itself, and sentenced to die at the will of nature.

   Only strangers accompanied her side, their unfamiliar footsteps and rattling body armour filled the air. Apprehension grew tightly around her heart, she’d never been in the Outskirts before. With every step she took, she could feel her body trembling a little bit more. She didn’t want to cry again, she wanted to preserve what little dignity she had left, but the mind-numbing fear of imminent death was toying precariously with her emotions.

   They walked for what seemed like a long time. The ground beneath Jeongri’s feet gradually changed from stone to grassland, and she knew then that they were deep in the Inner Ring – the area of the Outskirts that ran closest to Central. She tried to stay calm, but her heart continued to race. Growing up, she had only heard horror stories about this place.

   After what seemed like hours, the group stopped.

   Jeongri could feel someone taking the chain of her shackles, guiding her to something made of stone. A loud hammering echoed out as the chain was nailed into the rock face. Her heart sank as reality set in. She had been told this much; that she would be chained somewhere and left to die. With a final hammer, she heard the murmur’s of the soldiers around her before they left. Jeongri brought her hands up and peeled away her blindfold, surprised to see that her two handmaidens had been exiled with her, but they were both unconscious. A wave of guilt washed over Jeongri; it was her fault that they were here, they did not deserve this.

   They had been left in a park of some sorts, long abandoned and overrun by nature. Tall, wild grass spanned far and wide, obscuring most of Jeongri’s view. Their chains had been set in some