The woman's hands clasped together, her knuckles white from the strength. Her knees were raw, bruised from the pressure of constantly being on them, the long hours of prayer beginning to take their toll on her. Daryna had been frozen in this position for going on twenty four hours now, her penance far from over. She had sinned, she would pay and offering herself to Ezra was the only way. The sound of light footsteps approaching her, ripped her from her reverie and forced her violet colored eyes to lift towards the face of the man who had approached her. The Toret stood before her, a kind smile on his face as the sound of much shorter strides pittered up to them. Marko, who looked so like his father, stood before them, grinning so widely you could see his missing teeth.
It was just the two of them now, her husband having been killed a year before. She had known he was having an affair, had smelled the other woman on him, seen bite marks from their passionate love making and had even caught her in their house before, but Daryna just did not have the strength to deal with the betrayal in the way most women would. Instead she had thrown herself into her devotion of Ezra, spending all her time in the temple to cleanse herself of her own sins. The less her husband was at home, the more she was forced to bring Marko with her, so it was only a matter of time that the young boy became a layman and seven years old was hardly too young.
Unfortunately for her husband, Alexei, the woman who he was having his illicit affair with was married and her husband was not as forgiving as she was. He came at Alexei in the middle of the streets with a brutal looking sword and in one swift thrust it was over and her husband of eight years was left to bleed out on a dirt road while passerbys stepped over him, irritated by the inconvenience of the dead man.
Daryna stood then, making room for her son to start his prayers and ignoring the pain in her knees. She hobbled towards the pews and sat down, watching on with a resigned expression. If only she could tell her son the real reason for her devotion, the true cause that brought her so much pain she had to turn to Ezra completely. If anyone were to find out though, not only would her family name be tarnished forever, she would likely be greeted by the pyre's. It was so long ago, she had thought by marrying Alexei that the desires would dissipate or disappear completely but that was not the case.
It began when she was fourteen and she had first seen Oksana, she was a year older and already so mature. She had golden blonde hair that curled into ringlets at her waist and bright blue eyes that held the promise of a wonderful life. Oksana was everything the much darker Daryna had wanted to be and wanted to hold dear, it wasn't long before the two girls fell head over heels for each other. Their love was one of innocence and passion, nights spent laying in a field and staring at the stars and days of hide and seek in the market that always ended with a forbidden kiss. But reality quickly caught up with them as it so often does and they were forced to marry the men their fathers had chosen for them. She saw Oksana once more after her son had been born and their eyes had met briefly but it was clear to them both that they had parts to play now and they could not be involved in one another's lives.
That did not stop Daryna's heart though, it longed for the tender touch of her first love, every single day. Her waking thought was Oksana, and it was because of this that she devoted so much of her time to Ezra now. She would do whatever she had to in order to wash the sinful thoughts from her mind and if that meant leaving her son in the care of the church in Invidia while she traveled to Barovia to spread Her word, so be it, but she would cleanse herself if it was the last thing she did.
