The Sacrificial Daughter

Synopsis

The night before I was sent to the palace, my mother wept bitterly in front of me. "Alice," she sobbed, "the King is a full twenty years older than Pearl. How can I bear to send her into that place to suffer? Once she goes in, her whole life will be trapped there." For the first time, my brother spoke to me calmly, without a trace of his usual disdain. "Pearl is innocent, not as... complicated as you are. You should go in her place." My father watched me coldly, not uttering a single word. I looked back at them, my face blank. My only family. "And what about me?" I asked. "I'm a year younger than her. Aren't you afraid I'll be trapped there for the rest of my life, too?" That night, lying in bed, a thought crossed my mind: Maybe after I enter the palace, I should just assassinate the King. That would certainly secure a future for them, one where the entire family gets executed.