Gabrielle sighed and swallowed a few pills, then gulped down a few sips of water. She closed her eyes, feeling the pills make their way down her throat. She tightly shut the pill bottle and set the glass aside, mentally reminding herself that she needed to get a refill of her pills as soon as possible. She eased herself onto her desk chair and stared at her reflection in the monitor of her laptop.

Kids today, she thought. They don’t understand what it means to truly want something. They’ve never wanted something so badly that they’ve given up on a dream. I’ve sacrificed more than they’ll ever know, just to be able to learn. It’s rare to crave knowledge so strongly, but oh… the price I paid in exchange…


Now the girl was a teenager, but unlike her peers, she did not giggle or flirt with males her age. Instead, she’d chopped her hair short and spent all of her free time reading one book after another, in the same ravenous nature with which a starving man would devour a gourmet feast.

The time of reckoning was coming; soon, she would have to dedicate herself to one of the deities. She hoped to be permitted to dedicate herself to Solunar, Deity of Wisdom. However, she knew that this was an unlikely thing-- only a small number of people were permitted to dedicate themselves to her. She knew that the way things were going, she would be more likely permitted to devote herself to Fraeloia, Deity of the Youthful. However, ultimately, she did become a devotee of Solunar, but she gave up something very important in the process. These kinds of things always seemed to require sacrifice on someone’s part.

She had always dreamed of having children, of giving birth to a new generation that would start the revolution against these ways and to bring about a new era, an era of wisdom and prosperity. She wanted to be the mother of the revolution. However, at the age of fifteen, tragedy struck. All of the chemicals in the air and water, in the environment around her, had poisoned her, and it was now making itself known. For months at a time, she would bleed without stopping, and then for a few weeks, things would be back to as they should be. It wasn’t long before the doctors told the girl that she had a very difficult choice to make-- suffer this agony for much of her adult life, but possibly be able to give birth, or have the offending organ removed and never have children.

She thought long and hard about this. The surgery would mean never being able to fulfill her duties, for being devoted to Fraeloia required giving birth to many children. This surgery would mean never being able to have children, ever. However, this would also mean that she would be allowed to devote herself to Solunar. If she were allowed to devote herself to Solunar, it would mean being allowed to read all she wanted, without fear of rebuke, for it would be her duty to educate herself as thoroughly as possible.

“One day,” she whispered to herself. “One day, I will change the world. Even if I do not give birth to children, I can change the views of other people's children. I can make them better people. Then, they’ll influence others, and so forth. By doing so, I can still make a revolution happen.” She sighed. “I just wish that I could have just one baby… but I’m so tired of wearing all black to hide the stains from the blood.”

With a sigh and a heavy heart, she agreed to the operation. She would still have to take a variety of pills to counteract the effects of the various poisons in her system, but still… it was better than bleeding nonstop.

And so it came to pass that when she turned sixteen, she became a devotee of Solunar, Deity of Wisdom, and like everyone in her culture who had reached this age, she changed her name to one of her choice. She was no longer Grace Agnes Gibson; she was Gabrielle Marlene Gibson.