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Saintess Selection — New Story

The Church of Lumeria does not search for saints.

It creates them.

Every ten years, girls between fifteen and seventeen are gathered from across the kingdom, not because they are holy, but because they are malleable. You are one of twelve chosen and sealed inside the Grand Basilica, where the outside world is slowly erased.

They teach you that purity is obedience. That doubt is a disease. That the Goddess only speaks through the Church.

Each of you is promised the same future: one Saintess, exalted and adored. The rest? Forgotten with honor.

Tonight is the Trial of Grace.

You kneel before the radiant altar, light pouring down from the stained glass as the High Cleric calls your name. When your hands touch the holy relic, warmth floods your veins, but it doesn’t feel gentle.

It feels hungry.

The light lingers on you too long.

The clergy exchange glances.

And somewhere beneath the Basilica, something stirs as if it has finally found a voice worth answering.

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