UThings are starting to bother me. I stopped crying and glared at the wall in front of me.
A sudden creak rang through my ear. I looked over to see the door shut. I could hear some muffles but nothing I could make out. Someone's been watching me. As I watched the pink sky start to turn black, the door sprung open. It was Mantana.
“Miss Lily, pardon my intrusion.” he announced.
“Is the confinement necessary?” I inquired.
“I’m sorry you must have lots of questions. The Empress ordered this.” Mantana replied.
“Unchain me.” I demanded.
“I can’t do that. You tried to kill your-”
I cut Mantana off , throwing a pillow at him.
“Who of us hasn’t? We're immortal! It wasn't going to work anyways?” I argued.
His eyes broke contact, looking down from me and his posture became tenser I stood up and tried to walk as far as the shackle would let me towards Mantana.
“I am not one of your fragile human patients. Let me do as I wish!”
Before Mantana could even respond, Benedikt's clashing jewelry interrupted us.
“Brother-,” he stammered, "Miss Lily you're awake.”
I tried to walk closer but failed. The clank of the shackle every time I tried to go somewhere I wasn’t allowed to was revolting. Mantana let out a sigh and moved closer to me.
“Let's sit and talk about this.” he said.
As he reached out to grab my shoulder, I smacked his hand in protest but he was insistent.
“Don’t touch me.” I sneered.
He gave me sorrow look and sat on the bed as I remained standing.
“Miss Lily, I understand your outrage but this isn’t Mantana’s doing. Don’t take it out on him. We want to help you.” Benedikt exclaimed.
“Help me? Then let me go!” I demanded.
“We can’t do that,” Benedikt muttered, “but we truly want to see you thrive in this palace. We can tell you what to do to get on our Empress’s good side.”
“Why should I do that? Why can't I just leave this place?” I begged.
“You’ll be captured.” Mantana interrupted.
I turned back to see Mantana sitting. He bore an emotionless expression painted on his usually vibrant face.
“You’ve already captured me.” I said, kicking the chain attached to my ankle.
“You just have to behave yourself for the time being.” Mantana said.
“You both…” I muttered before silencing myself.
. I softened up.
“Leave,” I demanded, “I wish to be alone.”
The two men looked shocked.
“But Miss Lily!” Benedikt shouted.
“Let me be alone to think about your words.” I interrupted.
Mantana and Benedikt looked at each other in disbelief, as if I read their minds. I glared back at the men in hopes that would make them leave quicker. They both nodded at each other and then looked at me.
“As you wish.” Mantana said.
He got up and guided Benedikt towards the door. I could see them both peeking glimpses of me as they made their way out of the room.
“Goodnight Miss Lily. We shall return tomorrow to discuss this further.” Mantana said.
I could tell by the way Benedikt’s gaze shook that he had more to say but it can wait. . Mantana shut the door and I heard the two sets of footsteps walk away.
I threw the pillow back onto the bed. I sat on the bed, tangling the sheets up with all the little white flowers. Caressing the cuff, I felt for the keyhole. My fingers brushed against a crevice. With all my might, I contained my strength and sent a shot of energy through the crack. The shackle’s lock broke and unfastened in an instant. I slipped my foot out and hid the shackle under the covers at the end of the bed. Then I grabbed my jacket. It was again folded on a chair and shoved it under the blanket, shaping it as a body with its fold. Finally, I grabbed my long, white hair and slashed it with my finger. I placed the clump of hair near the pillow. . I ran for the window, paranoid that someone was going to spy on me through the door. Now, the window had more branches than ever. It felt as though they were growing at a rapid speed. Nonetheless, I stood on the sill and grabbed onto a branch poking out from the right side of the wall. I climbed without care. My body would recover anyway, so how I did things didn’t matter. In the distance I could see the roofing. My bare feet stung as I placed them on sharp, jagged stone. My arms burned, aching from exhaustion but I kept a blank expression. Once I made it to the groove of roofing I pulled my body up, watching as blood fell from my scrapped feet. This might be bad. I had no time to clean up the mess I was making so I continued forth, scaling the rooftop.
With one foot in front of the other I ran towards the patrolling guards that I saw from a distance. Turning into a small alley I finally caught a closer look at the officers on duty. Without hesitation, I sprinted towards them, ready to fight. Before I could even get out the alleyway something had grabbed me. With my mouth covered and dragged my waist in, I fought, teared away and bit at the person trying to seize me. The person roughly pinned me to the stone wall.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
“Are you an idiot!” a deep voice whispered.
This altercation alerted the guards.
“Hey, what's going on over there?” a guard with a torch shouted.
The mysterious man draped his dark cloak over me and out of instinct I pushed him away. Yet, he clung to my shoulder tighter. My breaths were short and violent. This man smelt like ashes and fire.
“You there! Freeze!” the guard yelled.
“Back off kid.” The mystery man commanded.
I couldn’t see anything. As the man held me still I started to understand what was going on. He was trying to help me.
“Captain Lori! Forgive me. What are you doing here, this isn’t your sector?” The naive guard yelped.
“I went to grab some smokes from the old lady.” Captain Lori answered.
“You ought to quit smoking, captain. You’re not an Elder.” The guard beamed.
“What are you? My Mother? Get back to work, soldier!” Captain Lori ordered.
“Absolutely!” The guard shouted, scurrying off.
We both instinctively waited. I held back for the footsteps to fade out of the distance and he watched as the guard left. Then I bit hard on the arm grasping my shoulder.
“Tch, Asshole, what was that for? I just saved your ass.” Captain Lori grunted.
He shot back from me and loosened his grip. There I flung away from him towards the other side of the small alley. As the cloak flew past me I was finally able to see his face. There stood a burly man, about late 20’s to mid 30’s. His hair was dark but messy and his eye bags contrasted from his olive skin. He had a stubble and a sweet aroma of cigarettes. He had a disheveled look but something tells me he prefers to dress like that. As he readjusted he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small sack. There sat piles on piles of thin brown objects.
“Bum me one Mortal.” I demanded.
“Hell no.” he said.
I glared at him.
“Stop glaring, you're not getting my smokes,” He remarked, “I only get a few a month.”
“Did they ban smoking too?” I joked.
“More like limited it,” he smirked, “guess you're up to date on the alcohol ban, Old lady.”
I tried to reach for his pouch as we spoke. Despite his joking nature, he had a monotone and dull voice. Without breaking eye contact with me, he raised his arm up in the sky every time I fought to grab a smoke.
“You're like a fish out of water, no wonder they locked you up.” he pointed out.
“Watch your mouth, mortal.” I muttered, still trying to reach for his pouch.
Suddenly, a small dark creature dived down and stole the pouch. It was the crow that stopped me from escaping. Captain Lori leaned against the stone wall with a cigarette between his lips.
“I tried meeting with you a few times. The first night of you regaining consciousness after that long hibernation period of yours, I found you sound asleep. Then I came back tonight as rumours went around that our precious new elder went batshit and was locked up. How could you not be there? I mean you were only chained to a bed and had people watching you. Imagine my surprise to see you’ve already escaped and conveniently left a trail of blood leading to your location. It was almost as stupid as when you tried to use ancient, forbidden, black magic to escape in front of, not just the guards, but also a royal court elder.” He ranted.
I stood there in silence. I was indifferent and detached from the conversation. He watched me for a moment and then crossed his arms, letting out a huff of smoke.
“Aren't you even curious as to who summoned you?” he snapped.
“Not really.” I answered.
“Then why are you here?” he fumed.
“None of your business.” I muttered.
As he sighed, smoke came out of his mouth. He relaxed his arms.
“You're an idiot and you have no idea what you're doing.” he scoffed.
I gave a blank expression turned away from. I was going to leave mid conversation. I clenched my teeth and went to pass the suspicious captain. He reached out his arm, placing his hand on the back of my shoulder.
“Stop holding me back mortal, I don’t need your help.” I demanded.
“You need my help.” he argued, gripping my shoulder tighter.
Despite his furrowed brows and grave expression, I broke free from his grasp and readied up to use black magic. With a flick of my arm, my veins bursting with life, maggots rushed to collect me. As I leapt into the air, allowing the creatures to encapsulate my entire body, Captain Lori’s cigarette fell out of his mouth. It hit the cold stone floor.
“YOU IDIOT!” he shouted.
Then everything faded and I could no longer hear the remarks of that bustling asshole.
My head, my hands and one of my thighs were free from the skin tight rock prison the wormhole had left me in. Before me was a disorganized room, asymmetrical on both sides. Books littered the floor, crates filled every corner and it was dark. All I could do was hope I wasn’t in the basement of the giant tree palace, but closer to her majesty’s chambers. I struggled and squirmed but it was no use. This wall was unlike the ones I had seen before. It wasn’t made of brick or wood, it was a giant boulder of some kind. I sighed. There goes conserving any magic. Forceful energy rushed through my veins. The wall blew off, peeling the boulder exoskeleton revealing my spongy skin. My limbs red with irritation. Rubble and debris flung everywhere. It messed up the already messy floor. I rushed to find a door or an exit of some kind. There was none. Even in the darkness I could tell that this was a room sealed away. I ran up to an out of place wooden wall and felt the crisp torch light flicker through the gaps onto my face. This had to lead somewhere. I waited a few minutes, anticipating a passerby but no one came, not even a guard. Pulsing with life, I took my finger, overflowing with the dark essence, and created a jagged rectangle, sizable enough to crouch through. I kicked in the wall and created an opening. I rushed to the other side and was now in a corridor. I put the chunk of wood I had broken through and fixed it back in place. Then, I ran to the corner of the hall where I could see two knights protecting a room.
As I was thinking of a way to kill them, a black bird came dashing through the hall. It flew at full speed right past the guards and they both chased after it. Asshole, I said I didn’t need help. I clenched my teeth and rushed into the room. Closing the door behind me, I noticed the elegant applique dawned on every fabric in sight. The walls covered with embellishments and the room a light pink entangled with a light green. By how detailed everything was, it had to be of someone important, if not the Empress’s herself. I made my way to a bed with a dainty pink curtain as the moonlight shone through a decorative balcony. This room was straight out of a fairytale. I swung open the pink curtains to find nothing. The fancy bed was empty and made up. A black figure flew through the balcony and landed on my shoulder.
“You didn’t actually think it would be that easy?” the crow said in a raspy tone.
I tried to whack it off me but it stayed, fluttering its wings and cawing in defense.
“Idiot!” the crow cawed, “Dumbass!”
As soon as I was about to use magic to blow the crows head off, a silhouette came walking through the moonlight.
“This would've been a lot easier if you just listened.” Captain Lori scoffed.
The bird broke away from my shoulder, leaving a trail of blood. It perched onto Captain Lori’s shoulder. As black feathers fell around me from the quarrel with the crow, I glared at Captain Lori and sighed.
“I’ll listen to you if you give me a cigarette.” I said.
“No way in hell.” He smirked.
“Let me rephrase that. Give me a cigarette and I’ll let you and your bird leave with your lives.” I demanded.
With a moment of hesitation the air between Captain Lori and I became thick. His expression became serious and he looked at me dead in the eye.
“Fine.” he muttered, “take as many as you want.”
With that, he took out of his pocket the brown pouch I was after and threw it over to me, raising his hands up in surrender. I grabbed the brown pouch and pulled out a cigarette, rushing to put it between my lips. Captain Lori’s gaze was hesitant as sweat formed on his forehead. Walking towards him I hung my head low. Captain Lori standing still, watched my every movement. As I came in close enough for him to feel my breath on his skin I raised my hand towards the cigarette in my mouth.
“So you know about me,” I whispered, “Good.”
And with the flick of my finger, dark sparks came out of my hand and lit the cigarette in my mouth. Captain Lori threw himself back in instinct. His crow screeched and I smirked.
