WARNING: CHAPTER MENTIONS AFTERMATH OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
The next morning, I wipe the tear stains from my eyes and roll over in the huge bed. Not seeing anyone, I let out a breath that I didn’t realize I was holding in. Careful not to disturb the hibernating pains in my head and between my legs, I walk to the bedroom door and crack it open. Two stone faced guards stand watch on either side of the frame, not even acknowledging my presence. “Excuse me?” I ask softly. They both turn their heads at me, keeping straight faces. “Could one of you please tell Alvida to come here with clothes? I need...” I pause, what I really need is a time machine. “...Help getting myself ready.” They nod and I quickly shut the door, sinking to the ground and crawling as far into the nearest corner as I can.
Not too long after, a soft knock at the door precedes Alvida’s small frame entering the room. Her eyes scream pity and sympathy, but she doesn’t say a single word. Helping me to the bathroom, she fills the large wooden tub with warm water and removes my underdress, careful not to touch my body. Seeing my naked body for the first time, I realize how many bruises, bites and red echoes of handprints litter my pale skin. She then begins to wash my hair, slowly untangling the mess of curls from the night before while I grab a washcloth from beside her. Holding the soap covered cloth with a fierceness I’ve never known, I scrub at my skin to erase the burning sensation of his unwanted touch on my body.
After drying off, Alvida helps me put on leather trousers and a royal blue tunic. She laces up my boots and sighs. “Disgusting.” She mutters. “He’s absolutely disgusting.” I try to move my mouth, pressing my brain to make some words-simple words of agreement. Instead all that comes out is a small cough. “I will tell Trygve to host your lessons in your room today,” She announces standing. Making our way to the door, I take a shaky breath. “Don’t let them see you bleed.” We push our way out, Alvida to the library, and I to my room. The two guards follow a safe distance behind me, and I lift my head higher-taking Alvida’s advice to heart.
Once at my door, I turn to the guards and in my most authoritative voice I can muster, I make multiple requests. “I need someone to bring me maps of the castle and the town, and also the entire country. I will no longer feel like a prisoner in my own homeland.” They nod and one pulls a shaved headed slave passing by to the side, relaying my request. “Also, What are your names? Both of you have been guarding me the whole time I’ve been here.” The taller guard returns back to me and the two remove their helmets, and they seem to be exact opposites. The man on the left brushes out his long red hair that stretches down to his elbows. His bright yellow eyes shine against his dark skin. The girl on the left has the same chiseled face as the man, but the similarities stop there. While the males thin hair seems to absorb the light, her short, choppy bob of frost white hair is incredibly thick and shines brighter than the sun reflecting from it. Her grey eyes and skin are also as pale and light as the moon in the sky.
“I am Dag,” the man states monotonously, “and this is my sister Yrsa.” The girl smiles and extends her hand.
“Nice to meet you both.” I shake both of their hands right as Trygve and the servant Dag spoke to earlier walk up, arms full of leather books and scrolls. The three of us enter my room and set everything on my plush bed.
“Today, you will memorize the castle map and we will walk each floor.” I nod and wave a small goodbye to the servant assisting us. As soon as he leaves the room, Trygve’s entire mood changes. “Alvida told me what happened,” My breath hitches in my throat. “Would you like to talk about it?”
“No...” I whisper, tears pricking at my eyes, threatening to overflow. Seeing this, He moves closer and rests a thin arm across my shoulders. “Alvida’s right, I can’t let them see me bleed.” I take in a few deep breaths, slowly but surely alleviating the pressure on my chest. “He thinks I’m in love with him, and he needs to keep thinking that if I’m going to survive.”
“That’s very brave of you Deila, just like your mother.” We sit there for a minute, just breathing in synchronization until my tears stop flowing. “Let’s learn our way around shall we?” I nod as he pulls out an old tattered scroll labeled ‘Echoria Castle’-which I think is very on the nose in my opinion.
After a few laps around the castle with Trygve pointing out every room-and every worker we pass by- I completely memorize my way around. “Trygve?” I ask when we get back to my room. “What am I supposed to do here, just pretend I’m in love with a creepy king for the rest of my life?”
“I can’t answer that for you. However, we can go visit the seer if you would like?”
“The seer?”
“She is like your human fortune teller. You bring her a gift of personal value and she will answer your questions.”
“I don’t have anything of personal value here! Everything is at my house.” Oh god...EVERYTHING is at my house. “My medicine!” I shriek, “Trygve my medicine, I left it all at my house!”
“What medicine? I’m sure a healer could help you here.”
“No Trygve,” I roll my eyes and sigh. “It’s to help keep my nerves in check and to keep me focused. I doubt you guys have Adderall or Zoloft in your healer's shop.”
“Well...”He starts, “I am going back to the human world for some of the king's business. I could probably go collect your things, but I don’t know how I could sneak them back in.” We both sit in silence, contemplating what options we could have to move my stuff in.
“Wait,” I say, turning to Trygve. “What if you didn’t have to sneak them in?” His thick brows furrow and I continue. “What if I could convince Enzor that I need my things from the human world to have a better transition? Besides, I live in a very tiny house so I don’t have a lot of belongings!” I laugh. Even before mom passed, I was almost always alone in the house. Switching to the tiny shack made no difference. 122Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhOH2e0VYz4
“That could work, I’ll have extra chests prepared to carry your things. You convince the king and I will handle the rest.” I walk Trygve to the door and smile. “Good night, Maeve.” He winks at me exiting the door and chatting with the same servant who helped Trygve carry our books earlier.
“Good night Trygve.” Heading back into my room, I notice Alvida approaching. “Hey what’s up?” I ask when we both get in the bedroom.
“I’m here to help you get ready, the King has requested your presence.” She immediately walks to the giant sea of dark blue and purple that fills the closet.
“Hey Alvida, if I were to convince the king to let Trygve bring me all of my stuff from the human world, how would I go about it?” She stops for a moment, the wheels in her head clearly spinning at high speeds. Then, grabbing both me and a white dress as thin as the clouds she finally answers.
“The King is a sexist pig who only sees women as breathing pieces of property whose only purpose is to be bred. If you can get him distracted enough, he’ll agree to just about anything. But be careful of what you say, he gets angered over the smallest possible slight against him.” I nod as she begins intricately wrapping this ghostly white fabric around my body, draping it over my shoulders and barely covering my chest, then letting it fall between my legs. She then straps a thick leather belt around my waist to hold the cloth against my skin and begins to work on my hair, teasing and pulling it to give a thick tousled texture.
“Seriously? Can’t I just have a healthy debate or ask nicely?” She chuckles and pinches some metal rings into my hair. “I’ll take that as a no. Jeez, why is this guy even king if he’s such a douche? The people should overthrow him.”
“People are trying, the rebels believe in a better future like when your mother was queen. Enzor has been starting fights with the other countries and broke most alliances in his rage. But the numbers of spies inside are dwindling.” Her voice drops as she leans down to my ear. “We need help.”
“Wait, are you...?” She nods. Wow, so she did just drop the bomb that she’s a part of some crazy underground rebellion, and for some reason wants my help? Yrsa creaks open the large door and clears her throat.
“His majesty would like to ensure you are not late.” I nod and take in a deep breath. As we both exit the room, we head our separate ways, the guards leading me to the king. Yrsa takes one long look at my outfit and chuckles. “Remind me to never let Alvida dress me.”
“What does that mean?” I ask, even more self conscious of my overly exposed body. “She said that with men like Enzor, you should rely more on your body than your brain.”
“Typical Alvida,” We stop and Yrsa pulls me away from her brother. “Listen,” She says sternly, “That may have been the only option for Alvida, but you have choices. You don’t have to use your looks as the sole way to change something in this world. Be who you are Maeve and you will make the greatest impact on everyone around you.” Dag coughs, signaling we need to keep moving. Yrsa sighs and throws back on her straight face.
“So where are we going anyways?” I ask when we reach the front gate.
“I have no clue, the king didn’t tell us.” Yrsa shrugs and gestures to the king sitting on top of his pepper spotted horse. “Have fun!” Enzor scans me over, his breath stops for a moment, making his broad shoulders pause.
“Care to help me up?” I chuckle and hold out my hand. As if my words shook off a spell on him, he immediately jumps into action and assists me in climbing onto the great steed. “So what’s this secret plan of yours?” Calm my rapidly beating heart as I wrap my arms around his torso, memories flood back as his scent fills my nostrils.
“I just wanted to take a ride tonight, that’s all.” He whips the reins and the horse trots forward, across the bustling street full of people. Everyone passing by seems full of energy even though it’s dark outside.
“Why’s there so much activity this late at night?”
“Echoria is always busy at night. It’s usually too hot during the day to do most work.”
“What do you mean? I haven’t felt anything.”
“The castle has a variety of spells on it to keep it at a comfortable temperature during the day. We host so many meetings with the other courts who are all diurnal that we have to accommodate them.” I nod and watch in silence as we ride through the city, eventually reaching more hills and trees than houses. “This path is the only one I like to ride anymore.” Enzor mutters as we approach a small pond.
“Why’s that?” I ask when we stop. He helps me down and guides me over to the water's edge. Gorgeous pink flowers resembling lilies sprout from the ground, trees and small shrubs sprinkled around the field surrounding the pond.
“There’s a lot of memories at this pond. You and I would always swim here as children.” I kneel down and dip my hand into the water, rippling my reflection that I’m still not used to. A face staring back at me that I barely recognize, almost more like my mothers than my own. How fitting. “I knew I loved you from the first moment I saw you Maeve. You showed me what real love looks like,” He gently takes my hand and pulls me up. “When I heard that you were taken I was devastated. But now that you’re back, we can continue to strengthen our bond together. So, I would like to ask for your hand in marriage.”
“Wait, What?” I chuckle, hoping he’s joking but my chest collapses when he pulls out a small silver band with intricate braided carvings wrapping around the outside.
“I was planning on asking you the day you were kidnapped. Now we can finally spend the rest of our lives together!”
“Enzor...” I pause, looking for a strategic way to phrase my next thought. “I still have no idea who you are, or who I am! All I know is the human world and I had to leave everything that I knew behind!" I take a deep breath and continue, "I think I just need more time to adjust before I marry you.”
His hands clench for a split second until he breathes and cups my face with his hands. “I understand Maeve, if you like I could have Trygve bring some of your human world things to help you if you’d like.”
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“That would be perfect Enzor,” I smile and take his hands in my own, “And in the meantime, show me what we once had, let’s fall in love all over again!" I swallow my urge to vomit, and kiss his hands, "Besides, we couldn't have a wedding this time of year anyways, it's too hot.” He chuckles and shakes his head.
“That’s exactly what I would expect from you Maeve. You did always want to be married under the winter constellation storm.”
“That sounds beautiful!” I gasp and twirl around, internally throwing up at my overly enthusiastic voice. Another deep laugh erupts from his chest that almost sounds genuine.
“Come sit with me Maeve, let’s look at the stars.” He walks to the other side of the pond where there’s a clear view of the sky between the trees. Leaning back against a rock, he gestures to a spot beside him. I pause, but instead of sitting beside him, I carefully situate myself in his lap and lean my head back. Forcing myself to relax into his touch, I look up at him and his face is completely frozen in shock. I can feel his muscles tense as I sit back, and he coughs for a moment. His calm demeanor cracking for just a moment.
“Is something wrong?” I ask, looking up through my eyelashes at his smooth face, a tinge of peachish-pink on his cheeks shining against his deep olive skin.
“Not at all.”
Enzor proceeds to point out the many constellations and their names, and my eyes begin to slowly close every so often. I can barely see the sun begin to rise when I feel myself being lifted up right before I fall into a deep sleep.
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