something, but everything hurt.


    ‘Get up. At least try to get up,’ she urged herself, but her body refused to obey. The room was dim, but the fact that she could see at all meant that some manner of light was returning to the sky. She had lost the entire night to pain, to unconsciousness.


    you.”


    had warned her.


    ‘Valerlanta,’ he had said. ‘Perhaps it would be better if you sold the orb to me and left it at that? There is movement in the woods, and word is that Wlyfaren is planning on crossing the border any day now. The wilds will be full of war. It is oftentimes like this where it is best to lay low.’


    ‘Valerlanta, if you don’t hand it over, I’ll sell you out and try to have you killed?’ That would’ve done it.”


    him. Then, it would be his curiousity that would bring him to me…not you. Then, all I would have to do is nudge his curiosity in the right direction so he would continue on to where we needed him to be.”


    father…?”


    all of it, but it was my requirement for aiding this little scheme. Why do you think that, out of the entire wilds, everything happened in your fathers territory?” Askyel explained, “Then if Nymven didn’t kill the knight upon meeting him, Venic would lead him towards Palenwood, where the third piece would be conveniently waiting with very little security, and your father would pick up the wrong one, set off the bells to alert the gaurds, and meet his end. To think you would grab the right one! That was a wonderful surprise.”


    never supposed to be you,” he said again, his face flickering over hers, and Valerlanta realized she did not have a mask and felt exposed as he took in her facial features for the first time. “No, I had plans for you.”


    nothing.


    never on your side. He’s a spy that turned his back on his home kingdom, Valerlanta.”


    king.


    “I think,” she rasped, “when I get out of here, I’ll coat random things in your house with fenbane bark dust. You’ll get a rash every time you touch something, but you won’t know what’s safe. I’ll keep doing it, too, every chance I get, until you’re too scared to pick anything up — even your own clothes — and slowly fall into madness until you wander naked in the streets.


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    Her scream echoed in the empty cell, but the footsteps outside faded away, leaving her alone, chained, and sinking deeper into the crushing weight of her failure.