June 13 2026, 9:13pm
For a long time, Nyx’ara was left in the throne room, kneeling in front of the four identical thrones. By this time, the room had completely cleared out and her knees had begun to hurt but she couldn’t rise. Not when she hadn’t been asked to.
And definitely not when the back of her neck still prickled as if she was being watched by an invisible pair of eyes.
After a while, her body began to quake and her limbs suddenly felt like they could no longer hold her up, courtesy of her very weak bones and starving stomach.
Her eyes swam with the desperate desire to fall asleep. Goddess, she even contemplated lying down here and closing her eyes; but just as the thought crossed her mind, she quickly shook it off.
Why?
Because this place was obviously unsafe.
And by the word ’unsafe’, she meant she had seen the coldness in the eyes of the alphas and their subjects alike. So what happens when she sleeps off and someone decides to finish her off in her sleep? What if she gets hurt?
This thought kept her awake despite her very obvious swaying and tiredness, and it wasn’t until a while later when the skies had turned dark blue and most of the chaos had slowly quieted down that an old woman walked up to her with a glowing yellow lamp clutched tightly in her hands.
The old woman was slightly bent at the back, her eyes hardened in a way that made a shudder run up Nyx’ara’s back. Her deep gray eyes trailed across Nyx’ara’s body like she was inspecting a faulty equipment, and then she began to speak in a way that sounded more like a shriek than anything else;
"You are Nyx’ara, aren’t you?"
Nyx’ara nodded.
"Come with me."
For a moment, Nyx’ara did not move. She did not rise or ’follow’ the old woman as she had asked. She simply watched the woman turn and walk away with her lamp clutched tightly in her wrinkled hands and the other hand pressed tightly against her lower back.
The cold floor dug into her knees, pressing down at whatever was left of her frail bones. But still, she did not move. Instead, she turned away.
"Nyx’ara?!" Now, the woman’s voice was colder. Sharper. It rang across the room with an intensity that made Nyx’ara flinch, but still, she refused to rise.
"I said come with me!"
That finally made her look up. She studied the old woman’s face like it was one of the books she liked to read at her favorite library, and truth be told, her knowledge from those kinds of books made her instinctively know that this woman, old or not, was not to be trusted. Goddess, she looked like a witch with her glowing gray eyes and straight pin-drop silver hair.
How does a woman this old have this kind of vibrant straight hair?
"No." She said stubbornly,
Now, that made the old woman freeze. Her eyebrows shot into her hairline as she forcefully dropped the lamp on the floor, hung both of her hands on her hips, and hissed;
"Why?!"
Because this light gives you a witchy look and feel...
Because my heart cannot stop pounding just by looking at you.
Nyx’ara clamped down these thoughts and settled for something more reasonable. She said; "Because I-I d-don’t know who y-you are. I d-don’t know if you’re h-here to k-kill me or..."
"You don’t have to worry about me when there are four men who have sworn to destroy you from the inside out." She answered softly— too softly, one would think she was talking about spices or something nice. Something that does not have to do with Nyx’ara’s life crashing and burning.
Nyx’ara gulped down the bile rising in her throat and nodded. "If you t-think that s-should m-make me feel b-better... then it d-doesn’t."
"You’re not meant to feel better. You are a murderer." The old woman snapped back.
Something about her bluntness made Nyx’ara flinch. Her eyes squeezed shut and her body rolled into itself. With shaky limbs, she rose to her feet, cleaned her knees with her hands, and lowered her head.
"I-I don’t care. I a-am not g-going with you."
This time, the old woman could barely hide the irritation on her face. She let out a long breath, eyed the tattered-looking girl standing in front of her who also for some reason seemed very innocent— which was contrary to the image of her that everyone else had— and hissed;
"If you don’t have any need for me, then I’ll go."
"Go." Nyx’ara bit back, quickly— too quickly. "B-but I’d r-rather stay here t-than go w-with you."
"And I hope you remain there when the clock strikes twelve and the Alphas go on a rampage."
Rampage.
The word slammed into her like a ton of bricks. It vaguely reminded her of the whispers she had heard amongst the servants back at her pack.
She had heard about the killings, the butchering... the blood and the gore that the four Alphas often indulged themselves in whenever the clock struck midnight. She had also heard about how their little sister, Leilani Jnr, had been the only person capable of calming them down whenever they went mad...
And she had killed that sister.
Well, not really, but they think she is responsible.
A flicker of guilt or was it fear crossed Nyx’ara’s face as she shuffled forward. Against her better judgment, she looped one of her arms between the old woman’s. Truthfully, she had expected the woman to shove her off... to push her away for being a criminal— a dirty one at that— but to her surprise, the woman pressed her palm against hers, picked up the discarded lamp, and began to move in silence.
That was strange. Very strange.
In fact, it was the first kind of physical warmth she had ever received from anyone in a long time.
The feel of the woman’s hand pressed against hers spread heat through her body. It made her body tremble and vaguely reminded her of her biological mother. She could also remember how her mother would pat her head, comb her hair while she sang sweet melodies and even smile at her while she cooked.
Despite trying not to cry, that thought... that thought brought fresh tears to her eyes and they streamed down her face, making her vision blurry as she continued to walk beside the old woman.
Nyx’ara did not know how long they walked but by the time they finally stopped in front of a pair of wooden double doors, she already felt exhausted.
She could only stand and watch while the old woman pulled some keys from her apron’s pocket, inserted them into the lock, and turned...
She gasped.
Why?
Because the room before her was the least she had expected!
For the past few hours, she had pictured herself getting locked up in a cell not so different from the one she had lived in for years, or perhaps getting thrown into an old barely habitable room; So you can imagine her shock when she realized that it was an actual room.
—That and the fact that it was even way bigger than her old room from before she was thrown into jail for three years.
Her hand jumped to her throat as she inspected the room with open curiosity, her breath hitching when she took in every tiny detail of the room, starting from the pink silk curtains to the pink fur rug covering up every inch her eyes could see.
In the middle of all the chaos was a queen-sized bed. It was not a lot but it was luxury especially for someone who had lived on scraps for nine years. At the furthest left side of the room was a shiny polished dresser— not big, not small either. Just enough.
With wide shiny eyes, she turned to the old woman who had taken a step back now, and asked; "I-is this w-where I sleep?"
The woman nodded.
"T-this room?"
Her words made a frown appear on the old woman’s face. She could not understand why the murderer was acting so... sweet. So innocent. She could not understand how someone who found little joys from something as tiny as a comfortable room could kill the princess.
She nodded again. "Yes." Then with a colder tone, added; "Make sure you keep the door shut all through the night. Do not go near your door... ever... even if you hear any strange sounds in the middle of the night. I am sure you already know how unsafe this place is, so keep that in mind while you sleep."
The way the conversation had gone from mildly awkward to straight up scary made goosebumps appear on Nyx’ara’s skin. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest, but because she couldn’t find the right words to say to the old woman, she simply nodded.
"I would have advised you to sleep in the bathroom tonight," the woman added, looking away, "...but looking at you... like this... I think you deserve all the rest you can get. So sleep in your bed, I’ll leave my scent by your door so that it confuses the Alphas just in case they pass by this corridor. Goodnight."
For a moment, Nyx’ara simply stood there, shaken to her bones because she could not understand why her scent had to be erased or hidden from the Alphas.
"But..." she started to say, but just as she opened her mouth, to speak, the woman shoved the key into her hand, pushed her into the room, and slammed the door shut.
"But nothing. Stay away from your door and from the corridor entirely!"