She stared at the closed door for a few seconds.
Then she looked around the cell.
The straw beneath her was uncomfortable.
The stone walls were cold, and the room held little more than stone walls and straw.
There was barely anything in the room to catch her attention.
She let out an annoyed sigh.
“What a terrible place…”
Every part of this place seemed determined to frustrate her.
The strange kingdom.
The elves.
The king who had made his hatred of humans perfectly obvious.
And, of course, the fact that she had absolutely no idea how she had gotten here—or how she was supposed to get back.
She groaned and was about to drag her hand over her face from all this stress, but would the world let her do this peacefully?
She stopped as she saw the blood under some of her nails.
‘What is this too?’ She was now clearly frustrated!
She turned towards the high window.
Then tried climbing towards it using any scratches in the walls.
She slipped and tried twice times until she was able to reach it.
She tried to look outside.
‘I can see grass and some flowers.
Is this a garden?
Or a forest, perhaps?
Elves always appear to live in forests in stories and love animals and…
whatever.’
Then she focused on the height.
‘It seems like I am on the third or fourth floor.
Hold on!
We went down the stairs, right?
How am I still at this height?
Is there something playing with my senses?
I couldn’t remember the way before, too.
‘
She rubbed her tired eyes with the back of her hand.
Actually…
She had been sleeping before all of this happened.
‘Why am I feeling so tired?’
Maybe she could just sleep again.
She had no answers.
No way out.
And she was too exhausted to keep thinking about either.
She lay down on the straw, pulling her arms beneath her head.
“If I wake up in my bed, I’ll pretend this whole thing was just a nightmare.”
A small, bitter smile crossed her face.
“Yeah.
That sounds much better.”
She closed her eyes.
And fell asleep.
She had no idea how much time had passed.
It could have been hours.
She had no way of knowing.
The sound of the door opening slowly pulled her from her sleep.
Her eyes fluttered open.
For a moment, she focused on the figure in the doorway.
A guard.
He looked down at her.
“Get up.”
She blinked, still half-asleep.
“The King has ordered me to bring you to him.”
Still sleepy, she pushed herself to her feet.
The exhaustion that had weighed on her earlier faded.
She must have slept for quite some time.
And more importantly…
she could think more clearly.
She followed the guard through the corridor.
As they passed the cells, she glanced through the narrow openings in the doors.
Other humans were inside—some sitting, others lying on the floor.
She quickly looked away.
Then she noticed something strange.
Farther down the corridor stood another set of cells.
These looked completely different.
The doors were sturdier.
The walls were cleaner.
Even from a distance, they seemed far more comfortable than the ones meant for the humans.
She barely began to wonder who was kept there before the guard continued walking.
Eventually, they reached the end of the prison corridor.
Two guards stood on either side of the entrance.
As she passed through, they closed the heavy door behind her.
Several guards stood along the corridor, stationed at regular intervals.
Heavily guarded.
She turned forward again.
And stopped herself from staring.
The difference was almost absurd.
The prison had been cold, dark, and bare.
The palace beyond it looked like an entirely different world.
Golden decorations covered the carved walls, catching the light as she walked.
Rich carpets stretched across the floors, softening every footstep.
Even the servants moved quietly, as though everyone inside the palace had been trained to make as little noise as possible.
Everything was controlled.
Everything was carefully maintained.
She couldn’t help but think of the prison behind her.
‘So the humans get stone walls and straw…
while the rest of the palace looks like this?’
The contrast was almost insulting.
She continued following the guard.
This time, the palace demanded her attention now.
Guards stood at nearly every important doorway, usually in pairs.
Others patrolled the corridors at regular intervals.
She noticed the pattern almost immediately.
The palace was quiet.
But never unguarded. This story is hosted at g.com.
After walking for some time, they finally stopped in front of a large door.
The guard knocked twice.
Not quickly.
Not loudly.
Two precise knocks, as though they followed a specific pattern.
The guards standing on either side of the door exchanged a brief glance.
Then one of them stepped forward and opened it.
The guard turned toward her.
“Go inside.”
She stepped through the doorway.
The room was spacious and just as luxurious as the rest of the palace, though it felt more lived-in.
A large desk stood toward one side of the room, covered with papers, royal seals, ink pots, and documents.
Clearly, someone had a kingdom’s worth of work waiting for them.
But Eryndor wasn’t behind the desk.
Instead, he was stretched across one of the sofas arranged around a low table.
one held a sheet of paper loosely between his fingers.
His black hair fell slightly over his forehead, no longer perfectly arranged as it had been when she first saw him.
A few strands framed his face, giving him a less formal appearance than the crown and royal halls suggested.
In the other, a grape.
He ate it slowly as his eyes moved over the page, looking thoroughly unimpressed with whatever he was reading.
The faint crackle of paper was the only sound for a moment.
Then came the soft click of the grape stem against the small dish beside him.
He didn’t even look up when she entered.
He simply turned the page.
She stared at him.
This was the same man who had sent her to a prison cell.
Yet here he was, completely at ease, sitting in a room that looked more comfortable than anything she had seen since arriving in this world.
She glanced at the table.
Only a few papers lay scattered across it.
She couldn’t help wondering why those had been separated from the rest.
Her gaze drifted back to him.
Then to the grapes.
She hadn’t eaten anything since she arrived.
She hadn’t even realized how hungry she was until now.
A dull ache twisted in her stomach.
‘Of course.’
He had a comfortable sofa, fresh fruit, and an entire luxurious room.
And she had spent the last day sleeping on straw.
She couldn’t really blame him for locking her up.
Still…
Did he have to eat grapes in front of someone who hadn’t eaten all day?
He finally lifted his eyes from the paper.
Green met blue.
For a brief moment, neither of them spoke.
Then his gaze dropped to her clenched hand.
Her fingers slowly loosened.
Watching him eat grapes while she was starving was starting to annoy her.
Her hand clenched again.
‘Should I smash his head?’
‘Just a little.’