How to court a storm | 𝘈𝘯 𝘐𝘴𝘦𝘬𝘢𝘪 𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭

(2)

"How dare you look me in the eye?"
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I awaken once again to the grim reality of my confinement, some part of me having hoped this was all a dream. I'm not granted such a wish. The dungeon's familiar cold embrace wraps around me, chilling me to the bone.

It has been days since I woke up here, days since I found myself trapped within these wretched stone walls. Whilst I haven't come to terms with what's going on, I have accepted the situation I am in.

Even my experiences make it difficult to warp my mind around certain things.

My focus has been on something far more intriguing instead. Like my captors. Everyday since I had come to in this wretched cell, I would hear their voices. It's never been more than one at a time, very rarely two. Swiftly and without stopping, they would leave food at the edge of the cell.

Their snickers told me how much they enjoyed watching me eat like vermin off the floor.

Yet, despite their taunting and tormenting, they have not taken my life. I find that little realisation and sliver of information to be more intriguing than anything else. My goal so far, to sate my boredom, has been to figure out why they're bothering with keeping me alive. I assumed at first that the end goal was to torture me, but it seems that's a wrong notion.

Whoever set this up wants to keep me alive.

"I haven't heard her cry recently."

I glance to the metal bars from beneath my hair.

Two men dressed in darkened clothes, blades and weapons so easily spotted beneath their garments, approach my line of sight. Beyond the locked gates of the cell. I can't help the twitch I feel in my fingers, hungry to get my delicate grip around their throats.

Waking up here, in this body...in Nirvana's body, I have come to realise how weakened I am. My original strength is barely existent, only a flicker of it coursing through me. The delicate form I now show makes matters worse. Femininity has never been an issue for me. I'm a girl, i quite welcome it.

But what upsets me and is not welcome, is the lack of strength beneath my flesh. I'm suddenly in the body of a girl who's never lifted anything in her life. Who, despite being unfortunate in the matters of the heart, has been privileged in more ways that one. Who rarely left her room to look at what the outside world was like.

A malicious laugh pulls me from my train of thought. "Last time we came by, she'd wet herself." The man kisses his teeth. "Not very noble like of you, is it, Lady Nirvana?"

The three of them laugh at the joke. They don't seem to notice how much such an amusing comment has actually told me. I suppose to them it doesn't matter, because I could never possibly do anything to jeopardise their plans.

They call me by my name. Whoever sent them, hadn't bothered to hide who they were hiring the mercenaries to kidnap. Nirvana is a noble girl, whose rarely left the confines of her room, let alone her estate.

She has no friends or companions. Whoever sent to have her kidnapped wasn't just kidnapping a random noble looking girl, but instead they know who they were looking for.

Someone with power most likely. From my memories, I can see Nirvana has no real family. Certain circumstances have made it so she's completely isolated. She's spent her life alone, begging for scraps of affection that never reached her gentle and battered soul.

I can't imagine a life being denied the one thing you desire. I wish to be able to say I understand her pain. Not in the sense that I know what it feels like to be loveless, but to be rejected by something. Whilst I have never foolishly begged for love, especially from people who repeatedly proved I wasn't worth it, I know what denial is.