Treachery : book 2 of Codex Elysium

Chapter 16

Chapter 15

Present time: Vanaheim

The great dining hall was submerged in gloom, the shadows deep and menacing. The only light came from a single torch, glowing feebly in a bracket on the wall. The flame spat and guttered as it cast a small pool of light. Sophia lay in the dust and dirt, bathed in the weak glow of the torch she writhed in pain. A cry of agony tore from her throat as another cramp seized her stomach and she tried to throw up again. After a week of starvation, Sophia had finally found some food in this desolate world. She retched again as another wave of nausea rolled over her and spoke to the empty hall. "This is not a fitting place for a queen to be! I cannot let my royal subjects see me like this!" Sophia weakly rolled onto her belly, barely avoiding a puddle of vomit and heaved herself onto all fours. "Any minute now, the royal doctor shall be here and all will be right"

Sophia's stomach heaved and roiled in protest and the other voice spoke up inside her head.

"You know you are not a queen, you have no subjects and there is certainly no doctor coming for you"

"Shut up!" Sophia screamed the words into the empty gloom "I am your queen and I command you to be silent. I am a warrior queen and master huntress, you will do as your commanded"

The voice laughed, it was cruel and mocking "Oh you silly girl. What have you become? You are nothing but a mad woman, slowly starving to death in a world of decay and ruin!"

"Lies" hissed Sophia "I am a queen! A great hunter! You saw the show and the mighty prize I won"

Sophia breathed heavily and thought back to the great hunt and the beautiful feast that followed.

Sophia had been wandering endlessly through the ruined decay of Vanaheim, weak and starving, she was ready to give up. She had come across a courtyard and there in the middle, grazing happily by itself was a mighty stag. It was majestic and beautiful. After locating a rusted spear, Queen Sophia had begun her very first hunt. Reflecting back on it, Sophia had wished it had been a more epic hunt. Racing through the courtyards and woods ending up with the beast cornered and Sophia triumphing over it. The truth sadly, was more mundane. The stag was far too tame, maybe it had forgotten what a human was? Maybe it had forgotten how to fear predators? It simply stood and stared at her while she killed it with a single spear thrust.

 "Isn't it funny how it squeaked like a rat when you stabbed it?"

"Shut up" after building a great roaring fire, Sophia roasted the mighty stag. "It was a feeble fire made from long dead wood, and you didn't roast it! More like just blacked the outside. It was raw! That's why you're being sick now!"

"Filthy lies!"

Sophia took the roasted stag into the great dining hall, stomach growling in anticipation. There she sat at the head of the table and beheld the great feast before her. Sophia went on to devour the entire stag, leaving nothing but bones.

 "Funny how quickly you ate it. Isn't it strange how it didn't even fill you up?"

"Be silent! I command you!" Sophia licked every last drop of gravy from her plate "Blood! I didn't see any Bisto lying around in the store rooms" and sat back in her chair, feeling content after a good meal.

The stomach cramps started not long after that, then came vomiting and blinding pains. As Sophia wretched on the cold stone floor she looked up at the table where the mighty stag's skull grinned down at her and thought. It will just take some time to adjust to this new diet and such rich meat. "Don't you mean rat meat?"

"Lies!" once the sickness passed she would go on the hunt again she had seen more stags and even a wild pig roaming the courtyards. No, next time she would just have to eat it more slowly. After a week of starvation, it was going to take some time to adjust.

As Sophia continued to writhe on the floor in agony, from the table the little rat's skull seemed to mock her and rain curses down on her. With a string of swear words, Sophia emptied the last of her stomach contents on the floor.