The Snake Princess (Magi Fanfiction)

Chapter fifty

Why can't I just make up my damn mind? What's holding me back?

Amirah opened her eyes. She blinked, confused. It was dark, and it took her several moments to adjust to the sudden decrease in light. Her mouth was dry, a metallic taste lingering on her tongue. She pulled herself to her feet, surprised by how dizzy it made her.

Nausea swam in Amirah's stomach, lead weighed her limbs down, and something else, too. She took a step forward, but her left leg refused to move, causing her to trip and fall. Looking down at her leg, Amirah was horrified to see a lightly rusted chain clamped to her ankle. Following it back, she saw it was welded to a stone wall, and that no amount of desperate tugging at the chain would free her.

She turned away from the corner and took in her surroundings. It was painfully familiar. Three plain, stone, walls, and one barred wall across the room, a door on that same wall with a large padlock chained to it.

Amirah laughed.

None of it was funny, of course, but Amirah couldn't believe what she was seeing. She was back in the cellar below the Apostolos' castle. There was no way it was real, it couldn't be. She was in the halls of the castle just a moment ago. Amirah was free of this place, she had been for months. She hadn't made that up, right...?

Amirah laughed, while tears welled in her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. She hung her head, gazing at her lap helplessly. The pale blue dress and white flats she wore were barely visible in the dark lighting, and Amirah nearly didn't notice them. Nearly.

That was not the outfit she'd been in during her time in captivity. Upon further examination, Amirah realized the wounds she'd received were still scars, and that her hair was also styled differently; thin black pins held her hair back into a messy bun.

In fact, there were a lot of differences. She'd never been chained to the wall like that, the cell had never been that big, there was no padlock on her cell. The area gave off the same feeling as the Apostolos' dungeon, and Amirah could feel it in her bones that it was the same place. But everything was so different, so warped. Was Amirah dreaming? That was the only conclusion that made sense.

Amirah turned to look at her chained ankle. The metal chain was secure, not nearly corroded enough by rust to break off. There was a lock on the anklet, though, which looked as though it could be picked. With only a second's thought, she raised her hands to her hair, pulling one of the pins out and letting that clump of silver hair fall over her shoulder.

Her hands hovered over the lock for a moment. Amirah had no idea how to pick locks, but she was damn determined to figure it out now. It took several tries, and by the end of it, the pin was mangled beyond repair, but she managed to do it. Another chuckle, this one out of satisfaction, as Amirah pulled the hunk of metal off her leg and weakly tossed it aside.

Then, Amirah took another pin from her hair, moving to the padlock on the door. She would get out of there, no matter what it took. She hadn't been able to save herself the first time, but she would now- even if it was just a dream. It had to be a dream.

The door opened with less of a struggle than the anklet. Amirah didn't spend much time paying attention to the details of the dungeon, instead surveying the area for an exit and promptly moving towards it. Unsurprisingly, that door was locked as well, but Amirah was starting to get the hang of lockpicking. She almost wished she'd learned it earlier in her life.

Up several flights of stairs Amirah went, the quality of the winding passageway increasing with every set. How far underground had they gone to build that dungeon? It seemed unnecessary. Then again, Amirah thought, if Marianna was trying to hide if from King Alexandros, it made sense.