Equilibrium

Reconciliation

Larke, 1182

A long period of time – or maybe a short one, I couldn't tell – had passed with me in the cell. My hunger was extreme, which is typical when recovering from heavy magic use, so I wasn't sure if the meals that the guards brought me were at regular meal-times or days in between. It felt like an eternity, though. I took the time to recuperate, as well as I could in the comfort of a cell. There was no cot or blankets, nothing but a chamber pot which smelled horrible, unsurprisingly.

I didn't attempt to leave. I probably could have picked the lock by now, but I had no desire to. Though my head still throbbed, for several reasons, I'd worked through worse. But if I did escape, where could I even go? There were no Suryan Mages to return to, and through my own actions, no family for me to fall back on.

I'd spent most of the time trying to ignore everything that happened and failing miserably. I couldn't really sleep, despite my utter exhaustion, because all I could see were her last moments, the light leaving her body. Just behind my eyes, I saw over and over again, her fevered face twisted in agony as she took my strongest blows. She truly must be – must have been – very powerful to have lasted as long as she did. I found some measure of comfort in knowing that she never had to serve as a Suryan Mage, stolen into slavery like I had been, but another part of me wished she had. Then, at least we wouldn't have been alone.

But it wasn't as if I could change the past. I was stuck here, in the future I made for myself. It was fitting that I would end in a dungeon. I didn't care if Dayne would execute me or not, and a dark part of me hoped that he would. This world would be a brighter place without me polluting it. I grew restless. The guards brought another meal, and I deducted I'd been here at least a full day now. But it was anyone's guess as to how long it'd really been.

More than anything, I was bored. Sitting in a dungeon by oneself isn't very entertaining; all I had to busy myself was trying to deduce what might happen to me. That, and attempt to determine who or what was lumped in the corner of darkness in the cell across the way from mine. It could've been a pile of clothes, a corpse, a dog, really, anything. I could see enough to determine that something was there, but that was it. It hadn't so much as twitched the entire time since I'd noticed its presence.

The pile of clothes, or whatever it was, hidden across from me coughed and groaned. I started; I'd half expected the lump to be something dead, or inanimate. Well, that eliminates my pile of clothes theory. It was a person, and apparently, a living one.

"You're alive!" I exclaimed, shocked, and for some reason, pleasantly surprised.

I sat up straighter against the damp dungeon wall, arching my neck forward in an attempt to see better. Surely, rotting in a cell with company had to be better than the alternative. My curiosity had overcome my overwhelming urge to wallow in my self-hatred.

"Unfortunately," croaked the poor soul across the cell from me.

No... that couldn't be... could it? It was unmistakable; I'd practically grown up with this person, I would've recognized that distinct voice anywhere.

"Princess?" I questioned, not daring to believe my hunch.

"Yep," Nya coughed, "it's a pleasure."

"Forgive me, princess, but I'm surprised they allowed you to live," I whispered, trying to be as polite.

She was a princess, after all. Despite what position she may be in now it had been ingrained into my head throughout all of my adult life to be subservient to the Urion family. Despite her involvement in my sister becoming a crime lord, I couldn't break that old habit.

"Do I look like a princess right now?" she asked, laughing sarcastically. "You can stop being so formal. I think we're past that."

She sounded so dejected; I could only imagine the expression on her face. Knowing her as I did, I was almost sure her brow was furrowed, lips pursed; perhaps even a tear or two was welling up in her eyes. But there was no way for me to tell. The darkness concealed her well, and she was too far away.