You carefully left Thomas's home at the crack of dawn. You had to make sure he wouldn't be harmed for allowing you to stay there. Your surrender needed to look realistic. You were nervous to go through with your plan but you remembered all of the training you went through with Jungkook and your brother.
Everyone back at Vraitis would be furious with you but you'd rather that than let them continue to risk themselves by protecting you.
You got onto the castle grounds through a hole in the rose garden bushes that you and Leon created when you were children to sneak out of the castle. You were going in short-handed, all you had was a sword and a dagger, you didn't even have any armor, but you were betting on Philomena's familial relationship to you to keep you from being killed on site.
Surprisingly there weren't many guards in the gardens so you were able to sneak past them. You entered the castle through a castle window in an old abandoned library on the first floor. You walked into a hallway and passed a family portrait hung on the wall. You paused and looked up at it. Everyone's faces had been slashed by a sword from the portrait aside from Philomena's. But you were there for too long.
"There!" you heard someone shout from behind you, "Intruder!"
You whipped around and saw Worden soldiers charging at you. You pulled your sword out, preparing to fight. There were only three of them, it would be difficult for you to pull this off as you only ever fought someone one on one but you didn't back down.
One of the soldiers swung a sword at you and parried his attack by holding your sword up horizontally. You noticed another soldier coming at you from the side and quickly pushed up your sword to catch the first soldier off guard and turned to roundhouse kick the second one in the chest. The third soldier lunged at you from behind and took you to the ground but you bucked him off with your hips before he could do anything else and jumped up from the ground.
You swung your sword at the first soldier, slashing him across the chest then pushed him into the second soldier knocking him to the ground. Then you swept the legs of the third soldier while he was still regaining his balance and stabbed him in the chest while he was on the ground. You turned to the second soldier but he had run away to get back up before you could do anything.
You cursed and continued making your way through the castle, forgoing stealth and instead of sprinting through the halls. You were impressed at yourself for taking on the three guards but the next wave came in.
This time there were at least ten soldiers. You knew you wouldn't be able to fend them off but you had anticipated this from the beginning. You fought as best you could, managing to knock at least two guards unconscious.
When you were preoccupied with one of the soldiers another one got the jump on you and caught you off guard. You felt something whack the back of your head and you felt something wet drip down your neck.
Thud.
Your legs were swept out from beneath you and you hit your head on the ground. Your vision blurred until you finally blacked out.
♡◇♡◇♡
As you regained consciousness you could see Philomena eating a grand meal at the head of the table where your father usually sat for dinner. You went to get up from the chair you sat in when you realized your wrists and ankles were tied to the arms and legs of the chair where your mother sat for meals.
Philomena noticed your struggle and chuckled darkly. Your jaw clenched as you glared at her.
"It's good to see you again, sister," she said with a twisted smile on her face as she continued eating.
You didn't answer, you were still trying to figure out what to say to her.
"I wasn't expecting to see you soon, I guess Hoseok really doesn't care about you if he was willing to let you storm my castle alone," she continued.
"How do you know about Hoseok?" you said as your muscles tensed.
"Oh sister, I know about everyone, after we took over Vraitis we got hold of all of their plans and information. I know about the prophecy, magic, everything," she stated.
"Why did you align yourself with Worden?"
"Isn't it obvious? Power, freedom, everything."
"You would've had that once you became queen of Sayaria."
"Worden is far more formidable than Sayaria will ever be, I'm disappointed father didn't accept their alliance and instead became allies with Dririth."
"So that's it? As soon as you realized someone was stronger than you you chose to surrender instead of fight?"
"You act as if that's something to be ashamed of."
"It is,"
"Perhaps to you, but Taehyung agrees with me, I was surprised at first but when he fed information about you I came to realize that he truly is loyal to me instead,"
You clenched your hands into fists as your expression hardened. You knew she was trying to get to you, but you weren't going to let her.
"Oh, but Claudia and Leon refused to help me, so unfortunately they'll have to be... taken care of..."
You knew what she was implying.
"Don't you dare,"
"And now that I have you I'll be able to get rid of those fools over at Vraitis who think they can go up against me,"
"They haven't even done anything to you!"
"No, but if I leave them alive they would,"
"I swear to god Philomena if you hurt them..."
"You'll what? As far as I can tell I'm the one who has power over you, I always have and always will,"
You looked down at your lap as you grit your teeth. She was right, she has always been above you. There was nothing you could do. You had come here to get information but now being faced with your sister you felt helpless. You hadn't thought this through, you thought you might be able to convince your sister to let you go and join your side but she was too far gone.
"You have me, isn't that enough!? I'm supposed to be your downfall not them! So leave them alone and just kill me!" you yelled, "I'm tired of fighting, I'm tired of hiding, so just end it, and then you won't have to worry about me causing your downfall!"
"Even in death, you could still bring us down, it's better to kill all of you, don't you think?"
She got up from her seat and crossed the room. She pinched your chin between her thumb and forefinger and lifted your face to look at her. Her face suddenly twisted with anger instead of the sadistic smile she had before as she looked at your hopeless expression.
"Don't look at me like that with mother's eyes," she snarled.
You were the only one who shared your mother's appearance, your other siblings took after your father for the most part. You knew Philomena held a lot of respect for your mother, you could use it against her.
"If you loved mother at all you should know that she wouldn't want you to do this," you stated.
She stayed silent, glaring at you.
"Let ---"
Smack.
Your head turned as your cheek throbbed in pain. Philomena cut the words out of your mouth with a cold slap across your face.
"You're lucky I don't kill you right now," she hissed.
Shortly after she motioned to one of the guards at the side of the room and they untied you from the chair and cuffed your hands to your back.
"Why don't we pay Claudia and Leon a visit?" she continued.
The guard shoved you down into the prisons underneath the castle as Philomena led the way. You walked through the prisons, passing the cells of several Sayarian servants and guards. They stared at you as passed, you could see the last bit of hope leave their expressions as they saw you being dragged through the prison.
You passed by the cell of a familiar face, you looked at her as she stared at you.
"Princess," she muttered as she clenched onto the bars of the cell.
You shouldered the guard at your side, catching him off guard and went to Marie's cage. You grabbed the bars though your wrists were still chained.
"Marie, I promise I'll get you out," you said, "I'm so sorry... this is all my fault..."
Two guards grabbed your arms and pulled you away from Marie's cell. You didn't resist, you didn't have enough strength to. Philomena motioned to one of the guards.
"Get rid of her," Philomena said as she nodded towards Marie's cell.
You eyes widened in shock.
"What?" you breathed.
No one spoke as one of the guards went to Marie's cell. Before you could see what happened you were tossed into an empty cell. You heard a shriek and then the sound of a sword being swung, silencing the scream.
Your heart pounded as you stared at the ground, your entire body felt numb. You slowly turned to look at Philomena to see a vile expression on her face. She turned to the cell across from yours and was about to speak but instead stared at it in silence.
"Where are they," she said through clenched teeth.
The guard looked at the two cells with a terrified expression.
"Y-your majesty, t-they were here, I swear!" he trembled in fear as he spoke.
Philomena whipped around, her twisted smile still plastered on her face.
"Well... you better find them unless you want to be in these cells instead," she said coldly.
The guard bowed and rushed out of the prison. Philomena turned back to you, you were unable to read the look on her face as she looked at you.
"You should know sister..." she began, "You've just led your followers to their demise."
"Philomena," you began as she faced away from you, "Once you leave this prison you're no longer considered my sister,"
"Good, because I never considered you mine either. You're simply just a whiny brat who got in my way all the time," she replied before beginning to walk towards the exit.
"Then you're not Mother's daughter either!" you shouted after her.
She paused, only for a moment before she left. You stared at the ground, there was nothing for you to do anymore. You overestimated yourself and it landed you in prison.
♡◇♡◇♡
After you had given up on trying to find a way to escape you decided it would be best to save your energy in case someone came to save you. You knew it would be a while since it had only been a few days since you were imprisoned. You were only fed one meal a day and water in the morning, afternoon, and evening. All you could do now was hang on to the hope that someone had let Leon and Claudia go and that someone would come for you.
You stared at the wall of your cell as you sat on the dirt-covered floor. You heard the cell door open and turned, hopeful that someone had come to save you, but all you saw was three Worden guards. Two of them went into the cell and pulled you by your arms, dragging you out of your cell.
They took you to a room in the prison you had never seen before. It was empty and damp and there were chains hanging on the walls and the ceiling.
"What is this? Some kind of torture room?" you questioned sarcastically.
The guards didn't answer and chained you up to the wall so that your arms were above your head and your ankles were stuck to the ground. Philomena entered the room shortly after with the same sadistic smile.
"What are you planning to do with me?" you questioned her.
"Gather information of course," she replied smugly.
"How ---"
You felt a sharp slash across your face. You were cut from the edge of your left brow bone to your right cheekbone. Your eyes widened as blood fell into your right eye, clouding your vision. The cut had barely missed both of your eyes.
"This'll be fun," Philomena stated with a vile smirk on her face.
♡◇♡◇♡
So, I totally thought I published this chapter already but I guess I didn't. My bad...
Anyways, there is not going to be an update this Sunday, because this is going to fill for the Sunday update instead. But I'll go back to the regular Sunday updates next weekend.
Updates might be a little slow because I'm going to visit family on the twenty fifth and some chapters still need to be edited. But thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts so far!