292: Lady in captivity (part 1)

Lady in captivity (part 1)

The chill in the air had nothing to do with Lanark's summer, and  the eerie silence around her was unnatural, far from the soothing sounds of forest creatures and rustling leaves next to her home—an unsettling stillness.1

Adela was just emerging from a harrowing nightmare, slowly regaining awareness of her physical self. Haunting images of her beloved home set aflame and Aldric's manic, hostile stare drove her swiftly into consciousness.

She woke up with a gasp. Her eyes darted around the unfamiliar surroundings, taking in a stark, nearly empty room with a peculiar water-filled bed. A triangular window on the far wall offered no comforting coverings.

"What kind of night is this?" Adela wondered, her voice thick with restless sleep, her throat burning. 

She dragged her aching body upright and shuffled a few steps toward the window. As her bleary eyes adjusted to the obsidian surroundings, she noticed a subtle, bluish glow on the distant horizon—an unusual, vertical twilight instead of the usual horizontal one.

Her heart thudded in her ears. This was no longer Emoria, and she doubted the afterlife could be this cold.

"…Where am I?" she croaked, her voice scratchy, turning to face the unfamiliar black door. She took a couple of steps towards it then tried the circular handle, turning it both right and left, but it refused to open.

She pounded on the door.

"Is there anyone out there?"

Another round of pounding.

"Where am I? In the name of Kaiser de Lanark, I demand that someone answer me!"

She swallowed her remaining words and took a step back as the door suddenly swung open. A brunette, much smaller in stature than Adela, entered. She was dressed in a white cloak that reached down to her heels, carrying a tray in her hand. Her eyes, a very light green that reminded Adela of Claude's, fixed on Adela.

"Who are you?" Adela demanded in a low tone.

Without dignifying Adela's question with an answer, the woman closed the door behind her and stared up at Adela in silence.

"Speak! What is it that you want from me?"

"Do not be afraid," came the highest-pitched voice Adela had heard yet, more like a child's than an adult's. "Eat something," she said, her words thick with a foreign accent as she pushed the tray toward Adela.

Cheese, bread, and fruit.

In a single, forceful motion, Adela sent the tray flying, its contents scattering across the floor. She pushed past the small woman and reached for the door again, only to be seized by a strength that didn't match the woman's petite frame.

The woman yanked her back.

"Calm down!" she screeched, her hand disappearing inside her coat and emerging with a red metallic artifact that bore an unsettling resemblance to a firearm.

The intense hatred radiating from the woman's icy eyes left Adela paralyzed. It was an irrational loathing, as if Adela were her sworn enemy.

"Sit down and do as I say," the woman commanded.

Adela glared at her.

"In the name of-"

The woman's scoff silenced Adela. "That name means nothing to me... Emorian women are as intelligent as the rumors suggest, it seems."

The woman's snobbish remark, coupled with her fluency in a language other than her own and her unmistakable air of nobility did not elude Adela's keen observation. This individual was well aware of Adela's identity, yet it didn't deter her from delivering such insults.

Adela kept her head held high, allowing her pride in her heritage to surge within her and flow in waves around her. In response, the woman's subsequent gaze lost its hateful edge, replaced by unmistakable pity.

"Do you lack the wits to comprehend that you are no longer in your homeland?" she asked pointedly.

Seeing it with her own eyes was painful, but actually hearing it was an entirely different level of agony.

"Where am I?" Adela demanded.

"...In a place that does not welcome you," the woman replied coldly. "The sooner we get used to each other, the better."

Get used to each other?

Once again, Adela made a desperate dash for the door. But the woman proved to be much faster, swiftly retreating and slamming the door shut in Adela's face.

With her elbows and arms, Adela pounded relentlessly on the unfamiliar door, the rough surface scraping against her skin.

"Get me out of here!"

"I said, do not be afraid," came the high-pitched voice from behind the door, heavy with a burden of pain, as if she were the one held captive, not Adela.

"Help! Anybody! Egon!" Adela's desperate cries echoed through the unfamiliar room.

"Nobody is here but you and me," the woman coldly retorted from behind the door. "You are wasting your voice and effort for nothing. Everyone you know is no longer around you, and the sooner you get used to that idea, the better for you."

Adela pounded the door once more. "Help!"

"The power to make your stay here comfortable is in your hands," the woman continued calmly. "The space is confined, but it's designed to hasten your adjustment. We'll relocate you once you've calmed down."

Adela forced the words from her heaving chest, "Where am I?"

"You are in the land of the sun... but you won't see it in this current season. You should have eaten when you had the chance; it would have helped your body adjust."

Adela's mind went blank after hearing the name of the land she was in.

"...Varinthia?"

"Yes. You are in Varinthia. And you have only yourself to blame for it. You shouldn't have pushed him to the edge like this. I'm sure he's hurting."

The woman's words twisted and turned inside Adela's head, threatening to drive her mad.

" Aldric," she hissed.

"...The next time I open this door, I'll have warmer clothes for you. Until then, you can wrap yourself in the quilt."

Her tear-filled, blurry eyes drifted to the triangular window once more, but her focus wasn't on the alien sky or the strange lights cutting through it. She was consumed by thoughts of escape, wondering if she could break free through that opening in the wall.

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