Word: postulate - verb - 1: demand, claim ; 2 a: to assume or claim as true, existent, or necessary; b: to assume as an established truth (as in logic or mathematics)
Rydia sat curled in the corner in the chamber in Fabul's castle. She kept her eyes shut tight, but couldn't help occasionally checking on the heavily bandaged figure on the cot next to her.
Things weren't supposed to be this way. Cecil had told her about Kain. According to Cecil, he was a proud, honorable man, loyal to his country, as strong of arm as of conviction, and always sure of his path.
Rydia hoped to meet this person someday. Anyone Cecil thought so much of had to be amazing.
She didn't connect this man at all to the monster who had threatened to kill her as her home burned. That man was nameless and lost to the past; if she were to meet Cecil's friend it would be for the first time, with a clean slate and no prejudices besides Cecil's praise.
But when she'd heard the commotion, when she'd ran with Rosa to Fabul's crystal chamber, it was the monster that met her, standing over her knight's bleeding body just as he'd stood over her mother. The nightmare had found its way to her again, and she could only stand and watch in wide-eyed terror.
She shifted against the hard stone, turning to look at Cecil's still body on the cot. She wanted him to wake up, but didn't want to have to tell him that it was his Kain that had been lost, not hers.