The whole situation was still ridiculous to Emma. She didn't know whether she should cry over her friends when the King immediately left them under Leonard the Lion Warrior's "care" or continue fuming over Jack's betrayal. What she was certain of was the guilt eating at her conscience; while her companions (minus Jack) were suffering under the hands of the intimidating warrior, she was draped in silks and fine clothes, living in luxury and not in the dingy dungeons of this castle. And that was exactly the point of confusion: she was spared!
When she and the gang had been presented to King Eurig, according to Leonard as he proclaimed their intrusion to the floating kingdom, rage was evident on the king's eerily red eyes. He wanted to be done with the thieves immediately and ordered the prince to do away with them. One of her friends had been brave - no - foolish enough to stand up and declare that Jack would come back fo' us! I'm su'e of i'! Jus' ya wai' an' see, an' i''ll no' be long enough befo' all yer gold's gone! He earned a rough shove by the warrior, causing more than a bruise with his unnatural strength. This boldness stirred something unpleasant in the king, yet he remained taciturn about it. Instead, he gave a small look to the warrior, and Emma knew they were nearing their demise.
Emma was certain that they were all going to meet an agonizing end, however she was not one to simply embrace death, no matter the inevitability of it in their current situation. Fighting was not an option, but any sign of defiance was good enough for the feisty woman. A spark quickly blazed like wildfire in her. Before they were led out of the pompously beautiful courtroom heavily decorated with gold and marble, she looked up and transfixed King Eurig's blood-red eyes with her icy glare this first and last time. Their intense gazes stayed locked with one another, never diverting in their unbreakable path, until the doors shut themselves in front of the woman's face. As the loud bang resounded in the seemingly empty halls that they started trekking on, her raging fire instantly died out, realizing that they have met with a truly horrid fate.
—
The dungeons were not as bad as she had thought, if not for the number of torture materials around them. An odd idol of an imp was one in the hanging cages, and for a strange reason, she felt familiar with the sad-looking statue that seemed to beg for freedom, despite its absence of life. Then the fresh memory of those sharp, red eyes came to her. She remembered those few moments of glaring at the king, stirring a familiar feeling in her. Was it fear? Yes, she felt fear, but not the right kind of fear that should have been present in her state that time. The fear she felt was not from being overwhelmed by the comeuppance of the enemy, but of being forsaken… by the King whom she had never met before. She could have pondered on these thoughts more if not for Rach Neumann, the man who spoke up against the king, who kept on talking and telling everyone that they should just wait, that Jack would come for them. Despite her anger with him, there was the ever present hope that, perhaps, Rach was right. Jack could be looking for a way to get back up to them, to break them free of this prison. Luckily, Prince Leonard (She heard his name from outside the prison cell when another man informed him that the king wished to see him some weeks ago.) had not been around since he locked them up, only when they needed to be fed twice a day. Raphael, one of their and the Sister's most trusted friend, served as the recorder of the days they had been staying in the castle when he found a crude rock lying on the floor somewhere and used it to write against the wall. All of them were hoping that Jack was indeed in the move of his rescue, and they continued believing in that hope. Yet, days turned to nights, nights to days, the lines of Raphael's recordings on the wall started increasing in number. It was not until then that their hope started fading, and, just like the time when the doors of the courtroom shut in front of Emma, it died out.
It was then when Emma's anger returned twofold. He did abandon them. How could they have been so foolish to be lead with false hope, to expect something from the man who left them in the hands of their slayers? How could he betray them like this? No, she wouldn't cry, not for a man whose loyalty was as brittle as his courage. She was not a superficial dame who would wait an eternity for a lover who would never come.
But as they slept that night in the cold floors of the prison, she was not able to resist a tear stray down her eye.
And the next day, the cell door opened.